Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

You start from the beach and once the horn sounded, there was a pretty intense scramble for teh first buoy. I place myself in the middle of the pack and got bumped around pretty good but nothing major. However, once again my new goggles sucked arse and the new Aquasphere Kaimans were leaking Lake Michigan into my right eyeball, so I Popeyed most of the swim. It somehow got marginally better and I could see better than the all fog at High Cliff, but seriously, wtf with this goggle stuff. Schmize 'recommended' these goggles. Coincidence? I think not ;) Anywho, the swim went ok all in all but same story- just need to work on it. This winter I am planning coaching or masters class or both cuz if I ever hope to be competitive, this swim aint gonna cut it. I am also ashamed to admit that I walked a bit of it during the end. Why I dont know but I am sure it actually hurt more than helped. Big dummy.

Get goggles that dont blow and swim a lot more. It was an average swim for my sucky ability.

Big run out of the drink onto a sandy beach, about 100 yards maybe? Made sure to wash feet in the buckets but let nature air dry em before throwing on socks and getting out on the bike. Finally had the right gear to get started up, nice cuz there is a small hill out of transition.

Go faster. Pretty decent for me though considering size of t area and all.

Was gonna run the wheel cover but after losing three screws at Door County last year, decided to lock tite em on. Luckily I discovered before check in and in the garage Saturday that lock tite apparently eats big holes in plastic, rendering the wheel cover useless more or less. So back to the drawing board and went with the alps picked up for Moo last year.

Lost a full bottle of nutriton about 3 miles in, but I mixed two two hour bottles in case something like this happens. Yay for being neurotic! There was a lot of drafting going on and at one point, the marshalls were hovering around me and a group ahed of me. They pulled next to me and I am thinking wtf? i havent done a damn thing. No penalty, but had this happen at High Cliff and it makes ya sweat. I did get absorbed and passed by one pack of about 7 douchebags and also had one guy right on my wheel at one point about mile 30 but wasnt going to have any of it and turned up the juice to break him off. Parasite didnt even try to stick with, which is good cuz I had to pee pretty bad. There were a lot of folks on the course and I am proper like that cuz come on, manners man. It thinned out a bit after mile 40 but I just couldnt find the right time to go. Kept on drinking to try and force the issue and stay hydrated cuz the fog now burned off completely and teh hour start and clear skies was going to all but guarantee a hot run. Not much else to say about this bike as it was pretty reserved I think. I havent done many long rides relative to last year but ok with this pace on the lighter volume this year. Went through one bottle of Infinit concentrated, three gels and two salt tabs. Due to bloating feeling at High Cliff, took last gel about 30 before the run to try and let it get outta my gut.

Train more. Little more lax, less sense of urgency and kind of been sitting on my laurels a bit on the bike thinking the winter at the DTC would be ample to get through the season. Next year will build more off the winter work instead of letting it degrade, but this still isnt terrible methinks.

Pretty smooth transition cept for a twinge in the right quad dismounting. Luckily nothing much. Didnt run with my helmet on either for second race in a row!

Go faster

Hmm...now this is frustrating. I saw this coming as I watched the forecast over teh week calling for low 80s. My ray of hope that the cloud cover would protect the temps a bit was replaced by rays of mf'in sunshine on a day i didnt want it. My history of meltdowns in the heat is long and I knew this could be a tough run. Still, I knew Schmize was out there waiting for me to try and run him down and with the double out and back, it would be fun to see what I could do. I got off the bike and legs felt awesome, almost too good churing out 630-645s pretty effortlessly. I still had to pee about a mile in and for the first time let it fly on the run in an isolated stretch of the course and it was a freakin deluge. I took this as a sign that I had been drinking enough and should be able to maintain my pace. Just kept chugging along and saw Schmize when I was closing on the turn around and it seemed like he had a mile on me. Still plenty of time to close in at this pace and he joked 'you got me dude' or something to that effect. I was making sure to keep drinking at water stops (not touching the disgusting Heed on the course) and putting ice in my hat and down my manly bits to stay cool. I couldnt afford to spare the time here as conditions were getting hotter and history has repeated itself too often. I was looking good through the turnaround when gradually I kept peeking at my garmin and the pace ground slower and slower. I would justify that 7:15s would still get me south of 1:35, then watched the pace keep degrading to around 8s. Here we go again. I took another salt tab and just tried grinding it out. I saw a bunch of donks looking great out there but I knew I was on a rapid decent. Mutri caught up to me and was hurting too with three to go so we ran together for a bit and then about 1.5 to go I tried to muster would I could in the 7:20s or so to bring it home.

I am not so sure I have the same beef with my run as I do the bike. I had reasonable expectations that a 135 attainable, heck maybe even a 132 or so. From a fitness standpoint, I felt that is what I could do. However, the nickname jsweat held true and I obviously havent found the key to running in hot temps without sweating myself into submission. It has been a truly frustrating Achilles heel for me since my first mary in 2000 in Madison and being plunked into with two bags of saline. Vegas mary- meltdown at 24, High Cliff this year- GI distress and tunnel vision. It seems to go with the territory for me with running over 2 hours in warm conditions. The good news is that Succeed tabs have helped keep the cramps away and now it is just a way to find more efficient ways for my body to absorb fluids and retain. I played mad scientist on the internet since the race and have made some tweaks to my Infinit mix which will hopefully help. Until I solve this issue, there will always be a risk for this kind of meltdown. I am seeing progress in being able to churn through it, but still, once your body gets dehydrated, there is a precipitous drop in the ability to perform. I first weighed myself upon getting home and with what I was down relative to the morning and with a guesstimate of fluid/food post race, I was probably down 6-7 pounds. Not good but will keep looking for answers. Maybe training is part of it too, but I have felt the bike sacrifice has been to uphold the run. We shall see I guess. Still a decent run IMO but not where it could be methinks.

Stumble around, congratulated Schmize on rocking the course then hit the food tent. Lara and the girls came over for a bit then talked shop with some other random finishers. Very nice people for the most part in the sport. Had to bail on the donkey post game cuz was just rung out fluid wise and the late start had us pretty near the time we had to be home to get ready for PM company. I had decent beer there too, left in Force's car, and he goes for a stinkin' Miller? Cmon man!


This is a fun year for me, more lax vs hitting it hard again in 09 for MOO. I am fine with that and accept where my training/racing is and happy to post a PR. This dehydro shat just drives me bonkers though and I cant wait til I nail it down. I am happy again with the mental effort to stick with it when the shat was hitting the fan and am ok with this result (I think ;) )


competitive field, flat course...dunno, on the fence with this. i will be back to kick its azz probably next year, but cant decide if the course was anything special. my previous halves were high cliff and lake geneva which had some hillies (more my strength vs flats), but I suppose racing on all different stuff makes ya better all around or something deep like that?