White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Loved the swim! The water temperature was nice, almost spa-like. White Lake was beautiful and clean, which is always a plus (anyone get attacked by seaweed at the Disney Tri like I did?) Did freestyle ~10% of the swim (mostly around and near buoys and the end of the swim), but used backstroke the rest of the way. Felt relaxed the whole time. Felt the start of a leg cramp coming on a few hundred yards from the dock and said "uhoh", but I stopped for a second and it went away.

Take some ecaps before the swim...and stretch.

Had fresh legs coming out of the swim and ran down the dock into the transition area. Had a hard time wiping the dirt off my feet. Had alot of lake debris come out of my wetsuit and attack my body. Tried to put sunscreen on and wasn't too successful. Said "forget it". Grabbed everything and put it on, ready to go!

Looking back, would have spent more time wiping off my feet. Think that was the reason I got big blisters on the soles during the bike.

Ran out of water 10 miles before the end of the bike and had to drink my gatorade, which until that point, I had only had about 5 sips of. Wish that I had more water...the gatorade in combination with the gu was just
too sweet for my taste that day.

In the days leading up to the race, I was a little freaked out about what to do if I had to pee during the bike leg. During the race, I was scoping out the most wooded areas of the roadside just in case. Guess that I sweated out as much as I drank (over 2 liters) bc I was spared during the 56 miles. Thank you sweet lord jesus.

Nothing.

Had an extremely long T2, but at the time I didn't realize it. Not even sure what I did all that time...pinned my race number onto my shirt (didn't want to wear it on the run), had to do a change of bike shorts into run shorts/underwear using a picnic blanket. Put on new socks and my running shoes. Had bought a fanny belt thing to stash my nutrition needs for the run, but decided against wearing it. Took the small ziploc bag with my gus and ecaps, and a bottle of water instead.
Made a stop at the portajohn and off to the run.

Not have taken my sweet time putzing around and gotten out of there quicker!
Put on some more sunscreen.

Got off the bike and out of transition...was surprised that my legs didn't feel even remotely like jelly. Decided to walk for a while to get adjusted to the transition and start running. Everyone at that point was running/jogging. Started to jog and was stopped in my tracks...the soles of my feet felt raw..and painful. I was too freaked out to take my shoes off and look, so I kept walking...every once in a while attempting to jog again, with the same response from my feet. Oh well, if you can't run, you can walk, which I did..the whole 1/2 marathon. Saw so many of my TNT teammates who asked if I was ok. At that time, I thought that my feet hurt bc I wasn't wearing thick enough socks. Had a ball going through the aid stations...ate lots of orange slices and lots of water. Said hi to all the volunteers. Really appreciated the cold towels.

Had been carrying a washcloth w/me since the bike ride and had an "aha" moment a few miles into the race. I would tear the washcloth in half to
help pad the soles of my feet so I could start running...Finally got the washcloth into two pieces and molded them into my shoes, but it didn't work or make things better. Oh well...felt a bit like McGyver though.

Had brought my little ziploc bag of gus, ecaps, hard candy. Tried to down a tiny taste of a mango gu and was disgusted, it was so sweet. Ended up not using any of these items and throwing them in a trashcan.

By mile 9, the aid stations were void of volunteers. I grabbed a bag of
baked potato skins and chomped on those bad boys for a quarter of a mile. They really hit the spot. Delicious! A race van driving by asked if I was on lap 1 or 2. He said keep going bc I was on the 2nd lap. I mentally thanked him for not kicking me off the course bc I was already beyond the 8 hr cutoff time.

Came around the last curve in the neighborhoods before hitting the turn to the main road and my husband was waiting for me. We walked to the entrance of the site and he said "you have to run to the finish line...everyone's waiting for you". And so I ran.



Wiped off my feet completely after the swim (turns out this may have been what caused the problems on the run).

Took obligatory pictures with teammates and family. Ate an orange, waited to cheer on our last teammate to the finish. Packed up my stuff in transition. Back to the motel. Put my legs in the lake to loosen them up. Ate 3 plates worth of food at our barbeque victory party. I was HUNGRY. Hung out w/my teammates and family the rest of the night and went to bed at 11:30.


blisters on my feet


Overall, this was a fantastic race! Would love to do it again and actually run the last leg. Great weather, environment, volunteers, aid stations. Had
a wonderful 1st half ironman experience. I didn't finish fast, but I finished!