Post_Op_PRs
IMFL 70.3 Race Report
Wow, what a day, what a week. It's now two days since the race, and i'm still feeling the effects in my energy level. I feel a bit sore, but not too bad, and no injuries to speak of.
The day started off on a dubious note, my father (who was my crew and moral support throughout the day) and i left our rented house in Orlando (Disney family headquarters) around 3:30 AM on Sunday, we arrived at the transition about 5 minutes before it opened @ 4:15 AM. Transition closed @ 6:00 AM so I had plenty of time to settle in. Thank god my father and i are anal enough to get up early, because as soon as i found my bike in transition, the back tire was completely flat. Crap. So now i'm freaking out. Because it was so early i was able to get help immediately from the tech support guys and they hooked me up with a new tube and checked out my bike for me. They were definitely my saviour (the problem was the valve got pulled somehow from the tube). Ok, so now the freakout is over i can concentrate on prepping for the race right? Nope. I head to the port-o-john and the door closed on my arm causing my garmin to break at the clasp. Crap. Now i'm thinking there is bad mojo going on and it is getting to my head. I fixed the garmin calmed myself down and had my dad slap some sense into me. No more drama's pre-race.
Transition closed @ 6, the pros started @ 6:20 and my wave (19 of 22) went off @ 7:!5. That kinda sucked, mostly because i had to walk around with nervous energy for an hour and fifteen until we get going. The whole time i'm thinking that i'm not ready for this, but finally it was my wave's turn on-deck and we head to the swim. The swim was basically 3 sides of a rectangle, and man does 1.2 miles look loooong when you see it laid out in front of you like that. The swim went pretty well, water temp was around 84 degrees, but murky as anything. It was a bit of a struggle finding a rythm with all the people but i was able to keep it cool and keep my heart rate down for the swim. The only issue i had was somebody face raked my goggles off a third of the way in, but it didn't really effect me significantly. Reached the swim exit and the crowd and voluteers were awesome, it was a bit of a hike to transition, but the whole chute was full of people shouting encouragement. Swim time was just over 40 minutes which was my goal exactly.
T1 transition went ok, i was pretty slow, but i wasn't really pushing it, i just took my time and made sure i had everything. I used a camelback (90oz of poweraide zero) and brought along another 20 oz bottle of it on the bike. Ate a gel, had some fluid and headed toward the mount line.
The bike felt great, it was a big loop with a couple of out and back spurs. Course was really flat (just what i was hoping for) with no real hills to speak of. I was able to keep it in the big wheel for the entire 56 miles. Saw some hairy crashes, but nothing serious, and there was some big-time headwind going southeast (which was the last 10 mile stretch) that was the most challenging. I didn't really notice the heat, but the fact that i powered through the swim, then my camelback, the 20 oz bottle i had with me, and then one more 20 oz gatoraide i picked up at one of the bottle exchanges without having to go to the bathroom should have clued me in on how much i was sweating. I was able to keep an average pace of over 20 MPH, exactly on goal as well. After the race, i heard a lot of people *****ing about drafting on the course but i really didn't notice anything too bad. Hit the dismount line and did another long hike to T2. Bike time was around 2 hours and forty five minutes or so.
Transition two went quicker than 1, the best part was my family was there to see me (my rack was right against the outer fence of transition and they could come up and watch/say hi. Both my parents, my wife, and my two great kids (5 and 3) were there..... with cowbells! Awesome! I hit the bathroom for the first time of the day and hit the run.
The run. Oh boy the run. I heard all sorts of horror stories about the course, the heat etc. But i really wasn't prepared for how oppressive the heat was. I had trained for a 2 hour half marathon, and was hoping to hit it close or better. my big bricks (over 10K) were coming in @ an average pace of 8:20's so i felt pretty good about my prospects, if i could take the heat. But alas, the heat came, the heat saw, and the heat kicked my ass. The first mile was great, i was on pace, did an 8:17 mile and didn't feel winded or any effects in my legs (which was weird, it didn't even feel like i just did the bike). Then i hit the grassy portion of the course, which was a three loop course. The grassy area was basically a jeep track trail, alot of folks were complaining about it but it really didn't bother me except that for some reason the grass/dirt was radiating waaaay more heat than the road. WTH?!!??!! that's when i realized i was in for it. I couldn't keep my core temp down and by the third aid station (they were roughly every mile) i had to switch immediately into full on survival mode. I basically drank whatever they put in front of my face (water, gatoraide, coke, whatever) ate a gel every 3 miles, and then shoved (no joking) two full handfulls of ice into the front of my under armour shirt, two full handfulls in the back of my under armour shirt, and two full handfulls under my hat at every aid station for the rest of the race. My pace detiorated as the day wore on and the heat kept inching up. The rest of the field was a never ending death march, there were so many folks that could do nothing but wak that it was hard to weave around them, and you also had to go around the medical folks where were picking people off the course and taking them away in ambulances. pretty rough going. I gutted it out, even though i wanted to stop more than anything else in the world. I was actually really worried on the third loop that i was going to pass out, i stopped a liitle longer at the last two aide stations to dump ice water over my head a few times before i continued. Finally i made it to the finish chute. I was so focused on one foot in front of the other, that i totally missed my family at the finish line and crossed a confused exhausted man. Got my medal and then wandered aimlessly for a few minutes until my family found me and immediatly tried to help cool me down with portable fans and cold water. i very nearly puked on my son's head (that wouldn't have been cool) when he was looking at my medal. final run time was 2 hours and fourteen minutes.
