Ironman 70.3 Racine : Official Thread (Page 14)

Early checkin folks:


Any swag bag goodies of note?

The swag bag itself is nice, tshirt a little cheap. Otherwise not really

HI All,

Not sure who made it to the swim (other than Rob), but the water temperature was as close to perfect as can be for Lake Michigan. Current was running north to south. Let's hope it stays this way until everyone is out of the water tomorrow.

Good luck to all!!!
Cyndi

Water was Perfect Today!!!

Good Luck Everyone

Rob (Bib 1404)
Wave 14, 7:48

I went again today and it was even good by me

So? How was everyone's race. That swim was something today. Took me a little longer that I'd have liked. Trying to sight when you're surrounded by a wall of water is a little tough.

The bike on the other hand was great. Heard someone complain about wind but I was like what wind.

Congrats to everyone on a great race!!

Bike and run were good swim sucked badly! The waves killed me to the point that I actually threw up right before I hit the final buoy to turn and then many times once I could stand up. The motion sickness got the better of me and then recovering was a tough walk up the beach and into T1. I have never actually gotten ill during a swim yikes! From the shore I'll tell ya, it did not look that bad out there but man was it. They pulled over 60 people from the swim!
After I stabilized on the bike it was an awesome rest of the day. Lots of zippy fast boys passing us old ladies but it was fun. The run was packed and awesome with the energy out there. For once it wasn't 900 degrees!
Again congrats to everyone!!!!!
Amy

Congratulations to everyone for the race today. That had to be the worst swim of my life. I"m typically a strong swimmer, though haven't been able to get the training in this year. That said, I never thought I'd seriously consider taking a break in the swim until today. Wow that sucked. Found out a couple of my friends puked during the swim. Sorry if any of you were behind them. I heard multiple people calling for rescue. Heard that many people called it a day at the finish of the swim.

Bike for me was a mixed bag. First 30 miles were great, then I hit a wall with muscles I've never felt before taking turns cramping. Best friend t-boned a guy at mile 3 and went endo. Other guy was all over the place, still likely dizzy from the swim. Took everything I had to continue past T2 with the leg cramps I was having. Really slow first loop and I finally found my legs on the second loop. Able to run up BOTH hills on the second loop!

I think I"m done with 70.3s for a while. Current job doesn't afford me the training time. I'm going to trim back to Sprint/Olys for a while until I can commit to a full at some point in the future.

I hope everyone made it out safe!

I had heard it was closer to 200 that bailed on the swim. Not sure where my friend got that number but it was rough.

I am not a fast swimmer but I plug away. Last week on practice when it was nice I did it in 37. Today was 48 and I took my time finding my legs in T1. Glad I did because I saw 2 guys bite it on their bikes before they even got up the hill.

I was very happy with my bike averaging 19.1 mph and felt great the whole way. Was a little unhappy about ho they had the 2nd aid station set up. Just wasn't the best spot for it.

Got off the bike and through T2 pretty smooth but struggled the first few miles of the run. A little too much Perform and cliff bars on the bike. Once my stomach calmed I felt great and ran with relative ease. I probably could have pace a bit faster. Finished at 6:02 which was about 30 minutes better than my goal and not bad for my first ever tri.

Several people in my transition area this morning got a laugh when they found out it was my first tri of any kind.

I agree the Swim was tough, but overall I'll take the choppy water over a 100 degree heat index like last year every time.

Swim, 38 minutes, 5 minutes slower than last year
Bike, 2:49, 15 minutes faster than last year
Run, 2:14, 52 minutes faster than last year (part training, but a lot of it was the weather-last year the heat crushed me).
Transitions faster too

5:49, Finished Strong and didn't have to go to the Med Tent like last year!
(I'll write my Race Report later.)

Now, I start training for the Lakefront Marathon!

Rob (Turner100)

Edited by Turner100 2013-07-21 7:06 PM

Nice race today Rob! Congrats! You have improved so much since last year and that is just awesome! I didn't know you are doing the lake front too! Is this your first marathon or have you done this one before? We did it last year and loved it! The point to point is so nice.
It was great to see you yesterday and sorry I didn't see you today. October for sure!

