Short Version:
Time: 4:45:21
Swim: 37:01 (1:45/100yd) - Rank 327
T1: 1:26
Bike: 2:29:50 (22.4 mph) - Rank 151
T2: 1:27
Run: 1:35:36 (7:18 min/mi) - Rank 103
OA: 97/1256 (top 8%)
AG: 10/173 (top 6%)
Breakfast: Toasted English Muffin w/ PB, Banana
Long Version:
Slept the night before the race at the summer cottage owned by our tri-club president that overlooks the swim course. Woke up at 5 am feeling good and with remarkably few butterflies. I guess the fact that this was my first HIM and I was guaranteed a PR helped. Even though this was the second of my season's A-races, I wasn't really sure what to expect. In my mind, I had set the expectation to get around under 5 hrs - 35 min swim, 3 hr bike and 1.5 hr run, and find somewhere to squeeze out 5 minutes plus transitions.
I wandered down to the transition area about 5:30 am. The bikes had to be checked into transition the day before. I took the bike out for a short spin, laid out my gear and then walked the ~0.75 mi down the beach to the swim start. The pros went out at 7 am and the male 35-39 went out at 7:24. I watched the other waves go out in order to pick up some tips on how to handle a beach start (in my one other tri, the swim had been in a quarry).
I positioned myself towards the outside, but in the middle depth-wise. The lake was about as good as you could expect, there were waves, but nothing horrible. The water, which two weeks earlier had been crystal clear, was now murky.
The horn went off and so did we. I ran out to knee depth, started to swim, hit the sandbar 10 feet later and started to dolphin dive until I could swim again. The first 200 yards were a bit of a frenzy. I had a just a tiny bit of water in the bottom of one goggle that was annoying, but seemed to work itself out. I concentrated on relaxing, pushing a bit on the swim but not tiring myself out. The rising sun was directly in our eyes as we swam out to the first buoy, so it was tough to spot it. I mostly followed the swimmers in front of me, figuring that as long as I was in a pretty good pack, I was pretty safe. I got kicked a few times and slammed some arms, but didn't let it bother me too much.
We started catching the previous wave as we rounded the first buoy, and that made things a bit more hectic as many of the slower swimmers were bobbing as they got their bearings rounding the turn. I worked my way around them and simply focused on good form. For the long stretch, my swimming in a straight line was terrible. Several times I found myself out at the line of boats and lifeguards. Several times I found myself in the middle of the swim pack. I guess I was sampling the entire course. Several more collisions with people, probably my fault as I wasn't swimming very straight. As I rounded the far end buoy and headed towards the beach, I noticed several black swim caps from the wave behind us.
I finally hit bottom with my hands, stood up and tried to run. Not very effective and I wasn't very fast getting out of the water. It seemed like a long run from the beach to the transition area, but I had the top of my wetsuit off by the time I hit the transition timer. I ran directly to my bike, struggled a bit getting the wetsuit off, grabbed my helmet and glasses and went with the bike. I jogged (need to get better a running through the transition) to the exit and the mount line.
I had my shoes mounted on the bike and the race starts with an uphill from the beach directly after the mount line. I jumped on the bike, kept my feet on top of my shoes all the way through that first hill and then slipped into the shoes at the flat on top of the hill. I almost crashed into the curb when putting on my shoes.
The next couple of miles were focused on getting into a rhythm. I switched the bike into the big front gear and kept it there the entire race. In the early part of the bike, there were loads of people to pass. One early annoyance. I came up quickly on one rider passing another. One rider was all the way right, like she was supposed to be. The other rider was passing on the left. I wanted to pass on his left, so I called "On your left". No response, so I called again. He impatiently motioned to me with his left hand as he hung out all the way to the center line, wanting me to swing out over the center line to pass him. There should easily be enough room for three riders to comfortably ride side by side in a single lane. I passed him on the yellow line, worried that there was a race marshal around and that I was going to end up with DQ.
After about 10 miles, it seemed that there was a pack of about 20 of us that just kept on passing and re-passing each other. There was drafting going on, but I don't think it was out-and-out blatant drafting. More to the point of equally capable riders riding at the same speed and guys not dropping back the required 3 bike lengths after being passed or guys passing slower riders in packs. I tried to drop back after being passed, the challenge was that if you really dropped back the required 3 lengths, then 10 guys behind you would pass you and you'd end up going slow for 10 minutes. It was also an issue of guys passing you, then slowing way down. I know that I had to work pretty hard when passing some guys, so I can understand it. Not sure what the solution is.
I completely screwed my hydration/nutrition on the bike. I started out with 1 20 oz bottle of diluted InfinIT (diluted because I ran out of the powder) and one smaller bottle of water. I had four PowerGel packs taped to my frame and a bag of Cliff Blocks in my tri jersey. I didn't finish that bottle of InfinIT until about 3/4 of the way through the bike and never touched my water. I picked up a second bottle of InfinIT at one of the aid stations, but I only drank about 5 ounces from that. I downed one PowerGel packet and didn't touch the Cliff Blocks. I don't think I practiced drinking consistently enough and I definately didn't practice eating on the bike. I just didn't feel like drinking or eating and wasn't smart enough to force myself to.
About 46 miles into the race, I found I could no longer hang with the guys I had been with. About 5 miles from the finish, my pace dropped to below 20 mph and stayed there except for bursts.
I finally came around the last corner before the transition area, slipped out of my shoes and rode down the hill to the demount line. The volunteers were giving me the 'slow-down' signal. Dismounted (still not doing the flying dismount) and ran the bike in. Put on my shoes, grabbed the number holder and my Boston Marathon cap and headed out.
I knew pretty quickly that it wasn't going to be a fast run. I had absolutely no energy. I was still passing people, but my legs felt like they did the entire second half of the Boston Marathon. My quads were just screaming. There are two significant hills on this course. Both within the first mile. And its a two loop course, so you see them twice. On the second of these hills, I thought I was going to pass out. The vision got a bit wobbly and my sense of balance abandoned me. Of course one of the official photographers was at the top of this hill. I don't think that they could have picked a worse spot to take pictures. Many people were walking up the hill. I'm sure I look like death warmed over in my pictures.
I felt better once I crested the hills and there was a water stop shortly thereafter. I grabbed some water and some InfinIT and that really seemed to help. It still felt like I was running in quicksand, but at least I wasn't in danger of taking a nap by the side of the road. The volunteers were great, but I did have one complaint. They used the same cups for water and InfinIT. And the volunteers didn't seem to shout what they had until you were right next to them, making it impossible to grab a cup of what you wanted as you ran. I found out on the second loop that you needed to yell out what you wanted as you ran up and the volunteers would shout out when they had what you wanted. They also had ice in some of the water cups, and that felt great when poured down the back of my tri jersey.
The run was a slog. I know that most folks would consider a 1:35 HM run pretty good for a tri, but I run a 1:20 HM stand-alone. I wasn't expecting to run a 1:20 here, but I thought a 1:26-1:28 was reasonable. I still think I could do that if I can get the nutrition/hydration thing nailed.
I passed a bunch of people on the run, including most of the folks I had been riding with in the first 10 minutes. I had a few people blow by me like I was standing still, including a couple of pros.
I heard my name called out as I crossed the finish line. I hobbled over to the food tent, drank a 7-up. One of my tri-buddies came over to me, tried to talk to me and I was clearly out of it. I suggested some watermelon and some more 7-up. After about 15 minutes of sugar, I finally began to feel somewhat human again. I wandered over to our tri club tent and got a massage and a stretch session. The arches of my feet had began to cramp and it was the most painful massage session I have ever had. But it helped.
All-in-all, a good first effort at the half. I was so spent, at this point I can't even imagine a full IM. All my tri buddies tell me not to worry, that the full IM is a different beast and you're not as concerned about speed. At this point, I can't see it. I know that in a week I'll have that fire again, but right now I just feel like I got my butt kicked.
A couple more thoughts. My bike speed was 22.4 mph for 56 miles. My first race, a sprint, I averaged 22.7 mph for 14.7 miles. I know that I did the sprint bike as fast as I could. So either I'm getting better on the bike or I just have no speed and can do long rides as fast as short rides.
The swim was the swim. Its always going to be a slog for me and I know that its simply going to take a couple of years in the pool before I'm a decent swimmer.
The run was all about eating and drinking on the bike. And I flunked that. Lesson learned, don't do it again, practice it and move on. I'm okay with the effort I put in, but confident that I have a lot better in me. Despite how it may sound, I had a great time and I'm looking forward to my next HIM. I know that distance is my game and the full IM is where I want to play.
Thanks for reading this far.
