My recent triathlons
Over the past 2 weekends I've competed in 2 triathlons: the Coeur d'Alene Tri (an Olympic distance tri) and the Utah Half (aptly named, as it is a Half Ironman). Both races presented different challenges and rewards. I'll talk briefly about the CDA Tri as it was my first olympic tri, but I want to focus on the Utah Half because it was so much harder.
I swam 1 mile, biked 25 miles, and ran 6.2 miles on August 8 in Coeur d'Alene. I came in 190th out of 606 people and 17th in my age group of 30 people (Men 20-24). My swim was bad, but that is what I expected. Took me about 29.5 minutes to do the swim. I then transititioned to the bike and took off like a bolt. We went down to Higgins Point, back up Yellowstone Road, and hit Bonnell, Mullan Trail, and Sunnyside. I passed my coworker Tony Voorhees halfway through the ride, which was nice becuase if he had beat me, he never would have let me hear the end of it... The bike ride took me about 1 hour and 12 minutes (ish) but the course was very hilly. I have got to admit that there is nothing like flying down a hill at 45-50 miles per hour on a bicycle. It is something that you have got to experience for yourself. I then hopped off my bike and ran the 6.2 miles in about 51.5 minutes, which is an 8:18 mile pace. I just saw today that the world record for the 10k is about 26.5 minutes...stupid Kenyans, making me look bad! My final time was 2:37, which was just slightly better than Tony's 2:41. I didn't see him on the run (those heading out and those coming in cross paths), so I knew he was either WAY behind me or RIGHT behind me. Deciding it was probably the latter, I pushed it as hard as I could until the end. My finish-line picture was epic. ( see the top of this post )
The Utah Half was the most physically demanding thing that I have ever done in my life. Period. It was one of the most mentally challenging things that I have ever done. There were honestly several times when I wanted to just stop running, sit down on the side of the road, and start crying. Other times I couldn't get the song "Daniel" by Elton John out of my head. It's quite the spectrum of strange, I know!
We were supposed to take off at 6:45 AM (there were about 280 racers who started from what I gathered). Because of storm clouds and the fact that water, lightning, and racers mix about as well as pacifism and the middle east, the race director decided to put the start of the race on hold. After FORTY-FIVE MINUTES OF WAITING IN THE WATER (most people just sat on the shore--I was already in the warmer water, so I stayed), we finally got the go ahead to start, but we were only doing 1 of the 2 laps. Thus, the swim was about .7 miles instead of 1.2 miles. Remember, though, that there was a storm coming in, so the water was REALLY choppy. I had to resort to my "keep the head above water at all costs" breaststroke just to feel like I could breath. I didn't have to do that in CDA, and that swim was longer. (CDA had PERFECT weather...I attribute that to the prayers of a lot of good people on my behalf :D ) Coming out of the water, I only beat 9 men, and a lot of women passed me. I'm not sexist--the women just started about 10 minutes after the men, so they were REALLY hauling to pass me. Well, no, scratch that. I was just really slow. I swim like a drowining cat.
After T1 (which, admittedly, was slower than it should have been. I need to quicken my transitions) I hopped on the love my life (my bicycle, obviously) and once again, took off like a bat out of hell. I honestly must have passed around 150 people. I ended up with the fastest bike split in my age group, and the 32nd fastest bike time overall. Man, it felt NICE! I averaged 20.6 mph, DESPITE the 40 MPH HEADWINDS! Yes, for miles on end we were headed north (a few miles before the aid station marking the 25% and 75% completion points) into the wind that was part of the storm coming through. It was so bad that my friend looked at a bird flying nearby, headed the same direction, and saw that the bird wasn't actually making forward progress. This is an animal that is actually capable of flight, and it wasn't even able to make forward progress. I was in 92 place at the bike turn around (I counted the people ahead of me on their return, although, admittedly, that includes relay members--only a few of those in this race). I got as high as 68th for a second or two until the guy I got up next to pulled away. 3 of the people I had passed near the end overtook me in the last 4 or 5 miles, 1 of those being in the last quarter mile as I slowed down to take my feet out of my shoes for the dismount. So yes, NOBODY passed me. SOOO AWESOME. Oh yes, and it started to hail in the last few miles. HAIL? WHAT THE HAIL IS THAT ABOUT?
In T2 I took a little more time than I wanted, but I had drink some water and slam a gel. I headed out on the run, and Robbie Shattuck, who is also on the BYU Tri team and would go on to win our age group, was only a mile ahead of me--I've got to admit that was a pretty cool feeling. He, however, was able to maintain an 8 minute mile for the 13.1-mile run, and I was only able to run at a 10 minute pace. My lungs didn't feel too weak, but my leg muscles were just hurting so bad! The run is where it was the hardest. I mean, on the bike I had "Daniel" stuck in my head for who knows what reason, and I was honestly able to just focus on the next person ahead of me and passing them that I didn't feel too mentally overcome (except for during the !%$% WIND!). The run, though, was absolutely FULL of emotions. At times, as I have said, I wanted to just sit down on the side of the road and start crying. It hurt THAT bad. At other times I told myself, "Just walk for a little bit and THEN run again. Everybody will understand." At other times I felt like I was going to do okay, and I tried to step up my pace a little. Fortunately, though, I was able to talk myself out of that one. I ended up running the whole course. Granted, when you are talking about a 10-minute mile, "running:" is a relative term, but you know what I mean.
Now, it was at the finish line where things got interesting. With about 200 yards to the finish, I took the final turn toward the gate, and I heard a race offical say, "Hurry up, BYU, you've got 2 guys and 2 girls right there catching up!" So I mustered what little strength remained and hastened my shuffle a little bit as I crossed the parking lot and stepped onto the grass lawn that is part of Utah Lake State Park, I could feel someone getting closer. We both hit the 20-meter chute at the same time. I let out a primal scream in an attempt to summon what little energy I had left to the cause of beating whoever it was that was trying to out-sprint me to the end. We were literally neck-and-neck, and the red finish gate loomed large. With a final scream I lunged forward and basically pulled a Superman over the finish line. I think her timing chip may have crossed before mine, but my fingertips and upper body clearly beat her; I consider it a moral victory! The photographer had a hey-day with my finish, and honestly, this is the first time that I'll probably end up buying the pictures someone took of me because I was in 17 photos, it was a Half Ironman, and the finish between the two of us was priceless.
But, you say, the women started 10 minutes AFTER the men--so wasn't her time better anyway? Yes, that is correct, but you do NOT get beat in the kick or in the chute. You just don't do it. I had to beat this person, whoever it was. I didn't look to see who exactly I'd been duelling until after the race, I think, because I didn't want to waste the energy looking over.
Camille, Angie, and Melissa were all at the finish line to meet me. It was great having fans! I felt a little gypped because I couldn't find the alleged post-race massage, and I SERIOUSLY needed one. Oh, well. One of these days I'm actually going to benefit from that.
And that is my experience with the Half Ironman distance. I finished in 5 hours 28 minutes and 1 second. I swam in about 26 minutes, biked in 2 hours and 43 minutes, and ran in 2 hours 11 minutes. The swim was shorter than it should have been (would have taken me about 20 minutes or so longer), but the storm that caused the lightning problems also caused the wind that literally slowed me down by 20 minutes on the bike, so it all balances out! I was 8th out of 10 finishers and 14 starters in my age group (4 DNF'd, or so it said on race day). I was 109th out of about 240 overall finishers. I still have plenty of room for improvement, but it felt good to finish as well as I did on my first Half Ironman.
