HITS Triathlon Series: Ocala - Full Iron Course - Triathlon


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Ocklawaha, Florida
United States
HITS Triathlon Series
90F / 32C
Sunny
Total Time = 13h 31m 32s
Overall Rank = 3/
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 1/
Pre-race routine:

Not much. Up at 4:00 AM. Bagel. Generation U-can before the swim.
Event warmup:

No warm up. Just some light dynamic stretching before the swim.
Swim
  • 1h 39m 25s
  • 5498 yards
  • 01m 49s / 100 yards
Comments:

The wind had blown the buoys out into deeper water the night before so instead of 2.4 miles, we swam 3.1 miles. I thought the course felt a little long!
All the half and full athletes started at the same time so it was pretty rough going for the first 400 meters or so.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing... but I hadn't planned on swimming a 5K
Transition 1
  • 06m 46s
Comments:

No much to comment on here. I did change into a cycling jersey and had my pockets pre-loaded with nutrition. That way I didn't need to stop for a special needs bag.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing
Bike
  • 6h 18m 31s
  • 112 miles
  • 17.75 mile/hr
Comments:

Wind and hills. Nothing you can do about the wind, but the hills did take me a little by surprise. Between mile 24 and the turnaround at mile 28 was some serious rollers. I'm still happy with my bike split and was third overall on the bike.
What would you do differently?:

Had I known it would be this hilly, I would have driven out to Clermont Florida to train more.
Transition 2
  • 08m 47s
Comments:

I did change into running cloths. Additionally I have a DonJoy offloader brace that takes a couple minutes to get on and positioned correctly.
The forth place bike did beat me out of T2 so he was currently 3rd overall at the start of the run. I wasn't worried about that at all. My goal was to just finish the marathon - I wasn't even thinking about placing.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. Took my time in T2 and felt relaxed when I started the run.
Run
  • 5h 00m 7s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 11m 27s  min/mile
Comments:

This was tough. Temp hit about 90 with some shade on the run. I liked the four loops since I got to see my wife several times on the run.
What would you do differently?:

I wouldn't do anything different. Fortunately for me I had done lots of trail running prior to this race so running in the sand wasn't a big change for me. If you weren't used to trail running, this was a death sentence.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked around for 10 minutes or so. Grabbed an ice cold bottle of water. Had a recovery shake in the car and couple of cold beers when I got back to the hotel.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Training in the Clermont hills would have helped me on the bike.

Event comments:

I really liked the race. I thought HITS did a good job. It was pretty lonely for the Full athletes and I believe they said 17 DNF'd the full. There was a lot going on for the half finishers - music and such. When I came through the shoot it was just me and a photographer. No music and a volunteer here or there wandering around. I didn't really care about that because I was just doing this race for ME.
Even for the full athletes there were plenty of volunteers and lots of food/water/heed/coke at the aid stations (both bike and run).
I'm bummed that the swim course turned out to be 5K and I wish they had gone out to measure it in the morning since it had been crazy windy the night before.
But... I did the full for $250 and that's about 1/3 price of a WTC event, so I feel I got my money's worth. If I had paid full price I might have felt differently.







Last updated: 2016-05-11 12:00 AM
Swimming
01:39:25 | 5498 yards | 01m 49s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Good
Suit: Sleeveless
Course: Triangle shape - two laps.
Start type: Wade Plus:
Water temp: 66F / 19C Current: Low
200M Perf. Remainder:
Breathing: Good Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding:
T1
Time: 06:46
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed:
Biking
06:18:31 | 112 miles | 17.75 mile/hr
Age Group: 1/
Overall: 3/
Performance: Good
Wind: Strong
Course: A 28 mile out and back. Two loops for the the full.
Road: Rough Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 08:47
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Average
Jumping off bike
Running with bike Average
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
05:00:07 | 26.2 miles | 11m 27s  min/mile
Age Group: 1/
Overall: 3/
Performance: Good
Course: 4 loop course. About 6.5 miles per loop. Mostly in the Ocala Forest with about 2 miles on asphalt.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4