This race has a beach start, the water was too shallow for me to even dolphin dive so I high kneed it a bit. I could not believe how clear and crisp Lake Michigan was. This was the most beautiful body of water I have stuck my face in! I joked with my husband, judging by my swim time perhaps I enjoyed the crystal clear water too much and took my time! I wore a sleeveless wetsuit and the temp was perfecto! This was my first real HIM (Ponocons 70.3 last year had a canceled swim and shortened bike d/t massive flooding), knowing I had a long day ahead of me I wanted to enjoy the swim. Hey, I might never get to swim in that glorious Lake again.

Take more water to the swim start, it was already getting hot and there was no shade.

Navigate starting and finishing in the shallow water better. I did not realize there was such a long stretch of shallow water at the swim finish. It was too shallow to swim (you would scrape the sand) and walking/running seems like it was expending a lot of energy.

The run in the wet sand seems worse than the asphalt part to me. I ran through the kiddie pools but still had acclumated a ton of sand on my feel. I squirted my feel with a water bottle in T1 and shoved them in my cycling shoes - this helped a ton. I took off my own wet suit, so when I ran by the sunscreen appliers they only got my arms b/c my wetsuit was pulled down to my waist. More on this being a mistake later...

Take the time to re-apply my own water/sweatproof suncreen.

I had a problem with the 2nd and 3rd water stations. I decided to take a sec to pull over to get new bottles, I was not able to drink properly out of the disposable water bottles and was getting too much air in my stomach - I thought it would be best to refill my own bottle. Anyways, both times I respected the water stop etiquette (eye contact and verbally told them my plan of pulling over to get refills) and I was standing on the side of the road while the (very young) volunteers were not paying attention to what was going on. I did not want to be rude or yell but the time was ticking and I wanted to move on. Finally adults realized what was going on and ran A bottle over to me - both times I left with 1 bottle, it was freaking hot out.

I should have been firm and not left without what I needed. I really took in the bare minimum of fluids on the bike.

Also, I was not able to eat as much on the bike as I had in training, I should perhaps have a plan B for getting in cal's.

I am happy with this time, considering the 'tea party' I had in T2. I reapplied body glide to my feet (man am I glad I did this b/c I had soaked feet a few miles into the half mary and ended the race with out trench foot, score!), put on socks, hit up the sunscreen appliers again and grabbed by hat and gels.

I am a pasty white redhead, it was like 97* on the run with tons of direct sunlight - one would think that I would have cared more about sunscreen. It did not even cross my mind that I was cooking my skin out there. My biggest mistake was not re-applying my own sweat-proof sunscreen to all exposed areas.

Wow it was hot one. The aid stations were well stocked (loved the ice water, sponges and oranges!) and wonderful volunteers (always getting the runners what they needed with a smile and encouraging words) made this race. I had a goal of 10 mm for the run. I had legs right out of T2, great I thought, but then my Timex GPS watch refused to capture. I was glad I was able to quickly move on and did not let that mentally rock me. I then made the decision to run by feel and this was the single most important factor that contributed to me not DNF'ing. I stayed mentally strong by telling myself I did not travel 900 miles to walk this and also forcing myself to run (even if it was a snails pace) to each aid station then walk to hydrate and put ice under my hat. Mile 11 to finish were not pretty - it required cursing, dry heaves and bruit force.

We have no control over the heat, we do have control over staying positive ( I never went to the dark place) and readjusting our goals to finish the race.

I accomplished this and since Racine was my first HIM, I would call this a success:)

Unfortunately, NurseHeather became a patient. I ended up in medical with heat exhaustion. My horrible sunburn could have also contributed to my condition. The nurses and doc's were kind and provided wonderful care. I had very low bp and could not stop retching but after they cooled me down and pumped me up with a few Liters of NSS I was ready to roll. Might have even talked my nurse into a triathlon after I perked up. I heard the Husband say to the PA, I think she is feeling better now, she is recruiting...


Heat.


If you can hang with the excessive heat, this is a wonderfully run race and I would recommend it. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions about the race.