First Half Ironman Post Race Report

Well, I'm back and am an official Half Ironmanner!

Here is my recap of how the race and the week went down.

We got in to Disney World on Wednesday night about 8pm after a long day. I was up early to get a swim in before we left for the airport and the rest of the day was spent hauling luggage and kids around on various forms of transportation. The next couple of days were filled with touring Disney and doing some light training. Looking back, I probably should have relaxed more but its hard with the kids as they were raring' to go. Saturday was mainly a rest day with a light swim/bike/run early morning as a final preparation.

Race Day

Up at 3am to have a breakfast of cold Penne pasta with olive oil, yummy! Remember when waking up after a night of drinking and having cold pizza was the best thing you could eat? This was nothing like that! My nerves were all over the place and it was extremely difficult to get it down. The day before we had ran into another competitor who had rented a car to get from the resort to the shuttle ( we found out a week before that they would not be providing one) so Amy and I hitched a ride with her to save cab fare, Thanks DEE (Congratulations on a great race!)
So we were off at 4:30 am and got to the race site at around 5am. It was a nice morning with good cloud cover and not too warm. I set everything up and stretched and waited for my wave to start.

As I was waiting for my wave to go to the beach, I was really relaxed, my nerves had settled (even after a close call of almost dropping my swim cap down the port a potty) and I was very comfortable. It didn't last long. Our horn went off and I held back a bit so that I could draft the faster swimmers and after high stepping a way I dove in and immediately swallowed a big gulp of water. Then I panicked. It was horrible, my heart rate went through the roof and I could not breathe properly. I dog paddled for a bit and even came to a complete stop a couple of times. I was actually thinking that I would need to get to a kayaker for help. Then the next horn blew and looked back and the next wave was coming. This made me feel even worse. I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds and tried to relax. After that I just went forward and slowly worked my way back into form and was started to calm down. Great! I'm in form and I'm relaxed. What a relief. I had looked back and saw that I was still not last in my wave so I took some comfort in that. Now onto my next problem. Although I was swimming well, I was not swimming straight. At least 5 times in the next 1000m I was yelled at for being off course by an official. I'm not sure what I was doing, I would look up and see the buoys and start swimming then the next time I looked up I was all by myself. At about the halfway point I looked at my watch and I was at 24 min. I was not happy. Coming down the last 700m was as bad as the beginning. I finally was swimming straight but then ran into the slower swimmers. It was very congested and I had to stop numerous times as people hit me from all sides. I got out of the water and I was at 42 min and couldn't believe that it only took me that long! I didn't swim the fastest but I probably swam the farthest! One bright spot was that I came out of the water with no dizziness or feeling wobbly.

A 6 min transition?
What the hell! I could have learned a new language in that time! My feet were covered in sand and mud so I had to clean them off, I also had to put on my HR monitor, go to the bathroom and then as I'm running with my bike I realize my computer is up side down. I don't have a lot of room with my aero bottle so I had to pull it off to get my computer out to turn it around. I learned a lot in those 6 min, mostly to be better prepared!

The bike was just what I needed to rid my mind of the previous 2 events. It was perfect weather, mostly cloudy and only about 78F. It rained a couple of times and I was slowed a couple of more times due to course conditions but other than that I stuck to my plan which was to hold back and save my legs for the run. I kept my cadence at 90rpm and didn't let my HR get above 145 BPM. There were a few times when I was passed and I wanted to pick it up but I held back and made sure I took in enough fluids and calories to get me through. I finished the bike in 2:39 with an avg speed of about 21mph. I got off the bike knowing I could have been faster, but I was in good shape to run.

T2 was better at 3:30 min, but I did wait about 1.5 min to use the port a potty.

The run was my big worry. I hadn't done any long bricks leading up to this and the heat would be a big factor as well. As soon as I got off the bike, all the clouds disappeared and it got hot! My strategy was to walk through the aid stations and get as cool as possible and then run the course. It was a 3 loop course with 3 aid stations. I used them all every time! I put sponges in my visor as well as down my back, ice on my head, and took a drink at each one then ran to the next one. It went by fairly quick and I actually enjoyed it! Coming down the finishing chute and having my family there was the highlight of the day! I finished strong and came in at 1:58. Not bad considering a month ago I was having trouble walking!

Overall time 5:29:12, good for 481 overall and 95 out of 351 in my age group.

Although I was a little disappointed in my time, I thought holding back a bit I could still do 5:15, I was happy with the race. I recovered from a bad swim, had a good ride, and was able to handle the heat. I saw quite a few people who had to walk the course, a few people in the medical tent and a huge line up for massages. I rode my bike back to the hotel and had a little rest and was back at Magic Kingdom for the nighttime parade. My legs were sore the next couple of days but other than that I felt fine. Hopefully I will be able to use this race to go harder next time.

We spent a couple more days at Disney, which is pretty much out of my comfort zone as I don't like crowds, and I don't like crowds of people wearing cheesey shirts and hats! I enjoyed the resort and the pool and the kids had a great time.

Overall it was a good week.

One last note, voting is now online, if you want to send me to Lake Placid, just send an e-mail to this address triathletemagcontest@gmail.com and type in Sharpe. Good luck to all of my fellow Cadence Kona Challengers - we have all worked very hard!!