ChelanMan Half Iron

[chrisesposito]

Pre-race:
I knew it was going to be a hot day, and given my cramping / hydration problem, I drank a few bottles of water+Nuun+Liquid Endurance (glycerol) per day for the 3 days leading up to the race, continuing through race morning. Going into this event I was primarily concerned with being able to prepare for and execute well doing a long course race in hot weather. During the pre-race meeting Friday night the race director said that it was only windy 4-8 PM, and that it would be calm for the morning.

Race Morning / Swim
up at 5, breakfast of bagel + cream cheese, 1 cup of coffee, and a bottle of water + Nuun. It's windy. We get to the race site @ 6 AM and get set up. The water is rough, with visible swells and a strong wind blowing towards shore. It would be even worse on Sunday, with plenty of whitecaps and waves crashing against the wall, and several people would quit their races during the swim on both days due to the conditions. We saw from the shore that the wind had blown the outgoing buoy line from a straight line into a big curve so there was no point in following the longer distance. The swim was rough on the way out, and I got tossed around quite a bit with quite a few mouthfuls of water instead of air until I sort of worked out how to time strokes and breathing a bit better for the waves. I was determined not to let the conditions get the better of me so I kept mentally repeating a mantra I heard Ben say once - "rhythm, roll, reach, relax" and finding something to focus on helped keep my composure. I was hoping that that the waves would work to my advantage on the way back. After making the turn at the far buoy, I found the orange underwater buoy line and followed it as best I could - it would often go too deep to see and normal sighting was directly into the sun and blinding glare off the water; maybe some goggles with different lenses would have helped as finding the next bright yellow buoy against the bright background was difficult.

The only eventful decision in T1 was to not take the time to put on socks, as I had put plenty of talc into my bike shoes. I drank most of a bottle of water + Nuun on the way out of transition. Although my feet never bothered me on the bike, examining them post-race would show that going without socks was probably a mistake ( a total of 7 blisters, 2 of them bleeding).

Bike
I felt only OK for the first hour on the bike, but my powertap head unit kept losing connection to the hub so although my displayed avg power was low I didn't know if it was really low or just a problem with incomplete data on the device (i'd finish with a displayed avg of 210 watts, about 15 watts below target and with 40 minutes of missing data) . At just about an hour it was as if somebody flipped a switch and I felt great, and continued to feel good for the rest of the ride. The race web site lists the course as having 3986 feet of climbing but after riding Canada the weekend before, the 3 big climbs here were not as hard. I'd finish the bike in 3:10 and go through 2 bottles of EFS, 1 bottle of HEED, 2 bottles of water, 2 gels, but 0 cramps. While the course was quite windy in spots the 404 I rented from V02 worked out very well, and I could go down the descents without worrying about side wind gusts.

Run
I took the first 2 miles of the run easy (about 40 seconds / mile over goal pace), and then settled in to about a 9:20 pace. The combination of hills, increasing heat, a strong sun and little to no shade began to eat away at this, as I would throw a cup of water on my chest at each water stop, only to have it dry out before the next one (the air temperature at the finish line when I came in was measured in the low 90s). My pace faded badly in the second half of the run, and I'd finish in 2:26, for an 11 minute/mile avg but still no cramps or problems taking in water or calories during the run. At the finish line I'd wind up 9th of 15 in the 50-55 AG and 116 of 200 overall.

[Cindybigglestone]

Glad to hear the 404 worked well for you, good job out there in the heat with no cramps or problems. Sounds like over all a really good day! Congrats.

[rockyU]

Strong work Chris, especially after a full weekend of IMC training!

[benbiggles]

Yep as per our discussion Chris, I think this was a solid race and should give you confidence as we push toward IMC.

[EdBull]

Nice job Chris!