2009 Spirit of Racine Race Report

The Spirit of Racine Half Ironman, held on Sunday July 19th, 2009 was the second Triathlon of my season (and career). This was my first Half Ironman, and quite a different experience in terms of the required effort. I finished in 256th place overall with a time of 4:48:59, which was a little slower then my realistic goal of 2:45 (which assumed an actual 1.2 mile swim, see below).

Registration and the day before

I arrived at the race expo in downtown Racine around 3:30 PM on the Saturday before the race. The registration process was pretty straight forward, although they were out of small and medium size shirts, which didn’t bother me. However on the forums and the blog sphere, several people were acting as if they had been defrauded, with one guy talking about filing a complaint with his credit card company. People, relax, it’s a T-Shirt, hardly something to get worked up over. I also read that you could contact the race director and get a shirt mailed out to you.

The expo was pretty decent, but all I have to compare it to was the tiny expo for the Capital View Triathlon. After hearing that the water temp was a balmy 59 degrees, I opted to pick up a neoprene swim cap. I also came across some good deals on Triathlon/Transition bags, and figured it was time to upgrade from my small duffle bag to something more practical. I also stopped and talked with a Comp-u-Trainer rep for a bit, as I’m thinking about getting one, but they are kind of pricy.

My parents are from Racine, so I have allot of family down there, which was awesome because I got a free place to stay and a really good dinner. A special thanks goes out to my Aunt and Uncle for letting me stay, and the spaghetti feast they prepared. I am thinking about eating my big meal earlier in the day to avoid certain issues I will talk about below.

Pre-Race

Woke up at 5:10am, grabbed my stuff and headed to the race. It took a couple of minutes to find some parking, but I didn’t have to walk to far. I was able to hit up the port-a-potties on the way in to transition, and then started getting setup. It seems like I got stuff setup quicker then my last race, which I guess is a good thing. I remember the announcer saying that they were going to do the National Anthem, and the pre-race meeting in about 5 minutes, so I went to go use the bathroom (again). When I stepped out of the port-a-potty I heard the announcer say they were closing transition in 5 minutes. That was the first mention I heard about closing transition, but I had plenty of time to grab my wetsuit, cap and goggles and start the walk to the start area.

The swim course was point to point, and we had to walk close to a mile down the beach to get to the swim area. I put my wetsuit on just outside of transition, and made the long trek down the beach. Some people were smart and started jumping in the water when they got closer to the start area to take care of the warm-up. I haven’t had too much difficulty with the swim, and only need a very short warm-up so I continued to walk along the beach. When I finally got in the water, it didn’t feel too cold, but as soon as I put my head in, I thought I was going to die of shock. Wow! My warm-up was more for getting my face used to the water then anything else.

One interesting thing I’d like to point out, is that aside from my face in the water, I was never cold at all. I was wearing my sleeveless tri-top and shorts before the race, and obviously during the race, and was never cold, although the air temperature was no more then 65 (until the sun came out on the run). Usually I’m looking to wear long sleeves on the bike at 65.

Swim

I was in the 3rd wave to start, 6 minutes behind the first wave. The announcer gave us a good countdown, and then we were off into the water, as this was a beach start. I actually put forth a little bit of effort to run into and thru the water. I did a couple of really lame dives to get me going, and then started swimming. As with my last race, it took me about 200 meters to get my rhythm (so maybe I do need a warm-up). This time however, things didn’t feel as crowded for some reason. I felt like I was wandering a bit on the swim course, but reviewing my GPS data showed I had a fairly decent track.

The swim only turned out to be .99 miles according to my GPS, which is disappointing. I guess they moved the buoys in closer to shore which cut out the distance you used to have to swim to get out to, and back from the buoy line. We speculated this was because of the drowning at another triathlon the weekend before. So I swam the .99 miles in 24:11, which I am happy with, and would have put me at 29 minutes for 1.2 miles, as I know I could have kept my same pace. If anything, I could have went a little faster I think, but it’s so hard to know how fast you are going. I even had the speed alerts programmed into my GPS, but it’s still a rather broad indication of how you are doing. I think I will up the speed alert from 2.4 to 2.5 mph for the next race.

