This past week I flew back east and took on IM Racine 70.3. This was my first half Ironman distance race and turned out to be a great weekend. My Dad competed, and completed the course as well, for his first crack at the distance. Overall it was a great race and as usual, I learned a lot about myself during the day. I was pushing to go sub 5 hours but fell apart on the run. Here are my thoughts on the race.
Swim - Gorgeous! Lake Michigan was much more appealing than I had imagined it would be. Water temp was around 70 which was perfect, and the wave start really kept things spread out. I started out slow, and finished slow as well, exiting the water with a time of 37 minutes. Not to fast, but actually right on target.
T1 - I thought it was funny how there were baby pools full of water for you to wash the sand off your feet going into transition. However, when I got there they were completely flat and full of mud puddles...I jumped in anyway! Other than that pretty standard, got on the bike and took off.
Bike - The bike was a bit rough, literally. The roads in this area were horrible. Every 10 feet there is a crack in the road making your bike go thunk...thunk...thunk...thunk...for about 2 hrs and 45 min. People were losing all sorts of water bottles, food, and bike repair gear. Luckily everything stayed on my bike. It was starting to get hot and a couple of roads had a mean headwind, but I managed to average just of 20 mph for the course getting me off the bike close to goal time.
T2 - A little long. I had to use the port-o-pot and there were about 5 in transition. All of which seemed to have people taking there time inside. I got it, did my thing, and got out quickly to start the run. Then the sky opened up and as I left transition it was a full on downpour.
Run - Started in the rain. Hard rain. Felt really good! I ran sub 7 minute miles for the first 3 miles, which was cool, but I couldn't keep the pace. It was hot and humid and I was crashing fast. My pace slowed to 8's...then 9's...by mile 8 I was walking. The run course was actually a lot of fun and if I could have put it together I would have had a shot at going sub 5. As it was, I suffered to the finish line with a run time of 2:05.
Post Race - It was a lot of fun. Total time was 5:35 or so. My Dad came in around 6:45 which was awesome and my buddy Nate bettered his previous times by quite a bit, coming in at 6:30ish. Will have some pics to post soon!
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