Well this post is long overdue. One week after the Long Course Nationals, I raced a big year-end half-ironman here in Tempe. Lots of people had told me this was nuts. There were 2000 or so total entrants, and 900 in the half-IM. All 50 states were represented and there were participants from around the world. My highest place in this event was something like 80th two years ago. Last year I did the "Quarterman" as I was recovering from an injury that kept me from training for a while. ( I won my age-group though :-) )
I'm not going to give the blow-by-blow on this one but more of an overview.
The swim:
Tempe Town Lake is gross. It's full of algae and other muck so it's hard to even see your hand in front of your face, never mind the foot that's about to kick you there. Also, race starts at this time of year have you swimming east straight into the sun for the first leg. So it's not the best place to swim. I went way off-course twice during the swim and I'm sure there was a time penalty there. Oh well. I exited the water in 31 something, so not too bad given the circumstances.
The Bike:
I had to take some time in transition to put socks on because of the blistering and bleeding from the week before. It's hard to put socks on wet feet :). Early in the bike it was obvious that my legs felt a little strange, not really sore, or tired, but...I don't know...rubbery? A week isn't much recovery time. I had to yell (audibly) at myself to chill-out much of the first half because I was going too hard. Still, I pushed the bike to my limits. I had a tough time making my way through the very crowded course. At one very congested point of the course, a guy yelled from behind me "come on, lets go people, move to the side". A real jerk. When I could finally let him pass, I said "go get-em buddy!". I made note of his number and his clothes. He was a US Army triathlon team member. I knew he was going too hard and hoped to see "Army" again later. My bike split was 2:18 and when I came into T2, the racks were mostly empty. Always a good sign. I made a quick transition and headed-out.
The run:
My pace was good early, but after a few miles, I didn't know how I was going to hold on. I'd been pacing off of a 40-44 year-old who went by me early and I had decided to hang with him. He was going just hard enough for my early run pace. I'd planned to hang at that pace until 6.5 miles or half-way and then go for it. But, by mile 5 I was kind of tired of following him and I'm sure he was sick of hearing my footsteps. I decided to pick it up and I pushed past. I was passing lots of people, but didn't see too many that were in the Half-Iron. At mile 8 I went past "Army", fast. It felt good. By mile ten I was really pushing it. On the "back" portion of an out-and-back section, I saw a guy going the other way who placed ahead of me at a race back in September. He'd also just posted a 9:30 at the Ironman World Champs a few weeks ago and he was way behind me. That felt good too. The last couple of miles my legs were threatening all kinds of cramps, but I held on. I came across the finish in 4:19:58. A full half-hour faster than my personal best on this course and and also 30 minutes faster than the race the previous week. (It's a flatter course :-) ) You could say I was pretty happy!
When the results were posted, I was 8th out of 900 overall and I was 2nd out of 95 in my age-group, only 2:50 out of first place. If only I could swim straighter.... :-) . A nice way to end the season I'd say.
Up next: Why I'm dumber every day.
