"The Rock-Mann"

So my 1st triathlon of the year was Sunday. A Half IronMan, no doubt ~1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, then a 13.1 mile run. I wish I could say I had a stellar performance, but it was not meant to be in my legs this day.

I started the week out being sick the entire week before the race, actually still trying to get rid of this dang cold. Arrgghhh..

In the morning, I met up at the race with some fellow TriClub members to pick up our packets and get settled. It was going to be a perfect day for the race. An Inaugural "Rock~Mann", 1st time race director also, so hopefully everything was setup accordingly.

So around 7:00am the swim start went off. I think it was a little bit chaotic, it was a mass swim start, but I 'm not sure where the exact starting line was. But off everybody went heading for the first turn buoy. It was a little bit jammed up in the beginning. When you have 400+ people heading for the same object it can get a little bit messy out there. But I did feel I was swimming okay, swimming with other people no fact, that meant I was not getting totally blow away out there. The water was calm entire swim, but then came the turn and the big patch of seaweed that waited for us all. The seaweed was pretty thick, the worst I swam in so far. It was pretty relentless, It was all over my head, in my mouth, at one point I thought I was cocooned in it for a second. Not a calming situation for a not so fast swimmer in the first place. But somehow I made it through the two lap swim. I made a mental mistake or two out there, like swimming towards a lifeguard, thinking it was turn buoy. Crap, that put me way off course. Not sure what my total time was, but I guess I'm used seeing most of the bikes gone from T1, which included both my teammates. So what else is new.

So for T1, I had this "bright" idea, to attach my shoes to my bike when I left T1, it makes for a quicker T1 they say. So after the bike mount line, I put one foot in and then started to ride to put the other foot in. OH, that did not work, the other shoe scraped the ground, I was stopped dead in my tracks. So after 3 attempts and people looking at me, I finally was on my way, but felt like a total dork trying to do it. I guess I should have practiced this "bright" idea first.

So the first half of the bike went well, I was passing alot of people on the bike, I had my egghead aero helmet on and was riding at a descent pace. I had passed kickstandpam early on, and was trying to track down the two other people I knew racing this day. I knew they could get me on the swim but I was determined to reel them in. But after checking the time of my first half bike split, my other "bright" idea of avg 21 mph on the bike was not going to happen. I was starting to loose steam, getting tired after 50 miles, my ass was hurting and I wanted to get off the bike and start running. So I think I averaged around 19 mph for the 56 miles, not any better or worse than I usually do, but I so wanted to improve so much this year.

So T2 was pretty uneventful, I had reeled in one other person on the bike and just had to figure out where my other TRI club member was to get pass him some how. But the run was mine, I felt I could catch up to him.

So after mile two I saw my fellow TRI member, he was having some major nutrition issues and was walking, I said hey "Bill", which would have been okay, but that was not his name, maybe I was getting a little loopy myself. But a medic volunteer was on his mountain bike near him, so I went along knowing he had support out there.

Then the showdown began, I was leaving for my run when kickstandpam was coming into T2, so she was not to close behind. But I had the male ego thing going for me, actually better yet the male UltraRunning ego, so I could not let her take me down. On one of the early out-back sections we passed each other, to my surprise she was going out fast, a fierce determination in her eyes to reel me in. But I had a least a half mile or about 8 minutes on her. So I know I could not slack off. The run was a pretty undulating course, something I actually prefer to run in. I was keeping in a zone 2 pace, actually ran really comfortably, I even shocked myself.

So on the last 3 miles I knew I had held off the charging kickstandpam, I ran a descent 13.1 mile run, since I hadn't done any brick work, I was happy with at least this part of the race. I think I did a 8:49 minute pace. Not really fast, but it was okay for now.

So the total time was 5:45:23, not even close to my 5:30 time I wanted to do. Yes, I'm a little disappointed with my results, but felt more comfortable doing the whole distance as a whole, so hopefully I will get faster next time. I'm at least not getting slower, but this consistency thing is starting to not sit well with me these days.

But like all things, you give it your best shot, and I had fun racing with some friends, especially since I finished ahead of all of them (hee hee). As for kickstandpam, her first Half IronMan, she did awesome, so it was a GOOD day indeed.

But please Race Director I will be back next year, but I want my T-shirt next time.