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 Swim
Comments: Our wave was treading water at the starting buoy and most of us were unable to hear the official start. The kayakers finally yelled at us to go, and in the confusion I found myself out in front right in the middle, not my chosen starting position. There was a lot of fighting for position and I finally settled behind 2 swimmers holding a nice pace and took advantage of their wake. I purposely held back on the swim, knowing it would be a long day and not wanting to push it too hard too soon. At the turn-around point we went back directly into the rising sun, making navigation and sighting nearly impossible for some time. At times I was worried that I was off course until finally, I saw the big giant inflatable finish line and knew I was ok. Had to walk in the last 25 yards in soft mud and rocks, it was a very difficult exit from the water on this course. What would you do differently?: Nothing, this was a pretty average swim. I actually did more drafting today than ever before and I came out of the water relaxed and breathing easy.  Transition 1
Comments: On this course there is a special transition area at the swim exit just for a pair of running shoes since the run to T1 is about 1/4 mile on a road. I stripped off my wetsuit, put on running shoes and jogged to T1 carrying my wetsuit. It was kind of strange, but it was really not a big deal. Once in the transition area we switched again to bike shoes, helmet, etc. Had some trouble with socks and wet feet.  Bike
Comments: This was really my focus for this race, and I wanted to aim for a 20 mph average. I set my computer to display my cadence meter and spent most of the ride trying to keep my cadence as close to 90 rpm as I could. On a relatively flat course, this wasn't too difficult. for the first 20-25 miles I felt relatively good. Afterward I quickly started to feel the lack of long distance training and it became more difficult to maintain my pace. Had to frequently break out of my aerobars and stretch and reposition myself. I felt pretty good, but I knew pretty early on that my run was going to suffer for the pace I was holding on the bike. What would you do differently?: A slightly more moderate pace would have positioned me better for the upcoming run. Transition 2
Comments: I was pretty happy to get off the bike by the time I rolled into T2, and I took my time in transition. I decided to change my socks as the ones I biked in were soaked (good decision). I drank some ice cold water from a water bottle I had frozen the night before and let melt down during the bike, and grabbed my fuel belt out of a mini-cooler, which was on ice, thus starting the run with nice cold Accelerade to drink. Both ideas worked well. I struggled with my number belt a bit and was finally off after what seemed like a long vacation in T2.  Run
Comments: My plan was to run this segment as 13 x 1 mile repeats, walking for a minute at each mile marker/water stop. This lasted for the first 3 miles, then the hot canal path took its toll. Miles 4 and 5 I dropped to running 5 minutes/walking 100 steps. By the turn-around at mile 6.5 I was cramping up pretty badly (hamstrings) and had to resort to a 1 minute run/1 minute walk routine. About this time I met Scott from Reisterstown, who was having hamstring issues, and convinced him to run/walk with me until he felt better. Together we worked up to a 2 minute run/1 minute walk routine, which we held for the rest of the run. Along the way we picked up Andrea from Wayne PA(it was her birthday) and she joined in on the run/walk routine. This got all three of us to the finish line, which we crossed as a team. What would you do differently?: This was a training issue - my long distance run training was simply non-existent, and I knew this going into the race. Thus, I'm not disappointed, and I know that with the proper training I can shave 20-30 minutes off my 1/2 Ironman time by making sure I'm properly trained to handle the run. Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster: The obvious answer is training. I didn't go into this with my 'A' game, and it shows. Event comments: The race itself is average, the course is pretty dull and monotonous. There were plenty of volunteers and good police support, and the registration and packet pickup went well. There was no shortage of drinks and gels on the course. I met all of my goals, meaning I finished the race, broke 6:00:00, and turned in a 20mph bike ride. So that is a pretty good day, and not a bad way to finish up the 2007 triathlon season. I set a PR in all 3 triathlons I raced this year - Columbia Triathlon in May (Oly), Tri-to-Win Sprint in June (sprint), and Delaware Diamondman 1/2 Ironman. Last updated: 2007-09-04 12:00 AM
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United States
Piranha Sports
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 131/269
Age Group = M 35-39
Age Group Rank = 0/
I only signed up for this race one week before race day, with the intention of just racing it for 'fun' (if you can call a 1/2 ironman triathlon fun). My primary goals were first to finish, second to break 6 hours, and third to put up a 20mph average split on the bike.
Technically this was my first 1/2 Iron distance triathlon even though I had done this race in 2004, since the '04 race was modified due to a cancellation of the swim (that year it was replaced with a 5 mile run due to a manure pond overflow upstream). So I knew that as long as I finished, I'd set a personal best.
Arrived at the race venue a little later than I wanted. Had to wait a while for packet pickup, body marking, and for the porto-johns. Got into transition with just enough time to frantically unpack, arrange my gear, get my wetsuit on, and check out the pre-race meeting.
I did some light stretching while waiting in lines and in the transition area. The swim start is at a boat ramp about 1/4 mile from transition so I jogged to the start to get warmed up. Once our wave was in the water we had about 150 yards to swim to get to the starting line, and that was the rest of my warm-up.