Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was pretty happy with this swim. Luckily, TriDDS lent me his hood to keep my noggin warm. It was needed! Got in the water before hand with cwenniger and 1sttimetri. Chilly, but bearable. Swam around a little bit, opened the collar aa bit and let some water in to bring it up to body temp. Stood around and waited for Clydesdale wave to start. Surprisingly, was not nervous at the start. I was calm and collected. Decided i would hang back and wide to the first bouy. I had watch a few wave previous and new there was a sand bar in between the beach and first bouy. HORN! Everybody took off and me and CLint just hung back and let people jockey and go crazy. Walked to the sand bar, then started seimming. Rounded the first bouy, navigated some traffice, thread a few needles and then found some open water. BLAM! Found my pace and I was off. Navigation was a little more difficult and had a few minor issues, but corrected them without too much fanfare. 14 minutes in, checked the HR, high, but inline and I was already mid-pack of the wave ahead of me. Couldn't see too many Clyde caps. Rounde the last bouy and headed to shore. Got out of the water and the suit was already ate my waste. HR was great and I was felling good!

Can't say much. Maybe I should be more aggressive and start in the front of the wave. That just seems so pretentious. If I'm fast enough I'd catch everyone anyway.

Surprisingly, I felt super coming out of the water. I had my wetsuit dwon to my waist and ran outof the water with relative ease. I wasn't struggling at all. Trotted to my transition spot. Slid on my sock, put on my glasses, flung on the helmet and headed towards the exit. I was close to the exit, so it was only a dozen steps or so and I was out. travisvb24 was right there with me so it was fun to have a familiar face.

Went really well, can't ask for more.

Really happy with this. Going in my goal was to be at 19 mph for the race. I finished just over that, so I can't complain. Started on the bike and took in some great advice. Go slow. When you think you want to go fast, go slow. If someone passes you, go slow. It's a long race. So pedaled to the top of the hil and really started working on getty comfy, getting something to eat and drink and just concentrated on not blowing up. People were passing me left and right. Go slow. I was pedaling nice and easy, looked dow at the speedo and it said 18.7. That's good. Didn't feel like I has efforting at all, just easy spinning. I really concentrated on this for the next 12-15 miles. I'd pass a few people, but for the most part I was getting passed. Looked at the speedo, 19.5 mph. Hey cool. I felt great, had a lot of strength, stomach was good, felt nurished. This is fun! 20-40 miles was a trip. I started picking up the pace a bit and was starting to pass more than being passed. The best part was passing people that had passed me the hour before. Way fun just pedaling easily by them with little to no effort. Man it felt good. Ran into Scoobysdad and we chatted a bit and we jockeyed around a little bit, fun to be able to talk about the race and chat about each other's status. Coming home into the final stretch i started to cramp up big time on my left leg, both my calf and quad. It was tight! Backed off a bit and lengthened my pedal stroke to try and stretch it out a bit. Seemed to work as I had little issue with it.

Even though I was wasn't blazing fast. I really enjoyed this section of the race. Jenna proved to be race worthy and capable of keeping up with the carbon throughbreds out there. I had my 48 oz. of Endurace, 2 bottles of HEED and two bottles of water. Ate 4 gels, and a package of Cliff Shot Bloks. Tose things are awesome!

Worst transition ever! Hopped off the bike and quickly ran to my spot. Took off the helmet popped in the shoes, took a drink and split for the exit. Crap! I wanted to take off my HRM strap. Jog back, take the strap off, head to the exit. CRAP! Forgot my number. Jog back to grab my number. I can't remember if i had to go back for my hat or not, but it sure felt like i spent a good long time in transition. Dumb.

Get my act together and formulate a plan before getting off the bike.

Well this had been handing over my head for the past 3 1/2 hrs. I knew it was coming, nothing I could do but face it straight on, suck it up and get through the 13.1 miles. Never in my life have I run that far and here is a little summary of my journey.

After my horrible transition, I tried to really slow things down and just get into a comfortable pace. My goal was to average 12:00/mile and after the the first mile, I hit my lap buttom and it showed 10:29, het this is going pretty well. I started feeling like I had to pee so I thought i would get tothe second aid station and get to the port-o-potty. I was thinking to myself that the fact i had to pee was a good sign that i had hydrated enough. Hit the second aid station, then the bathroom and then passed mile two. Lap button 11:29 with a potty break. I was thinking this was going pretty well. The next 2-3 miles were pretty uneventful, although slower than my previous two, i was still feeling OK, not great. I met up with a fellow BT'r who crashed his bike and had all sorts of RR. He was running by me and then i would run past him while he walked. I finally got to talking with him and said that I was pulling 11:30/miles and that we could do them together, chat a little and get through some of this shat. I ran with Josh (BT avatar escapes me) through the turnaround at thetransition. That second lap and the mental knockdown it sends was much tougher than i thought. We probably ran for another 2 miles together and finally Josh was in enough pain that he had to take an extended walk break. No hard feelings. I made it to the far side turnaround and hooked up with another walker and said we were in the home stretch. He ran with me a bit and walked. In hindsight, sticking around was a mistake. I think I had more in the tank than he did and I probably could have finished the remaining 4 miles. I finally broke free from my partner and started to run home. I had all these emotions, excitement, joy, fear, pain. I felt ALIVE! 1 mile to go and I was definitely getting emotional. I had a huge lump in my throat. I look at my HRM and my time is around 5:52 and I now realize I am going to crush my goal of 6:30. Down the hill, I eye the BT (Schmize) canopy and I know my family is waiting for me. I am minutes away from finishing my first HIM! An accomplishment I never, never in a million years, thought I would have the fortitude to complete this type of event. This sport has done so much for me. I feel good, I'm in the best shape I've been in in 15 years and people I've met have been unbelieveable. Reach the canopy, see and hear everyone cheering for me. Coming to the chute, tightness in the the left leg, uh, oh! Keep running! Cross the line, get my mdeal and hobble over to the med tent for some ice. I did it. One of the best damn days of my life.

I think I did as well as I could expected. I still need to get the mental aspect of this race under control. Yeah, it hurts, but just keep going and it won't hurt any worse.

Almost collapse at the finish line. Legs cramp up into a little ball. Head to the med-tent to get my left hammy iced up. Ahhhh that felt better. Sat in the shade a little bit. Talked to some of the Donkai and tlaked about the race and the woulda, coulds, shouldas.


As always, I just can't get over the hump of just sucking it up and running at a decent pace. i am seriously considering starting from scratch, redo my form and try to get more efficient.


Breaking 6:00:00 in 09'!