Shoreman 70.3 =71.3 (one extra for good luck)
First half ironman distance triathlon, and only second triathlon. My overall goal was to follow what I had practiced for, to not get distracted, and if all goes well to finish strong.
It started with the drive to the park along a pretty dark road, when all of a sudden I hit “something” in the road. Another ¼ mile up the road I come to some volunteers with flashlights directing traffic, and as I slow down with the window down I hear a familiar sound…ah …..That is the sound of a tire going flat. I quickly ask the gentleman where can I park on the pavement, and not in the gravel parking lot at the park. He directs me to a lot at the Church across the street from the park, and I make it there with just a few minutes to spare before that tire is TOTALLY FLAT. Oh well…..totally dark….it is @ 5:30 am and I have a long day ahead, so I am not changing the tire on the full size pickup in the dark, let it wait….DON’T get distracted…. sounded like the best alternative. It will be a fun post-race recovery exercise. 
About 30 minutes before a gel and some Gatorade and I feel great. The swim is two loops in the lake, and seemed pretty well marked out. I line up and stay as far to the outside as I can to avoid the crowd and stayed as far right through out. Out of the water in across the mat in 43:36…..about what I expected based on recent open water swimming with a local group and from rehearsals so ok. It is a work in progress... about 6 months ago I started swimming and once across the 25 meter pool and I was totally gassed.
Thru T1 as “calm” as I could and onto the Bike. Get the heart rate monitor/gps watch started, wow….I did not know my HR went that high when I am barely peddling (around 173 bpm). So I am taking it easy and just trying to calm down to get it down within range. Oh yea and everyone is passing me, ok have fun everyone. I plan to take a gel every 30 minutes, and have Perform in aerobottle plus two bottles in cages, plus some extra mix, and overall it worked out ok with a few exceptions.
Down the road just a few miles and the rain starts. The rain continues and even gets pretty hard for a little while, and after about 20 or 30 minutes it starts to let up. By now the decision to bother drying off my feet to put on socks that are now totally water logged is making me laugh. This laughter does not really stop for the rest of the bike ride, only the source of the humor changes.
I have ridden this bike course for my 2 Race Rehearsals, so being a nice guy I notice the guy in front of me is messing with some stuff on his bike just before one of the only really rough patches of asphalt, I call out to the guy to be careful and he is over the bumpy patch safely….but as I go over that patch one of the extra bottles on my bike goes flying out of the bottle cage. All I could think was don’t get distracted. I should have gone back for it, but by the time I thought of it I was way down the road and we pass this point again I can get it later (sounded like a good idea at the time.) I had some extra mix and could put that into the aerodrink bottle with some water, since they only had water on the bike course.
A few miles down the road I realize that the watch has decided to bonk out….no more heart rate data. This has happened once before from what I assume is the way I had it rigged to the handle bars and the clip on aerobar bolt head rubbing the contacts on the back of the watch…oh well I know my effort on this course and am feeling ok, so stay calm and don’t get distracted. What else could happen.?
About mile 30 I notice a guy with what looks like a problem, but he is taking his socks off and putting them on his aero bars to dry them off. Hell….. I might not be “fast” in the water or on the bike, but I can do some hillbilly laundry drying. Then I realize what I have done by putting my wet socks on the front of the aero bars…..I get to touch my wet gross socks for the next 26 miles, and the laughter continues. I could not recall if my extra socks were in transition, or in the truck with the flat tire and I HAVE TO run with socks on.
Finishing up the bike all 57 miles of it 3:21:00, about 10 minutes slower than my second RR, but the sun has come out and I know that this is gonna be a sauna of a run.
At T2, no dry socks in my bag, so on go the semi dried out socks.
Any humor of the day up to this point is TOTALLY eliminated once out on the run course. While slowing myself down the first three miles, I am looking around at what Coach Patrick calls the “charity walk” and realized that I have to put the brakes on a lot harder and just get to the finish it does not need to be pretty. If I am not careful that is going to be me walking….and walking slowly with everyone else. I am already walking through the water stops, and getting water on my head and drinking the Gatorade, with a powerbar gel every 30 minutes and just trying to stay steady no need to worry about slow or fast at this point, just keep running from table to table. It was by no means the run I was hoping for but I am happy that I did not quit on it. There was not a single person that passed me on the run course at all, with the exception of some top finishers that were on their second loop. With about a mile to go I am totally visualizing the Heat Pace Calc. link on the Resources Pull-down, and will have to check my current Vdot and the race day temps to see how it all turned out....great a homework assignment...and the humor starts to come back as I can see the park up ahead. Finished the run in 2:07:26 Overall 6:18:xx
I feel like on the right day I can have a much stronger HIM run with my current fitness level. I tried to make sure to leave something in the tank all day, but that heat & humidity burned a hole in the tank and I tried to control the damage. This summer I improved my 5k PR twice by about 30 seconds each time (23:33 down to 22:30), and each time in the heat, so I know it is in there someplace. I tried to stay on the Nutrition plan all day, with the exception of loosing a bottle on the bike, it felt ok.
Next up is most likely the Seaside Heights Half Marathon in Mid October. I briefly thought Saturday night to register for Bassman 70.3 Triathlon in October but then got my brain out of my rear,….. I got time to go after that again.
Oh some of the nicest people (total strangers) that were waiting for their daughter to finish her race helped me change that tire on the truck when I got back to the Church parking lot with my bike and all my stuff. Maybe it was a sign from above?
Sorry for the length of this, and Please provide any input that any of you might have.
Thank you.
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Comments
John, what a positive attitude... Your next one will seem so much easier after this set of challenges. Your feet were probably wetter on the bike than the swm?
@AL - Oh exactly yes they were wetter with "water" on the bike. Since I am not sure what that lake was filled with....some very dark fluid like substance.
@Kim- Totally! head in a box and laugh
@Carol - Wow what a small world. Great Job.
But that was not me...LOL....I was not running into many people on the swim. I tried to stay from people as much as I could, most of my contact came from people coming up from the waves behind me right onto my legs. I am 43 so was in the first wave to start, so you must have passed me on the Bike course...nice job. I liked that course and the amount of support on the run course. Everyone was really nice.