I finally made it to my A race. My wife and I had gone to Hamilton, IN on Friday night to stay at her parents’ lake house since it was her dad’s birthday along with cutting our Saturday driving time down a couple hours. Saturday morning, I woke up and got a short ~2 mile run in at an easy pace to stretch my legs out. I was at my desk all day Friday, then in the car for 3+ hrs, so I wanted to do something active before getting into the car again Saturday to drive the rest of the way. The run was easy, but I could tell my energy levels were high, a good sign.
My family had planned to meet at the Hilton (host hotel) at around 2-3 to check in and go to packet pick-up. Amazingly, with 3 cars coming from different places, (us from Northeast Indiana, parents from Louisville, and sister from St. Louis) we all managed to arrive within 15 minutes at the hotel lobby. The place was a zoo, with hundreds of bikes littering the lobby and people with body markings coming and going. We managed to get checked in and into 1 (of our 2) rooms within an hour. Packet pickup, body marking, expo were all pretty straightforward. We then walked down to the swim start, which was about .5 mile from the hotel, and along the route to the exit, and then to find transition. Transition was much farther from the hotel than the race site had made it sound. After recon we all had dinner and prepared our gear for the next morning. I was ready for bed by 9:30, but wasn’t tired, so watched the Olympics until 11:00.
Sunday morning, woke up at 4:10, got my water/Infinit bottles ready. Dad, sister, and sister’s friend (participants) all met at my room (aka the bike storage room) to pick up the bikes and head down to setup transition. We had found our wave numbers and start times the day before and knew we’d have time to return to the hotel before race, so we weren’t dressed yet, and left our swim gear along with our support crew (my wife and mom) so they could get a little extra sleep. The transition area was super-busy, and we all split up to setup our areas. It only took me 10 minutes or so to set up, but then I ran through my transitions in my head to make sure I had everything about 5 times. I’m real paranoid about that.
Got back to the room about 6AM, my sister’s friend was the first to start at 7:53, so we had some time. I had breakfast consisting of a banana, a protein bar, and lots of water (I usually can’t eat much prior to start). By 7, we were heading out of the hotel to the swim start. I had never been to a race of nearly this size, so it was pretty impressive seeing all the triathletes as well as spectators lined along the harbor. I had a gel at around 7:40ish. My sister’s friend got in the start corral for her wave at around 7:40, she started at 7:53. My sister went off at 8:01, and I was 1 wave behind at 8:05. Unfortunately, my dad didn’t take off for another hour, so he had time to wait for it to get warmer and windier.
The swim: I am not the most confident OW swimmer in the world, but this swim didn’t bother me. You swim parallel to the shore of the harbor only about 20 feet from the wall at the farthest and you can see the bottom for most of the swim. The start was kind of a train-wreck as we were in a pretty narrow “lane” with people everywhere. I did my best to get in a groove, but could only go a few strokes at a time for the first 150m or so without running into multiple people. At 300m or so you hit the turnaround and head back. We had spread some by then, so I got moving better. Then after you pass the start area again, the lane is opened up (not divided) so there is all of a sudden twice as much space to work with. This was easily the best OWS I’ve ever completed. Since I breathe to both sides, I was able to keep an eye on the wall where the spectators were. This allowed me to: 1)Distract myself by watching them and looking for family, and 2) Spot off the wall to stay in a straight line so I didn’t have to pull up so often to see where I was. I got out of the swim and didn’t see the clock, but could tell that since I was with the back of the wave in front of me it must have been pretty good for a not very strong swimmer like myself.
Time: 30:53…Raceplan (from early June) goal time: 32minutes (-1:07)
The run to T1 didn’t seem as long as it looked Saturday when we walked it. Considering how big the transition area was and the fact that my setup was right next to the swim in corner (I had to run my bike all the way across the area), I had a pretty solid T1.
