Race Report: JerseyMan Half IM

Ken May 13, 2009 1/2 IM, race report, training, video No Comments

I almost quit. I swear I did.

“Hey man, you’re going the wrong way.”

“Huh? I am?”

“Yea, the race is over there…that way”

As a looked around watching the second heat swim by, I put my head down and looked to get back in the race. What seemed like an eternity, another race official stopped me:

“Hey man! You are cutting the race course”

“What?”

“You have to go on back that way….”

*******

The whole day started late. I woke up late. Dana and I departed for Clinton, NJ late. We arrived at the race course around 6:45 with the transition area closing at 7:00am. The transition proctor let me get my stuff ready but by 7:30 I still hadn’t stretched or even put on my wetsuit. When I did put on my wetsuit, it felt tight. I felt really constricted in the shoulders but no time to worry about it as I had to get to the beach to check in the swim start.

*******

I almost quit. I swear.

How did I even get to this situation? All the time I put in this winter at the pool and this is how the season starts? How much out of the way have I swam? How long have I been out here? I could have easily waved my arm and packed it in. I was just so mad at myself of even getting to this point. My wetsuit felt tight, especially around the shoulder. I was frazzled, pissed off, out in the middle of nowhere, and that buoy seemed a loooong way off.

The burly man stood there at the edge of his boat looking down on me with complete sympathy. I can tell he felt bad for me; in the way a mother would look at her small child after they fell and bumped their little knee.

“OK”

I exhaled and I started to swim towards the buoy where I finally got in line with other swimmers. By this time, pink caps were passing me (that would be the 3rd wave). I found a green cap and stayed on his heels the entire time. To make the situation worse, I felt sharp cramps in both of my calves near the end.

What I had hoped would be a 35 minute to 38 minute swim, turned out to be much worse because of a strategy blunder. Not sure of my fitness, I started on the outside toavoid being swam over at the start.

Lesson learned: Don’t start on the outside lane. Stay in the middle and let people pull you. If people pass you, kick you, deal with it.

SWIM TIME: 50: 47

I was pretty upset getting out of the water. I was extremely tired, my right shoulder felt very tight by being constricted by my wetsuit. I was mostly trying to settle down at the transition by going slowly. I got my banana’s, my gels, and I was off. My bike computer broke about 0.5 miles into the race, so I was going off perceived effort.

Now, if you did this race, you know it’s not as flat as advertised. I had been doing mostly base work all winter on the bike and was not prepared for the hills. There were some flat parts, but not many. I passed a bunch of people, and got passed by some FAST women.

The goal was to do the bike leg in 3 hours or less. Considering the surprising grades of the hills, the broken computer, and doing predominantly base training; I felt pretty good with my time.

BIKE TIME: 3:16. 30 (17.3mph/27.8kph)

Leaving the bike I felt good. I didn’t grind it out on the hills and was playing it smart by leaving some in the tank for the run.

The first mile was going to be a test of sorts. I had the sneaking suspicion that my POLAR foot pod was calibrated incorrectly. As I left the transition, I looked at my watch and the pace read 7min 30 seconds per mile. “Great” I thought. “I’ll relax at a 8min/mile pace” However, once my watch did the first beep letting me know I had hit the first mile…I realize that I wasn’t actually at the first mile.  By the time I hit the actual first mile, I looked at my watch and it read 9 min 17 seconds elapsed. “Great” I thought. This who time, when I thought I was running 12-13 miles, I was really running 9.
I ran with a woman for the first lap in about 1:03, but then I fell of the pace and had to walk a bit.
I really enjoy the run leg because everyone is in a good mood. I shard some pleasantries with people I ran with who I then passed, and vice versa.
One of the last guys I ran with trains with T3 triathlon club. I’m thinking about joining up.

RUN TIME: 2:17.50 (10:32/mile)

Jerseyman Medal

Jerseyman Medal

In hindsight, I’m disappointed with my race but I know I could have taken at least 15 minutes off that without the swimming debacle.
Considering I haven’t really done any speed work whatsoever, I think my base is really solid and I’m satisfied with my bike time.
The run, considering the newly acquired lack of training, I felt ok with the run.
I’ll start training back on Thursday. Until then, enjoy the video.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply