Swim
38:24.5 - 11th out of 13 in my age groupT1
1:07.8 - 4th out of 13Bike
1:19:42.6 - 8th out of 13T2
0:39.9 - 2nd out of 13Run
56:46.6 - 6th out of 13Total
2:56:41.4 - 8th out of 13 / 56th out of 130 overallI'm not really pleased with my race, but it was a "C" priority race for me (meaning that I didn't taper or rest leading up to it), and I just planned on using it as a training race...so I'll just give a quick report and move on!
My swimming in the open water is still horrible! I was actually slower this race than the half-ironman last month. Funny thing is, I actually thought that I was swimming faster AND straighter yesterday...guess not. I will say that this swim was the most physically demanding that I've even done. The swim started in two waves, men first, then women. So approximately 90 of us men all started the swim at the same time. I was kicked and punched more times that I ever imagined would be possible. It literally took about 10 minutes into the swim before I was able to get into a good rhythm. I was shocked when I looked at my watch exiting the water...I seriously thought I would be done around 34-35 minutes - seeing 37 and some change was a disappointing way to start the day!
On to T1 - no problems here. I'm getting pretty efficient in my transitions. I even stopped to give my
Saying the bike course was hilly is an understatement. It's littered with small and large hills. There's literally hardly any flat ground. I started picking off people on the bike from the beginning. By my count, I passed approximately 18-20 people and was only passed once near the end. I took in a gel and drank a bottle of water with NUUN in it during the ride. I felt good the entire ride (with the exception of going up the hill on mile 10). According to my bike computer my top speed was 38.9 mph. Not too bad for a road bike! Here's the elevation profile:
T2 was very fast and smooth. I racked my bike and had my running shoes on quickly. Looks like I had the 9th fastest T2 out of 130 people. At least there's something positive I can hang my hat on!
The run starts out by going up a huge hill. This is not good for the legs after being on a bike for over an hour! Most people walk up this hill, but I was determined to run the whole thing, so I didn't want to start off by walking...despite what my legs tried to tell me! I got into a good jog, but that first mile (all uphill) took me 10 minutes. The whole run course is rolling hills, so it was hard to get a good pace going. The second mile is when the heat started to hit me. I was taking two waters at each station...one for drinking...one for dumping over my head! Second and third mile were done at 9:15-9:30 pace. At the turn around, I was around 29 minutes (9:30 min/mile pace). I knew that this was way too slow, so I decided to crank it up a notch on the way back. I still stopped at every station to get water, but the sun was brutal. No shade anywhere! I did the second half of the run in a little under 27 minutes (around 8:40 min/mile pace). This still isn't fast, but it's faster.
I was happy to be done with this race. Although the distance wasn't as long, it felt more difficult than the half-ironman I did last month. I'm not sure if it was the heat (lots of heat-related issues for people on the course - I even saw two people on the way home that had pulled off the road to puke), or the hard week of training leading up to the race, but either way it was tough. The fact that I feel pretty good today and I don't have much soreness tells me that the struggle on the run was more related to the heat than fatigue. Oh well, I'm ready to move on to the next one!
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