White Lake Half
I'm not really a race report guy, but maybe this will be helpful to someone.
Six years ago, I raced White Lake as my first half, and went 5:38. Six years later, after on-and-off-again years of tris, I went 4:55 for 5th in 35-39 as a new PR. It was my first race training under EN too.
I identified three key things at this race that I need to apply to the rest of my year:
1) Pay attention to the swim course before you start swimming. It was a triangle swim with a wayward bouy line. I found myself wandering off course quite a bit and probably left a little bit of time out there. I should have noted how acute the turns were before I went out.
2) Pay attention to the location of the bottle hand-ups on the bike. I race pretty minimalist with two bottles. I have a Torhans 20 with water that I refill on the course. I put my nutrition (~500 cals of EFS) in an aero-bottle on the downtube. The 2nd hand-up was immediately after a turn. I went wide to stay fast and blew right by it. I conserved water the rest of the ride but eventually ran out and probably became dehydrated a little as evidenced by the cardiac drift. I slowed my calories down as well to avoid going hypertonic.
3) Plan out T2 at the end of the bike. I was racked between a milk crate racer on my left and an ice cooler racer on the right. In their haste to blast through transitions in a flash, they kicked all my run sh*t. My garmin wasn't where I was expecting it and I forgot about it. I got out of transition before I realized and decided to go back for it. 13 miles without a garmin in blistering heat seemed like a bad idea.
I didn't execute flawlessly, but I did ok. I was happy with my mental fortitude. I suffered in the 89* heat. Coming from Chicago, I'm still riding in sleeves and gloves. I was hardly acclimatized but sucked it up. I ran the first 3 miles according to my 3-7-3 strategy right at 7:15. My plan was to kick it up to 6:50 after that but I decided against it. I knew the heat was going to kick my ass. I held on and kept it steady at painful 7:45-ish miles. I started walking the aid stations around mile 8. But, no walking between them.
Overall, I am happy but know I can go faster. My NP was right where I wanted it. My swim was what I expected. My run was slooooooww but I'm chalking that up to the heat. I hope.
Anyways, on to MT 70.3 and IM MT.
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