Ironman 70.3 Racine - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Great swim for me! I was hoping to come in around 40 minutes and I did much better! Great water for swimming - the temperature was great and I didn't notice much chop or anything. I stayed to the back of my wave as usual and really found my stroke pretty quickly. I had a little problem with leaky goggles, but I calmly rolled to my back and fixed it a few times. Also kinda weird that I kept feeling like my cap was coming off.

Learn how to draft off of other swimmers. I haven't figured this out yet.

I'm not going to dwell much on my transition times in my first HIM. I got out of the water and started jogging up the beach while taking off my cap and goggles. Then eventually got my suit down to my waist. I high-stepped through the kiddie pools to clean my feet and then used the strippers! That was great! Also great in that I'd heard you get pretty sandy using them, but they were on the asphalt path right before the entrance to transition, so if I did get sandy it wasn't noticeable. Got sunscreened just into transition - again an awesome thing to have someone else do for you! Thanks volunteers! Found my rack pretty quickly and took my time getting my toe socks on and the rest of my stuff. Got my bike out and jogged out of transition. K was still volunteering, at this point as a "pointer", so she was right there at Bike In/Out - it was awesome seeing her!

I'm sure there are plenty of things I could do differently and/or faster, like not be so set in my ways with the toe socks, but I haven't gotten a blister while wearing them yet and I'd really not like to experiment the hard way.

I thought the bike ride went quite well. I haven't gotten the splits and HR data off the garmin yet, but I felt like I held pretty well in the zone goals I established for myself and ended up going about 1.5 mph faster than I planned on. I was aiming to keep my cadence around 90 and my HR around 130 - I figured this would land me around a 18mph average. Since I really averaged 19.5mph, I may have pushed a little too hard, but I'll have to check the garmin. I executed my nutrition plan very well (I think) and even managed to grab a water bottle from aid station #2 (I was very nervous about the whole bottle hand-off thing). The roads were quite bumpy in stretches and the last 6 miles or so was very annoying with all the joints/cracks/whatever. Funny how I didn't really notice them in the first 6 miles. Right around mile 40 or so I started really feeling the heat and also kinda lonely out there. Must have just been in between packs of riders. It was kinda scary seeing a couple of the crashes (well, post-crash, didn't actually see the crash in real-time), but I knew I wasn't going super fast and didn't really worry too much about losing control. I always made sure to get on the hoods at turns to make sure I was in control. Overall I'm really happy with my bike.

Not a whole lot besides just overall more bike fitness that will come with time. I figure the more time I put in, the faster I will get for the same effort level. And of course more experience riding in races, crowds, turns, etc.

Pretty good T2. Again not going to complain about my first HIM T2 time. Saw K again at Bike In (awesome!) and jogged my bike to the rack. Had to take my right shoe off and put it back on again as orthotic wasn't in there quite right. Had to use the bathroom (had to be a sign of good nutrition on the bike, right?) on the way out and was glad I did otherwise I might have missed the sunscreen volunteers again. Got lubed up from head to toe and took off.

Again, not much I'd do differently. Just more experience and efficiency that will come with experience, I think.

Ah, the run. It was hot. And then it got hotter. Or so it seemed. Actually my pace was spot on my goal pace for the first 3.4 miles (to the turnaround I assume). Didn't know I'd set myself up for a bad remaining 10 miles. During the run and until this morning (Tuesday morning post-race) I attributed my collapse on the run (not an actual collapse, but just a huge slow-down) to bad gas which I thought was brought on my swim. Usually I have bad gas due to poor breathing during the swim. But looking back more carefully I realize I did not plan my run nutrition/hydration very well at all and certainly didn't execute very well. I brought along 5 oz of EFS Liquid Shot mixed with water in my handheld water flask thing, pretty much intending to take a sip every mile and supplement with water at the aid stations. My first problem was that I think I mixed the flask too think - too much gel, not enough water. My second problem was not drinking enough water from the aid stations on the way out to the lighthouse on lap 1. So my stomach was doing some crazy things due to lack of water to process everything and I was stuck with a very slow run between aid stations at which I walked. After that I didn't recover until about mile 10-11. I finally took some coke at the station where you turn back onto Main Street - wish I would have done that a lot sooner! But I'd never tried coke in training, so I didn't want to now for fear of what it might do to me. But I was desperate at that point, so what the heck. It was like magic to my stomach! I tapped my emergency clif shot gel before the next aid station and by the time I got to mile 12 was feeling much better. So I kicked myself for my poor nutrition choices and put the hammer down for the last mile as best I could. I finished strong, but the damage was done. A few run highlights included those awesome wet/cold sponges which I put inside my hat and the ice that I put down my tri top. And how I could forget to mention the super Racine residents out in force with their sprinklers and sprayers. A cold spray in the face/chest/head/back never felt so good!

Actually use the nutrition that I practiced with and drink my water, especially in the fist few miles. I did several 50 mile bike/6-7 mile run bricks, but looking back I used EFS, water and clif shot gels on the runs and not the EFS Liquid Shot. I did use the LS on some stand alone long runs, but always supplementing with plenty of water.

Made it through the finish line and had enough in me to take the bottle of water offered and get my medal and hat. I was bent over trying to collect myself while a volunteer took off my timing chip, but I managed to stay out of the med tent. I finally found the food tent and was disappointed. A sub sandwich? Um, no. I don't remember what I actually took, but it wasn't much. And no Perform to drink - only water and cola? Yes, water, but cola? Instead I stumbled across the hill to find K and then the Ytri picnic area and scarfed down some real recovery food there.


Poor hydration decisions on the run. And of course overall experience and training.


Overall I would say I had a great first HIM experience. Thank you so much to all the volunteers (including K!) for making the day so much easier than it could have been. And thanks to all the BT folks on the Racine thread for all of your advice and well wishes