Route 66 Half Iron Race Report

I needed a 70.3 before IMWI in September and I did not feel like traveling to Racine, Muncie or Steelhead. So, I was thrilled (somewhat) that there was going to be a 70.3 about 90 minutes from St. Louis. The Route 66 Half Iron Triathlon in Springfield, Illinois. I was not thrilled about racing in July but the weather ended up surprising everyone.

As usual everyone wanted to know if the race would be wetsuit legal. Really? A lake in the midwest in the summer wetsuit legal? Yeah Right. I was worried about the opposite, the water being too warm. When race day was finally close enough to be in the 10 day forecast it didn't seem to bad...low 80s for a high. I was still a little worried about how my body would handle the heat and how easy I'd have to take it. Then the RD posted the water temperature...89 degrees. Not the ideal swimming temperature.

I kept checking the forecast and the high temperature kept dropping until it was 77, I think. The low temperatures that week were very low as well. I thought this was going to turn out to be the ideal conditions for a race. Three or Four days before the race the water had dropped to 87. Not as bad as 89 but still fairly warm.

When packing for the race, I realized it was going to be in the 50s on race morning and I might need a jacket. It seemed like a dream...I need a jacket in July? At packet pickup the water temperature was down to 81...wow! Crap, why didn't I bring my wetsuit? The nurse was also racing and we were both worried about being cold on the bike.

Then on race morning they announced the race would be wetsuit legal...are you kidding? In July? Whats going on here? I don't really care, last summer sucked. It was in the 100s for at least a month. I don't remember the last time there was a summer this "cool" where I've lived. Even though the race was wetsuit legal you weren't eligible for awards if you wore one. Since I still weigh 221, I figured I might have a shot at placing as a clydesdale so I wouldn't have worn one.


Pre Race:

The Nurse and I headed down to transition from the hotel all bundled up for the cold summer morning. We both got our stuff set up and just barely made it before a giant swarm of racers hit body marking. I walked down to listen to the prerace meeting which was barely pre race. I was in the first wave and they were starting the race at 7 no matter what. They waited so long for the briefing that not everyone made it into the water before the horn went off.

Swim: 41:01

Not my best swim but I'd like to think I was taking it easy. I'm still drifting to my right when I swim for some reason. The water was slightly choppy and most people thought the swim was really choppy. Given the OWS back in June and the Angry Ocean Triathlon I did last year, this water was a piece of cake. Not much to say about the swim. Tried to draft but failed. I was drafted off but they kept hitting my legs and I was getting pissed so I slowed down and moved over. Seriously people, I can understand hitting someone's legs once or twice if you're trying to draft but if you're going to do it over and over, GO AROUND and STOP DRAFTING. It's not like I'm a fast swimmer. There are 60 people in our wave, it's not that crowded. Ruining my kick and body position is not good for either of us. It can't be good for your stroke either.

Bike: 2:56:21, just barely 19 mph...19.01

The bike course was mostly flat with a lot of crappy roads. There was a sign that said "Enjoy The Mother Road." (Apparently Route 66 is known as "The Mother Road.") Yes, Thanks, I'll enjoy your crappy roads. The only problem with flat courses is wind. When you get the tailwind first, the strength of the headwind it difficult to determine. I suspect I could have gone a little faster with the tailwind but, I'm happy with the way things turned out.

I felt really good on the bike and did a great job of keeping my heart rate down. The low temperatures made it a bit easier. I even put my arm coolers on just to have something dry on my body in an attempt to stay warm. My goal was to keep the bike under 3 hours. I was averaging about 19.5 mph until the last 10-15 miles. The wind picked up and it was in my face for the rest of the ride. I managed to keep my pace high enough and my HR at a decent enough level to feel pretty good getting off the bike.

A couple of interesting things I noticed on the bike...

-Grabbing a water bottle at 20 mph is fairly dangerous. I didn't realize how fast I was going until I grabbed the bottle. I slowed down a little at the next exchanges.

-There must have been a decent number of first timers or people who don't know how to pace. I was surprised at how many people passed me between miles 5 and 15 only to re-pass them in the next 5-10 miles and never see them again.

-I drank too much water on the bike and thanks to the cooler temperatures I peed THREE times...the first, second and third times I've peed on a bike. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part was checking to see how close the person behind me was.

I hit transition and took my time getting ready to run. It was no surprise when I had to pee again. I think the only thing that went wrong in this race was having to wait a minute for the port-a-potty.

Then I was off and running.

Run: wait for it

I felt good starting the run but things got off to a bad start. I popped a salt pill right after the bathroom without realizing I didn't have any water. I figured I could run with it under my tongue until the first mile but about 2 minutes later it opened in my mouth. I started coughing but kept running. I had been trying to save up saliva so I could swallow the pill so my mouth was back to normal pretty quickly. Amazingly, that was the worst part of the run.

