Well hey! So this one time I signed up for a half-ironman distance tri, and tried to get ready in three weeks. Here's what happened...
Taylor and I met up with my parents at the hotel on Saturday afternoon and we all headed to race packet pick-up. I grabbed my stuff, dropped off my bike, and stayed for a brief race meeting. Then it was off to dinner at the Brewhouse and back to the room to get some rest. Safe to say I was on edge at this point... Nerves were kickin in.
Sunday morning I was up at 4:30 and getting ready. Dad drove me to the race and I got everything set up and drank an Ensure to get some carbs and calories. I used the bathroom only twice.... which has to be a record! All that was left was the waiting.
The race!
1.2 mile swim; 56 mile bike; 13.1 mile run
Goal 1: Finish in 5 hours 45 minutes
Goal 2: Have fun!
Race plan: I want to take things out decently hard in the swim using long hard strokes with minimal kicking. Exit the water feeling warmed up and ready for the rest of the race. Take transitions nice and easy, no need to rush. Get on the bike and once I'm done with all the turns settle into the aero position. Use the wind going at my back in the first half but don't push it because it will be coming at me in the second half and I'll need fresh legs to fight it. Get into T2 and stretch out as I'm running in and changing shoes. Exit T2, don't get excited and start running hard!!! Find a smooth controlled pace that I can hold. Don't walk.
Swim: I started in wave 2 @ around 7:00. Wave 1 was at 6:30, the slower swimmers. The way it started was jumping off of the Vista Fleet one at a time in 4 second intervals. I was probably about 4th to last to for getting in the water. Choppy water! I swam hard but had difficulty seeing anything, it was dark and I was wearing shaded lenses, causing me to swim extra yards because I was not going straight. I passed quite a few people and exited the water. Timing chip problem. The clock had me at 50 minutes!!! Funny because I got out of the water at 7:42 and my wave, which I was near the end of started after 7. I'm guessing my time was about 32 minutes.
T1: The run from the ladder exit until the Amsoil arena was about 100 meters. Upon entering the arena we were forced to walk because of the slippery wet concrete. Frustrating! It took at least two minutes to walk to my bike, such a waste of time! Transition went well and I was out in about 5 minutes.
Bike: Have you ever heard me mention that I seem to have bad luck. I do. Over 11 miles into the bike I was making great time without using much energy at all. And then I blew a tire. Are you kidding me! Right then and there I quit the sport of triathlon. I was beyond pissed. Year after year I faced bad luck always having something go wrong and I was just fed up with it. My race was done. I looked down at my watch and I had been stopped for 6 minutes. That's when something clicked. I didn't want to quit, I've invested so much in this sport and I'm not finished. There were repair vehicles available during the race and I knew there was a cop at the 10 mile point whom I could get to radio them. I grabbed my bike and starting running backwards up the race course. After about a mile the repair van saw me running carrying a bike and came over to fix things up. All in all I waited 18 minutes and was in dead last but I was going again. Mentally shaken from my "quitting triathlon" breakdown I was determined to make up the lost time and pushed hard with the wind at my back. I hit the turnaround and gritted my teeth to take on the wind. I had made up 5 minutes that I had lost, even with doing an extra mile. The last 26 miles into the wind were not exactly fast, but I maintained my goal pace and even came back a little. I hit the 55 mile marker and began to surge for the last mile... which ended up being nearly 2 miles. Great! A 57 mile bike course... a little error is fine but a whole mile was just ridiculous. I was a little upset with the race coordinators at that point. I got off the bike and headed into T2. Bike time: 3:30. With an 18 minute break, doing mile 11 over again, and having an extra mile on the course. I was pretty pleased with my bike split. Without any of that it would have been about a 3:05.
T2: I was still fairly close to being in last place. Coming into the transition I knew I had work to do on the run. But my legs felt okay. So I made quick work of the transition. Used the bathroom and headed out to the run. I took a little over 2 minutes.
Run: Still having the "make up lost time" mentality, I began the run at under an 8 minute mile pace. I hit 4 miles at 31 minutes and realized my legs were finished. I tried walking for a minute and then assumed a nice slow running pace. At mile 6 my time was just over 49 minutes. I had pushed the bike much harder then planned and it was coming back to haunt me. My final 7 miles was a walk run mixture. Those miles were some of the hardest and most painful I have ever run. My legs just couldn't maintain anything. And once again the course was long, probably by about a half mile. I crossed the finish line and it was over. I've never felt so physically and mentally defeated in my life. My run time: 2:15. Awful.
I crossed that finish line feeling incredibly defeated. My overall time was a 6:40. Adjusting for the timing chip error on the swim, my time was about 6:22. Still over 30 minutes off of my goal. Although I had just successfully finished a race that many could only ever dream of doing I was disappointed. But that's life, and that's racing. I'm not giving up. I will get back out there and race again and again. And I will get better.
Thanks for reading!
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