Notes
I am going to put the Square Lake Long Course Triathlon race report here, which I wrote before I had the results... So I added a couple of disjointed comments now that the results are in.
It wasn’t the best run event. I am not sure when they will post the results, I am not sure of my official time. I think I was around the 5:45 mark, which beat my <6 hour hope but not my 5:30 dream goal. However, I think I would have smashed my dream goal if it had been a cooler day. It went something like: (note actual finish was 5:45:18).
Swim – awesome, can’t wait to see my time (33:45 - 1:47 per 100yd - 84th out of the water, 11 in age group). The lake was crystal clear and I was in a groove. I was passing people who started in the first wave, 4 minutes before me. When I got to the transition area there were still a lot of bikes there, so I think I had one heck of a swim… (Still think that, if I can 5 seconds off my 100yd time I will be in the top 50, not bad for only focusing on Swiming in Jan.)
T1 – solid, not extremely fast but good enough (1:54 - actually awesome T1 compared to the group, 24th fastests! 50 seconds off the leader). I did not leave my shoes on my bike... I wore socks and put my bike shoes on in the transition area.... no socks and shoes on the bike could help me shave off another 20+ seconds.
Bike – went nearly to plan, took the first lap (27 miles) at a controlled pace. Kept telling myself I have a long day ahead and have to do the loop again. It was definitely a hilly bike course too. I ramped it up on the second, but still not nearly all out or anything. I was passing a lot of people though. Climbing the last hill I was thinking that I freaking love Triathlons and that everything was going exactly to plan. (2:52:58 - 19.4 mph, 125 overall and 23/33 in age group). Was about 30 minutes off the age group leaders time. Obviously a place where I should continue to focus on getting better and improving my endurance.
T2 – I turned down the wrong aisle and had to course correct, but after that it was a super smooth and fast transition. (47 seconds...wow, bam! look at that T2 time. Tied for 8th fastest overall, 2nd in age groupd. WITH THE WRONG TURN.) I had shoes off as I glided into transition area, hung the bike, off with the helmet, on with shoes, grabbed number belt, garmin and gu and off I went.). Don't turn down the wrong isle, is the way to improve... I also hung my bike by the brakes instead of by the seat (because it wouldn't fit under the bar) and that worked out very well, I think I will continue that.
Run – My plan was to go 8:45 first mile, 8:30s for 2 & 3, then drop it down to the 8s for the remainder. As soon as I got out onto the road from transition I could tell that it was going to be a rough day because it was very hot. I decided quickly that I would run 9s for the first 3 miles to try and get my heart rate down and under control. But the heat build up was insane. There was not a drop of shade out there and the pavement was super hot. It was like running on coals. I kept slowing my pace to try and get a handle on things but to no avail. By mile four I was running 10:50 miles and still my heart was pounding. At mile 6 I decided I would walk the aid stations from that point on to try and get myself together, it was the only way I was going to finish. So I took two waters and dumped them on myself and sipped some Gatorade from there on out. It was brutal. My half marathon time was 2:15:55, 22/34 in age group (they had some more recored data from age groups which increased count to 34). The average time for my age group was 2:13, in 08 the average time for my age group was 1:59
I got home and promptly tossed my cookies six times. Gatorade and Gu… it was awful. Nate ended up coming in around 6:20 or so…
I really feel like it was entirely the heat that caused me to run so poorly. I had done a couple training session where I did a 1 mile swim, 40 mile bike (at a good clip), and 8 mile run @ 8:00 min miles. So even if I could have only run @ 10 minute pace (2 minutes a mile slower than I had planned) I would have finished in 5:30.