Due to the bathroom break I wasn't quite sure of my pace so, I settled into what felt comfortable. My HR monitor decided not to work after the bike so that wasn't any help. It turned out that my lack of HR info was a good thing. After I hit the first mile, I watched my pace for a bit and noticed I had settled in at about 9:50. Knowing how my running goes, I thought this was a bit too fast. However, I also wanted to break 6 hours and I had 2:18 to do it. Somewhere between miles 2 and 3 I decided I was going to hold this pace for as long as I could. It was sub 6 or bust.

Strangely, my pace kept getting faster and I was feeling great after 5 miles between 9:18 and 9:38. I think around mile 4 there were a bunch of guys hanging out in the front yard with a football. It was clear one of them wanted to throw a pass to a runner. So, I raised up my hands like I was open and he threw it. I caught it and threw it back, I felt spectacular after that.

The run course was mostly flat but there was some little hills. I kept wondering which one I would blow up on. I couldn't believe that I held sub 10 minute miles for 9.5-10 miles. I also couldn't believe I had 4 gels on the run without and GI issues.

Up until that point I thought I might be able to PR for a half marathon. The slowdown was on a gradual uphill but I was determined to hold it together. I passed someone from the tri club but we stayed close enough to chat for a bit. He passed me after the last turn around and slowly pulled away. I was running 11 minutes miles at that point but I felt Okay. I think the only thing that kept me running was knowing I was going to go sub 6. With a little less than a mile to go, there were some tri club peoples screaming and cheering for me. It was a great boost and I picked up the pace again. It started to hurt. I knew I could walk the rest of the way and stay sub 6 but there was no way in hell I was going to walk after having that great of a run. I crossed the bridge and rounded the corner. The clock said 5:53:30...holy shit, I'll be under 5:54. I couldn't believe it. I crossed the line at 5:53:48 and ran my second fastest half marathon in 2:11:42. Then my body hurt for a couple hours.

Run: 2:11:42

Race Time 5:53:48

I can't figure out why it's rotated.

It took four 70.3s to finally have a nearly perfect one. Although I think I just got lucky with the temperature being so low. Oh well, they don't show the temperature in the race results.

They also gave us some nifty socks

Sadly, I missed the podium by 4 minutes. I was a minute ahead of the 3rd place guy after the bike (I had no idea who he was) but, he ran 5 minutes faster than I did. I don't think there was any way I could have run faster. I probably could have made up 3-4 minutes on the bike if I used the tailwinds a bit better. There was also the ~1 minute bathroom break. No matter, I'll take a 1 hour and 25 minute PR any day.

American Triple-T Race Weekend - Part 2

I finally finished this thing. It was much longer than I thought it would be and was determined to write a post about it...unlike the Vino Fondo which I thought a post about that would be boring.

After a bit of down time, hoping I ate the right things and drank enough, I was about to do something that I've never done before and might never do again...in two ways. I would bet not many triathletes have done this either...(1st way) my second olympic in the same day and (2nd way) a bike, swim, run.

Race #3 - PM ~Olympic

Bike: 40k
Swim: 1.5k
Run: 6.55 miles

The start of this race was particularly brutal. Standing directly in the sun in transition while waiting for the TT bike start was not fun. Little did we know, we would be cooled off soon enough. I got a bit antsy and "jumped the line" when I saw people in the 300s.

The course was an out and back, down the hill which we would climb 4 times that weekend, out on some rolling hills which aren't really shown in the elevation profile, up one more short hill, then trying not to crash down a very steep hill and out on to a false flat. Again, I wondered why I was going so slow on the flats. After the turn around, I realized why. It wasn't flat.

3 miles later I reached the steep hill I had just come down and it started pouring. Of course it comes while I'm on the hill and can't take my sunglasses, which became more of a foggy prism due to the rain, off. The hill went on for 1.9 miles according to the map however, it did not seem that bad. I think I was distracted by the rain and forgot about the hill. No one realized it wasn't raining back in transition and we were all wondering if the swim would be cancelled. Nevertheless, I was back to transition in no time.

T1 was by far the most comical transition I've ever been in. If you ever get the chance to do a wetsuit legal bike, swim, run triathlon...do it. Do it for the sole purpose of listening to everyone laugh and complain about trying to get their wetsuits on. You know how Ironman has wetsuit strippers? This race had wetsuit helpers. I think it took a little over 5 minutes to get my wetsuit on.

The swim was refreshing and would have been more refreshing if it hadn't rained on the bike. Everyone took it slow and I kept wondering if I would cramp up like everyone said. At the end of the first loop I could feel my calves try to cramp up so, I swam the second loop without kicking.