Mike
Time: 4:45:21
Swim: 37:01 (1:45/100yd) - Rank 327
T1: 1:26
Bike: 2:29:50 (22.4 mph) - Rank 151
T2: 1:27
Run: 1:35:36 (7:18 min/mi) - Rank 103
OA: 97/1256 (top 8%)
AG: 10/173 (top 6%)
Breakfast: Toasted English Muffin w/ PB, Banana
Long Version:
Slept the night before the race at the summer cottage owned by our tri-club president that overlooks the swim course. Woke up at 5 am feeling good and with remarkably few butterflies. I guess the fact that this was my first HIM and I was guaranteed a PR helped. Even though this was the second of my season's A-races, I wasn't really sure what to expect. In my mind, I had set the expectation to get around under 5 hrs - 35 min swim, 3 hr bike and 1.5 hr run, and find somewhere to squeeze out 5 minutes plus transitions.
I wandered down to the transition area about 5:30 am. The bikes had to be checked into transition the day before. I took the bike out for a short spin, laid out my gear and then walked the ~0.75 mi down the beach to the swim start. The pros went out at 7 am and the male 35-39 went out at 7:24. I watched the other waves go out in order to pick up some tips on how to handle a beach start (in my one other tri, the swim had been in a quarry).
I positioned myself towards the outside, but in the middle depth-wise. The lake was about as good as you could expect, there were waves, but nothing horrible. The water, which two weeks earlier had been crystal clear, was now murky.
The horn went off and so did we. I ran out to knee depth, started to swim, hit the sandbar 10 feet later and started to dolphin dive until I could swim again. The first 200 yards were a bit of a frenzy. I had a just a tiny bit of water in the bottom of one goggle that was annoying, but seemed to work itself out. I concentrated on relaxing, pushing a bit on the swim but not tiring myself out. The rising sun was directly in our eyes as we swam out to the first buoy, so it was tough to spot it. I mostly followed the swimmers in front of me, figuring that as long as I was in a pretty good pack, I was pretty safe. I got kicked a few times and slammed some arms, but didn't let it bother me too much.
We started catching the previous wave as we rounded the first buoy, and that made things a bit more hectic as many of the slower swimmers were bobbing as they got their bearings rounding the turn. I worked my way around them and simply focused on good form. For the long stretch, my swimming in a straight line was terrible. Several times I found myself out at the line of boats and lifeguards. Several times I found myself in the middle of the swim pack. I guess I was sampling the entire course. Several more collisions with people, probably my fault as I wasn't swimming very straight. As I rounded the far end buoy and headed towards the beach, I noticed several black swim caps from the wave behind us.
I finally hit bottom with my hands, stood up and tried to run. Not very effective and I wasn't very fast getting out of the water. It seemed like a long run from the beach to the transition area, but I had the top of my wetsuit off by the time I hit the transition timer. I ran directly to my bike, struggled a bit getting the wetsuit off, grabbed my helmet and glasses and went with the bike. I jogged (need to get better a running through the transition) to the exit and the mount line.
I had my shoes mounted on the bike and the race starts with an uphill from the beach directly after the mount line. I jumped on the bike, kept my feet on top of my shoes all the way through that first hill and then slipped into the shoes at the flat on top of the hill. I almost crashed into the curb when putting on my shoes.
The next couple of miles were focused on getting into a rhythm. I switched the bike into the big front gear and kept it there the entire race. In the early part of the bike, there were loads of people to pass. One early annoyance. I came up quickly on one rider passing another. One rider was all the way right, like she was supposed to be. The other rider was passing on the left. I wanted to pass on his left, so I called "On your left". No response, so I called again. He impatiently motioned to me with his left hand as he hung out all the way to the center line, wanting me to swing out over the center line to pass him. There should easily be enough room for three riders to comfortably ride side by side in a single lane. I passed him on the yellow line, worried that there was a race marshal around and that I was going to end up with DQ.
After about 10 miles, it seemed that there was a pack of about 20 of us that just kept on passing and re-passing each other. There was drafting going on, but I don't think it was out-and-out blatant drafting. More to the point of equally capable riders riding at the same speed and guys not dropping back the required 3 bike lengths after being passed or guys passing slower riders in packs. I tried to drop back after being passed, the challenge was that if you really dropped back the required 3 lengths, then 10 guys behind you would pass you and you'd end up going slow for 10 minutes. It was also an issue of guys passing you, then slowing way down. I know that I had to work pretty hard when passing some guys, so I can understand it. Not sure what the solution is.
