1/2 IM Race Report

[laxdef69]

The summary:
I'm totally happy with how I did in the race. My overall time was 5:50:16 and it was an amazing experience.

I'll cover the rest of the race in installments to avoid crashing the boards.

First Installment, covers Friday and Saturday.

Friday July 18th… Triple check the packing list, unpack and repack three times to ensure that I haven’t forgotten anything (like my goggles, which were neither on the list or in the bag!). Had a relaxing dinner at home with DW, DD-17, DS-6 and DS-4. Checked over, cleaned and lubed my bike; found a small tear in the rear tire while cleaning the wheels. My training partner (TP) came over and used my bike stand to clean/check his bike.

Saturday July 19th…Went to the local farmer’s market (RAIN RAIN RAIN) with the family. TP came over around 10:30 and we loaded our transition bags, backpacks and bikes into his car. Finalized plans for our respective spouses and kidlets to meet up and ride up together in DW’s minivan, so that each family would have their own car to ride home in.

We went to the local bike shop, where I purchased a replacement tire…I couldn’t stand the thought of a DNF due to a small tear in the tire…the tire would probably have been ok, but I didn’t want to have to worry about it. Anyway, I just bought a trainer, so I’ll use the torn tire as the rear tire for the trainer.

We drove up to Racine (about an hour and fifteen minutes) and stopped for lunch. There weren’t too many choices, so against my better judgement (Burger King over Subway…I should have insisted on Subway) we went to BK.

The food was every bit as bad as I remember, and I left there feeling nauseous, knowing this wasn’t a good way to “fuel” prior to a 70.3 mile event.

We then went to the expo/check in. They did allow me to change from Clydesdale XL1 (185-199 lbs) to XL2 (200-214lbs) so I would be in the right weight class. SWEET! The “goodie bag” mostly consisted of throwaway advertisements, but the technical shirt is really nice.

After the check in, we drove to check in our bikes (you have to check in your bike the night before and security watches to make sure none disappear). After racking my bike, putting heavier lube on the drive train since it was going to drizzle all night, getting my bearings on the transition entrances and exits, we decided to walk along the beach to get our bearings on the swim course. We realized that the weather was both rainy and foggy…I mean really foggy, less than 50 yards visibility; you could barely see the buoys that laid out the turns from the beach, and couldn’t see more than one at a time. Our training plan called for a 15 minute swim today….the water was so cold, that we just stood in it up to our ankles until our feet went numb…about 7 minutes. The water that day was 57 degrees. That’s not a typo.

We drove back about 25 miles (since TP waited too long to to book rooms) to Pleasant Prairie. (This is one of the most inaccurately named towns I have ever seen, since twas neither pleasant (the town was dominated by the huge concreted mall at the expressway exit consisting of pretty much every fast food chain except Chik Fil A, and what I think is the biggest grocery store in existence, Woodman’s), and no prairie was in evidence, except possibly the weeds growing in the parking lot) We got to our home for the night, the Super 8 Motel. We went to the room, dropped our stuff, and turned on the AC full blast. We went to the least dangerous looking of the chain restaurants, Noodles and Company. The food was pretty good, and I was glad that I was getting some pasta and chicken breast ahead of the event (although the chicken breast was parmesan encrusted (hey, I’m only human)).

A side story, TP wanted to book the hotel, since for our first duathlon I booked in the town of Mattoon, IL which was where the website for the duathlon said it was being held. We wound up about 40 miles away from the event location, so he wanted to handle booking the rooms, and take my obvious incompetence out of the picture. When I observed that I had found us a much nicer place, and it would have been worth it to drive another 15 miles to get there, he grudgingly agreed. What made that even funnier was that the same hotel brand was on the other side of the expressway, about 30 seconds from our place.

The original plan had been for our families to come up and stay in one room in the place, and TP and I would stay in the other…that got scrapped for various reasons, and just TP and I went up…it was a relief to know that our families were home alone in their beds, and we were in our (most definitely separate) beds with whatever bugs that particular Super 8 hosts on a regular basis.