I successfully made it out of the water and got my wetsuit off without cramping. I'm not sure if it was due to the race format or the fact that I had already done one race in the morning but, I could tell right away this run was going to be slow. I decided there would be no running uphill, except for the false flats. This strategy seemed to work well and then I got to mile 4.5 which turned out to be a repeat of mile 5.5 in the last race. The port-a-pottie was needed immediately. I suspect it was from the pizza the night before. After my short break it was mostly downhill and this time I crossed the finish feeling like I actually race an olympic. Not what I wanted to feel like.

The biggest downside for some people is, the slower you are, the less time you have to recover for the next race. We headed back to the hotel and I did not seem to be in the mood to be racing in the morning. A few hours later after eating I seemed to be OK with racing again the next day.

Race #4 - Half Iron

Swim: 1.2 miles (not really)
Bike: 56 miles
Run: 13.1 miles

This morning would be a bit more pleasant. The nurse switched rooms at some point on Saturday because our AC wasn't working and we ended up with 2 double beds. The pup slept on his bed all night, for once in his life, between the 2 beds. I awoke somewhat ready to complete a half iron. Now that I think about it, for just about everyone, this weekend isn't full of races. It's full of events to complete. There wasn't much racing going on, for me at least. The first visit to the bathroom was not looking good as it looked like I had not had enough water the night before. I drank as much as I could but had no idea it would end up being as bad as it was.

So for the third time that weekend, stand on the beach and talk, take a group photo then blend into line when you got tired of waiting. The only difference would be the Little Smokies Half people starting a few minutes after everyone. They opted for about 1/3 of the torture and only signed up for the half.

The swim start went the same way all the others went, walk out to the first buoy and (today I could easily insert the word reluctantly) start to swim. Nothing to talk about here other than watching all the Little Smokies people fly by in the water. I was out of the water in just over 32 minutes...a 6 minute PR which is impossible. I would bet the course was short. The previous weekend I swam 2k (about 1.2 miles) in 35 minutes at a moderate pace in a wetsuit. This swim was at a less than moderate pace and unless I was going with a current both ways in a LAKE, there is no way this course was 1.2 miles. Not that I cared considering I still swam about 3 miles in 2 days.

The bike was a blast. I didn't care about all the people passing me and tried to take it easy. Sadly, around mile 18 or so, I slowly made my way downhill and around a corner to find about 50 people stopped with an ambulance in front of them. It was pretty clear that someone had crashed. Everyone stood around and ate and drank while we waited. We all agreed to space ourselves out when we started back up again. But, when the ambulance moved a couple douche bags in the back decided they didn't want to wait. Then some guy, who may or may not have been me, called them an A-hole and said something about God forbid they have to wait 5 minutes during a whole weekend of racing while they try to save someone's life. Seriously, they were a few minutes behind ME on the bike. I don't think they're going to be winning anything.

After starting again I saw our club president walking around and bike was off the road. I asked if he was alright and he said he was but a woman in our club was in the ambulance. I was pretty shocked and didn't think when I asked if she was alright...clearly she wasn't if she needed an ambulance. I suppose I should have asked if she is going to be alright. Either way, she is going to be fine. I was a tad bit scared, for her and for myself, the rest of the first loop.

I stopped for a few minutes to refill my bottles before heading out on the second loop and wished I had brought a spare bottle to leave on the table at the turn around. Even without the bottle I had 500 calories in my aero bottle mixed with 25 ounces of water and maybe 15 oz of water in the other compartment. I also refilled the 15 oz part twice on the first loop and finished it. So, I'm guessing I had 70 oz of fluids on the first loop. I also had 2 Gus and half a bonk breaker so around 850 calories for the first loop.

The second loop was not as much of a blast. It was a tad bit slower based on speed than the first but was faster considering I didn't stop. I played leapfrog with the same 5 people for most of the second loop as I would pass them on the hills and they would pass me on the downhills and false flats. This happened until I passed all of them on one of the flats. I thought this was a bit odd and figured I was having a hard time judging my effort. My heart rate didn't get above 140 very often so I figured this was good. I also managed to keep it below 150 on all the climbs. Some climbs in training I hit 165 or 166 which for me on the bike is about max heart rate and I'm barely keeping myself upright. I felt pretty good getting off the bike but was getting antsy the last 5 or 6 miles and may have gone a little faster than I should have. Now that I think about it I was slightly dripping sweat during the last 2 climbs.

That loop I took in 450 calories in fluids and 200 more in Gu. I think I had a little less water due to poor planning with my bottles. So, about 1500 calories for about a 4 hour ride. Better than Branson  in time and fueling but I'm still not sure where I went wrong...I seriously doubt it was electrolytes since my mix had a decent amount of sodium and potassium. I've also heard several experts in the field say that electrolytes don't affect performance as has been proven in numerous tests during Ironman races.