Hi Amy, sorry to hear about the swim, but I'm glad that the rest of you're race went well!!!

I ran Lakefront in 1994-which seems like a lifetime ago. I'm going to take a few days off, and really start working on my running.

Good Seeing you yesterday

Hi Guys:

What a great race today (minus the swim!) I've been lurking around this thread for a while, and Cyndi helped me out big time with some directions and local area stuff, you guys are great!

I thought that the race was pretty awesome. Well run, organized, and the volunteers were fantastic.

My day went well (again, minus the swim). LIke someone else said, it looked not so bad from the shore, but the waves were totally out of control the entire way! This was my first 70.3 and I'm not a strong swimmer, so it was a bit scary.

I finished in a total time of 5:31.
Swim: 45:29
Bike: 2:46
Run: 1:52

I was happy with the bike, a bit disapointed with the run. I seriously slowed the second loop, but I thought it was beautiful scenery with the lake, and it was cool to have it be a double out and back so there were lots of folks on the course which is always fun.

Great job everyone, and thanks again for all the useful information! I'll probably be back next year, as more of a veteran

Amy
bib 727

Perfect weather, comfortable water and great air temps.

What a great day for a race, considering last year was my first half. Finished almost an hour faster this year. That swim....oh boy. That's what us Midwesterners get. Unless you regularliy swim in Lake Michigan, we are just not used to that kind of chop. Never felt unsafe, but I "drank" quite a bit of water and never got a good rhythm going. Full race report coming....

2012 - 7:13:xx
2013 - 6:15:16

Hey Cartman nice to see you again. What a nice improvement from last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should be so proud!! Wish I had seen you out there but glad you came back! Racine sort of sucks you in with the course and awesome volunteers and residence
I think there were many of that helped lower the water volume in LM!!!!!!!
Amy

Wow, what an amazing experience was had yesterday! My first HIM and I felt great. Finished in 6:18. 18 minutes after my goal, but still surprised myself nonetheless. The City of Racine and its residents were absolutely wonderful and soo supportive of everyone. I will definitely do this race again.

Bib #778
Jessica

I never gave my bib number for this year. Not trying to be secretive, just forgot. Bib 1231. Seriously, if the recent weather would have held through to the race, I would have contemplated dropping out. I made a mess of things last year.

Wow! That swim!!!!

All-in-all it was a super-great race! It was my first 70.3 and I had a blast the whole time. Held back a bit on the bike and especially on the run to limit the recovery time so I don't miss too much IMMOO training this week. Was able to test out my nutrition strategy and it appeared to be spot-on with the exception of not taking in enough water. I'll fix that.

Had a bit of an issue on Saturday. Racked my bike after a good test-ride and walked out of transition towards the car. Decided I'd better go let some air out of the tires so they don't go POP and as I was doing so I noticed a gash in a tire. It hadn't gone flat but I knew with the rough roads, I was asking for trouble. Hopped on the bike and headed to the expo and bought a new tire from the Trek Store (thank you $20 off coupon!!). Ended up letting them install it and they also gave my bike a good once-over and tightened a few things. I'm glad I did that. My confidence for IMMOO is at an all-time high and I'm looking forward to the upcoming training weeks!

I'll second what everyone else said with that swim being brutal. Ouch. Luckily I didn't get sick but those waves were something else. I also didn't notice much wind on the bike. At mile 40 I looked ahead just in time to see a guy to over his handlebars and hit he pavement head first pretty hard. There were 3 of us behind him and the girl in front of me stopped to check on him, so I told him I'd hurry to the next intersection (.25 miles up the road) and tell the cop to send help right away. He did say "Thank you very much" in a calm voice as he was face down on the pavement. His bike looked OK so I'm hoping he was able to continue. That was a little unnerving.

The breeze and temps were a life saver on the run. Was able to run the whole time minus that aid stations. Finally I was able to run those damn hills. A little slower than I would have liked but still a great day. I will say the roads were much rougher than I remembered them being.

