Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

initial shock was horrendous... had to contine to breast stroke and walk a bit .. got punched twice .. first time I lost the googles.. and put them back on and readjusted.. kept crawl first 200 with my head UP.. weird swim technique.. lemme tell you.. then after 200 I start putting it down a bit.. lots of others stopping and walking , breast, even back crawl.. LOADS of people in my wave.. VERY CROUDED.. water was crystal clear (AMAZING clear!).. kept avoiding people like the plauge .. after 5 minutes or so.. I seemed to get into the groove.. lost sight of NEXT bouys cause of FOG.. so I think the whole pack tended to drift toward the beach.. so a nice zig-zap..but overall I felt like I kicked some ass.. (for my swimming anyhow) After 10 minutes, I started passing lots of people (or so it seemed)..water felt great at this point..just cruised last 20 minutes.. got out of water at 32 minutes and jogged (lightly ) across 1/4 mile beach to t-zone...

not zig zag, get the aclimation somehow faster.. avoid getting punched...

im terrible at transitions.. wet suit came off quickly enough.. I stuggled a bit with my shoes..and my other crap...

magically hustle... not to worried about the t-zones..I dont really care if I am slow here..

my best leg.. but I still felt kindah slow..I tend to worry about my leg sustaining itself during the run.. so I dont 'kick-it' as hard as I would like to..this race course was very flat.. so I think I could have turned it up a bit.. like maybe 21mph.. i dunno. drank accelerage every 30 minutes (not much though it was too strong i think..). had HAMMER/GU every 20-30 minutes.. ate 1/2 a LUNA BAR at 45 miles or so.. (tasted horrible..) the little hills that were there were tough for me.. i really need to work the weights this winter (for the HAMS).. slowed down to 11-14mph on a few of the hills..

train more on weights for legs. my legs are pathetically weak.. kick it harder.. mental boundaris not there yet.. just edging up slowely I think..

nothing muchto say... forgot to bring my accelerage/gator bottle though.. dropped my watch ... ugh... to compensate for not having bottle.. i stopped at most of the water stops.. ugh.

not forget my bottle!!

first mile was good.. watered a bush by the beach path.at mile 1 or so.. got up to the road about a mile later.. and right side started cramping.. no idea.. thought it was a muscle reflex issue.. so I just kept going.. started getting worse. i stretched.. thinking it was a muscle cramp.. and just kept going.. mile 2.. it hit me.. like a knife.. into my right side.. i bent over and cried out a bit (yes I yelped!! rofl).. hurt like a son-of-a-..freaking lamma.. bent and walked for a few seconds.. seemed to work.. then started up again.. and it seemed to go away.. then a few miles later the left side started hurting.. and then same reaction occcured but not as strong.. ugh.. then both sides just hurt generally.. for the rest of the way..at mile 7..i felt half way moment and walked quite a bit (long miel time on mile 7).. i couldn't really kick it in... cause of the internal pain in the tummy.. legs felt ok.. could have pummled them if not for the stomach.. have to get this worked out.. but all in all .. 11 minute miles.. pretty bad compared to sqaure lake run (9s)... wanted to do so much better.. but the tummy said otherwise...

clear up the stomach issue and push my legs to the proper boundaries..

limped to food tent.. bbq chicken .. looked like slop.. made me sick to look at it.. ate watermelon, cookies, and wheat bread.. drank lots of water.. sit on a picnic table.. (see pic).. I actually felt pretty good..


cold on the swim, tummy on the run, mental games on the bike ,.. hustle factor on the t-zones.


really liked this race... it seems like an 'easy' half.. (kindah an oxy-moron).. but its a FAST RACE for sure. Wouldn't mind doing it again.. but the drive is 6 hrs.. and the price of gas..well you know.. It was a great litmus test for me.. need to concentrate on nutrition planning , mental games, and bike-run legs.. most likely between now and IM Moo.. Black HILLS here i come (NEXT!).
Oh.. this was a PR for me.. by a whole 2.5 minutes..if only I kicked the run.. I'm pretty certain I could bring this down to 5:30 easily.