TryCharleston HIM RR
So this HIM is in it's second year, and the weather was perfect this year. I had no real time goals, but two objectives in doing this race -- 1. Do not die; and 2. Do not cause any structural problems with my left knee.
It had been 13 years, three knee surgeries, two bike accidents with cars, two accidents with railroad tracks, and quite a few pounds ago, since I raced a long course triathlon.
The day was perfect, weather started 62 degrees and was about 85 at the end of the run, with little to no humidity. Course was flat (20 feet of elevation gain of its entirety), light winds, and most of the bike course had been repaced. There were two transition areas for this race, which made logisitics a little complicated.
Swim -- water temp was 72 so it was wetsuit legal, I steady and stayed smooth the whole way finished in 41:20; was shooting to be under 44. NOTE: Wetsuit velcro was rubbing back of neck and while I had lubed up, the velcro tore up my neck.
T1 -- smooth and steady put on helmet and shoes and was off 1:40+-
Bike -- steady and smooth, have been dealing with saddle sore and so couldn't stay very aero after about 2 hours was using HR since my power went out one week before race. The only real issue was at mile 46 when I picked up the last water bottle (my nutrition was accelerade in bottles on down tube), stuck it btwn my aerobars and then noticed a lot of "stuff" in the road about 1/4 mile down. By the time I realized they were all water bottles, I hit the same bump and ejected my water bottle. (NOTE: had half a bottle of accelerade and only 10 miles to finish and I assumed there would be water in T2, so I did not stop -- mistake.) Bike time was 2:52:30+- which was only almost right on what I had expected.
T2 -- very strange as they had us hand over our bikes to volunteers for them to truck back to the start line, then had to run/walk to the transition area, before going over the mat. There was no water, gels or anything in T2. I did have a gel in my transition bag so slammed it and went on running.
Run -- was getting hot and by the time I got to the first aid station at 1.25 miles, I had to pee and was thirsty as hell. Was right on pace through 3-5 miles. My urine was quite dark and I started being concerned about hydration. In the end I double slammed water at every aid station, only walked 28 steps through the aid stations, and amazingly my heart rate kept coming down. Never had any nutrition issues, took electrolytes throughout the race so never had cramps (although until I got water on the run my stomach was feeling bloated). At three miles I never could pick up my pace, but I just kept gettin'r done. I passed about 10-12 folks in the last three miles and I didn't contemplate "why" or really get tunnel vision until about mile 12 in the run.
Lessons Learned -- I actually have a page full of notes on things across every aspect that I am going to deal with, but let me focus on execution:
- Test wet suit velcro closure so that I don't have the bleeding neck issues.
- Need to either stop and pick up the ejected water bottle or have additional fluids with me so that I am able to keep up with hydration targets.
- Now that I know I can do the distance again, am going to amp up a little the targets for run pacing and not be as conservative.
Would like to hear what others of you that have been doing this a while think.
thanks,
Paul
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