USAT Halfmax National Championship - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

About 1 minute before the gun went off, I asked if anybody wanted to punch me in the face now, and get it over with. That elicited a few good chuckles, but there were no actual takers. A guy toward the back proclaimed that "those are MY swim-fins stashed about yards out!! Nobody else touch them!" So the mood was pretty relaxed until 15 seconds before the gun went off. Dead silence.... BOOM!! A couple steps to get into waist-deep water, and I dove headlong into the action. The race was on.

HE'S GOING THE DISTANCE:

I started out wide to the right, keeping the vast majority of people to my left, and just a couple people to my right. This strategy worked well, as I only ran up on a couple people and was able to maintain composure well and keep myself aimed in the right direction with a minimal amount of lifting my head. I just let other people do my sighting for me, and it worked out well.
The next thing I new, I was making the first turn at the other end of the lake. I was feeling good about the swim so far, but didn't want to check my watch because I knew it wouldn't do me any good. On the backstretch, it was primarily clear sailing. I ran into one dude, who knocked the left side of my goggles loose, and that was it. I deftly got it sealed back up without even disrupting my strokes. I was pretty pleased with myself on that little move.
The glare from the sun was pretty nasty to my left, so I did quite a bit of right side breathing during the final stretch there. When I did breath to my left, I closed my eyes so as not to be blinded. It worked well. I felt like I was the only one in the lake for quite a while til I got just a couple hundred yards from the beach. At that point, I knew I was having a strong swim, and I wanted to keep it up. I went hard to the finish, catching up to a group of guys who ahead of me 25-50yds. I was ecstatic to be out of water... and so soon!

Well, it's not often that I say this, but I would have to admit that I apparently went too hard. I should have tried to have a more relaxed effort. I really anticipated coming out of the water with a HR in the 130-140 range, not up in the 160s.

7th out of 15 AG
57th out of 203 OA

HE'S GOING FOR SPEED:

T1 includes a long uphill run to the TA. Earlier, I had made the decision to leave my tri-top in the TA so I would have something dry to put on. I was happy I did because it was extremely cold and windy on the course. I also decided to put on socks for the bike portion, which I was happy about, too. Even with the socks, a few toes went numb for a while. It could have been brutal without the socks!
I ran with my bike to the mount line and swung my leg over my steed to take off on the next adventure. I was barely a pedal stroke away when people were yelling at me because a water bottle had already fallen off. I wasn't bothered that much, but it was kinda crappy.

Nothing to change here, realistically.

It was rough out there, especially with my HR blown up the way it was. It took a lot of mental effort on my part to keep from chasing the guys that were passing me. I'll just say this one time and get it out of the way; a LOT of people passed me. They weren't kind about it either. Inside the resort was over 7.5mi of tough hills. we're talking about steep, grinding hills, too. Nothing "rolling" about it! Until I got out on the rural hiways, it was impossible to get my HR back down where it needed to be. I was already running it higher that I would have ever wanted. Only thing I could do was accept that that's the way it was. I knew that with the course inside the resort being tougher than I anticpated, and the wind being stiffer than I thought it would be, I would have to adjust my finishing time to something beyond 5 hrs.
As a result, I never gave chase to the guys with the disc wheels. I let them go do their thing. I knew I had to have another gear to use when it came to the half marathon, so I kept myself in check out on the bike. Seeing my support crew back in the resort was awesome. I got a good boost from them as they made lots of noise for me. That stuff can go a long ways.

HE'S ALL ALONE:

Nobody was friendly out there on the course, it got pretty lonely at times. I kept myself busy by doing math in my head, and worrying about drinking too much/too little. I went through a bottle of Perpetuem, a bottle of Heed, and a bottle of water, plus 4 E-Caps. I stopped once to pee at about mile 44, and that's all the action there was out there. No deer, no dogs, and not much encouragement, other then by the nice aid station folks.

As a credit to my fitness and consistency, I will pat myself on the back because on the second lap I was able to negative split at a lower effort, so that's kinda cool.

