High Cliff Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

They changed up the swim start a bit from a waist deep to a start from the shore, but with the water levels, there isnt much difference for the first 50 yards or so. I really regretted not starting out a new pair of goggles cuz water, spit, anti fog....you name it, nothing made these worth a damn. With that, vision was limited and I had to prarie dog it a bit more than I would have liked. I started out kind of off course and had to work my way in. Lines got better, but this was far from the most direct route. Overall, it was a decent swim for me knocking about 40 seconds or so off from last year I think. Had issues with the sun burning into my skull on the way back into the beach as it was right in our eyes. I have been relying on my speed sockets, but might be time to look at some other options as I have had issues in races before.

Better goggles so I can at least see a little. Contemplate more swim practice and perhaps someday do something about it. I am ok with the swim result though as fear is no longer an issue and I can leave the water without my heart about to explode out of my chest.

Yikes, this is a pretty decent t1 for me at any distance. Got in, got out, didnt dick around like last years casual affair. I wanted to focus on quicker transitions and while this isnt blazing, its improvement I was looking for without being to hardcore about it.

Get faster? I made sure sunscreen was on but got the spray kind this year.

I was planning to push it a bit more on the bike this year and I was right for about an hour as I was around a 22.6 for the first hour. However, the 15 miles or so into the same headwind that was lending a hand had other things to say about that on the way back. I wasnt overly aggressive because my number of long bikes this year had me leery of getting too out of control here in hopes of saving my legs for a solid run. The results had my bike time and t2 rolled into one, plus the course was a little over the distance from last year due to construction, so realistically I was probably around 21.5ish, same as last year. I will take it with the gustier winds though. The Mrs picked me up a new bigger aero bottle which I went with since the rest stops are spaced out a bit and last year saw me dry a few times. New bottle worked great. Went through a double concentrate bottle of Infinit and 3 gels.

My training has been much more relaxed this year with no real sense of urgency with MOO behind me. I could have used a few more long rides and maybe a bit more intensity at times but with hopes of another MOO in 09, I will take the relaxation when I can.

See above bike time. My guess is around 2 mins here cuz I was at the way other side of transition and had to drag the bike the whole damn time.

Nada. Pretty pleased with transition for the set up.

This is where it gets 'fun'. I was hoping to throw down a stronger run than last year armed with some decent progress here in gearing up for a late summer BQ attempt and with hopefully a better nutrition plan. Succeed tabs have all but eliminated my cramp issues for the most part and I felt pretty good that I could make a strong showing on the run without cramps. I got out of t2 and saw the Mrs and the kids cheering which was nice (yes, I saw you too Scoobysdad with the big camera stuck to your head, was just kind of busy at the time). Started to zip up the hill out of the park, taking baby steps and keeping cadence higher to just chop it down slow and keep the HR in check. I was going wireless again on the HR, racing by feel primarily this year so no data other than little less than uncomfortable. My MO for races in the past has been all about the negative split. All of last year was conservative, wanting to save myself for MOO or some training session or blah blah blah. It had me feeling ball-less and wrapped in bubble wrap for most of last year. Being free to experiment and with the hydration issues I have had in the past, I decided I would try and pick up the pace on the front end and just hope to pull er in for a crash landing. As they say, ya get what you wish for. I was in the 6:40-7 range for most of the first few miles, a pace that should be sustainable and isnt too uncomfy in training. Never mind I generally dont do all the other stuff before, but still....shouldnt be too miserable. Anywho, about mile three, I start burping up whatever my gut didnt like, kind of a gel flavored biley salt goop. Crap. I keep chuggin away and trying to get it to pass, hitting it with water to dilute every once in a while. No dice. Hit some Gatorade endurance, used all last summer and at MOO, and things are getting worse. I debated donating some of my guts to the park but after reconsidering my freakish sweat rate and how losing any fluid other than what I would sweat out would be a bad idea unless it decided to leave naturally, I just kept kind of getting some small mouthfuls from time to time. My hydration/nutrion plan to take gels was shot so I was pretty much on water. I started dumping water on my head as I was getting hot now too. Things held up pretty decent through the first loop with about a 47 min split through the first loop. Things started to deteriorate about mile 8 and a funny coincidence that the garmin was going freakin haywire, flashing different screens and what not. I kept watching my pace slip towards 8 and beyond in the rollers and part of it likely some tree cover. The hurt was on. I keep the event tiem from the gun on my other watch and kept doing the math to see if sub 5 was still possible. I had some cushion but had to get moving so I pressed pace again. Getting out of the woods and onto the pavement, I pressed it a little more but was just shot. When I got back into the woods, dehydration or something had me with some nice tunnel vision. I had to take 2 or 3 quick walk breaks to reel in the HR and whatever else was wrong. My legs were heavy and I kept thinking sub 5 was gonna have to wait another day. I eventually came around a bit and shoved a gel in me which helped. Whatever was bothering me was kind of out of the system but my legs felt like crap and all I thought of was getting to the hill so gravity could do its work. Once the hill was in front of me, I just opened it up a bit and let my heft work in my advantage. Point and shoot to a finish under 5. I was told I looked like crap from PeterAK.

It was a nice experiment and I think the issue was too many cals somewhere or mixing in the Gatorade. Whatever it was, it pissed my gut off. I took scaps on the hour for the event, excluding the last one I took a bit earlier to try and stave off meltdown a bit longer. This all sounds terrible, but with my hydration issues in the past, this was actually a cakewalk vs full cramp shutdowns. Just gotta learn pacing a bit better and figure out what my gut likes on the run at higher intensities after a while. I could probably eat just about anything I wanted to running 8:30s to 9's, but pushing it like I was is a different ball game. Still, 6 mins better than last year on a course marginally shorter (like .1 or .15) due to some trail flooding aint too shabby, especially when my shat was blown up a bit. We'll figure it out and I can easily see finding another 5-10 mins on this course down the road with some changes.

Stumbled around, kissed the wife and kids, ate everthing they had in the tent, ate more stuff and HammerOZZs with he and the fam (huge probs to him too btw for being all over the course cheering myself and othere Donks on. He was like my freakishly large guardian angel at every turn or something. Couldnt let ya down Shuckers!) Apologies to the rest of the Donks as I headed to transition to get a dry shirt and the distance back looked way far so packed up my gear. I promise we will have a post race bash at a race, but lets make it a sprint or somewhere I dont feel like keeling over dammit.


Training volumes and attitude. This wasnt an A race, but maybe this year I dont know what that means. I tried some things that worked well on race day and think I did more to get sub 5 mentally vs physically in the end. The bike base helped over the winter but my shift to running has eased that back. I dont take the headwinds out of the picture and realize a similar split to last year there aint a bad thing as all else wasnt the same. I am proud that after a few seasons of learning the sport and working up to new distances that I was able to actually race a HIM for the first time and take some chances. In speaking to Yams and hearing stories about pros, pain management is part of the game. If I can get ballsier out there and back it up with solid training down the road, I have hopes that I will continue to improve. There are dudes that a sub 5 aint shat for, but I got the first one out of the way so lets keep forging onward. EEEEEAAAWWWW!!!!


Decent race. They do a good job running things, but the lake can be disgusting if you are on the squemish side. Biking and running up the cliff is a nice challenge, as is the trail type of run. The usually have a nice spread afterwards too and I stuffed my face pretty bad. We shall see about next year as it doesnt have me so over the moon that I wouldnt want to try out some other venues just for a change of pace.