The Saturday before the race Jessie and I traveled down to Cambridge, Maryland to test out a course we would be racing later in the year. Thanks to some coordination by my co-worker, Chuck, we were able to get all set up and ride and run directly after. I put in a hard effort on both sports and came away pretty confident that I would do well on the course. The following day, Jessie and I did some hard brick intervals near Hains Point. My run splits off the bike came away faster than ever as I prepared to head into my taper week.
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| Halfway through tapering and realizing it is going to be a rough week. |
Monday came by fine but by the night things started going in the wrong direction. A fever hit and my body started going into survival mode. Fatigue, headaches, nausea, sweats, and feeling cold carried me through the week. My taper week turned from easy workouts to questioning whether it was safe to workout. Wednesday came and I participated in a bike event for work. It was a simple 10 mile crit style of race against other people in my industry. I was able to stay with the front group for about the first two miles and then my sickness overwhelmed me and I had to struggle through the rest of the ride solo.
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| My race location stay. Such a rough life on the lake. |
Heading to the race location on Friday I knew I could not go all out like I had previously wanted. The half-ironman distance is not a distance you can fake; it isn't like a sprint or olympic distance where you can muster your way through the parts even if you aren't prepared. I told myself to play this thing smart or it was going to be a long day. I got in a swim in the lake and a loose run and felt pretty good.
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| Starting the year off with a wonderful pre-race selfie. |
Race morning came and we got to the race site around 5:45 for a 7:00 start. I got everything put together and then tried to stay calm as best I could. With about 20 minutes to go I headed down to the swim start and tested out swimming in a wetsuit for the first time this year. The water was a nice temperature and it looked like it would go okay. My overall plan was to keep it casual on the swim and bike and then empty it on the run.
The gun went off and I had a pretty decent start position. I stayed to the inside and stayed with my plan of not doing anything stupid. I got alongside another swimmer for the first 100 yards but decided I didn't want to have this ongoing position battle so I gave a quick surge to get in front. I got myself a nice draft for the first 800 yards out and stayed right on some feet. As we neared the first turn buoy there was three of us that were going to reach the corner at the same time and I was sandwiched in the middle. Had I been healthy and more aggressive I would have pushed and tried to beat them to the corner, but instead of got on their feet and rounded the corner in space. The took the next segment wide as I made a straight line for the next buoy and swam completely clear of everybody else.
As I took the second turn I found another pair of feet to hop on so I got on those. My wetsuit started rubbing on my neck so anytime the beach wanted to show up would be nice. A few of the guys from wave two were coming past us but I made no effort to go with them. I finally made it to the beach feeling completely fresh and looked up to see my swim split of 32:05. I was pleased with the time knowing I was not too far off what I need to be doing at peak time.
I ran past a few athletes to transition and got my wetsuit off. My spot was a pretty smooth location through transition so I swapped my goggles for my sunglasses and was quickly on to the bike with the 7th fastest T1 of the day. The bike was an uphill climb that I didn't think of before the race so having my shoes already on the bike made me nearly fall as I hopped on the bike and up the hill. It took me a little bit to get the shoes on but after about a half mile we were good to go.
The bike had to be easy. There was nothing else to say. If I pushed just a little too much I would feel it in my lungs and legs and my day would be done before I get back off the bike. I wore my watch which I previously had wished not to wear. This turned out to be a great decision. My cadence was fast as I made my way out of the park and onto the road. It took me nearly four miles to realize I was still spinning in my little ring; no wonder why I had such a nice cadence.
The bike course was a full loop around the lake. There wasn't any out and back portion where you could see the riders ahead and behind you. For the first 10 miles I saw a few riders as they took off the front but I let them go remembering I had a run to do. From about mile 10 to mile 30, I saw nobody. I continually questioned whether I was still on the course or how I was doing in the race.
The first bottle feed on the bike came around mile 17 and I was happy to see them. I pointed to the first volunteer but watched in horror as she held out the bottle and didn't run alongside with me (if the volunteer runs along side it helps the relative speed of the rider to the bottle decrease so it is easier to grab instead of from a complete stop). Sure enough the first bottle smashed into my hand and straight to the ground. The second volunteer I have a quick shout up to start running and I was able to grab the bottom of the bottle before it fell to the ground. I noticed a little while later my thumb was bleeding from the first bottle which made me so excited for the rest of the bottle feeds ahead.
The second feed went better than the first and around mile 40 a few riders from the wave behind me came past. It was a good sized group that I stayed with for about four miles before I decided not to put that much energy on the bike. I let them go and told myself, "I will see you guys on the run." I got back into my rhythm and started anticipating when I would get off the bike.
