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 Swim
Comments: SWIM (goal, sub 40 mins, actual, 33:11) The beach is on the northeast shore of lake Winnebago, there was a slight westerly wind, caused some small rollers to be coming in to shore, but no white caps, no chop. BUT the green algae was rolling in with it... blah... The course is a Rectangular Clockwise course, it is a perfect setup for us "Right side breathing" folks. I never had any trouble Sighting. Wave 10 was up, bang, off we went. The start is very shallow, so you end up walking a bit.. I stayed way to the outside, i kinda figured i would be able to just Swim the first leg outside, get a lead on most of the wave and work my way in to the turn, it worked great, and I avoided any issues with the Wash Machine. I got into my 4 strokes then breath rhythm and all was good. On the downwind finish you could kind of Pull with each roller and you would accelerate a bit, it felt alot like surfing, so it was a very fast final leg. On a side note, when you are swimming in Murky green algae water, try to image that you are on a spaceship in "Hyper" drive, frankly when the green specks streak past your face its kinda what it looks like anyway. I stood up, undid the wet suit, dipped, then pulled the top off and the arms were out. Ran out of the water, up the hill (not as bad as I thought) and into T1, I looked at my wife (amanda) and she said..."33:11" I kinda looked at her funny and she said, "yeah, and I am pretty sure i started it right". I was pleasantly surprised... not only did the swim FEEL great, it WENT great as well. (in all honesty the course could be short) What would you do differently?: I think I just need to continue Training the way I am, this swim went well. Unfortunately Ironman is a counterclockwise swim... bummer :)  Transition 1
Comments: I was pretty stoked about the swim and ran down the wrong bike Isle, instantly saying "Damn it rookie". once i actually got to my bike, it was smooth. Out I went.. What would you do differently?: take better not of wear my stupid bike is.  Bike
Comments: BIKE (goal, sub 3 hours, actual, 2:43:51) The bike course is mostly north and or south with 2 loops at either end. The .8 mile climb right off the bat probably freaks most people out about the course, but in all honesty its the only climb of any substance the entire 56 miles. The wind was a slight tailwind on the initial leg South, and the weather service indicated that the wind would be building throughout the morning.. SO in essence there was a 4-8 mph tail/cross wind on the way out... and it built to a 8-12 mph head/cross wind on the way back... GOOD STUFF. I felt great, my HR was between 145 and 160 the entire ride, I cruised along the first have at 20.8 mph average, and was able to deal with the headwind and keep my Overall average at 20.6 mph. I felt great. The first half of the ride I kinda feel that most people were riding fast and comfortably, but on the way back up it became apparent that the wind was something. You could just see the frustration on peoples faces.. I think this race was the first one where I actually watched a person just Crack. I was riding around mile 40 heading east, little long gradual up hill with a tailwind, and a woman in front of me had been riding fast and smooth and i just started watching her swerve a bit, and she was slowing down, and she was looking around alot, and i started gaining on her. When I was passing her she started to tear up and kinda gasped, and slowed to stop.. I asked if she was ok, and she started laughing real loud, and kinda cursed the sky, and there were tears under her Aero helmet.... and yeah, you could just tell she had had better days. The Last 17 miles are Flat farm roads, so the head/cross wind was pretty crappy. The final 4 miles were a tail wind, so I simply shifted into a little gear and spun my legs out. Came into T2 really pumped about the day so far.... What would you do differently?: not sure, i am so pleased with how it went i guess I would just continue to train hard. Last year i did the sprint of 22miles with a speed of 20.77, so having 20.6 at 56 miles is a suprise Transition 2
Comments: Very very happy about the swim and bike so far... but oh wait, what's that? stomach isn't happy? hmmmm Headed out for the run....  Run
Comments: RUN (goal, sub 2 hours, actual, 2:05:16 158th Place) So, if I am honest, my guts needed a bathroom in the worst way. Right out of T2 there is a bathroom ON the run course. (there are porto Jons on the other side of transition but why would I use those when there is a bathroom right on course?) I get in there, with another runner, and sure enough, there is some dude using the toilet, who is NOT an athlete, and I am pretty sure that SOB was reading the paper........ SO, what I should've done was just either 1. waited, or 2. gone back to the Porto John, or 3. headed up the hill because surely there are porto jons on the course... I opted for #3, headed up the climb, where a nice gentleman said, 2 loops, 2 loops... The Run course is 80% trail, and 60% shaded. The trails run around most of the campsites in the park (but ironically enough not near the campground toilets) The course is challenging but not impossible. I would likely wear trail runners next year. My gut was making me VERY uncomfortable, and I had to slow the run down ALOT to ensure i could actually move.. yeah, i am not gonna get into the details on that. Loop 1 went bye in a slow hour... and NO BATHROOMS ON COURSE... mile 6.5 just into the 2nd loop i had to walk, (or else...) 3 mins later I started a slow jog, and 1.5 miles after than walk again, then jog, then walk.. NOT GOOD. at mile 9. ??, i am walking through a water stop, sipping.. and I see a Freakin outhouse like 400 yds off the course behind some trees...... mind you its 1:42 into this stupid run at this point. I realize I am not going to beat 2hrs... Hit the outhouse, 4 mins later, emerge and finish off the remainder of the run. The last mile is basically downhill, a guy started running next to me... we were talking about the day, I looked at him about 300m from the end and said "so, how old are you, he laughed and said 35, you?" I said, "good, I am 31, we don't have to sprint"... finished the hill, ran through the schute. DONE What would you do differently?: use the bathroom way earlier Post race
Warm down: The post race stuff is nice... pasta, sauce, bread, recovery drinks, soda, wine tasting (yeah, odd) etc etc. They handed out trophy's this year to the people that placed. (last year it was "Platters") Overall its a great race.... the ONLY complaint i have is the Lack of "facilities" on the run course. I had fun, I learned a fair share and think I know of some adjustments i can make for future races. I am Very very happy with my result, and the current level of my fitness that goes along with it. I feel like I am on track for MOOOO. Thank you Amanda for waking up at crazy hours, driving my butt to silly half ironman races, and sitting around for almost 5.5 hours with nothing really to do. What limited your ability to perform faster: Lack of bathrooms... :) Frankly I am so happy about how it went, I simply need to do more races, more training... etc.. I had a blast. Event comments: It was all great. Last updated: 2008-06-23 12:00 AM
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United States
Midwest Sports Events
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 127/431
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 15/36
So, I have never done a Half Iron distance race before, but I really really enjoyed it. I think this may have been one of my favorite races ever. Granted I liked the course alot, but I just felt the Distance's fit me well too.
Pre Race, Sat......
Saturday I took it easy, I think if I can do this race next year, I will try and camp at High Cliff State Park the Friday and Saturday nights before. Its a nice park, and It would be great to just get up and bike down the start area.. I had Borrowed Wheels from a friend, So a good portion of the morning was taken up swapping out Cassette's and putting new tubes and tires on. Once I finally got all that done a buddy came over and we went for a 60 min ride to simply test out the Wheels. They roll nicely... after adjusting the cassette Tightness the ride was good to go. I also slid the arm Pads on my tri bars back, i was having issues in previous rides with where the weight was resting when I was in the aero positions. I was able to slide the arm pads back without moving anything else as to not screw up the nice fit and geometry A buddy hooked me up with when he did his Fantastic Bike fit....(I highly suggest everyone who has not been fit on their Tri bike contact Mr Mark Lydecker (Froedert on WaterTown Plank Rd.)to do so, I haven't Ridden Aero Much during training, but was able to sit in the Aero position yesterday for almost all of the 2:43... it is a great fit.)
So, hung out with my wife on Saturday, did some yard work, got Everything packed up, got the car loaded, and watched TV for the night. Went to be around 10pm, and Actually fell asleep well (I never sleep well before a race). I think I had decided in my head that this was simply a long workout... and thus, I did not stress about it.
Morning of Race....
3:35am, alarm goes off, we get up, grab some grub, grab the coffee, hop in the car and are on the Road to High Cliff State Park by 3:50am... Google Maps said it was and 1:57 min trip, it took us about 1:40, We parked, grabbed the bag, bottles, and bike and walked to the park.
Registration is by the finish line, i walked in, gave my name, got my bag O Stuff, and headed over to Body marking... mini rant time...
I like it when they do Waves based on Age, it gives you targets to shoot for. This race the waves are simply based on Registration order. Since I registered like 12 days ago, i was in the 2nd to last wave for the half. You could kinda tell who you were passing due to the number written on the leg, but it didn't correlate to a age group. So, while it was fun to pas people in the first 3 waves, it was essentially meaningless.
Ok, I took all my stuff to the Transition area, set up, put on suit, got everything together and went to the start...