a long slow half iron

as you might know, to make myself train for something, I registered for the Spirit of Racine Half Triathlon 6 months ago. I picked it because it was about 30 minutes away from Jan's mom and stepdad's house so we would have a reason to visit them as well as a base of operations. I also read that the bike and the run were fairly flat and although this was not an M Dot race, it was super well organized.

Training went o kay. I never got rolling on any really long rides and definitely not any long runs but I did way more swimming that I had ever done (as many know, that is not saying much!). I did 5 swims of 1 mile, I did a bunch of bike rides of 45-50 miles and I did a lot of runs in the 45-60 minute range. I knew I was in shape to finish and I hoped the extra swimming would start me off well.

I have to thank Jan and Andrew for pushing me in the training I did do. Jan did most of the running with me and some of the cycling and made sure I got to the pool. Andrew did the hardest rides with me and motivated my by being in better shape all spring.

Well the lead up to the race was crazy with Reillyfest the weekend before and my parents and grandmother here the whole week. They left Friday morning for home while we took off for the Grace house in Lake Villa, Illinois. We got there Friday night in time for some yummy dinner and then tried to get some sleep.

Saturday we went up to Racine (30 min drive) and checked in and left the bike in the transition area. By now I know that the weather is going to be great as it is in the 70s most of the day. We check out a little of the course and head back to Illinois to catch a movie.

The next morning, Jan and I drove up to Racine and she dropped me off 50 min before my start but only 20 minutes before transition closed. I pumped up tires, set out all my stuff, got my chip, got marked and then took my wetsuit and swim stuff and started the mile walk to the swim start. The swim is set up to go out about 200 meters and then turn and go parallel to the beach and back in so you have have walk to the swim start. I was in wave 12 of 13 so I could watch everyone else swim.

My wave is off. I start walking and then I am about to swim and BAMM, i cannot breathe, I cannot swim, I cannot do anything. I try just treading water to get my breathe back, I unhook the neck on my wetsuit, I try elementary backstroke. Nothing works for about 10 minutes as I contemplate quitting. If Jan and Noah and Jan's parents weren't waiting for me, I might have. I finally start to calm down and realize that I have start swimming. By the second buoy of twelve, I am finally doing what I practiced and getting somewhere. I do notice that I am one of only a handful of people in the water. The buoy's come slow but they are at least coming now. I make the turn towards the beach and I am out of the water. After all that, I finish in about the same time as Eagleman. Kind of a bummer since I put so much more work into it this time. I NEED to do some open water swims next time.... I am on the bike in under an hour. Slower than I hoped but my goal for the day was 1 hour swim, 3 hour bike, 2 hour run. So far, so good.

The bike starts off with a little hill and then starts what I thought would be a flat course. It starts off flat but then becomes rolling rolling rolling hills. Since I started in one of the last waves and I was the slowest swimmer, I am pretty much alone on the bike. I start passing some people by mile 5 but there are not that many people to pass. My back bothers me a little but my new bike fitting helps me stay in the aerobars way more than I ever have. I never really get into a long groove but not a bad ride. Average just under 19 miles an hour. Just over 3 hours. Still kind of on pace. As I am finishing the ride, I realize that my real goal today is to finish and not feel dead afterward. That means that the run is going to be pretty slow.

I start the run as Jan tells me she ran the run loop ( it is two loops of the same loop) and it is flat. After about a 1/4 mile, I hit a hill and I start realizing that this is going to be a run/walk. I know now that I can finish. I know I could probably run about 2 hours and make my time goal but I will be hurting for days if I do that. I choose to be a little humble (not easy for me) and do a lot more walking than running and not worry at all about time. I run about 50% of the first loop and then see Jan at the end of the loop and ask her if she will join me for the second loop. No pacing is allowed but no one will care about us back of the packers... We walk about 80% of the second loop and finish. About 1/2 mile from the finish she runs ahead so she can get Noah ready to run with me across the finish line. When I get close to the finish, she tells me that Noah is in the bathroom, do I want to wait?? I say no as I do want to stop moving. As I cross the line, I hear the announcer saying "he is going to outkick his dad!!". It turns out Noah comes out of the bathroom just as I passed and takes off and tries to catch me. He doesn't catch me but he passes a guy I had been running with and gets to me just in time to take my medal. He is super happy and I realize why I decided to not push it and be normal at the finish line.

Total finish time = 6:43:51

Swim - 55:22 almost drowned
Transition - 3:26
Bike - 3:02:57 18.4 mph
Transition - 3:01
Run - 2:39:06 12:09 pace!!

Everyone was super supportive. Jan even talked about doing one herself. Not sure if that is going to happen but I definitely will not rule out me doing another one.

ps. the other day I got a plaque in the mail. it seems it is good to be big. I finished 5th in the xl3 division (over 225 lbs.). my new goal, never to be allowed in that division