The swim went off in waves of about 50 people. There was some minor contact, but all accidental. I tend to sprint to hard and pay for it later, so I kept telling myself to swim at my own pace. I think it really paid off later, because I ended up passing a few people at the end of the swim. I did notice people all over the place taking different routes to the turn around buoy. I tried taking the most direct route which helped me catch some faster swimmers. On the swim back in, you are looking directly into the sun! I kept watching a few swimmers in front of me and hoped they knew where they were going, because I couldn't see a thing! It ended up working out.

Nothing

I took a little extra time to reapply sunscreen, which was worth the 20 seconds. If I was doing a shorter distance, I probably would have skipped it. I was thinking about doing the shoes already clipped on the bike thing, but hadn't practiced enough, so I passed.

Practice

The course is out and back on country roads. I heard there was a portion on "chip seal" which I was a little worried about, but it wasn't a problem. There were volunteers at all the intersections, and they did a great job with traffic. I live in Chicago, and loved riding on these country roads. I usually can't go more then a half-mile without having to stop at a light. There was only about 3 hills that were really tough and I'm sure the better cyclists didn't have a problem with any of them. Being a strong swimmer (and not such a strong biker) was a little discouraging with all the good bikers flying by me, but overall it was a great ride. I saw Christina twice along the ride which was really cool.

Do some hill work. It's really difficult to train for hills in Chicago, but I will try to figure something out.

My hamstrings were really tight at this point which made running with my bike really difficult.

Since the transition is so long, I wish I would have trained taking my shoes off while on the bike.

This is what I was worried about all week! I hadn't run at all in 5 weeks and here I was about to do a half marathon! I decided to run with a very short stride, to keep pressure off my IT Band. Also,knowing I wouldn't be able to run the entire time, I planned to walk for one minute after each mile, and slow down at every aid station. I set out and got into a really good rhythm. It was really hot at this point, but the run is along a tree lined street, which provides some shade. There were also people out with their hoses, which was really nice! When I got to mile one, I was feeling good but still walked for my scheduled minute. I kept this pattern up and it really helped. I usually make all these deals with myself about how long I will run, before stopping, but having a plan really kept me focused. The aid stations were perfectly situated. They also had everything you could want (water,ice, gatorade, gels, oranges, and pretzels) and some really great volunteers! At mile 10 things started hurting. My knee was hurting, but so was everything else, so I wasn't to worried about that. But, that was also the first time the entire bike/run that I looked at my overall time. I originally just wanted to break 6 hours, but when I hurt my knee I figured that wouldn't happen. So when I looked down at my watch and saw 5:08 with 3 miles to go I was psyched! I knew I had 6 hours. Although mentally I had a great boost, physically I just couldn't keep up. My feet, hamstrings, hips, everything was tight and hurting. I had to break my routine. I started with the compromises at this point. I will "run" to that bridge, then walk for a minute. I kept this up until I could hear the announcer yelling people's names. I knew I was close and wouldn't let myself compromise any longer. I kicked up a gear and tried to finish strong. I'm sure I went from a 11 min. mile pace to a 10 min. pace but it felt hard and I crossed the finish line with a smile! I broke 6 hours!

My biggest problem was hurting my knee and throwing off my training schedule. I'm hoping to add some strength training to my schedule to avoid problems like this in the future.

I jumped in the lake and swam around for about ten minutes. It felt really good to take pressure off all my joints and muscles. I got some fluids in me and headed back to the transition area. Just walking there was difficult! I had my foam roller in Christina's car which really helped my knee!


Knee problems, which affected my training.


The race had a few small problems but overall it was really well run and everyone was really helpful. I would recommend this race to all levels of athletes. They also gave all the half ironman finishers a running hat, which I thought was really cool!