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| 6 Month | 13 Day | 2004 Year |
| 7 Hour | 30 Minute | AM |
Macon Half Ironman - Finished in 5hrs30min26sec
Today I completed my first half-Ironman-distance race. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. I did it in 5hrs30min26seconds. The event was the Macon Rock and Roll Man Half Ironman Triathlon. Macon is about two hours south of Atlanta.
I want to thank everybody who made it to the event. Beep and Ball. Heather. My father and sister Kendra made it out. Keith and Roxanne. It truly meant a lot to have all of you at the event cheering for me. Every time I came into or out of a transition I saw a bunch of faces I recognized. That really motivated me to do the best that I could do. And at the end to have a great group to help me get water and find shade was great! It wasn't a short drive to Macon, either. Truly appreciated!
So now I'll run down the event and all of the intricate details so that I can learn from it in the future.
Training-wise I had a good taper. My last big workout was a swim/spinning class the Tuesday before the event. Wednesday and Thursday I did nothing. Friday I went for a short swim and short run. I should have done a little more than I did but I was very busy and could only break away for about a half hour. Saturday I did nothing. Not the most perfect taper, but it served its purpose. I raced the weekend prior and needed some rebuilding time.
The day before the race was too hectic. I should have learned this lesson at St. Anthony's. I had to get fitted for a tux, go to a building show, pack, drive, register, drop off the bike. By the time I dropped off the bike I could feel a headache starting. I've been getting migraines my whole life so I knew what was coming. I tried to avert it with a quick meal at Fazoli's but it didn't work. I could have ended it with 1000mg of ibuprofen at 6:00PM but I didn't want to take anything that close to a race (13 hrs before). Bad plan. The headache got worse until I found myself at 11:30PM unable to sleep or think. Pounding headache. Fine, I broke down and took the ibuprofen. The way my headaches work if I miss the initial start window then, no matter what ibuprofen I take, I can't get rid of it. I had to take some ibuprofen. I was very unhappy about the fact that I was taking it 8 hours before a race. It allowed me to get to sleep but when I woke up I still had a very bad headache.
Race morning I got up at 5:30AM. Hadn't slept much. Thunderstorms all night. Headache. It was still raining. I watched the Weather Channel for a forecast.
Made it to the race start with some good time to spare. This is something I did correctly. I went along. It turns out that it's not fair to have my family and friends get to the venue as early as I want to. Typically I try to balance the two and end up racing around before the event. I'm the type of person who needs plenty of time. So that's one thing I did take from St. Anthony's.
Another thing I took from St. Anthony's was listmaking. I had a great list of everything I had to do in the transition area before the race.
It was pouring so I covered my shoes in plastic bags. Didn't want blisters... hey another thing I learned at St. Anthony's!
By about thirty minutes before the race start I finally had to take my morning crap. Found a porta-potty. I brought my own toilet paper. Decent duke-out but not complete. I think I ate a little too much pasta in hopes of avoiding the headache.
The Swim:
I was surprised by the swim. My goal was to be very slow. The last few races I went out way too fast and found my form dying halfway through. The main metric I wanted to adhere to was three-stroke breathing. As long as I was three-stroke breathing I felt that I was pacing myself correctly. The field separated well and before I knew it I was actually in a rhythm. Not as perfect as in a pool... but head and shoulders above any other race I've been in. I was able to think about efficiency. Amazingly, I found myself surrounded by green and navy-capped swimmers... the colors of the first two waves that started 3 and 6 minutes ahead of me. I was surprised but I knew I wasn't pushing it too hard.
The water was 79 degrees. Almost a little too warm but certainly not too cold. Felt good.
The Bike:
The bike was rolling hills. I brought my heart rate monitor with me. My goal was to ride at 130bpm. So much for goals. I spent most of the time a good bit higher than that. My headache went away when my pulse was above about 150bpm. Below that and it would hurt. Below 140 and it was pounding. So I kept the pulse up.
And I enjoyed racing. Passing folks. Getting passed. Catching up. With 56 miles to play with everybody knows that anybody else can rocket ahead at any given time. The question is who can stay ahead for the duration. So racing is about mental pacing. Estimating how much you have in you.
I had a slipped chain on a hill at mile 10 or so. I shifted from the big ring to the little ring while I was spinning too quickly. Amateur mistake. Didn't lose too much time getting my chain back on. Caught up with some of the riders that had been around me.
Throughout the ride I found that I was strong on the hills and weaker on the flat or rolling down sections. People would always catch up. Or maybe I worked less. I've just read so many places that you make your big gains on the uphill sections.
By about mile 30 I had to pee. I saw a lot of folks stopping and running into the woods. I didn't want to waste the time so I started thinking about peeing on the bike. I tried at first sitting down. Didn't work. So, on a downhill section I stood up, stopped pedaling and let it rip. Good news: it worked and I was able to relieve myself. Bad news: it worked and I really had to go. It filled my right shoe up fairly quickly as it streamed down my leg. I got passed by a few guys and at least one woman as I did this. I caught up quickly once I felt better. Interesting experience. I threw some water on the seat and leg as soon as I could.
