White Lake Half II - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

After the swimming debacle of the previous race, my only goal here was to make this swim something other than an awful experience, and I met that goal. I went out real easy, probably 2:00/100 or so, and felt very comfortable. Sighting went well, and I swam in reasonably straight lines, with the possible exception of parts of the last leg, where I was beginning to accelerate to the finish. I managed to draft a little bit, until the guy I was drafting off of went off course. After that, I was mostly passing people -- either seriously slow people from the wave before mine, or people from my wave who went out hard and pooped out.

I still need to work on swimming straight, but other than that, I need to start thinking about pushing the pace a bit in my swims.

Long run into T1. I had the top of the wetsuit off no problem. I ran into a bit of trouble getting the bottom off. I took in a bit of nutrition and sort of took my time.

I probably could have pushed it a bit.

Well, I've been wondering when I was going to get around to pushing it too hard on the bike, and this was it! I think I was OK for portions of the ride -- I felt very comfortable. But there were moments where testosterone got the better of me. For some reason I was on a mission to pass everybody in sight. Mission accomplished, but at great cost...

Part of my problem is dealing with the people who pass me then slow down. I get fed up with them and just blow them away so that I don't have to deal with them. That works -- I never see them again -- but I need to figure out a better way of handling that situation.

This went fine.

I could probably push the pace a little.

Ugh. I was fine for the first 4 miles, running around 7:45/mile and feeling OK. Then the heat and the overcooked bike ride conspired to absolutely kill me. Between miles 4 and 5 things went steadily down hill. Not so bad as a guy I passed during that time -- he was puking on the side of the road. But not good. I run/walked the last 8 miles. It was ugly. The turnaround was right back at the transition area, and thoughts of DNF definitely went through my mind. Actually, at around mile 10 I started feeling marginally better, and was able to run for about a quarter mile at a time before walking again. I did make sure to run the last part even though it was slightly uphill. Walking over the finish line would have been just too depressing.

I tried everything to keep cool -- ice in the hat, regular self-dousing, etc., but nothing worked. There was nowhere to hide from the blazing sun.

Starting slower might have helped, but I think that after that bike ride, and with my relative lack of training, and the fact that I was tired going into this race, the blow-up on the run was inevitable.

Sat in the lake.


Too tired and under-trained going in. That, plus the heat and the stupidity were limiters...


This is a great race. I'll probably do it next year.