Finished my first 1/2IM (sort of)

First, it's been well established that I was very under trained.

The bike was shortened to 55 miles due to road construction so it was not quite a true 1/2 IM

When I was out at the venue on Friday to pick up my race packet the lake was pancake flat. 7am on Saturday morning when the first wave of racers went off saw 2 foot swells. I'm a weirdo in this community in that the rougher the water, the more I enjoy the swim. I got out of the water in 37 minutes and was really happy with that time.

Next was the bike. I rode the new bike http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

And I don't think it was a mistake. I was as comfortable on the bull horns as I am on my cross bike. I spent more time on the bull horns then I would have liked, but that would have been the case if I put aero bars on my other bike and rode that. The bike was fairly uneventful. My biggest mistake was deviating from my nutrition plan. My plan for liquids was to have a really thick mix of perpetuem, water and endurolytes for electrolyte replenishment. While I like Gatorade, it doesn't agree with my stomach during hard exertions. I carried three bottles. The perpetuem on the bottle cage on the seat tube (the only mount on the frame) and two bottles of water in a profile carrier behind the seat. I went through the first aide stop and grabbed a bottle of water to top of mine. But the Gatorade looked really good. My plan was to have finished one and half bottles of water by the second aide, and I did that. Because of topping off at the first aide station, I had one full bottle of water and one empty by the second aide station. So I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade at the second aide station. Not a big deal, I just wanted a couple sips. But a few minutes later when I went to grab my full bottle of water, I found that it was gone. I should have turned around and gotten water from aide 2. It was hot, in the 80s by the end of the bike. But I kept going and just sipped the Gatorade and perpetuem until aide 3, but it wasn't enough water. The last 12 miles or so were into the wind and that wasn't fun.

I don't think I've done a single run or ride this year in temperatures above 70 degrees and the heat on race day really played a roll in my performance. I finished the bike in 3:30 which was right where I planned to be if I was to meet my 7 hour goal.

Next came the run. I had done the full run course 2 weeks before the race and had a really great run. As soon as you get off the bike you face a 200 foot climb, which doesn't seem much, but it is by far the biggest natural feature within 45 minutes drive of my house. The course is the climb, then 2 laps on trails then back down the hill to the finish. I ended up walking the climb. I even ended up walking the first four and a half miles. I got caught by one of my tri club buddies at the top of the hill and he was suffering as well. We ended up doing the whole run together. I suffered from a side stitch, and battled to keep from puking for the first 4 miles. If the guy from the club wasn't with me, I'm pretty sure I would have quit at about mile 3 when there is bailout to the top of the climb. At mile 4.5 we started running for a few minutes then walking for a few minutes and kept that going through the rest of the run. Mile 4.5 to mile 11.5 actually felt pretty good. On our second loop, the aide stations were abandoned and the pickings were slim. There was one station that had no water. Luckily we were both carrying bottles and made it to the next station before we ran out. Miles 11.5 to the finish hurt. We had to run down the hill, I picked up my daughter Izzy about 20 feet before the finish line and she ran with me and my tri club buddy over the finish line.

I finished 56 minutes over my goal time of 7 hours, the heat on top of lack of training really killed me.

I'm fairly positive I was DFL in the clydesdale class. I was in wave 3 of 11 and there were only 7 or 8 people left on the course when I finished. I got my times at the end, but they don't have the rankings up yet online to see where I actually fell.

Despite wanting to quit for the first 4 miles of the run, and having no idea why I even like doing this, I'm already planning on going back next year and making my goal time.



Edited by graceful_dave 2009-06-22 12:58 PM






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