Another week, another race report!
Saturday was the Atlantic Coast Triathlon, a half-ironman length (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) event in Amelia Island, Florida. It would tie for the longest triathlon I've ever completed, a distance I had completed only once before in May 2007 at Disney. There was also an Olympic distance race held at the same time on the same course with earlier turnarounds and different wave starts.
With perfect timing, the sun rose directly over the ocean where the swim was located about 2 minutes before my wave started. They started all the men, then all the women, then lastly all the "special" groups which were Clydesdales, Athenas, Relays, and myself and a few others in the Military division. I knew I'd get clobbered by my age group as usual so I figured I'd try something different.
Starting in the last wave also helped in that I was bumped very little after the initial chaos since there was no one to chase me down. It was a triangular course, diagonally out, straight across, diagonally back. The current was just weird, it almost felt like two of the legs were into it instead of one. I constantly was bobbing and grabbing air when I went to pull. By the end I almost felt a little nauseous... er nauseus... er nautious... er SICK. It might have been because it was by far the longest I've swam in the ocean and thus salt water versus the fresh water of Bay Lake at Disney. Ooh I also must mention it was my first time in a wetsuit for a race (the other races the water was too warm for them to be allowed), and my bluseventy Helix performed admirably. Was quite nice to float without trying, especially for someone as poor a swimmer as I. I have to give the credit for my faster time to the wetsuit. I was excited to see more people behind me as I got out though! Last year at Disney I was 1:02:58 for comparison.
Swim:
51:47, 132/145 Overall
A pretty decent distance up the shore and across the sand and down a path led to transition set up in a parking lot. Not being on grass helped things a bit, and although I was worried about removing the wetsuit that went pretty smoothly. The Helix is designed for a quick exit and worked great. I'd forgotten my towel so put my socks on wet which led to issues later, but managed to cut some time off last year's 6:25, even with the added wetsuit process!
T1:
4:45
The bike was pretty interesting. I'd been doing 25 mile bike legs the previous two weeks, so I felt great up until that point on this course, and then started noticing that I was tiring. It was mostly flat with only one big bridge, but the second half of the course was a loooong out and back to the south, and with the wind out of the North that made for a taxing road back to T2. Was fun to see everyone on their way back when I was on the way out and vice versa. The leader was finishing the last out and back section when I was starting, which put him about 22 MILES ahead of me.
Stopped a couple times to check on a clicking sound my bike was making with each tire rotation but never did figure out what it was. Strove to maintain a 20mph pace but the last section just slowed me down too much. Stayed positive though as I knew I was taking a huge chunk off last year's 3:11:58. DW was there at T2 having finally woken up and had gotten a little cheering section together with volunteers hanging around so that was fun. Funny thing was the fact that the Olympic race was basically over with almost everyone having finished the much shorter distances. And I still had hours to go.
Bike:
2:50:02, 19.8mph, 81/145
The second transition went pretty smooth, funny enough I got there the same time as the guy who had the spot right next to me on the rack, so it felt like we were "racing" to see who could get out of there first. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have changed socks at this point, as my bike ones were soaked and I had a spare pair of Thorlos. Time was a little slower than my usual 2:00 which I'll attribute to moving slower due to the longer ride and soaking in the atmosphere a little bit. Still also much faster than last year' 4:40 when I spent some time stretching out the cramps that had accumulated on the bike.
T2:
2:11
The run was actually a great course. The first three miles were through the picturesque little houses of Amelia Island in an out and back, which unfortunately was in typical brutal sun. After that though we turned into the state park, and the vast majority of the remainder of the race was on completely canopied paved roads in great shade. Couple of low points for me were at mile 3.5 or so when I saw DW near the finish and knew I had a retarded amount of miles to go as I finished that first loop, and then about mile 6. This was one of the only sunny sections of the state park as we finished an out and back portion, and my times had really started to suffer. I tried to just tell myself that I had walked basically the entire run leg last year, and I'd already ran further than that whole race combined. I started putting in walking intervals, and ended up running maybe 80% of the race overall I'd guess. The aid stations this late in a long triathlon are godsends, I just love dumping ice water on my head, it's such a shock to the system. I was taking gels about every 3 miles initially then every 2 for the last couple, and that worked out pretty well. The cramps which I always fear started creeping in about mile 3 but I really focused on taking the right amount of calories and gatorade in and between that and the added walking intervals I managed to never cramp up!
It was really scenic and I made sure to walk the only real undulations on the course while running the downhills, so that really helped me take time off last year's 3:00:26.
Run:
2:34:54, 11:49/mile, 110/145
All in all I feel great about the race. Better yet I could walk today. Highlights for me were of course finishing a race as long as I had ever run, making great improvements in time on all three legs, and best of all having a great time doing it. Last year's 7:26:25 was crushed.
Overall:
6:23:39, 3/5 Military, 79/101 Male, 107/145 Overall
I really can't fathom the concept yet of taking an entire HOUR off my PR at this distance.
I guess when I actually stick with a training schedule good things happen! Time to update the siggy!
Oh, and the top 5 in each age group got some kind of award, so technically I got one just for showing up, we'll have to see what they mail me!
Been enjoying everyone's else's reports this week, looking forward to reading more! And next up (not done yet!) is the Cypress Gardens mini-tri on Saturday (600yd swim/10mile bike/5k run) and then the RFTT on Sun. Can't wait to see fellow WISH'rs at a race finally!
Edit: Oh and how could I forget the bling! All finishers of the half got a triangular shaped medal in this design with a blue and green colored ribbon, unique shape and color looks great on my rack!
http://www.drcsports.com/races/act/grfx/actst.gif
GO! WISH Team GO! 