:42 swim
2:42 bike
1:46 run
5:18 total

Well this was my first HIM and actually only 2nd triathlon of any distance. I did a sprint at the beginning of June. More of a running background.
In hindsight I have to say I probably should have never started (or registered) I was very ill prepared for the swim, in fact I believe I may probably hold the record for the longest swim leg. 1:41:31. Before I reached the first buoy I was ready to get out but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I turned it into 16 individual swims from buoy to buoy. I saw a lot of people getting taken from the water and the only way I was going to let that be me is if by body shut down. I got a cramp in my right calf but managed to stretch it out twice while holding onto a kayak. Oddly enough I think running up that beach was the worst part....that sand was brutal. Being so late out of the water they had already picked up the pools with water so I couldn't clean my feet off. The strippers were still there but I took my own wetsuit off. A I was pulling out of T1 on my bike (why do people say its sometimes hard to find your bike in transition? I had no problem finding mine....maybe because there were only a few in there :>)the mens leader was just coming in....only 56 miles behind! It was lonely on the bike course. I did manage to catch and pass a few people but that swim took so much out of me I didn't have much energy and by the time I got to the aid stations the drinks were warm. As I finished my ride I saw my wife and kids as I was going down the hill. Just what I needed to get me thought the next 13 miles. By the time I started "running" I couldn't wait for the day to be over but oh what I feeling to cross the line. My last two marathons I was either injured before or during the race and to finish with nothing more than a sore neck and calf I feel very lucky. Can't say enough about the volunteers, citizens of Racine and the various police agencies on the course, they were all great and I tried to make a point of thanking them as I went by. Without the volunteers it would have been even more miserable. So that being said it was one hell of a day. Next time I'll be better prepared,.

That was one hell of an experience yesterday... Definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. For my first true open water swim (been training in a deep water quarry pool in the Chicago suburbs, not quite the same) it wasn't as near as difficult/intimidating as I thought it would be. Standing on the beach and looking out at the waves had me pretty worried at first, but once I got out there it was just stroke, stroke, breath, repeat. Hell, riding the waves almost counted as fun. Though it did make for some difficult sighting.

The bike ride was by far my favorite part. Having ridden more than a couple centuries, I'm used to long rides, but it was fun to be able to blow through the rest stops without having to stop and lose momentum. Plus it's fun tossing the bottles at the nets they set up. And it's always fun passing people on tri bikes that cost 3-5x as much as my roadie.

But all my youthful exuberance took a big smash of humility to the face when I hopped off the bike to run. I could feel my legs cramping up the last few miles on the bike, and I probably had a gel a little too late in the ride for my stomach to handle it. My first lap was alright, though I walked more of it than I would have liked. Coming through the turn, I could see a 6:00 total time in reach if I could just bang out a second lap around 9:00 min/mile pace. For the first mile or two I was on target, but then my legs and back gave out on me from the bike ride and I probably walked 2/3rds of the second lap. The only bright spot was that I was able to put on one last big push from the top of the last hill all the way through the chute and finish strong, though my 2:38 run time was abysmal. In the end, I missed a 6:30:00 by less than a minute...

Next time I'll save something on the bike so that I don't die in the run. And I probably need to have a nutrition strategy in place besides drink and eat when you feel like it on the bike. Plus more bricks in practice too. Now I have to debate with myself about buying a tri bike and working to take some stress off of my legs/back in the ride.

Brandon
44:19 2:58:50 2:38:12 6:30:46

My race was terrible.... and yet, I loved every minute of it. Let me explain.

I love triathlon. I love everything about it. The training, the planning, the swimming, the biking, the running, the community, the lifestyle, the way it makes me, feel and most important thing - the way it makes me want to improve and do better!

I blew my plan completely during the race on Sunday. While my full race report will be more thorough, here is what I can summarize....

Swim - brutal. Toughest swim I have done, and yet I was almost laughing during it because I kept thinking to myself "You're doing it - sure beats not doing it". By the end, to avoid dizziness, I needed to swim a modified stroke to stabilize myself in the water. This led to a 7 minutes above my goal of 38 minute swim.

