This race was located at Monticello Lake in Charlottesville, VA. I stayed at my mom's new condo in Charlottesville. I barely got out of bed Saturday as I was incredibly tired all day. I put in some decent training the week leading up to the race, no taper or anything. The weather was overcast and light rain all weekend. For pre race meals I went out for pizza, drank a bottle of Pedialyte, and enjoyed some veggie lasagna cooked by my mom (a la Chris McCormick). Race morning meal included oatmeal and a sweet potato and a 24 oz bottle of Cytomax.
This half ironman is a very small event with about 200 participants in all, while around 300 people would be participating in an olympic distant triathlon at the same time as us. I signed up for this particular half ironman basically to shake out the 70.3 cobwebs, experience racing on a challenging hilly course, and assess where my training over the winter has put me. Race morning weather was ideal.. overcast and low 70s.
The 1.2 mile swim took place in Lake Monticello. After the running start from the beach I tried to swim fast the first 150 meters to get away from the carnage. But the carnage caught me and I was fighting just to keep my head above water at times. The first 1200 meters never felt comfortable and I was feeling really slow and tired for most of it. I couldn't find anyone going a good pace for me to draft behind either. I finally found my stroke the last 800 meters, but I had fallen a few minutes back from the swim leaders and came out the water in 31 minutes. Though a slow swim time for me, I never pushed the pace and came out feeling fresh. My transition to the bike sucked! I could not get my wetsuit off, thanks to a stuck zipper. Once on the bike I struggled to get my feet in my shoes and lost a lot of time. I really need new cycling shoes!
Side note: During pre race transition setup, while I was pumping my tires, the valve extender on my rear wheel completely broke off. So not only could I not fill it with air, air was leaking out. I dashed over to the Trek maintenance tent and the mechanic hooked me up with a back up Bontrager wheel. Maybe it was fate that I was wearing my sponsors shirt.. Honey Stinger-Trek. The wheel wasn't a disc, but I was just super stoked I had a wheel to race on. Dear Trek maintenance guy: You Saved My Race!
So after a less than ideal start to the bike I got into my pace and starting passing everyone who swam faster than me, which took about 10 miles. The course included a very dangerous turn which forced us to slam breaks all down a steep hill before we turned right, I saw someone completely wipe out, it wasn't pretty. My goal in racing this course was to take it easy and be safe. Never once did I feel like I was pushing a 40k pace, which is something I will do on 56 mile courses from time to time. I stuck to the plan and took it easy going up hill and rested my legs going down hill and raced the flat segments. Unfortunately with all the gear shifting for the hills my chain slipped off twice where I had to stop and fix it. Also, the aide stations were not handing out water bottles when I came by (I assume they where just not ready??) but the bottles sat on a table. I litterally had to stop over, grab a couple bottles then get back on course. So all in all I lost a few minutes on the course, but finished in 2:20. I could have raced this course much faster, but I played it safe. I also used a backup wheel. I drank 3 bottles of Cytomax, 2 bottles of water, 4 honey stinger gels, and about 6 salt tablets during the bike.
Transition to the run was sloppy as I had a problem finding my bike rack and almost forgot to take my salt tablets with me on the run to where I had to run back and grab them. Nevertheless, I was feeling really good starting the run considering the hilly bike course I'd just raced. I used my Polar Heart Rate Monitor this race, which is something I never do since I find using a heart rate monitor makes me race slower.. for instance I'll look at my heart rate and say "whoa I need to ease back, my heart rate is too high to sustain". I played this race safe and stayed within my pace (and heart rate) and never pushed the pace once the entire race. My heart rate rarely went higher than 150 during the bike and rarely went higher than 160 during the run. The lower heart rates had a lot to do with the weather. The run course was a roller coaster of hills. The hills were not huge, but it was constant up and down. I tried not to look at my pace too much on my Garmin watch, but just focus on my effort. I had a lot of energy the entire run. When I look back at my run, now that its over, I could have easily pushed a faster pace, but once again I played it safe. This was the first half ironman I've raced where I did not have leg cramping issues. This was also the first time I carried a bottle of Lava Salts on the run. I took about 9 salt tablets during the run. I finished the run course in 1:23.
My overall finsih time was 4:19 and I won by 20 minutes. I think I am more happy that I found the solution to my cramping than my finish time. Though I am very pleased with a 4:19 on such a hilly course, I know I am capable of finishing much faster had I pushed it and cleaned up the mistakes. This gives me mucho motivation for my race future.
Huge thank yous to Flow Audi and Bolle Sunglasses for the fantastic winning prizes. Also shouts out to Honey Stinger, Fluid, Rudy Project, Planet X, Trek, Synergy and Newton for the support.
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