Spirit of Racine Half Iron Triathlon: Race Report- Part 2

We pick up at T2.

I came down the hill into T2, dismounted, ran in and swapped cycling shoes for socks and running shoes, helmet for visor, and grabbed my race number. Time to hit the run!

T2:
3:28

I ran out and headed up the first hill. The run course was a mostly flat two loop out and back. I took a couple of Enervit Tabs (electrolytes) out and was sucking on them. They worked great in training but were not awesome on race day. It was pretty well shaded and there were aid stations just frequently enough. I ran the first three or so miles at a 9:00 pace before my stomach started cramping up. I walked just long enough (1 minute and 30 sec) to calm it down and then picked back up into a run. Two miles later it happened again. I had purposefully slowed to a 9:30 pace but my stomach was mad. At mile 5, I pulled off to use the porta-potty. That seemed to help and I was off again. I was running 8 minutes walking 1-2 minutes to keep my stomach happy and I was only drinking water and taking ice at the aid stations. I started to feel much better at the turn around to head back out but it was still hard to turn around and run away from the finish line. As I switched to a 4 min run, 1 min walk, I started to realize that the only thing that was really tired were my quads. I also realized that they felt worse when I was walking. Hmmm, yeah, run more, i get it. There was some guy that attached himself on to me and just kept talking to me the entire second half of the run. It is fun to see people out on the course and chat briefly but every time I walked so did he and every time I picked back up to a run so did he. Ugh. Run your own race buddy, I wanted to tell him. I just kept a smile on my face and answered briefly his random questions and comments. "Guess what? I watched the new Batman movie last night" or "did you know..." Shhh, dude, just let me run. Anywho, came around the corner, through the Racine zoo which is not awesome because you just run along the back side of it. You can't see any animals, just smell them, and headed towards the finish line.

Run: 13.1 miles
2:26:42
11:12 min/mile average (SUCK)


Overall:
6:05:56
43/55 in age group (SUCK)
1062/1381 overall men and women, females and males were not split out in results

63 people - DNF
approximately 388 people - DNS. I am guessing due to weather.

I have to admit, I can't even remember finishing. I felt pretty darn good. I wasn't too hot, or too tired. I could have kept going for a bit longer and I was freaking hungry! I went over and put my finishers medal in my bag and headed over for food. The sweet little old lady in the food tent handed me a BBQ pork sandwich which I bit into before it even hit my plate. I told her how wonderful she was and moved down the line for a gigantic piece of watermelon, oatmeal cookies and chips. I sat in the shade and ate and then went down to the lake and knelt waist deep in the water to "ice down". It felt awesome! I gathered my belongings, took some time to enjoy the water, sand, and sun and headed up to my car. I am potentially in love with Lake Michigan. We don't have anything like that anywhere near here. Every body of water remotely close I can see all the way across. It was awesome. There were boats, and waves, and seagulls, and lots of water and sand. I wanna go back! There is something about the water that just pulls at my heart.






Nutrition:
Nutrition was a huge issue for me as I wondered if it would be. The race was more than an hour and a half late getting started which meant that at race start I had eaten 3 1/2 hours prior. In my real, non-triathlon life, that is almost time for another meal. Not a great way to start. After I got home I calculated it all out. The result was that not counting breakfast, I took in a grand total of 380 calories, including Gatorade and I burned 3970 calories on just the swim, bike, and run. Yeah, anyone see a glaring problem with that? I think that Infinit is going to be my next option to try. I just kick myself thinking how much faster I could be if I had that figured out. Hmmm. Yeah, look out cause if I pull it all together, I could definitely be dangerous. :) Just kidding.

Another random fact about nutrition, if you have half a package of red sport beans in your jersey pocket and you pour water over your head repeatedly during a run and they fall out, it is a mess. I am just saying. Yuck. I had red food coloring everywhere.

Random Comments: People say strange things. For some reason I was a magnet for that this weekend. Here are a small sampling.

1. In transition, waiting for fog to lift: The girl next to me said, "where are you from?"
I told her, "Nebraska."
She said, "oh, yeah? Are you doing IM Kentucky then?"
I though, "huh?" and must have given her a confused look.
She said, "uh, I don't know much about the South."
I paused before carefully telling her how Nebraska was about as middle of the U.S. as you could get.
She said, "hmmm, so are you doing Louisville?"
Hahahaha. Wow.

2. I had on a CamelBak and some guy rode by and told me it was all about "comfortability". Is that even a word?

3. On the way home, I stopped to get gas and the man working there reminded me of the gas station attendant from the Simpsons. I hadn't showered and still sort of had the remnants of my body markings on my arms and legs. He saw the 8 and the 4 and said, "84, is that your favorite number or something?"
Really. Yes, I get up every morning and whip out my permanent black marker so I can write my favorite number of the day on my arms. Oh, yeah, and while I am at it, I usually write my age on my leg too, just so that if someone asks, I don't have to do the math. Instead, I said, "eh, nah, just did a race this morning" and walked away shaking my head.

4. And the last one. During the run I ran by a 77 year old man who was just running along. I said to him, "Have you done many halves?"
To which he replied, "yeah, quite a few, did one last weekend."
Whoa, that is hard core. I said, "Are you freaking kidding me, that is awesome."
He said, "every race you do, you lose a few IQ points. I am beginning to be quite deficient."
I said, "how do you earn them back?"
He said, "you get really good dates."
Some guy running by me said, "you might want to run a little faster!"
HAHAHAHA! Awesome.

ALSO: A humongous thanks to Blink for letting me borrow his neoprene swim cap from IM CdA. Thanks, you saved me a major ice cream headache! It was perfect.

So there you have it. I know I left stuff out and I am sure that it will come to me later but that is most of it. Can't wait to do more.