The run started off great. I walked the steeper uphills, drank at least one cup of water every mile, took 2 gels and kept about a 12 min/mile pace. I finished the first loop in 1:19 and figured I would need to walk a bit more and planned for 1:30 for the second loop. As soon as I headed out on the second loop the sun got to me. I did more walking than the first loop and stuck to the same drinking routine. The only problem was I noticed my stomach getting bigger.

Just before the turn around I decided I would drink some Coke and see if that helped my stomach. In hindsight, I probably should have started drinking Coke earlier but who knows. I also had to go to the bathroom. This is the point where things went downhill pretty quickly. In the port a potty it was probably at least half blood with the rest being urine. I managed to get my sunglasses off to verify. Needless to say I was immediately scared.

I had this happen once before on a run and started walking and took the metro home. I chalked it up to having an empty bladder and my bladder rubbing together while running caused the bleeding, or whatever. I looked it up on my cell phone while walking. I did not think I had been running long and fast enough enough (7.5 miles) for it to be Rhabdomyolysis. Given what my body had been through over the weekend, I figured it could be worse this time.

I walked the last 3.25 miles and it was the longest hour of my life. I kept trying to drink water but my stomach just got a little more bloated. With 2 miles left to go I was not feeling good. I kept doing multiplication in my head in an attempt to gauge how well my brain was functioning. Between 2 and 1 miles left I wanted to sit on the side of the trail and cry. It (I) was hot and somewhat humid and it felt like a death march. I knew if I did this I would likely never get back up. At the water stop with 1 mile left I drank more water even though I knew my body wasn't doing anything with it. After that I was not very steady walking up the small hills and I felt a little light headed. My only goal was to make it off the trail, out of the woods and back to the road. Once I made it to the road I was about 90% sure I'd make it less than the half mile to the finish.

I saw the nurse and the pup. I think she was wondering why I didn't look too happy and she eventually figured it out. I told her I peed blood and was going to the med tent as soon as I crossed the finish. The pup was excited to see me and kept trying to jump on me and was worried he was going to knock me over. (Later I said, if he knocked me over I could see myself screaming at someone not to touch me if anyone tried to help me up since I was that close to the finish.)

I think I attempted to run the last 100 meters but I never asked anyone if it looked like I was running. When I crossed I got a shirt, noticed some people from the tri club cheering for me (no clue if I acknowledged them or not), handed my fuelbelt to the nurse and went to the med tent.

It's amazing how Fight or Flight works. My mental and physical capacities, if you were to graph them out, probably looked like a downhill with a 1-2% grade for the last couple miles. After the finish that downhill would probably have turned into a cliff and I think my body was ready to shut down. At the med tent I told them I peed blood and felt like I was going to pass out. Then I started feeling like I was going to throw up. I also got pretty mad that they didn't seem to be moving me into the tent to lay down very quickly considering what I just told them and that I was extremely pale.

Finally I was on a lounge chair and they were managed to find a vein to stick an IV in me and hooked me up to a liter of fluid. Some kid who you would not expect to be a doctor (the paramedic and the resident in the ER didn't know who he was) was telling me I probably have Rhabdomyolysis and wanted me to go to the hospital. Initially I just wanted to see what happened after I got the bag of fluid but decided to err on the side of caution and just go.

I felt fine after getting in the ambulance but ended up getting 2 more liters of fluids at the hospital. Then I peed like crazy and the second time it was mostly clear. After running some tests they said they didn't find much in my urine and were going to discharge me. When I got up from the bed, it was the best I had ever felt 2 hours after finishing a 70.3.

I need to figure out what keeps going wrong. I think this would have happened in both halfs last year if they were longer races since my stomach was definitely getting bigger during those races. The weather had been so cold lately during training that my body may have not been used to the heat. I think I did one long ride that didn't involve wearing a thermal jersey and that was the weekend before the race. Maybe I did push to hard on the bike and not take in enough water. Or it could have been the stress of the whole weekend.

Training wise, I definitely need to do longer brick sessions with at least 5 miles off a long bike ride for a 70.3. I have a 100 mile ride and 10 mile run brick scheduled for IM Wisconsin training. I'm probably going to end up saying goodbye to the clydesdale category since I'm weighing about 225 and plan on losing another 10-15 pounds. I imagine that would also help things. I never though I'd be able to get down to this low of a weight but I have stopped lifting weights all the time and I've lost a significant amount of muscle in my upper body.

I have the Route 66 Half Iron coming up at the end of July and it should be at least 90 by the run.
I'm hoping I can train well enough to make it through that race without any problems. Otherwise, I might need to seriously reconsider Wisconsin. I know that if I start the race it'll be tough to bring myself to DNF unless I'm laying on the ground and can't get up. After having our club member crash and me having to go to the hospital I think being alive and well is more important than being an Ironman.

