White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started out on the last wave to go we started about five minutes later than projected. I really had trouble settling in on the first leg of the swim. My form was bad, my breathing was bad, my pace was all wrong and navigation was horrible. About half way through the first leg I began to realize that I need to be doing more open water swims because it is not the same as swimming in the pool. After the first turn I calmed down. I got my breathing under control and my form got better. I started pacing people, so I am feeling good at this point. I made the second turn and started picking it up a bit. I start seeing the colors of the caps of the people that I am passing and realize that they some of them were two and three waves ahead of me in the start. Breathing, form, navigation and pace are really good at this point and now I am moving.

More open water swimming. The pool is just not good enough. Even though I had been doing more distance in training than I needed to it was not the same as swimming in open water. I will also do more warm up so that I work out the pre race jitters before the race not during.

Put sun screen on here as well.

Going into this race I new that it was flat. No surprise there. I felt really really good the first 20 miles. Averaging around 20-22 mph. Not pushing at all so that I would have plenty left for the rest of the ride and run. Then the headwind hit. The course was a single loop. One would think that at some point if you have a headwind that you would get a tailwind. Not the case. Every turn I made seemed to be into a headwind. My pace went way down and I began to get frustrated. I am thinking ok at some point I will get a break and get the pace back up but no it was not in the cards that day. Three water stations on the course. A first for me was the water hand off on the bike. Really went smooth. I felt sorry for the girl that was in front of me at the last water station who I found out later had never done a water transfer either and it was her first. She lost control and crashed. Lucky for me I was not too close so I was able to avoid her. I spoke with her at the end of the race and she did finish and was not too worse for the wear. So back to the race. My mom and dad staged themselves out around the half way point which was a nice surprise. I got a cluster headache at the beginning of the ride and it lasted for 20 miles. Not fun at all. So then after the headache went away the back pain started. New feeling here. I have done long rides but never experienced this pain before. There was no position that I could get into that would give me relief. So I pushed on. I began to wonder if I was going to be able to complete my ultimate goal of Ironman in November.... Around mile 35 I started having chest pain. Due to the cluster headache session that I was currently in my doc has prescribed Verapamil at 400 mg per day. This is an of label prescription as Verapamil is usually prescribed as a heart medication. I am also on 60 mg per day Prednisone. I began to wonder if I was having a heart attack. I was not experiencing any other symptoms so I pushed on. My hydration and nutrition where spot on.

More wind and hill training. More riding and longer riding. I must feel perfect after the ride for the next race.

I did not get in a big hurry here. I wanted to stretch a bit to see if could loosen up my back. No luck. I did not want to start the run feeling totally crappy.

Not much

I really did not think the run went that well. It was not that it was a difficult course. I just was not feeling good. I was having trouble breathing due to my back being sore from the ride. I got settled in to running but was unable to go more than a few minutes before walking. So I forced myself to run for 6 minutes then I would allow myself one minute walk. This is what got me through. I had no doubt at this point that I was going to finish. My wife ran with me at the half way point and gave me some great inspiration. I want to thank her for that.

More bricks.

Little to no warm down. I stretched a little and did walk around but I was not feeling terrible at this point. Sure I was tired but I felt better with the exception of my back than any other race I have ever done.


Not enough open water swims. Not enough hill and windy condition training on the bike. Not enough bricks.


The run course was awful. This was the worst I have seen in my limited experience. To have all the runners on the shoulder of the road going both directions is not good. It makes it very difficult to pass and stay in the rules of the race which said that the participants were not allowed to enter the lanes of traffic. The shoulders in places were 2 feet wide. Not cool. Other than that it was a great event and I would recommend it to anyone.