But... i was a finisher of a half iironman, and after i started to cool down and i started to feel human again, i felt like a million bucks. Final time was under 6 hours (which was a goal of mine). Wow, i couldn't have asked for anything more, great organization, CHALLENGING race, and my family in support. If you've read all of this, you deserve a medal too :)
The day started off on a dubious note, my father (who was my crew and moral support throughout the day) and i left our rented house in Orlando (Disney family headquarters) around 3:30 AM on Sunday, we arrived at the transition about 5 minutes before it opened @ 4:15 AM. Transition closed @ 6:00 AM so I had plenty of time to settle in. Thank god my father and i are anal enough to get up early, because as soon as i found my bike in transition, the back tire was completely flat. Crap. So now i'm freaking out. Because it was so early i was able to get help immediately from the tech support guys and they hooked me up with a new tube and checked out my bike for me. They were definitely my saviour (the problem was the valve got pulled somehow from the tube). Ok, so now the freakout is over i can concentrate on prepping for the race right? Nope. I head to the port-o-john and the door closed on my arm causing my garmin to break at the clasp. Crap. Now i'm thinking there is bad mojo going on and it is getting to my head. I fixed the garmin calmed myself down and had my dad slap some sense into me. No more drama's pre-race.
Transition closed @ 6, the pros started @ 6:20 and my wave (19 of 22) went off @ 7:!5. That kinda sucked, mostly because i had to walk around with nervous energy for an hour and fifteen until we get going. The whole time i'm thinking that i'm not ready for this, but finally it was my wave's turn on-deck and we head to the swim. The swim was basically 3 sides of a rectangle, and man does 1.2 miles look loooong when you see it laid out in front of you like that. The swim went pretty well, water temp was around 84 degrees, but murky as anything. It was a bit of a struggle finding a rythm with all the people but i was able to keep it cool and keep my heart rate down for the swim. The only issue i had was somebody face raked my goggles off a third of the way in, but it didn't really effect me significantly. Reached the swim exit and the crowd and voluteers were awesome, it was a bit of a hike to transition, but the whole chute was full of people shouting encouragement. Swim time was just over 40 minutes which was my goal exactly.
T1 transition went ok, i was pretty slow, but i wasn't really pushing it, i just took my time and made sure i had everything. I used a camelback (90oz of poweraide zero) and brought along another 20 oz bottle of it on the bike. Ate a gel, had some fluid and headed toward the mount line.
The bike felt great, it was a big loop with a couple of out and back spurs. Course was really flat (just what i was hoping for) with no real hills to speak of. I was able to keep it in the big wheel for the entire 56 miles. Saw some hairy crashes, but nothing serious, and there was some big-time headwind going southeast (which was the last 10 mile stretch) that was the most challenging. I didn't really notice the heat, but the fact that i powered through the swim, then my camelback, the 20 oz bottle i had with me, and then one more 20 oz gatoraide i picked up at one of the bottle exchanges without having to go to the bathroom should have clued me in on how much i was sweating. I was able to keep an average pace of over 20 MPH, exactly on goal as well. After the race, i heard a lot of people *****ing about drafting on the course but i really didn't notice anything too bad. Hit the dismount line and did another long hike to T2. Bike time was around 2 hours and forty five minutes or so.
Transition two went quicker than 1, the best part was my family was there to see me (my rack was right against the outer fence of transition and they could come up and watch/say hi. Both my parents, my wife, and my two great kids (5 and 3) were there..... with cowbells! Awesome! I hit the bathroom for the first time of the day and hit the run.
The run. Oh boy the run. I heard all sorts of horror stories about the course, the heat etc. But i really wasn't prepared for how oppressive the heat was. I had trained for a 2 hour half marathon, and was hoping to hit it close or better. my big bricks (over 10K) were coming in @ an average pace of 8:20's so i felt pretty good about my prospects, if i could take the heat. But alas, the heat came, the heat saw, and the heat kicked my ass. The first mile was great, i was on pace, did an 8:17 mile and didn't feel winded or any effects in my legs (which was weird, it didn't even feel like i just did the bike). Then i hit the grassy portion of the course, which was a three loop course. The grassy area was basically a jeep track trail, alot of folks were complaining about it but it really didn't bother me except that for some reason the grass/dirt was radiating waaaay more heat than the road. WTH?!!??!! that's when i realized i was in for it. I couldn't keep my core temp down and by the third aid station (they were roughly every mile) i had to switch immediately into full on survival mode. I basically drank whatever they put in front of my face (water, gatoraide, coke, whatever) ate a gel every 3 miles, and then shoved (no joking) two full handfulls of ice into the front of my under armour shirt, two full handfulls in the back of my under armour shirt, and two full handfulls under my hat at every aid station for the rest of the race. My pace detiorated as the day wore on and the heat kept inching up. The rest of the field was a never ending death march, there were so many folks that could do nothing but wak that it was hard to weave around them, and you also had to go around the medical folks where were picking people off the course and taking them away in ambulances. pretty rough going. I gutted it out, even though i wanted to stop more than anything else in the world. I was actually really worried on the third loop that i was going to pass out, i stopped a liitle longer at the last two aide stations to dump ice water over my head a few times before i continued. Finally i made it to the finish chute. I was so focused on one foot in front of the other, that i totally missed my family at the finish line and crossed a confused exhausted man. Got my medal and then wandered aimlessly for a few minutes until my family found me and immediatly tried to help cool me down with portable fans and cold water. i very nearly puked on my son's head (that wouldn't have been cool) when he was looking at my medal. final run time was 2 hours and fourteen minutes.
But... i was a finisher of a half iironman, and after i started to cool down and i started to feel human again, i felt like a million bucks. Final time was under 6 hours (which was a goal of mine). Wow, i couldn't have asked for anything more, great organization, CHALLENGING race, and my family in support. If you've read all of this, you deserve a medal too :)
Where are we going?? And why am I in this handbasket??
right now. somewhere. somebody is working harder than you.
right now. somewhere. somebody is working harder than you.