And for anyone curious about race times, here they are:

AM OLY: 3:14
PM OLY: 3:34
Half:         7:50
   Bike: 3:53
   Run:  3:16

American Triple-T Weekend Race Report - Part 1

Alternate Race Titles
4 Races in 3 Days
140.6+ miles of fun
Hills and more hills - bring your climbing gears
One of the few races you'll actually get to know the people in transition
It might sound like a 3rd Grader wrote this


The much anticipated weekend finally came and went. In short, I finished and had a great time. I left St. Louis, with the nurse and pup, around 6:30 am and made the 7 hour drive to Shawnee State Park in Portsmouth, Ohio. With the hour time change I was hoping to get there around 3 but, we didn't make it until about 3:50 due to various reasons. Registration ended at 4:30 so, I was pretty worried during the last 2-3 hours of the drive.

We had about 12 people from the tri club racing so, it was pretty easy to find everyone. I got my stuff ready for the first race which is somewhat of an annoyance given that it probably takes more time to get everything ready than it does to do the race. All the races are a TT start (supposedly by number) so, there is a lot of standing around on the beach waiting.

Race #1 - Super Sprint

Swim: 250m
Bike: 6k
Run: 1 mile

This race is like a 5k run. The majority of triathletes can do this race on a whim. As I did for all the races I stood around with the tri club until there were about 50 or so people left and blended into line with 2 other people. It turns out the numbering system wasn't really enforced after #50 probably. During the wait it was interesting to see the strategies for getting out to the first buoy. Some people did dolphin dives, some tried to dolphin dive but failed miserably, others swam and most just high stepped/walked.

Not many people wore wetsuits for this one. I wish I had because the water was very cold in some spots, maybe 10-15 degrees colder and it was a nice shock. The swim was over before I knew it and I was on my bike riding to the turn around, then up a big hill to the lodge and back down to transition. Then I threw on my shoes and ran to the start of the running trail and about 200 feet in just as a tease and then back to transition. Somehow this all managed to take me 33 minutes. I figured I would easily be sub 30.

The split times are all messed up right now for every race. I doubt any of the swim courses were accurate this weekend because there is no way I swam a 6:40 for 250 meters. I'm not the fastest swimmer but I can do a 5 minute 250 for a warm up. The 6:40 equates to 2:45/100 which is barely faster than my first triathlon. It also says I swam 32:40 for 1.2 miles which is too fast even considering I was in a wetsuit. I think I could do 35 or 36 tops for a half right now but not after already having swam nearly 2 miles the day before. Not to mention all the biking and running. Anyway, it was time to recover even though it was not needed. We ended up ordering food from the hotel restaurant and the pizza turned out to be a big mistake as you'll find out in a bit.

Race #2 - AM ~Olympic

Swim: 1.5k - 2 Loops
Bike: 25 Hilly miles; 1-Cat 4, 2-Cat 5
Run: 6.55 Hilly miles

Goals: Come off the bike feeling like I didn't do anything. Finish the race and not feel like I raced.

The first Oly is the first race most people probably cared about. It's the easiest of the three but it can easily ruin the rest of your weekend. The pup decided he didn't like his sleeping arrangement and had to sleep in our bed which made sleeping a bit difficult. Nevertheless, I was up at 5:15 and out the door at about 6:15.

Race prep was basically the same as the night before except I actually had to fill my water bottles, take some gels and put on my wetsuit. For this race, I just walked to the first buoy and started swimming. Not too much drafting going on since everyone either couldn't swim a straight line or they kept veering away when I would move over to get behind them. Nothing eventful in this swim.

The bike course was a blast. In the first mile or two there were several wooden bridges we had to cross with huge bumps on either end. I saw at least 3 or 4 ejected water bottles at each bridge. I lost one of mine at the first bridge and was going so slow I stopped to get it. I was not that concerned with time this weekend...to a point.

The top of the first climb came at mile 2.62. I don't really remember this hill but, I remember it being a gradual uphill until the top. After that it was downhill, some steep and some gradual with some very technical turns. The RD warned everyone that when you see paint, or a person telling you to slow down, you better do it. He also added that if people fly by you on the downhills to wish them luck. The next hill was the worst of the day. It was a slight uphill approaching almost a 180 degree turn. Zero chance for momentum and there was gravel on the turn. Volunteers were standing around yelling about the gravel, sharp turn and the steep hill. I managed to get in my easiest gear before I made the turn. Others weren't as lucky. When I made the turn there was a girl coming down the hill...I also heard some people fell over, some walked up and someone heard a girl mash through all her gears and drop her chain. After that it "flattened out" for a bit. (The whole weekend was full of false flats because all the steep hills screw with your perception of flat land. I don't know how many times I'd look down and wonder why the hell I'm going 15 or 16 mph at this effort when it's flat...it wasn't flat.) Then it was downhill with some more sharp turns.