TP turned on the TV at around 7:30:01 PM…I managed to fall asleep at about 7:30:30…but woke up at around 9:00 sweating…what the? Turns out that TP was on the bed closer to the AC unit…he got too cold, so he turned the vents so that the air discharged into the curtain over the window.

Anyone who took thermodynamics knows that cold air falls…so the cold air was falling out of the curtains, onto the thermostat, which meant that the T-stat read that the temperature was satisfied…which also meant that the AC didn’t RUN! After observing that TP would look back on being cold under that blanket as the good old days once he hit the lake water (now down to 57 degrees), he agreed, and turned the AC vents where they should be, toward the occupants of the room. Of course, now I had just taken a 90 minute nap, and was wide awake; so I watched the end of Oceans 12, while listening to TP snoring on his bed. Suffice it to say that it wasn’t a great nights rest.

 

[funwalker]

Great Report

 

[Steffwalks]

Loved installment 1! Can't wait for the rest!!!

 

[postesf]

 

[laxdef69]

Sunday, July 20th, Race Day

Woke up at 0410; had the alarms set for 0420, since we needed to drive 25 miles to get there by 0530. We needed to get numbers put on each arm, one leg, and the age/group on the other leg.

We went to our bikes to double check tire pressures, replace the lube that had been washed off overnight, take off the plastic seat covers, and lay out the transition areas.

When I got to my bike, it had been moved from its spot at the transition of two racks (the second most desirable spot, the most desirable is the first position since it has the most space) Instead of getting angry, I noticed that there were very few bikes further in on the rack; so I just moved my bike further down the rack, and had LOTS of room. I set up my transition area several times to be sure I had it right (remember this is my first triathlon) and taped my gel packs to the top tube of my bike.

I started bsing with some of the other triathletes, and I looked very familiar to one of them…turns out we had taken some classes at Elmhurst College (a small local to Chicago school) together in 1988…so we had our own little 20th class reunion at rack blue BB…that was pretty cool!

The other triathletes were all exchanging stories about their other events…when it got to me, I just looked at them, smiled and said this is my first one. They said, sure, first half IM, but what about your times at the sprints and Olympic distances…I said, no, this is my first ever triathlon. No one said a word for a couple of seconds, and then one guy slowly said “This is your first tri…ever?” When I confirmed that, they looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears (extra points if you can name the movie).

The music was pumping, and the announcer called out a rolling 15 minute delay to the 0700 scheduled start…basically they would evaluate the safety of the water conditions every 15 minutes and make the call…did I mention that the water was colder (official temp at start time was 54 degrees) and it was even FOGGIER Sunday morning that Saturday PM?

TP and I finally can’t stand just waiting around, since the butterflies in my stomach are divebombing the rest of my digestive tract, so we pull on our wetsuits, just up to our waists. Now I look like 10 lbs of sausage squeezed halfway into a 7 pound casing….I can’t walk around with my gut sucked in (what I call “Doing the William Shatner”) for a real long time, so we start slowly making our way (did I mention that the 1.2 mile swim started 1.2 miles away from the transition area? No?) to the swim start area.

As the long line of idiots (sorry, Endurance Athletes) made its way toward the start, we were just bsing, trying to not think about how cold 54 degree water really is. One of the other (obviously more experienced) triathletes came up to me from behind, and very nicely (and discreetly) asked me if I knew that my wetsuit was on inside out. Gawd, that was embarrassing. I thanked him profusely. My TP laughed like a maniac, which in fairness, I would have done the same thing to him.

In my defense though, there were logos printed on both the inside AND the outside of the suit…OK, its not a great defense, but its all I got. Anyway, I took off the wetsuit, and sprinted into the lake in my tri shorts and nothing else…it was so cold, it literally took my breath away…but I swam a few strokes, and walked out to a smattering of applause from the other competitors. I managed to get my suit on right side out, and we finished up walking out to the start area. As I looked back, toward the transition area, there was a huge long line of competitors as far as I could see, disappearing into the fog…it was a neat site, and I wish I had a pic to show you, or could be at least a little more descriptive.