I completely screwed my hydration/nutrition on the bike. I started out with 1 20 oz bottle of diluted InfinIT (diluted because I ran out of the powder) and one smaller bottle of water. I had four PowerGel packs taped to my frame and a bag of Cliff Blocks in my tri jersey. I didn't finish that bottle of InfinIT until about 3/4 of the way through the bike and never touched my water. I picked up a second bottle of InfinIT at one of the aid stations, but I only drank about 5 ounces from that. I downed one PowerGel packet and didn't touch the Cliff Blocks. I don't think I practiced drinking consistently enough and I definately didn't practice eating on the bike. I just didn't feel like drinking or eating and wasn't smart enough to force myself to.
About 46 miles into the race, I found I could no longer hang with the guys I had been with. About 5 miles from the finish, my pace dropped to below 20 mph and stayed there except for bursts.
I finally came around the last corner before the transition area, slipped out of my shoes and rode down the hill to the demount line. The volunteers were giving me the 'slow-down' signal. Dismounted (still not doing the flying dismount) and ran the bike in. Put on my shoes, grabbed the number holder and my Boston Marathon cap and headed out.
I knew pretty quickly that it wasn't going to be a fast run. I had absolutely no energy. I was still passing people, but my legs felt like they did the entire second half of the Boston Marathon. My quads were just screaming. There are two significant hills on this course. Both within the first mile. And its a two loop course, so you see them twice. On the second of these hills, I thought I was going to pass out. The vision got a bit wobbly and my sense of balance abandoned me. Of course one of the official photographers was at the top of this hill. I don't think that they could have picked a worse spot to take pictures. Many people were walking up the hill. I'm sure I look like death warmed over in my pictures.
I felt better once I crested the hills and there was a water stop shortly thereafter. I grabbed some water and some InfinIT and that really seemed to help. It still felt like I was running in quicksand, but at least I wasn't in danger of taking a nap by the side of the road. The volunteers were great, but I did have one complaint. They used the same cups for water and InfinIT. And the volunteers didn't seem to shout what they had until you were right next to them, making it impossible to grab a cup of what you wanted as you ran. I found out on the second loop that you needed to yell out what you wanted as you ran up and the volunteers would shout out when they had what you wanted. They also had ice in some of the water cups, and that felt great when poured down the back of my tri jersey.
The run was a slog. I know that most folks would consider a 1:35 HM run pretty good for a tri, but I run a 1:20 HM stand-alone. I wasn't expecting to run a 1:20 here, but I thought a 1:26-1:28 was reasonable. I still think I could do that if I can get the nutrition/hydration thing nailed.
I passed a bunch of people on the run, including most of the folks I had been riding with in the first 10 minutes. I had a few people blow by me like I was standing still, including a couple of pros.
I heard my name called out as I crossed the finish line. I hobbled over to the food tent, drank a 7-up. One of my tri-buddies came over to me, tried to talk to me and I was clearly out of it. I suggested some watermelon and some more 7-up. After about 15 minutes of sugar, I finally began to feel somewhat human again. I wandered over to our tri club tent and got a massage and a stretch session. The arches of my feet had began to cramp and it was the most painful massage session I have ever had. But it helped.
All-in-all, a good first effort at the half. I was so spent, at this point I can't even imagine a full IM. All my tri buddies tell me not to worry, that the full IM is a different beast and you're not as concerned about speed. At this point, I can't see it. I know that in a week I'll have that fire again, but right now I just feel like I got my butt kicked.
A couple more thoughts. My bike speed was 22.4 mph for 56 miles. My first race, a sprint, I averaged 22.7 mph for 14.7 miles. I know that I did the sprint bike as fast as I could. So either I'm getting better on the bike or I just have no speed and can do long rides as fast as short rides.
The swim was the swim. Its always going to be a slog for me and I know that its simply going to take a couple of years in the pool before I'm a decent swimmer.
The run was all about eating and drinking on the bike. And I flunked that. Lesson learned, don't do it again, practice it and move on. I'm okay with the effort I put in, but confident that I have a lot better in me. Despite how it may sound, I had a great time and I'm looking forward to my next HIM. I know that distance is my game and the full IM is where I want to play.
Thanks for reading this far.
Mike