The last hill was featured in all three races...twice on Sunday. It has a gradual build to an out of the saddle climb for most people. Then it was a pretty fast downhill about 3 miles to T2. I took my time in T2 and slowly ran out to the course. All the runs were the same out and back with a gradual uphill then a steep downhill and back. The plan was to slowly run the uphill, walk the steeper parts and do whatever my body felt like on the downhills.

I finished in about 3:14 which turned out to be great considering I mostly felt like I hadn't raced. It should have been 3:11 or 3:12 but the pizza from the night before wouldn't wait 10 minutes and has to come out at the aid station at mile 5.5 on the run. The easy part was over, trying to figure out what to eat and how much in between races was going to be difficult. The nurse and I hung out under the tri club tent for a couple hours in between races and I tried to eat and rest.

Tune in tomorrow or someday in the near future for Part 2.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of My Cries of Agony From The Pain in My Quads From All The Hills...aka...Branson 70.3 Race Report

I wasn't really crying in agony but, when you haven't been able to bike for about a month and then go ride a hilly race, you're in for a bit of pain...

If you've read previous posts you would know that I was trying to decide between Branson and Redman. Club Nationals were at Redman this year and a lot of people were heading down there. I ended up picking Branson since I told my parents they could come that week and then spend the weekend in Branson. I feel bad since they probably didn't get to see much in Branson while they were there. I still can't decide if I made the right choice on races...hilly and 50-60 or mostly flat and 91 degrees (as I was told).

We got to the condo on Friday night and were treated to this lovely sight.

Then we headed out to Branson Landing for dinner to checkout the welcome concert and the finish area. I think there were more people not doing the race watching the concert. After that we just went back home and went to sleep.

Saturday morning I headed over to a packed packet pickup at 10:15. Judging by the size of the line, I thought I would be waiting over an hour. A couple minutes later a woman asked if I have a current USAT card...yes I do...OK, you can go into that much shorter line. After standing in that line for a few minutes, I could finally see the little signs with 1-400, 401-800 and 800 and up near the tables. I also noticed people looking at papers on a table. I figured I should probably go see what my number is. 744...great, I can stand in a much shorter line! (I wish I had pictures of the line.) I ended up forgetting my chip. It's a good thing I remembered when I went back there for the info meeting. I also found out that no one was at registration/packet pick up at 1pm. I don't know if there is any advantage with going early unless they run out of stuff. It's amazing how many people aren't USAT members.

After getting my number and shirt, I headed over to see what things that let me brag about my race souvenirs I can spend my money on. That would turn out to be a cowbell, a water bottle, a pint glass and a cycling jersey.  It was pretty low-key after that until I woke up the next morning.

Posting race nutrition seems to be the trend so here is my prerace meal.

Overnight Oats (Oats, Banilla yogurt, half a banana and milk)
2 Stinger Waffles (In T1)
1 Serving Skratch Labs Lemons and Limes
----------
Calories: 750
Sodium: 443 mg
Potassium: 935 mg

Since the race is a point to point race, the suggested plan of action was to drive to T2 in the morning and then take a bus to T1. So, I woke up, drove to T2, dropped off my running gear, found some tri club peoples, waited in line for about 20 minutes for a bus, watched the line grow to several hundred people (I was about 30th), got on the bus for what seemed to be the longest shuttle ride I've ever taken, got off said bus and walked to T1. Supposedly there were at least 5 buses running from 4:30-8. Due to our 20 minute wait, I wonder how many of those buses existed/were full. My parents and the nurse confirmed that the buses existed.

One thing I was unaware about IM events is that they are transition nazis. Why do I need to start leaving transition 30 minutes before the race, especially when the athlete guide says 15 minutes? It's already a long day, why make people wake up 15 minutes earlier just to stand around in 45 degree weather. Through the use of my cell phone, which I was reluctant to bring in case I didn't find my entourage, I found my entourage. I exited transition to say hi and to put on suntan lotion. The nurse suggested I reapply after the swim so, I went back in to transition and was not let out of T1 the same way as before. I tried to reason with a volunteer that it didn't matter which way I exited as long as I exited as all exits lead to the beach. He didn't agree. Another volunteer asked what was wrong and I pointed to the nurse and asked if he would tell them I need to meet them on the beach. So, we met on the beach and waited around for about 45 minutes until my wave started.

