Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Line up in my normal spot, front row and on the outside. Horn sounded and I began the long wade into deeper waters. I hit the first turn nowing sub 30 was out as it took forever to start swimming. I was thinking a high 31 was possible given the chop and length of water I needed to wade through. About 20 mins into the swim I devloped a nasty headache that was relentless - just pounding to my heart beats. I felt like I had stayed out till 4am. Rounded the last buoy and needed in, glanced at my time I was way off target posting my slowest split ever.

I just sat on the ground wondering if I should even continue, my head was pouding and my stomach was upset. I decided to start out on the bike and see if my headache/upset stomach would work themselves out.

My goal was 2:45-2:50 for the bike leg, I thought I could hit that pace and still have a decent-ish run based on this summer's training. Right up the hill, my foot came uncliped and I racked myself - which took the attention away from my head and stomach. Now my boys hurt but would feel better quickly. The ride out of Racine was awful, all the bumps in the rode would send sharp pains through my head and my stomach was starting to really turn. Just told myself - maybe it will be better in an hour and kept peddling. I was on a disc with aero helmet and I'm sitting up soft pedaling, felt like a dumbass but I couldn't ride aero with the bumps in the rode. Somewhere around mile 10, I had enough and pulled in behind a dumpster and let it fly....stomach empty. I was able to sip Infinit from time to time but I had to force it down. I knew I needed my 800 calories during the ride. I bounced a bottle at some point, I still have no idea what happened to the bottle and later noticed my hydrotail had cracked. Lovely...grabbed Infinit at the drops which went down easier than my blend, maybe because it was cold. I continued to soft pedal the bike leg but from time to time would go aero and try and step on the gas...that would work for a min or two at a time and then the pounding headache would come back. So my ride could be summed up as a bounced bottle, barfing, and soft peddling my way to a 3:01.

I think you can take a guess here...

At this point, told myself, might as well go run you've suffered this far.

My legs were back right away but spiking my HR would hurt the head, so I stayed at 155-159 HPM - this was the zone that would keep my head from pounding. I stopped at water stops and loaded up on water and Infinit. I avoided any and all food, my stomach seemed back to normal, but I didn't want to take any chances. The first loop saw tons of CTC'ers and at mile 5'ish I started smiling and even laughed a little. I knew I had won. I had felt like complete crap for 4+ hrs and I was still going. At this point the headache was gone or nearly gone and my stomach felt good-ish. I picked up the pace and each mile ticked off faster than the last, I was only walking for 30 secs at aid stations to shoove drink down my mouth otherwise I was running with form. At the last turnaround, I was in a great rhythm really picked up the pace and didn't stop at the last aid station, I knew I had enough gas in the tank to finish strong. A nice downhill finish and I was in the chute with a 2:12 half mary. Not great, but pretty good.

Dumped water over my head and saw my step mom and brother and said I'd met them at home. Didn't have any post race hum hums as I didn't feel like eating at the time. Hit a Wendy's on the way home which really hit the spot though.


I blew my 6:16 1/2 PR out of the water but was dissapointed in the day. I had the fitness for a much fast day but it wasn't in the cards. I think the headache was caused by slapping my head back in the water while sighting, just a hunch though. One more race (Lake Zurich) before Imoo, At least I learned to suffer out there.