When I saw the mile 45 marker on the side of the road I predicted about 30 more minutes until I was off the bike. This was looking at around 2:36:XX in time for the bike. It wasn't my fastest time by far but it was a much more difficult course than I've ridden on and I did keep it pretty easy. By the time I was getting content with that I saw the mile 50 marker on the road......about two miles up from mile 45. At this point my finish time was sub 2:30:XX if I was truly at mile 50. My spirits were lift for the next few miles until I saw the turn back into the park. I shouted, "I am so happy to see you!" to the volunteers as I was more than happy to be done biking. I made the last two miles back into the park and down towards transition. I finished the bike still feeling pretty good with a time of 2:29:46.
As I jumped off my bike, I forgot to slow down. My bike took a big hop in the air and my toes to a big scratching on the pavement which caused two of my toes to draw some blood. As I made my way over to my spot I had to get ready to put on my socks. Yes, this sounds silly but there is a quick system of how to put on socks if you have them set up correctly, which at about mile 20 of the bike I realized I forgot to do. Fortunately, I was able to get through transition pretty smooth and head towards the run tied with the 7th fastest T2 of the day.
This year I made a fun transition into some new running shoes. I now am running in Newtons which are a dangerous shoe if you have the improper form. My calves have definitely felt the difference and I have really enjoyed running in them and really hope they bring out some faster run splits. I also joined a running club that allows me to do a lot of running races for free throughout the year in hopes that doing more fast running races will translate to faster run splits in the triathlons.
My one goal I kept for the race was the run. I have wanted to break 1:30:00 on the run for the past three half-ironmans so I needed to take this down. I checked my garmin at the start to keep my pace in check which was a good thing being as I was running 6:06 min/mile right out of the gate. I made my way up the first hill which was about a half mile continual climb and cracked a huge smile. All of my friends from the bike who rode away from me were waiting for me on the hill! I kept a nice pace as I made my way up it and started moving up towards the other runners. My first mile clicked off at about a 6:28 followed by a 6:16 I believe as I was feeling good.
As I came to the second aid station on the run I hollered up ahead for water to just be splashed on me. Apparently telling a bunch of kids to throw water on you is exciting because all of the volunteers grabbed two cups and tossed them on me. It was quite refreshing as I made my way around the quick loop at the back end and up the second hill.
My aid station system was going pretty good. Each station I would ask for something different. Station 1 - water, station 2 - splash, station 3 & 4 - coke. This kept me pretty smooth as I kept seeing 6:XX for each mile split.
Lap two was going just as smooth as lap one so when I got through 2/3 the run I switched my watch to see my overall run time to get an idea of what I needed to maintain my 1:30 goal. I was sitting at about 57:XX which meant I was on pace for my goal! Things were going to plan and the decent performances on the bike/swim before this meant I would still have a pretty darn good overall performance.
Lap three, I took the first steep hill and my momentum just stopped. The steepness hit me and my stride changed. It took a little effort as I started the climb but I got back into my stride. Looking up the hill seemed a tough thing to do but I told myself, "You cannot tell other people to believe in themselves and expect them to do it if you can't get yourself up this hill one more time." It helped with the push as well as actually making a few, "Let's go!" comments out loud to myself to get to the top. As mile 10 approached I had hit the wall. My legs were feeling the drag and my pace was slowing. I couldn't hold my face together which is probably while multiple people told me I looked like hell at this point in the race.
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| Mile 13. Sums up the last lap of how I was feeling. |
Finally, around mile 12 I came to a realization. I had been looking forward to this run all day and I was currently in the pain cave. I told myself to smile and a little life came back into me. As I made it past the 12.5 mile mark I new I nearly home. My pace quickened as I was going all downhill and stormed through the finish to see a final time of 4:32:47. My official run split was a new PR and 7th fastest run of the day at 1:28:03!
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| Finishing on the podium of M25-29 as the young guy again. |
In the finish chute I fell to the ground in exhaustion. It took a minute and a cold water dumped on my head before I could get back up. Sickness really took its toll on me. I slowly got on my feet and after about 30 minutes I was actually able to eat food again!
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| Lastest addition to my mom's trophy case coming soon! |
My time placed me as 17th overall for the day and 3rd in my age group. I did get bumped to the 25-29 age group this year which is going to be a lot more competitive than the 20-24 age group I previously enjoyed. Competition was stiffer this year as the same time last year would have gotten me 7th overall. Looking at everything as a whole I am quite please with how the day turned out. The next one is going to be a lot flatter and a lot faster so I have a month to prepare for some more pain!
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| Recently joined team Ignite Endurance. All of the team with our winnings for the weekend (we had fastest female and male for the day). |
