Half Iron Distance Training Race in the Bag

It's been a pretty crazy month...well, I guess it's been crazy since the beginning, but it just keeps getting crazier!  Training volume is at an all-time high for both Marty and I and we are definitely feeling it.  As of right now, we are in the final ramp up in the peak phase with about 5 more weeks of volume increases.  I still remember before  even starting this training program and looking ahead to the longest week and being quite intimidated.  We still are intimidated, but it also seems more doable as things start falling into place, namely this last race we had in Ohio.  What a race it was!  We sure did surprise the hell out of ourselves on this one!

Marty and I actually did this race last year so we knew what to expect and made some reasonable goals.  Personally I wasn't so sure how I was feeling going into it.  I had gotten sick the week before and took a couple days off and didn't swim for a week.  But prior to that, training was in full swing with 4hr bike rides and 1.5hr runs on top of some lactate threshold work during the weekdays.  There wasn't really much of a taper for it, just some lighter volume for a week instead of the usual 3 week schedule.  Basically, we weren't going into this fresh, which was new for us for a Half Ironman.  

The lake we swam in

The good thing is the race started at 9am, so we had a good amount of sleep having to wake up at 6am.  I think we took in about 600Cal right when we woke up to kind of simulate Ironman race day nutrition.  Turned out to be a pretty normal race morning leaving the hotel and getting to transition.  Setup was quick and when we finished it was time to head down to the beach.  It was chilly outside, definitely not as chilly as last year, though, but we still went in the water to warm up since it was warmer than the air temp!  It came time for our wave, wished each other luck and ran into the water at the sound of the horn.  The swim was significantly shorter than it should have been, but was otherwise uneventful (i.e. no kicks in the face or getting swam over!).  Getting out of the water I decided to take my time and do a slow run to the transition area.  I brought my arm warmers to put on for the bike but ended up not using them since it wasn't that cold and I figured I'd warm up in the first few miles anyway.  Transition was decent, but I always think I can shave off a few seconds to help my overall race time.

The bike was fun as usual with a good amount of tailwind at certain sections and enough hills (well, hills to me!) to make it interesting.  It was a three lap course with some nice smooth, open roads.  The thing is the wind kept getting stronger at each successive lap so the hilly part actually had a good amount of headwind and made it pretty tough.  It wasn't horrible, though, and I ended up almost averaging 20mph for the 56mi ride, which is pretty fast for me.  In the last few miles there was a guy the kept passing me on the flats and I kept getting him up the hills (I'm light so it's easier for me!).  At one point we ended up side by side and had a little conversation...something about having no hills in Chicago and that he used to live here.  Well, we ended up with enough flat riding for him to leave me for good and I couldn't get him on the last really big hill.  Transition was coming up and, of course, I was getting excited to run!  Ok, so as I'm writing this it's been quite a while since the race since I've been really unmotivated to do anything after work, training, and school so I don't really remember what happened in transition.  It was quick enough, though, and I still wish that there was port-o-potty IN transition, and about that...

On to the run!  The port-o-potty is right outside of transition, probably about 20 feet away once you cross the timing mat.  That sucks because the time I took in there, which wasn't terribly long, is included in my run time.  I really should email them and suggest that they put that in transition where I'd much rather see the time taking a pee break added to.  Oh well, I got out of there and took off.  I saw a young guy that had a pretty good gait and was looking strong so I decided to pace with him a little.  After a few minutes with him I caught up to the guy I was talking to on the bike and talked to him for another minute or two.  I sped up a little and told him to have a good run.  He said "ha, we still have 12mi to go!"  He never caught back up.  After another few minutes I dropped the guy I was running with after checking my heart rate and saw that I can put a little more effort into it.  Around mile 3 I noticed I was taking in too many fluids since my stomach was feeling pretty sloshy so I ended up sticking to gels and small sips of water especially since it wasn't that hot and dehydration wasn't really a concern.  I finished up the first of two laps and was feeling great so I just kept pushing the pace and keeping my heart rate where I wanted it.  I was hoping I wouldn't hit a wall because I really wanted to put the hammer down on those last three miles.  Once I got to the turn-around I took some sports drink because I was tired of taking gels and with a little over 3mi to go it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.  On the way back on the 2nd lap I was watching my watch, waiting for the 10mi mark and once I hit it I cranked the pace.  I don't know how fast I was running but it was a pretty hard pace and I could only keep it up with every physical and mental strength I had left.  I was even angry at one point!  It must have been when I saw Marty and told him it was time to "embrace the effing suck!", he thought I was swearing at him lol.  

They were a little slow getting the times in and we were eager to see ours.  While we waited we raided the food area while talking to this guy in his 60's or early 70's, I forgot, who had did a few full Ironman races at his age, just phenomenal!  After a while we decided to go check the times and we were just blown away.  Marty took off about an hour from last year and I took off about 45min and ended up 3rd in my age group!  Love taking home hardware, can't get better than that!  Well, next stop is Cozumel and as of this writing it's in 10 days!!  I actually can't believe it's here already and still can't picture myself there on race morning.  The nervousness has finally set in, it's such a long race and we have no idea of what to expect even with all the training we've put in.  One can't really compare a training day to racing 140.6mi non-stop.  It's here, though, and I'll sure be posting up about it afterwards.  Let's do this, Ironman baby!