The swim course is laid out as follows: You swim east into Lake Michigan. At the first yellow buoy (normally about 100-150 yards out, this time at about 75 yards due to the fog), you turn south, and then every couple of hundred yards there is a large orange buoy. You have to stay outside the orange buoys (i.e. the buoys are between you and land) or you get a time penalty/DQ. At the last yellow buoy, you turn back west toward the shore. I couldn't swear to it in court, but I think I saw a Coast Guard ice breaker clearing the course just before start time.

They started the pro men, pro women, then elite men, then elite women first. The waves are separated by color coded swim caps…the pro men sprinted out into the water, then porpoised out and turned around the first yellow buoy and disappeared into the mist…VERY inspiring to see.

They sent off the various divisions, and I could see that TP was a little nervous…now this is a guy who was a Navy Rescue Diver…and HE is nervous about the swim…dear lord, what have I gotten myself into. They sent off the division in front of his. One final fist bump and “see you at the finish” later, and the whistle blew to send them on their way.

The next four waves went off, then they called the Clydesdales. For the record, The American Clydesdale Horse Society says this about Clydesdales:
“Male or female, a Clydesdale should look handsome, weighty and powerful, so that the impression is given of quality and weight, rather than grossness and bulk."

I’ll take it!

We started to assemble on the beach….our group was very enthusiastic, yelling things like “lets get some meat in the water”…my contribution was “get ready to raise the lake fellas!” which was loudly applauded by my fellow Clydesdales, the remaining waves, and the official starter.

I was literally shaking from adrenaline, cold, and fear at this point. The horn went off and we slogged to the water…hey we’re Clydesdales not Quarter Horses. As I entered the water, I realized that this was the first event I had entered where I didn’t already KNOW if I could complete it…I wasn’t sure if I could complete all 70.3 miles, and was facing the unknown.

As we got going, imagine about 125 fellas over 200 lbs all trying to not drown in 54, yes 54 degree water. I have never been in a Tri before, so the flailing arms, elbows, knees, and constant contact was completely unexpected. Add the turbulence and bubbles from all those arms and legs and it is a very disorienting experience. I had to stop several times (coach, if you are reading this, I never stopped, just slowed down) to stop hyperventilating and get my bearings.

After 300-400 yards, I was able to settle into a pretty smooth swim stroke, and started covering some ground. You had to swim outside of the orange buoys, (which were placed around 75 yards off shore) and turn in to shore at the yellow buoys. A genius decided to place two yellow buoys at the last turn, basically one was 50 yards offshore, the other 75 yards…a lot of folks swam from the orange buoy to the 50 yard yellow buoy to go to shore, only to be turned back by a USAT official…they had to swim back out and around the 75 yard buoy, or face DQ. Since I was alternating a good swim stroke with the lifeguard stroke, I saw what was going on, and stayed on course…I probably reeled in 50-60 people by not following the crowd…I wonder if there is a life lesson there…NAH!

 

[postesf]

Great report so far!!! I can't wait for more!!!

Stacie

 

[jmasgat]

Mike Loving the report. Just wondering--did the lake level rise noticeably when you and the other Clydesdales entered? I had not realized this was your very first tri. You are amazing!

Maura

 

[JimB.]

Lemme' get this right............. your FIRST Tri is a 1/2 IM??

You DO have lobsters crawling out your ears!!

& I fall to the ground in awe of your feat!!! (not feet, FEAT!!!)

 

[TEK224]

I understand how you felt. I picked a 1/2 IM for my 1st ever triathlon. What in the world was I thinking?!

Terri

 

[skfulkers]

Mike--awesome report so far! Not to be pushy, but can you drop everything else in your life and hurry up finishing it so we can keep reading? Because, as you know, WE'RE obviously the most important, right?

Great job on the race! I, too, didn't realize this was your first tri. You rock!

Steve

 

[JustSmile]

Fab report, Mike. I can't wait to read the rest!

 

[funwalker]

Great Report, it is a delight to read! But Geez...it is just like 'The Left Behind' series we have to wait to read the next chapter!

 

[WDWFAN9]

More please!! Great report!!

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Congratulations Mike on your first!

Fantastic reporting so far. I am anxiously awaiting the next installment.

 

[FatElvis]

Cool report! But c'mon man - hustle on with the rest of it!

