tri808's Spring Pot Luck (CLOSED) (Page 44)

Forums

Forum guidelines BT super discount

Updated posts

My threads
No new posts

My favorite threads

BT Development

Mentor Program Archives » tri808's Spring Pot Luck (CLOSED)

Rss Feed

Moderators: alicefoeller

of 45

Hawaiimike

2011-04-04 7:02 PM

in reply to: #3256440

Member

Waikoloa

Subject: RE: tri808's Spring Pot Luck (CLOSED)

Lavaman Waikoloa Race Report

This was my first full Olympic Distance Tri, and I wasn't really sure what to expect from my body. I had only one workout ever when I did all three events back to back (at shorter distances mind you), and that was last weekend. Add to that the fact that the swim was my 15th time in the water to swim distance. I had waited until the last 2 months to start swimming, knowing I would suck at it. The cool thing about swimming is that when you are starting off you get better just about every single time. It doesn't take long to improve dramatically. My first swim ever I was dying, stopping every minute, exhausted. I'm still not a "swimmer" but for the race I was able to swim the entire .9 miles without stopping. 2 months ago, I did not think that was within the realm of possibility.

I didn't get as much sleep the night before as I had hoped for. I wasn't nervous, just ready to start, excited. It was all positive energy. Positive energy can keep you awake for a long time. Fell asleep after 12:30, planned for 10:30. Alarm was set for 4:30. Woke up at 4:15. You get the idea. Good thing my nutrition has caffeine! Woke up, gather my already organized stuff, had a cup of coffee, loaded up the car and drove to Waikoloa from Kona.

Time to park, waiting in line when I saw funny moment number one. Now to set this up, know that there is a very large group of triathletes (like 300) on a team called Team In Training, we call them , but they prefer TNT. They come from all over the country. Bless their hearts, they are out there doing it, and they are pretty positive. They may train a lot less than others, and I'm pretty sure that more than just a few of them bite off WAY more than they can chew with this stuff. But like I said, they are off the couch and on the course, so hats off to them. Hell, I'm a novice too. AND they have to raise a lot of money to earn their spot on their team. For this race alone they raised $2.8M for cancer. Amazing. So anyways, you may gather that some are not in the best of shape. Well, the funny moment was driving into the parking lot and seeing one of the athletes riding his bike in. He was a very big man…nothing wrong with that….he’s doing a triathlon, so maybe this is the first step in the process, and I applaud him for that. But he’s like 300 pounds, and He is wearing an Aero-helmet! That’s what you see Lance Armstrong using, ONLY when HE is doing a time trial, because it will shave off 12 seconds. It was just kind of weird. Seriously, of the 1200 athletes there were like maybe 20 people who are good enough for the aero helmet to make a real difference (12 seconds). Oh well, good luck to him! Funny sight though.

The swim went well. My best pace yet at 1:53 per 100 yards. I seeded myself at the back of my group and I didn’t get beat up much at all by other peoples elbows. My time was 31:08 for 9/10 of a mile. I did not know that at the time though and was racing the rest of the day under the estimation that it had taken me about 40 minutes.

The bike went as well as I could have ever hoped for. None of the famous wind Waikoloa is known for. Took it easy on the first half, picked it up on the second half. Had a time of 1:18:37 for the 40k bike ride, and average of 18.97 miles per hour. I was VERY happy with that. I had 2 water bottles for the bike and the first one was gone well before the half way point. Because of that I altered from my plan and got more water at the halfway point aid station. This turned out to be a mistake. I drank most of that bottle, and then my second bottle (my bottles have carbs, caffeine, aminos, lactic acid buffer, salt, phosphate, etc.). finished my bike feeling great!

Started my run and things went to crap in a hurry. Less than 40 yards into the 6.2 mile run I realized that I had drank way too much. Stomach was bloated and I couldn’t take full breaths. IT SUCKED. Then, my Garmin gave me a low battery warning, and I was not able to get that warning off the screen. So now, I lost the ability to know my heart rate, pace, time, etc. I knew I was feeling bad, but without that information I would not KNOW how bad I was doing. Decided to just keep running and see what happens. I thought about making myself puke just to get all that damn water out of my gut, but realized that one, I would lose my nutrition, and two my eyes water like crazy when I throw up, making me look like an over-crying, sobbing mess. Seriously, tears streaming down my face pouring off of my chin. Deciding to be as graceful as possible in my first tri, I opted to not puke and just deal with the discomfort.

Funny moment number 2. About a mile in, the girl in front of me saw her friends driving by who were supporting her. They were giving her over-the-top-crazy-love support, the kind you want. One of her endowed girlfriends decides to run along side this girl. The supporting well endowed girl was taking long leaping strides, arms up in the air, in her loose fitting tank top. Needless to say, me and the 2 guys behind me were not looking at the course, but instead looking to the right. The three of us were treated to a boob. Let me tell you, a boob is a great thing to see on the run portion of a triathlon. Ladies, if your guy is running a tri and you are supporting him, show him a boob on the run. Men if your woman is running a tri...I don't know what you need to do...maybe throw rose petals on the path in front of her....but do something! That along with my Garmin working again lifted my spirits greatly!

I still had stomach issues on the rest of the run. I literally only drank maybe 2 ounces on the whole run, just to rinse down the energy gel. Now with my Garmin working I could see how long I had been biking and running. I thought there was a VERY outside chance of making my top goal of 3 hours for the race, but again I did not know how long the swim took. I picked up my pace for the last 2 miles, feeling a little better, and knowing the end was in sight. I got very lucky and ended up finishing the race in 2 hours 52 minutes and 33 seconds! Totally thrilled. The difference was that my swim went 9 minutes faster than I had thought. I did my run in 56:02 which was a 9:01 per mile pace, I had planned on a 9:30 pace so that went well too. I finished 36th out of 65 in my age group which was a little better than I had expected. Most importantly, I had a great experience.

Now, I have 61 days left until my first half Ironman. Swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles. I’m taking Monday off!

tri808's Spring Pot Luck (CLOSED) (Page 44)

REGISTER TODAY