Bike - Blast! However, I was having too much fun and feeling great on the bike, that I completely failed my nutrition plan. The short of it is that I took in only a total of 320 calories from the start of the race through the bike. (insert the comments of calling me a moron.....NOW.) Off the bike in 2:49.

Run - Felt great at the start. Ran up both the hills and then BOOM!, something zapped me. I lost all ability to perform. Muscles were not responding. My run became a trot, which became a shuffle, which by mile 3 became.... yeah, I'm going to end up walking a lot of this. So the goal changed. Now it was to finish. AND, to take some pride in the fact that I was going to embrace the suck and suffer through it to finish... which I did.

So, was Racine a failure? Failure in that I failed to meet the prime objective. However, a success in the ability to adjust, adapt, and overcome the desire to quit. I have another 70.3 in 38 days. I will be ready and I will remember to consume some calories on the bike.

To all in this group who have provided info, support, suggestions, inspiration, and motivation - even if you didn't know you were doing so - I thank you, and look forward to Racine 2014.

Regards.

Been reading all the race reports. Great job everyone!!

Great job everyone! Lots of good times and improvements.

Pre Race:
Typical, up every hour on the hour. One time, I wake up and the thought that I missed the race completely went thru my head - . Another time , I thought I was missing something, not knowing exactly what tho. Then I wake up at 3AM and cannot fall back to sleep. Plug in ear buds for some itunes and listened to music for an hour. Get up and make coffee and oatmeal at 4AM. Ate oatmeal with 2 eggs. Coffee. Lots of water. Weigh in at 150.7 (buddy's scale)

Get a ride to the bike-in from the friends that I stay with. My bike is already in transition from day before. Notice I forgot my carb-load juice (Cyto-carb). Meh. Done things without it. Grab a swig of G2 Performance.

Bike Trans/Setup:
Cannot organize my chit under bike. Kept going back and fourth where to put things. Helmet, gloves, sunglasses on bike somewhere so I can just grab bike and go later - get everything on when I get on the bike and riding outside T1 (this screws me later). Bike shoes right below bike. Run shoes, spry belt, sport beans, gu, visor and race # on other side. Put a kiwi, a Gu, some sugar packs and a macadamia cliff bar in my bike bag. Put two G2 perf filled water bottles on bike. Pump up tires. Head to Swim (1.2 miles away up the beach) with wetsuit, pink cap and goggles, leftover G2 and banana.

Pre Swim:
Just sit down. Some people I know say hello and we exchange good lucks. Tom, from run club, comes up and he gives me some advise and says this is his first year not participating in Racine HIM. He's been doing this for years and is living vicariously thru me . The waves are hyooog! Just getting off the beach took effort for the pros who went first. He tells me to get out in the water and take a test swim. Glad he did. Calmed me down a bit. Swam out about 100m, and back. I could still stand up 100m out with head outta water. Cooling feeling. wasn't easy getting back. back on beach, ate the banana, went pee, and had rest of G2. Water about 67 degr. Comfy imo.

Swim (0:55:12) (Goal 48:00):
What a mess. I get moved to the wave ahead (13 instead of 14) because of a screwup. I should have had a yellow cap (40-44 First letter in last name A-H) instead of pink 40-44 I-Z). My age group split into two groups. I'm an "H" and they tell me to go ahead. Meh. Only, when I cross the Swim mat that marks you, there is no "beep", and dood behind the machine says Im not registering. They "reset" it. and it registers me. But I ask, "is everyone else in this wave still registered"? Turns out it cleared em all out. So the announcer has everyone walk back over the swim mat. LOL.

Gun goes off in not even 30 seconds from that fiasco. Im in the middle of the pack. waves seem like they are pulling me out just as much as they are pushing me back into the beach. Tough to get a rhythm down. But I soon see the red buoy to turn 90 degr. right (about 150m out from beach). Take a turn and see people hanging onto it for dear life. 8-10 for all I know. One guy asking someone to bring him in, saying "F DAT CHIT". I stop around the corner, out of peoples way, to get a sight that I can reference to swim toward. Waves so large I lose sight of everything. Take off goggles to get better look. Finally get a sight of a red crane arm leading the way. It was the only thing I could always see btw wave crests. OK, off I go. By the first buoy, I need a break. The current was helping push me from beind, but they were also bringing me toward shore. See another guy at buoy #2 asking to get the heck outta the water. I try to calm him down to no avail. Swim to next buoy (there are 17 in all).