I got into the corral with one of my friends from the tri club and started the swim near him. I stayed on the inside of the buoys and there wasn't much chaos. There also weren't many people to draft off. When I did manage to draft off people it was short-lived since they all slowed down. I don't think I've ever been able to draft off anyone long enough to realize the benefits. I swam along until the turn buoy and then cut back to the outside. It was fairly uneventful until some guy cuts across me out of nowhere and kicks my goggle. It popped right back into place and I swam to get around him. Then, he cuts back across me again. This process was repeated once more, minus the kicking of my goggles. I swam hard for about 10 seconds to get away from the guy. I really hope he didn't do this the whole swim. After that it was mostly smooth sailing. I started passing people from previous waves which is always a good confidence/morale booster. I breathe on my left and I had some guy on that side, breathing on his right, get so close we almost kissed. Another guy kept pushing me to the right, until I swam back into him a little and then he realized he needed to redirect himself. Sighting was a bit difficult since the course was so far out and some of the buoys were small. I figured it out and kept swimming until I hit the gravel after swimming around 30-40 feet in about 2 feet of water with rocks you would not want to stand up on. It was weird how the water level stayed the same for so long. (The beach isn't really a beach. It's half sand and half gravel that sucks to walk on without shoes.)

Exiting the water and trying to walk on the gravel

The walk up the beach was slow. I didn't bother to run since I still had the whole day in front of me and knew I'd have to take it easy on the bike. It is a race but, I didn't understand why people were flying by me. You're probably not going to PR in Branson but, whatever floats your boat. T1 was slow. I dried off since it was cold and stuffed everything into the green bag hoping it would show up in T2. The only plus to my bag not showing up was the excuse to buy a new wetsuit...It showed up. For the first time ever in a tri, I threw on a long sleeve bike jersey since it was still around 50 degrees. Best decision of the day, thanks to the nurse.

I put my shoes on and headed for the hills. 

I should note that I changed from a 12-25 to 12-27 cassette so I could spin up the hills a little easier. The course went uphill for 6 miles to the "high road." I chatted with one of my friends for a little bit on the ride which took my mind off the hills for a bit. Then, I picked up a bottle at the first aid station, threw it in my back pocket in case I needed it and said "you first" to my friend before the first descent. I've heard people say they hit 45-50 mph in Branson and I'm not surprised given how long the descents are. I'm not afraid of going fast but, I'm afraid of crashing as a result of going fast. I did a bit of reasoning right before I got to the first downhill...it would be tough to slow to less than 30 mph and if I'm going to crash the chances can't be much higher if I'm going 40. Plus, crashing at 30 mph will more than likely hurt just as much as at 40 mph. Therefore, I will not touch the brakes unless absolutely necessary.

For the next 4 hours, this is what I did...

Lots of climbing and descending if you can't tell. I maxed out at 39.8 mph and did most of the climbs under 10 mph. The climbing didn't seem too bad at first but on the last loop around I was tired of and from climbing. I seriously wondered if I was going to make it. Around mile 40 or so I could tell my legs had the potential to cramp up. Not good. So, I popped two salt tabs and finished almost all my water since there was an aid station coming up. At that point I didn't care what my time was, I just wanted to make it up the last hill before I cramped. If I didn't I might run the risk of not finishing the race. Even though there is an 8 1/2 hour cut off, people still posted times over 9:30 when the last group started 40 minutes after the first. Theoretically the cut off should have been 9:10 for the first group. Anyway, if I had to walk up that hill I knew I was probably done. Thankfully, I only had a lot of pain in my right quad on the last hill. Mostly due to the fact that it was up an exit ramp to the highest point I had been, then you turn the corner and climb a little more. If you look at the climb data you'll notice the last climb is at least 75 feet higher than the rest. 

I was extremely relieved when I made it to the top and crushed when I saw how long the bike had taken and I still had 4 miles to go. It was ALMOST all downhill after that. There was one extreme drop that I did brake on because I thought I had to turn at the bottom but alas, there was another 500 feet to a U-turn. The last bit was mostly flat but as soon as you think you're done you turn the corner and have to go up what looks like a 50-75 foot wall. I thought I was done with hills so the following went through my mind...$o^ofai3i@ch! M@t%erfing are you Fing KIDDING ME! Then I got off my bike and walked up the hill in fear of my quads cramping up if I stood up to climb the wall. 

Things of note on the bike: I didn't see Andy Potts. I saw a very nice camelbak podium water bottle that I was tempted to stop and pick up. I ate two stinger waffles without them breaking apart. **My mom (who doesn't know a lot about triathlons) called out one of the relay teams in T2 for not even being close to racking their bike before they handed off the chip to start the run.** 

Bike Nutrition: 

GU Roctane Ultra Endruance: 3 bottles

2 Honey Stinger Waffles

5 Saltstick Caps

2 GU electrolyte tabs

Calories: 1000

Sodium: 2785 mg

Potassium: 575 mg

1000 Calories is not enough. I was planning on taking in almost 1200 but, I didn't eat the last waffle. I should have planned on eating closer to 1800 calories (4 cal/kg/hour = about 440 cals/hr) since I was out there for 4 hours. At least I did a better job with the sodium. 

