Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swim was good. Got off to a good start, and just swam fairly easy, looking for drafts. Got a good one and rode that for the first 1/2 of the swim, then lost him when we started catching earlier waves.

I focused on swimming easy and relaxed, to setup a good bike and run. Gave up a little bit of time here, but was feeling pretty good coming out of the water. There were a lot of orange caps behind me, so I did pretty well.

Swim faster. Could have pushed the swim a little more, and not suffered too much.

Good T1. They had a timing mat at swim exit, but there's a run up the beach, which I thought would be in T1 time, rather than swim time, but it looks like that's not the case after all, as there's no way I ran several hundred yards through the sand and made it through T2 in 1:20.

Levitate over the sand from swim exit to T1. :)

This felt like a good bike for me. This was the largest field to race here, so there were ( it seemed to me ) a few packs of riders out there. At one point, no less than 10 bikes went past me, all on each others wheels. Like less than a bike lengths separation. There was one girl who really cheesed me off. She was literally inches off the guy in front of her. They came by, and I decided to re-pass, after letting them get up ahead. As I went by I yelled out "Nice Fu(*&ing Draft!". She looked over, and gave me an evil glare. Whatever. I kicked it up a notch and rode off the front of their little group.

Two other times, a large pack came through, and I had to literally softpedal and sit up to avoid getting sucked into the pack. That was annoying, but both times, they were trailed by a draft marshal on a bike who was quite busy with recording numbers.

Nutrition was 4 scoops of perp, 2 gels, 2 endurolytes in seat tube bottle + 2 more gels + a bit of infinIT. Several bottles of water that topped off my aerobottle and then got dumped over my head.

Not sure, possibly pace this a little slower, aim for a more even ride. VI should have been lower as this was a flatter course. I think the changes in tempo due to avoiding draft packs may have affected that. I couldn't ride quite at the pace that I wanted to. That could possibly explain what happened on the run.

Good T2.

Apparently, the helicopter covering the race, hovered over ( or nearly over ) transition while shooting coverage of the leaders. The rotorwash wrecked havoc in transition. Kicked up sand onto everything, and blew towels, wetsuits, shoes, socks, etc. all over. Even knocked down a few of the racks ( which were empty, as all the bikes were still out on the course, thankfully ). Volunteers and relay racers ( including my mom and brother ) were able to get most everything put back where it belonged before everyone got back. Phew!




Had a speedy transition. I'm pretty good at these.

I might helicopter proof my t-area, but I'm not sure how to do that short of a ground-to-air missile battery. :)

Pain. Pain. Pain. Not a very fun (or fast) run at all.

My quads were cooked on the second hill out of transition.

This was not the run I was expecting, based on what I've been doing in training. I didn't bike overly hard, but I just had lead legs on the run.

It was hard to keep from getting discouraged when the race started going south for me, but I managed to keep plugging away. I walked a few of the aid stations for a few steps to make sure I was able to get in enough fluids, as it was getting warm out there.

Tried to raise effort over the last 2 miles to at least squeak in under 5:00, but legs just did not have it. I kept it rolling though, and made it over the line just over 5:01.

Had 2 gels, several cups of inifinIT, several cups of water.

Change into my Kenyan legs in T2.

Got two ice cold bottles of water. Drank one straight off. Then got my recovery mix from transition, mixed that with the second bottle, then went the lake to go soak my legs in the cold water.

Ran into the LMT that I got my pre-race massage from in Kona on the way down to the beach. She was hanging out with Heather Golnick who had just come back up from cooling off in the lake herself. She recognized me ( the LMT, not Heather Golnick ) and said hello so we talked for a bit. Heather was just kinda standing there. Heh. Then she had to go take care of her LMT duties, and the lake was calling my name.

Soaked in the lake for about 10-15 minutes, until I started shivering. Then came back up by the finish line and cheered in all of my friends and fellow BTers that I saw come across the line.


Someone stole my legs and replaced them with a defective pair.


The volunteers on course were awesome. Huge police and volunteer presence on the bike course. I don't think a single intersection was unmanned.

Post-race, left a bit to be desired. They ran out of food, so when I made it to the food tent after waiting for my friends at the finish, there was only some sugar cookies and bananas left. More did show up, so there were salty chips, muffins, and pbj sandwiches, but nothing that looked really good.

Also, I think the field was too big this year, as evidenced by the crowded conditions on the bike. No real climbs to spread things out, so you end up with the packs that are inherent to flat courses. Breaking the waves up might help some, but not sure how much.

They are adding a 101 distance next year, so we'll have to see how that plays into things.