I had the breathing down pretty well, taking a breath each right arm stroke, but it was a slow go. Started to get a feeling of "sea sickness" most likely from the uuuuuupppp and doooooowwwwn waves. 4'-6' people wre saying. A canoe angel was in my line so I swim up to and grab onto his canoe's front. Have a short talk with him as I breath pretty heavy. Thinking "I got 14 more of these to do, no way". Then I remember Barb saying to me (she knows I panic in swim) "Just put your head down and go - TORPEEEDOOO". And I do.

The rest of the way was getting from buoy to buoy. Then, the final 90 degr right turn, toward beach, waves were pushing me in, until we got to shallow, where everyone starts not swimming (you could stand up and the water was just above the knees). Swimming was no longer working so I stand and walk in. Never felt so much relief in my life to be out of the water. F' dat fo sho. Bike is about 500m away. Ironman gives us a blue mat to run/walk on instead of sand. Lots of people surrounding it, don't see any of my friends. Still a long way to get into T1. Happy to be outta water. VERY discombbulated.

T1 (7:33):
WOW!, didn't think i took that long. From beach to bike area was looong! Prolly .25 miles. Ran into my masters swim class buddy who volunteered to rip off wetsuits. Nice to see a friendly face. So I started to come out of the swim-sickness feeling. He and I did the Pl Prairie Oly together this year (training). Got to bike and started to eat an orange and chatted with neighbor - both of us were complaining about the swim. Got my bike shoes on and off I went. My rack was the furthest rack from the point where I could mount on the bike. I reach that spot and jump on bike. Then someone pulls on me to get off my bike to "put on my helmet before I left trans 1". UGH!. So I pull to the side, put on helmet, put on gloves, put on glasses (2x, the first time my helmet didn't go over them - UGHH!). Jump on bike and I notice I forgot to put in a low gear, and guess what, an uphill battle for about 200 feet. UGHHH! See some running club friends and they are shouting at me to "get going, go go go Troy". LOL, hyooog smile on my face.

Bike (2:50:33) (Goal 2:45-2:55)
Felt a little "goofy" from the swim for a good 2 miles. Like I was still on a boat with big waves. I knew at mile 19 there was a friend waiting. Another one at mile 45 at the warning tent (I didn't get one ), she got the bike picture of me. I was in familiar territory in the first 19 miles, fter that I had no idea where I was. I was cathcing up to the F25-29 and F30-34 waves (noticing the ages on back of their legs). Lots of "passing left" comming out of my mouth, but with a smile on my face iykwim. Kept me sane thats for sure. Every now and again, when I remembered to, I'd say "good job, keep going" to some of them. I was expecting friend at mile 19, but I knew she had to be somewhere by 9:30, and I was already 15 minutes late from the transition and swim. I didn't get to see her. First half was more downhill than I thought, notice that I was plugging along at about 21 mph, 1mph faster than I expect but within a range that I could survive. Picking up water whenever I could to drink and splash over my head. Half bananas going down easy during the entire ride. Trying to remember to eat cliff bar/gu/G2 perf every hour for about 300 cals per hour. I ended up stopping at the bathroom at a water station at about mile 45. I just couldn't bring myself to pee in my suit. I notice that I am able to get off and back on bike fairly quick. I thought my back would have been "tired/stiff", not at all. But I did notice that my groin and butt were killing me. Lots of bumpy roads, only to get worse as you get back into the city limits of Racine. Meh, there's a bag of peas in the freezer at home. Approaching transition is the 100 yd downhill and it was tough to stop. Unclip feet and hang my legs off the side shaking them to break up any acids that built up on the bike to get me prepped to run. Friends trying to get quick pix but they weren't fast enough. I got confused and almost stopped to pose, but then they told me to GO GO GO. LOL...