Then I got to T2.

I was not a happy camper. I thought I was done at that point but there was no way in hell I'm stopping after all that with a flat run ahead of me. I saw my dad and I think I waved. My mom took the photo above and was screaming at me along with some other woman who I'm guessing she told who I was. I just kept walking and racked my bike. All I wanted to do was get the run over with. Interestingly enough, I perked up a bit on the run. 

The run, much like the bike course, is pancake flat. It's three loops that tease you in typical Ironman fashion as you pass the finish twice before crossing it. You also run through Branson Landing which made things a bit exciting. 

My parents, the nurse and Loki were all at the run start to cheer me on. Again, I was not in a great mood so I slogged on. Due to the pancake nature of the run, I managed to "run" the first 4 miles only walking at aid stations. 

The run wasn't that bad as the three loops made it easy to set little goals like, I'm going to run the loop around the park or I'm going to run to the turn around, since I mostly knew what was coming up after the first loop. The only bad part was they ran out of Coke and my stomach wouldn't settle down. I figured this would happen so the plan was to take in more calories on the bike but, it's not easy to eat stinger waffles when you're constantly going up and down hills.

The pup finally noticed me on one loop.

The last loop was a lot of speed walking. I think I did one mile at 16 min/mile while walking. If you know how much I hate walking fast you would be shocked. I tried to run the last loop around the park but that wasn't happening. When I tried to run my heart rate was shooting up to the 130s fairly quickly and I was feeling out of breath at such a low HR. Needless to say, I was pretty happy when I was finally able to go left to the finish. 

I guess raising my arms caused my race belt to rise up my body

Run Nutrition:

Apple Cinnamon Hammer Gel

Water

Saltstick Caps

Calories: maybe 300

Sodium: no clue

Potassium: no clue

This was difficult since water was making my stomach rumble and I didn't want to take on electrolytes if I wasn't drinking water. Same thing goes for the Gel. After awhile my stomach did settle so I had about 3 servings of gel and at least 2 saltstick caps. 

Overall I'm happy with the way things went. Even though I hadn't biked for a month I was optimistic about my bike time but, I wasn't surprised when I needed a lot of time to recover after each hill on the second part of the bike. It's difficult to say if I would do this one again. 

Macklind Mile

There is a running store about a half mile from my house that I've run or walked to more than once. They're probably the biggest running store(s) in St. Louis. If not, they put on the most events. One of them being the Macklind Mile, named after the street it's run on Macklind Ave. The finish line is directly in front of one of their stores. Since it's the first race I could walk to the start line and it's only a mile, I decided to do it. The main reason is because I've never run a race that short before. Sure, we've all done mile repeats but running a mile race is a little different. It's almost an all out effort.

I meant to practice my pace on Wednesday night but that didn't happen because it was the first week of puppy training for Loki and I couldn't work around it. So, I figured I'd try to keep it under 7 minutes.

The Men's race didn't start until 9:20. I tried to kill some time with Loki before I left at 8:30 and I would be gone most of the day. It's been a record setting week of high temperatures with every day being over 100 for the high. Needless to say, I had a good sweat going by the time I got to the start and an even better sweat after I warmed up.

I think it was around 90 at the start

The mile is a very interesting race, I started out sub 6 according to my Garmin probably due to a steep downhill. The race is around an 80 feet drop in elevation. I slowed to sub 7 during the slight incline and picked it up a bit for the last half mile. I felt fine until it flattened out for the last 1/8 mile and my legs could feel it but I managed to hang on until the end.

Finish Time:
6:49
Mostly towards the back in all the groups as the slower people run the Friend's and Family wave. However it was kind of a shame as the excitement was over so quickly. If you think a 5k goes by fast, run a mile.

Then I ran...sorta...home to get the dog and head to the end of the street to watch the elite runners go by. I was drenched and decided to change my shirt but it didn't matter as that shirt was drenched within a couple minutes. The fastest male was 4:09 and the fastest female was 4:48.

A couple hours later, I went riding. I needed to ride for 2 hours according to my training plan...it sucked. The heat was brutal and my arm coolers dried out in less than 5 minutes each time. I didn't not plan accordingly for hydration and basically ran out of water. Stopping for a light made it feel like I was in an oven.

Speaking of running fast there was an interesting post on Slowtwitch about how long you can maintain the world record marathon pace of 4:43/mile (12.63 mph). I never attempted it but after that I would guess 300 meters if I'm lucky. That pace has to be faster than most people can sprint 200m. Hell, it's faster than your average person can ride 26.2 miles on a bike.

Tomorrow, I'll have more clever analysis on paying to run a mile race.