Miles 40-46 were the toughest. My right knee seized up. I thought for a few miles that I'd have to drop out. I had just noted at 40 miles that I was exactly 2 hours into the bike leg. Averaging 20mph was about right. But my right knee was falling apart. A sharp pain, as if I had ripped a tendon. I unclipped on a downhill section and stretched it out. I got out of the saddle on an uphill section to give it some variety. They both helped but I was still in significant pain.
Then I ate a power gel. And within a few minutes the pain was gone. Completely. It felt strong again. I think it may have been searching for electrolytes and/or salt. That was my third power gel. I had four with me.
I drank a very concentrated syntace bottle of Accelerade early in the ride. Then I grabbed a bottle of water at one of the bottle handoffs. I drank half of it and at the second bottle handoff I grabbed some Gatorade and mixed it with the water. I drank that until the end of the race. I took in my first power bar at around 5 miles. Second at around 20 miles. Third at 45 miles. Fourth at 50 miles. I tapered off of the drinking for the last 15 minutes... I didn't want to have a full stomach going onto the run.
At the end of the bike I felt strong. I had done more work than my plan allowed but I felt good. The weather was still somewhat cool. A few spots of stagnant air and heat but generally overcast and not too hot.
My average speed was 20.1mph with a max of 44.8mph... a fun downhill section!
The Run:
Heather, Beep and Ball bought me some gel ice pack things that I had chilling in the transition area. I put one in the headband of my visor. It gave me an ice cream headache but the chill was nice. I took another in my jersey pocket.
Onto the run I took two more power gels and a Fuel Belt full of Accelerade and Endurox. The first mile I did in about 7 minutes flat. Not smart. Way too fast. I slowed to 8min30sec as soon as I realized how fast I had gone out.
The first 3 miles was uneventful. I felt strong. Heart rate higher than I wanted but overall OK. I got to the first turnaround. Then the sun came out. On the flats making it back to the start finish area was the first itme I experienced the heat of the day. It was awful. But I plowed through it until mile 7 or so, passing the fans.
Mile 7 to 8 was the worst. Slightly uphill in the scorching sun. It was hot. Not as hot as it could have been, but damn hot. My mile times instantly dove to 9min30sec. I was exhausted. I'm not good in the heat. Amazingly, I wasn't losing many places... I was still catching people in my age group who were walking.
I had to shift mentally into mile-by-mile mode. One mile at a time. Eight to nine. Nine to ten. Etc.
I ate some power gels. I had used up most of my Accelerade and started taking in water from the aid stations. It was burning hot. By mile ten I had to switch to a fast/slow model. I would do about five minutes jogging and then five minutes barely jogging... just shuffling along. My mile times went up to above 10 minutes. I stuck it out and made it to the finish.
Keith and Roxanne had decided to volunteer with the race and were ready with water. There was a cooling tent set up. The fam greeted me.
Overall a great day. I pushed it more than I expected to. Thanks to everybody who came out.
Update: I got the official results.
==========
Swim: 79th place in 37:39
Transition 1 in 1:42
Bike: 117th place in 2:47:57
Transition 2 in 2:13
Run: 116th place in 2:00:57
Overall: 102nd place in 5:30:26
Real Overall: 112th place (*)
(*)There were 10 women that beat my final time so I put myself at 112th place overall. I noticed female number 441 a lot on the course. She was with me on the bike so she must have caught up to me in the water. She made up 7 minutes there. Near the end of the bike I got ahead of her and took about 8 minutes. Then she beat me on the run. She finished in fifth female overall. Jennifer Adley is her name. Congrats to her and all of the excellent female athletes who whupped my ass... and all those that finished!
Oh, and special thanks to the young lady of age 27 who wore the slightly-too-small red bikini bottom and had the tatoo on her left lower back. Your "special athletic attire" was very motivational for young men like myself as you passed us... I mean... your attire must be very functional and cool on a long run in hot conditions... yeah, that's what I meant to say. I enjoyed, I mean "was challenged," running against you in the last three miles of the run and wish that I could have held on after I passed you with two miles to go. Instead, you passed me and left me for dead. Nice.
Alright, back to me: What's amazing here is that my swim was 79th place! Better than my bike and my run place! That's crazy! I'm a horrible swimmer. What this demonstrates is the fact that I'm new to this distance and over-paced myself. I wonder what place my bike and run would have been if I had been slower on the swim. That said, as I recount above, I can't say that I pushed it that hard on the swim. I was comfortable. I got into my rhythm and went with it. There must be a mistake with the numbers... that's all there is to it.
Swim Distance
1900Swim Time
0hrs : 39min : 0sec
Bike Distance
56Bike Time
2hrs : 41min : 0sec Bike Ridden
2004 Cervelo P3
Run Distance
13.1Run Time
2hrs : 10min : 0sec Run Shoes
Adidas Supernova(Second Pair)Run Terrain
Pavement
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