I would probably drink more, and just suck it up and make 2 pee breaks. Other than that, I don't think I could have done much differently on the bike. Certainly couldn't have gone harder. And had I gone easier, I don't believe it would have benefitted me for the run.

2nd out of 15 AG
9th out of 203 OA

What can I say, I rock at transitions.
I was pretty excited to get off the bike at this point, and without even thinking, had my shoes switched, my hat on, race-belt in hand, and was headed out. It's automatic, and I love that.

Nothing.

Chugging out of the TA I was feeling pretty good mentally, and decent physically. Ryan and Mark ran along side of me for a minute asking how I was doing. I reported back that my legs felt numb and I couldn't feel my hands either. But I was running well and had cranked the HR up to 160 where I planned to keep it for the remainder of the run. My biggest fear getting off the bike was that I would have to battle side cramps... but I didn't get a single one. I controlled my breathing, ran tall, and kept popping E-Caps. That made me really happy!
I was thrilled to be tackling the last leg of this race, and even happier when I started blowing through mile markers in 7:30, 7:15, 7:20... I was killing it out there. Taking in Heed at each aid station and gel from my flask occassionally, I felt good. Really good. The whole time, I knew I racing for something like a 5:03 finish. At least, that's what I thought for some reason. But as I headed back to TA to start my second loop, I was still on target!! The first lap had only taken me 48 minutes. If I could dig deep, I thought, I could still pull off the 5hr finish... and hell, I've got about 50 minutes to do it. Let's do this!

IN HIS TIME OF NEED:

And that was one of the last times I felt good. The next couple hills, while still at a very nice pace, were taking their toll on my quads. I could feel an unfamiliar deep burn and ache. It was a pain I could live with, however, and even though my pace slowed a bit, I kept pushing. By the time I made it to the half-way point of the second lap, my quads were trashed. They were absolutely throbbing from the pounding they were taking. My calves soon followed suit. I was reduced to a shuffle of sorts, each step hurting worse than the one before it. I was scared to stop, thinking I might not be able to get going again. My mind said not to even contemplate walking, but my legs screamed louder. With just a couple miles to go, my right quad cramped, and then my left calf knotted itself too, and I stumbled. I guy behind me shuffled by and mumbled, "I've got 'em too. Just walk 'em out." So that's what I did. I walked. I said I wouldn't do it, but my legs just wouldn't carry under the pounding. All the while, I had to watch my time goal slip away. I was so close to it, and yet it seemed to move farther from my grasp so quickly I couldn't stop it.
I forced running when I could muster up a stretch of it, with bits of walking on the steepest parts of hills. That got me through. For the last .5mi, the course flattens out, so I was able to keep a pretty steady run into the finish chute, but nothing like the dominant sprint I envisioned for myself in my dreams a 100 times. That didn't change the pure joy that I felt as I crossed the finish line. My smile in the picture betrays the pain that was coursing through my body. It was a great moment, made even greater by being surrounded by friends and family. It meant a lot to me to have their support.

Well, I'm struggling with this. Should have gone easier in the first 10k? Maybe. I can't say for sure whether or not that would have saved my muscles from becoming obliterated anyway. I'm frustrated because I'm confident I could have kept my HR up in the 155-160 range for longer... but my legs just weren't willing to go.
I probably could have fueled better on the bike, and perhaps prevented the cramping.. But this was all new territory for me. I've never cramped before. I've never run so far so fast after a tough bike ride. I'll find a way to learn from it all.

I stumbled to a chair to sit and wait for a stretch/massage. I begged a dude from some potato chips because I was needing some salt. He obliged, so that was nice.


Experience was a big factor. These were untested waters for me.
Being self-coached is a limiter.
Not fueling properly and pacing myself early on the swim was probably a negative, too.


Quality race with a good Director. Lots of good volunteer. A beautiful setting. Be prepared for less-than-friendly racers, though. Such highly competitive fields tend to lose their kindness.