Time: 2:53…Raceplan goal time: 3minutes (-:07, -1:14 total)
The bike: I took off northbound on Lake Shore Drive for the bike leg. I assumed it was going to be in terrible shape considering the talk overheard at the expo and warnings the morning of. It was actually worse than what I was expecting, potholes everywhere and random patches and bumps all over the place. This didn’t bother me as much as the fact that very few of these hazards were marked with spray-paint, and the ones that were probably didn’t need to be. I wanted to try and average around 22mph for the ride, and was spinning along with a slight burn in my legs trying to get my fluids and was only about 15 minutes into the ride, but had only been riding around 19mph. I could tell I was going into the wind, but couldn’t tell how strong it was or how much effect it was having. I just decided to race it by feel instead of speed and hope for the best. Every 5 minutes I would drink, alternating b/w water and Infinit (custom 255 calorie mix). I was consistently passing people, so assumed it wasn’t just me struggling to hold speed. At the turnaround, I got the wind at my back and realized the difference. I cruised back to the 2nd loop turnaround averaging around 24.5-25mph for that leg. On the 2nd loop, the headwind seemed worse, so I just kept my thoughts positive and focused on how nice it would be after the turn. I pushed pretty hard northbound to try and keep my avg speed in the 21s (where it was when I turned). Finally on the home stretch, I geared down and spun, knowing the wind would give me the speed I needed. I focused on getting fluids and staying relaxed for the run as the wind pushed me steadily along at around 24mph.
Time: 1:07:41 (21.9mph counting mounting/dismounting etc…my CPU had me at 22.6mph)…Raceplan goal: 1:08:00 (-:19, -1:33 total)
The run to T2 was awkward as I was trying to adjust my legs to being on the ground again while running downhill across the transition in my bike shoes. I made it w/o mishap, but took longer here than I’d hoped. I switched shoes, got my # belt and hat, and was off.
Time: 2:37…Raceplan goal: 2minutes (+:37, -:56 total)
Run: The run was flat and I took off feeling pretty good, but I was wary since I knew we’d be heading south for the first half or so of the run. This meant the final 2+ miles would be into the headwind once the pain had really start to set in. I went along, carrying my 2 fuel belt bottles in my hand (1 water, 1 Infinit) so I was able to gain time by not having to stop at the aid stations, at least for the first 4 miles. I got some light spasms in my quads early in the run, but just drank more fluids tried to increase my leg motion to work them out a little. I moved steadily along until the turnaround, where the headwind hit me like a punch to the face. From there I just ducked my head and shortened my stride to keep progressing along steadily. My pace slowed noticeably around the 5 mile mark and I was just trying to think “Just 10 more minutes.” I hit the 6 mile mark and was still running, so knew I’d make it. I picked up the pace a little, but didn’t have anything left for a finishing kick. Two guys sprinted past me in the final straight, but I could see the big clock and knew I’d reached my goal so I just coasted in smiling and weakly raised my arms as they announced my name at the finish.
Time: 45:43 (7:22/mile)…Raceplan goal: 45minutes (+:43, -:13 total)
Overall time: 2:29:47 (4 of 49 clydesdale 200-224, 284 of 4089 overall)
I got water and went around to the sidelines to do some spectating. My sister’s friend was already finished (in around 2:23) and was there as well. My sister came across about 25 minutes later in 2:59:04, breaking through the 3 hour wall in her 5th international distance race. Her previous 2 attempts, both this year were completed in 3:00:xx, so that made breaking the mark even more rewarding. My dad came across nearly an hour later at 3:06:00. He wasn’t sure at the time, but later we found out it was a 6+ minute PR for him as well. So, overall it was a great racing weekend for all of us.
In general, I was glad to have participated in this event, since it is the largest triathlon in the world (as far as I know). That being said, I would not want to do this race again. It’s just too large scale and somewhat chaotic. Along with that, it isn’t good for family and friends that came to watch as they really only have a good view on the run course, but with everything being so spread out have a hard time getting to good viewpoints. My wife and mom didn’t see any of us getting out of the water, and so weren’t sure where we were until they caught a glimpse of us passing on the run course. Needless to say, there aren’t any good action shots to post. If I locate some decent pics otherwise, I’ll post them up later.
I don’t race again until the first weekend of October, which is fine since I need time to prepare for my next A race, the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October as well as time to work on this new house we are officially moving into this week. Hopefully I’ll remember to update this between now and then.
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