T2 (3:55):
Running with the bike thru what seemed forever thru transition. Again, I am racked furthest away from bike start/end. and the lanes were tight. I get stopped a few times. Lots of "Sorry's". Meh, in no hurry. Get to my rack, the bike next to mine is in my space. I try and move it and it drops on the ground. SRSLY!. Put mine in and pick up his bike and rack it. Then my bike falls out. Luckilly mine was against the divider poles so I leave it. It is propped up good and wont move. Helmet off and throw on seat - it falls off, kicking off shoes, forgot a change of socks. Cannot get bike gloves off. Fidgit with the gloves for a minute. Grab race belt with number, eat kiwi, take some swigs of G2 and off I go toward the run-out. Run-out is near and I get out fairly quick. Notice quads are both burning. Uh oh, did I push to hard on bike hills? 20 MPH was goal, almost 20 3/4 avg. Thought about calling coach Egg, but knew I couldn't. Ignore burn as much as I can.

Run (1:50:08) (Goal 1:45)
It is a double out and back, so split into just over 3 mile legs. Support for me everywhere at the beginning. Friends from run club right at the start, family and friends on hill a half mile ahead. Notice my quads are getting tighter and I approach the first hill from beach area to the route. I decide to walk up it for about 150 feet then start in on the run. At the top of the hill my family and friends are a huge crowd. Big cheers, so I start off kinda fast pace (740s the first three miles) with the burst of their cheers. They see I am feeling good. People running next to me notice I have a lot of support and say something to me ("Boy you have a lot of support"). I tell them to use it as much as they want. One of them, I notice, stays pretty close most the race. Hit the first 3 mile mark in 23 minutes (a bit too fast there), so decide to hit the water stop and fill up shirt with ice and take sponges and cool down. Eat an orange and 1/2 banana. Was going to try the cola, but never did that before. I wondered why I didn't see more of my other buds doing the HIM on the run yet. I rub and punch my quads and they start to feel better. Back toward the finish/turnaround I run into a run club gal. She's on her last lap of run and is 1/2 mile away from finish. I say "hey", and she says back "pull me in before I puke". I tell her "then lets go". She's a multiple IM and very strong, obv, because she then blows ahead. so much for my help!
I saw family and friends one more time before the turnaround and hill. Comming back around, I decide to walk up hill again. Then run again and there is my family one more time till the finish gate. Started to feel that "marathon-like tiredness, humidity tiredness". Then I hear someone say "Dig deep". Not to me, but it helps a little. Cannot remember much but the heat, so just tried to stay hydrated. No more eating as my stomach feels a little bit tight. About half way out they are letting cars for locals go thru. A lady in a black excursion pulls out in front of a few of us. I am now in the left lane of run traffic and people running toward me, and there is a frikin black buss with a big black woman in the driver seat giving ME a look of "WTF you doing boy"? I pick up the pace and get in front of her, then slow down. If she beeps my fist is going in the hood. Lucky imo. Gives me another jolt of energy. Laugh it off in a few blocks when she's gone. At turn around walk thru H2O station again, grab a few oranges and down them for the last 5K. Half mile to go I see a run club buddy. I am walking up a hill out the zoo exit and he's holding up camera. Well, I cannot be seen walking so it gives me that last push. run till the end I say. It is pix # 3 above - there was a team of three people in front of me were holding me back. i couldn't pass them in the run path and spectators . Meh. Big smile and finish is near I think to myself. In the finish gate lots of people cheering, I see my familiy and friends all in a line ahead holding out for a high five. I don't feel the need to pick up the pace to finish strong, I am finishing either way. High fives all around then my name announces. Cross finish line and felt like an asthma attack was comming on, but another buddy (the one who ripped of wetsuit) at the finish line with a water for me. That cooled me down. Start to really feel quads burning so off to the food and ice tent.


5:47:21 T - VERY VERY happy with that!
Post race weight 145.7#s


Edited by t-royboy 2013-07-25 12:47 PM