Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon - DuathlonOther

I was pretty disappointed that the swim had been cancelled, but it actually benefited me since I am a much stronger runner than swimmer.

Nothing, I felt in control the entire time.

In and out in a flash, I was lucky and had a rack spot right beside the bike out.

Ah where to begin....I switched back to the Plasma for this race. I never felt completely at home on the B2 and didn't feel like it was as stiff as the Plasma. It was the correct choice as you can see from my bike split. I was somewhere in the top 10-15 of my wave (14) after the first run so the plan was not to let anyone with a 14 or 15 pass me on the bike. I probably went a little too hard as a result of this. Thinking that it was going to be hot on Saturday (since none of the weather people could make up their collective minds about the temp) so I added some electrolyte tabs to my Carbo Pro. With the cool windy conditions on race day the extra salt wasn't needed and as a result I only drank about 1/4 of the bottle which wasn't nearly enough calories. Luckily I had a couple of gels in my pocket but it wasn't enough calories. Hydration was 1 and 1/2 bottles of water.

Maybe not go as hard on the bike at first, I probably burned alot of energy that I shouldn't have pushing into the headwind. I also shouldn't have mixed my electrolytes into the Carbo Pro (even though I have been doing this in training all summer).

Again my rack spot benefited me here, I only had to run about 50 feet both ways with my bike.

Nada

I really didn't feel the "pop" in my legs coming out of T2 and deep down I knew that it probably wasn't going to be one of my better runs. I pushed on and ran a 6:40 mile for the first mile (oddly enough I think that has been my 1 mile split at every race this year), and hoped that I could fool my body into running, and I did for the first 8 miles. Most splits were 7:30ish to 8-ish on the hill thru 8 miles, then the wheels fell off. I hit 8 miles and it was like my body said "nope we're done". Luckily I had good friend (brian) catch me at that point and basically encourage/cheer/shame/cuss/cajole me into running for the last 5 miles (acutally he went on at Mile 11 since my quads completely seized on me at that point). After Mile 11 I felt pretty good and ran the last two miles at about a 8:15-8:30 average.

Best thing about the run was the fact that I got to see a ton of familiar faces each lap. I saw Whizz and Trixie 3 different times, got passed like I was sitting still by Birkie at mile 2 (mile 7 for him), and then all of my NAMC folks that traveled up there together.

Actually eat and drink on the bike. I basically did this race on 3 gels, a banana,and water. Not normally a recipie for sucess.

Coming into this race my goal was to get a Clearwater slot. The race website estimated that the M35-39 AG would have 9 slots available (we actually had 10) so I figured that I would have to finish top 15 to be assured of a slot and top 25 to have a chance. When the preliminary results were posted and I saw 52nd place I was really disappointed and figured I had no shot. Still we were there when the rolldown started and the crowd kept getting smaller and smaller. Courtney got her slot in the F30-34 AG first (which was awesome) and so we still hung around. Finally they closed out the M35-39 AG and so I thought that was it until I remembered that any unclaimed Male slots would go to our AG since we were the biggest. Sure enough 2 slots from the older AG's were unclaimed and rolled down to M35-39. I went up with another guy and we got the 69th and 70th slots available. Not exactly how I had pictured it happening but Mission Accomplished!


Going to hard on the bike and not eating and drinking properly. You would think that I would know better.....

Another of my goals has been to go sub 5 for a HIM this year. If you take my swim from Gulf Coast (which was in really rough water and slower than last year) and add it to my splits from this race I estimate 4:52-4:55, but of course I can't claim it :). One more goal for Clearwater...


We bagged on this race alot, but in hindsight it wasn't really that bad. The course itself was pretty good (except for the road surfaces). That being said I don't see myself driving 12hours to do this one again.