I think that swimming chaos is the main thing keeping me from doing a triathlon - I've heard other descriptions of it like that and it sounds scary!

 

[laxdef69]

BIKE

So I exit the water, and there is a big crowd of people forming a lane to run through, kind of like you see in the Tour De France, shouting, clapping, ringing bells.

I took down the top of my suit to my waist and ran the 300 yards from the swim exit to the entrance to transition 1. I was so relieved to have the swim behind me that I was just looking forward to getting on the bike and putting the hammer down.

I ran into T-1 (literally the size of a football field), ran toward where my bike was racked which was, oh, on the ½ yard line on the other side of the field. Got to my bike, took off the suit, tossed it on my bag, put on and buckled my helmet first, glasses, socks, shoes, (note to self…dry your feet, the time you take will be probably be saved in putting ON the socks…also, you might remove some sand from your feet, which could, just possibly, act as an abrasive on the skin on your feet…just possibly) took a gel shot, put the three Clif bars that I had rubber banded together in my tri top middle pocket, double checked that both bottles with Cytomax were secure, and run/walked to T1 exit.

Took a turn, got past the orange stripe on the ground, clipped in to climb the first hill.

Of course, I am in not in what riders would call “climbing” gear, I am in “hammer” gear. Picture a wet, 205 pound guy in tight shorts and sleeveless tight top on a little red bike simultaneously desperately trying to not fall, pedal forward, and down shift…It was a miracle that I didn’t have road rash within 50 feet of the bike start.

Got all of the above issues (except for the 205 pounder in spandex clothes) addressed, and made my way up the hill and headed out of town.

I’ll attach a link to the map, but it was mostly rolling hills, with a couple of hairpin turns. Police and volunteers where at every turn and intersection, waving flags to give you direction, stopping cross traffic (many of whom didn’t appear to realize that there was some sort of little event going on). They had refreshment stands every 10 miles starting at 15 miles. I settled into a nice cadence and looked to be averaging about 20 mph. As you come into the aid stations on a bike, they are spread out over about 100 yards, and they need every bit of it. There are hundreds of bottles thrown out by previous riders (yes, I am a slow swimmer and biker, so many of them were there before me, thank you for pointing that out!) At a lot of intersections, there were people clapping, ringing bells, shouting encouragement, which I have to tell you, really helps! I saw one group of people about 7 or 8 different times, and another about 5 times. The 5 timers had a sign that said something like “Go Sneezy” so the second time I saw them I stared yelling “ah choo, ah choo!” They asked me what my name was, so I told them, and the next four times I saw them, they were yelling, “Go Mike”…nice, I never had groupies before!
The other group had a sign that said “Go big or go HOME!” so every time I passed them, I hit a double bicep pose…they would clap and cheer, so I had a double group of groupies!

There weren’t really outstanding vignettes during the bike section, although there is one PG-13 incident. I had been passing and being passed by/with the same 30 something woman during this leg.

We had exchanged some friendly words, joking that our reward for completing this portion was a ½ marathon. As we came to a hairpin turn, she unexpectedly took an outside line, so I yelled “I’m inside you”…As we came out of the turns, and she caught up, I sheepishly looked at her and said “I realized how bad that sounded right when I said it” She laughed, put the hammer down, and I never saw her again…guess that was too creepy for her.

Anyway, I stayed with the same groove/cadence; I felt wonderful on the bike and could have pushed harder for a better time, but kept reminding myself that there was a ½ marathon, and to save some for the run. As I came back into town, I started passing runners who I assumed were on their first lap of the run course…the run was two laps of the same course, which I never like doing as I’d like to just run past the areas one time during a race.

 

[twoWDWfools]

Great report Mike and congrats!!
Now get on with the rest would ya!

 

[Cherylbug]

What an awesome report. Congratulations on your first tri. I know you had to be super excited!! Can't wait to hear the rest of the story.

 

[beckyb29]

What a great report!!! Great job on everything!!! Can't wait to read the rest

 

[bunnyfoo]

I laughed at the inside out wetsuit! Great report Mike! I can't wait to keep reading! And congrats on your first tri! That is quite the accomplishment