Triathlon de Lévis - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had no idea how fast I was going, nor how many people I had passed, until I got home and checked the stats. I wasn't going all out, but I was making sure that I wasn't just going at my "lazy" pace. It was in the St Lawrence River, but protected from the current.

Ok, so the pace was pretty beastly! I'm freakin' impressed. My one wish, really, was that the swim was a bigger part of the triathlon course. I mean, really, 23:30 out of 6 hours?! That's not fair!

Nothing, this was hardcore perfect.

It was a 200-300m jog back to transition, and then I took my sweet ass time taking my wetsuit off, putting the race belt, sunglasses, helmet, socks and bike shoes on. I didn't want my heart rate to be skyrocketing.

The Bodyglide on the heels really helped. Although my wetsuit still got stuck on my heels (almost inevitable?), it did slip off more quickly.

Nothing, I'm happy.

It took a while to get my heart rate down, but I did after maybe 2 loops. I was averaging 27 km/hr for the first good bit, but by loop 9-10, I was slowing down. The fronts of both of my shins were aching, aching, aching.

By loop 11 or 12, the 2-water bottle holder at the back of my seat came loose for some ridiculous reason, and I lost the 2 water bottles. All I had left was the 1 water bottle at the front. At the next loop, I threw that one to the side and grabbed a new, gatorade-filled bottle from the aid station. I would do that 2 more times.

From 30 minutes in, it started to POUR rain. Pouring. Everything was soaked, the entire world was drowning, the roads were slick and the sides of the roads was one huge puddle. I was miserable. I wanted to give up at 2 points: before the entire race began (it was a 20 second bout of insane fear) and at this point. With all the rain, life sucked. But... it went on. My mother was encouraging me at each loop, and a couple guys I had spoken to before the race (one of them was a race director or organizer or something) kept telling me I was doing awesome, and to keep it up.

My nutrition plan went pretty well. I started drinking gatorade 15-20 min into the ride, and 30 min in I had my first piece of clif bar. I would eat and drink on the slower half of each loop (against the wind and by the water), while focusing on speed on the flat and fast other half of the course.

I had also read other BTers race reports, and some of them mentioned peeing on the bike course, while still on the bike. So, I figured that if I had to go pee while riding, I would try to do so! For the last 4 loops, I had to really go pee, but just couldn't. My brain couldn't understand that I wanted to pee *while* my legs were moving and while I was still sitting against something. Finally, on the last loop, when I saw my mom I yelled "I'M TRYING TO PEE", and then I finally peed. It was a miracle.

By the end, though, I really just wanted to be off my bike. And I was seriously worried about how my legs would feel when I would start running.

I was one of the last people (I think 4 were behind me, but only 2 were slower than me) to get off the bike course. I guess I know which of the three sports I have the most room to improve!

Not much. I've only been biking for 4ish months on a road bike, so this is pretty good. Now I just need to get better at it.

The stop to get off the bike is JUST at transition, and because only 60ish people did the race, transition was TINY. I loved it. From the bike stop to my transition station, I had maybe 5-10m to walk. I racked my bike, hung up my wetsuit, changed shoes (and realized that someone had stolen my fresh pair of socks, which had been nicely placed in my running shoes! Assholes!), got my visor and my watch, and was out to start the run. I did take my time to sort of relax as I stuffed all my belongings into my bag. I just needed to feel like I was in control of my life again.

Nothing, other than maybe hide my socks from people's sight?! I mean really, you're surrounded by a 200-300$ wetsuit, all my gear, and you take my socks?! I had been really looking forward to getting out of the gross, soaked, and grimy socks I had worn throughout the bike ride.

Just before starting the run, I was dreading my legs feeling like 10 ton bricks. They, however, felt AMAZING. I felt fresh! So I just started easy running at about a pace of 5:40-5:55/km. In the first short loop, I only took water to settle my stomach. In all subsequent loops, I took 1 small cup of gatorade and 1 small cup of water, half of which I drank, and the other half I threw down my back to cool me down.

On the second big loop, I caught up with a guy named Michael, whom I ran with for about 1 loop. This was his 2nd half-ironman, and he summed both our triathlon careers (to this point) up best when he said: "I always start at the end of the race listing for my time, because that's usually where I end". Hah, so true, I love being a beginner triathlete!

Anyway, after about 1 loop running with him, he told me to go ahead because this pace was too fast for him. So off I went. I would have really liked to find someone else to run with, because time seemed to fly by when I did, but no such luck.

I forgot to add: at each end of the loop, where the aid station was, you passed by the finish line just ahead with the time elapsed so far since the start of the triathlon. So, by around the 5-7km mark, I realized that a sub-6h half-ironman was very much in my reach, if I kept at this pace for the next few kms. When I had 10km left, all I had to do was keep under 6:15/km and I could finish under 6h. When I had 3 loops left, I started struggling. I was no longer looking up and mainly looking at the asphalt right in front of me. By the 2nd to last loop, I felt like dying. When I finished that loop, I looked at the time and saw that all I had to do was keep under 6:10/km for the last 2 km and I could finish under 6h. I tried SO hard, but my body was collapsing. I could barely support my arms, my back and butt muscles were so tight, and my legs felt like lead.

When I crossed that line, I was 36 seconds too slow to beat my sub-6h mark. But, going into this race, my very first half-ironman, I was just hoping to 1) finish and 2) hopefully finish under 6h30m-7h00m. The fact that I did it in 6h00m36s was phenomenal to me.

And then... the hard part came (see "warm-down" description).

This was the hardest thing I've ever done. I had to dig SO deep for enough energy to continue past the 15-17th km mark. By that point, I felt like I was going fast but I was going relatively slowly. What kind of blew my mind was that I beat my half-marathon PR by more than 5 minutes. My prior record was 2:12:36, and that was just the run!

Nothing, I'm amazed I made it!

As I crossed the line, I started hyperventilating. I couldn't control my movements. My mom got all doctor on me, took my pulse (which she could barely feel) and told me to crouch down. I finally calmed down after a couple minutes, slowly walked over to transition, gathered my stuff and walked to the car.

Twenty metres from the car, I remember gasping: "I can't believe I just did that," in a combination of both laughter and tears. If I felt any strong emotion, I would start hyperventilating again, so I just tried to keep calm. We drove back to the hotel, and I drank 2 small boxes of chocolate soy milk. They let us use the pool facilities (we had only stayed for 1 night, so we no longer had a room) so I could get cleaned up and changed into clean clothes. By that point, I was shivering uncontrollably. I went pee and my pee was a really strong yellow colour. When we got back to the car and started driving home, I realized just how much stress I had put on my body.

First, I started speaking gibberish. I could barely lift my head, and my stomach was killing me. We had to stop many times so that I could go to the bathroom, because my gastrointestinal tract had completely shut down so that I could do that run. I was dehydrated but could barely drink water. I was in pain the whole 3.5 hour ride home, and for the next 4 hours at home. At first, I was really freaking out because of the diarrhea that was red in colour. I thought I had bled into my intestines, but my doctor/mother told me that it was just all the red gatorade I drank throughout the run and at the end of the bike ride, which they had provided for us. The first 7 hours after I was done the race were the toughest to get through. I thought I would just die. But, it's over!! And I'm now eating toast and grapes, and drinking water!


My inexperience on the bike, but, fuck it, I think I did great!!


62 people did the half-ironman. Not a lot. And this race is known for attracting very few first-timers. The fact that only 6 people finished past the 6 hour mark is a testament to just how hardcore all these athletes were. A total of 9 women did the race, and I was the very last of them!

In the end, I am really fucking proud of what I accomplished today. :)