T1

So if you read my last race report, you will know that I lost a good two minutes to most everyone else in T1. I guess I didn’t practice enough, because I still took over 4 minutes in T1, but at least I wasn’t as alone this time. At least as an age-grouper in a half iron man, an extra two minutes in T1 isn’t the end of the world. I still had the light headedness out of the swim as I did last time, so that didn’t help. I think I got my wetsuit off faster, but I could still do better. I decided to ride barefoot, but took too much time drying my feet off I think. I also walked most of the way to the mount line, as I was putting on my gloves. I need to remember to worry about the gloves after I get going.

Bike

My plan for the bike, which I decided as I was heading out of transition, was to take it easy for the first half, and try for a negative split. I rode the course the week before, and found it rather flat and boring. I had difficulty staying focused during the first half, which is why I decided to start out slow and then be able to look forward to a challenging ride back. I flipped the switch around mile 25, so a little earlier then expected, but I felt like people from the later waves were catching up to me too much, or allot of other people had the same strategy as me.

Things were going well, until about mile 35, when I was swallowed up by the peloton. I guess with the Tour de France going on, people wanted to get into the sprit of things, even though drafting is illegal. I made an attempt to pass the pack two to three times, as it would always slow down going up the “hills”, but was eventually passed up again after the hill. One the one hand it was satisfying to out climb (I use that term very loosely, as there were no real hills on that course), on the other hand, I had to spend too much energy trying to get around 30-40 riders.

I finally decided to just let the group go by and slow up for a bit. With about 5 miles to go, one of the Marshalls finally rode by and we all pointed up ahead to the group. They went up there, and were riding along side for awhile, but I don’t know what became of it. I do know there were about 130 penalties (10% of the racers) given out, and quite a few for drafting.

I finished the bike in 2:27, which was a couple of minutes faster then the 2:30 I was hoping for. I had rented a pair of Bontrager Aeolus 6.5’s, and also purchase an aero helmet for this race. I think these helped me, but it’s hard to say how much. Unfortunately, the wattage reported on my power meter seems allot lower then it should be, so it’s hard to get a feeling for how well I truly did on the bike.

T2 + Run

After my surprising well run at my last race, I was looking forward to having another successful run. Had the run only been 6 miles, I would have had a really good run, but alas, it was 13.1, and I did not do so well. The run was a two lap out and back, with two good sized hills at the start of each lap. I came off the bike and had an ok, but not stellar T2 (I don’t think I like running in my biking shoes). I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but the port-a-potties were not placed between transition and the run course. Thankfully I had found the bathroom’s located in the beach concession stand the week before, so I deviated from the run course slightly to use the facilities, and I was not the only one.

I went out strong and hard on the first lap, and that was my mistake. I had gotten some notion in my head that I could run 7:30 miles, and I can, just not for 13.1 miles after a bike ride. I think my average pace was actually around 7:45 for the first lap, but I had already started to feel fatigued on mile 5. Thru the turn-around I went, opting to skip the bathroom this time, which turned out to be a big mistake. By the time I was coming up on mile 7, I had re-adjusted my pace alert to 8:00, and by mile 8, I didn’t care about the pace alert anymore. I think my pace dropped as slow as 10:00 at one point, and ended up with an average pace of 8:20. Usually I try to sprint to the finish, but I just couldn’t.

Post Race

Figures, as soon as I was done, and got the timing chip off, the severe pain from having to go the bathroom was gone, but I still made the bathroom my first stop. The sun had come out for a bit on the run, but then dark clouds started moving in, and the wind was picking up, so I went back to transition to grab my long sleeve jacket. I then went in search of some food, and found a much better menu then what was at my last race. This time around they had P&B and BBQ sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and soda. P&B never tasted so good before, and I’m usually not a big fan of BBQ, but it too tasted quite well. After getting some food, I headed back to transition to pack up. The new transition bag worked great and held all my gear and my still wet wetsuit.

I would like to thank my Mom, Aunt Suzy, Aunt Janet and Uncle Kevin for coming out and cheering me on.

Final Results

What’s Next?

My next race is the Pigman 1/2 Ironman down in Iowa in August. I have about 4 weeks of training (including a bit of tapering the week before), and plan to focus my efforts on my running. I know I can’t start out at a 7:30 pace, but would like to some day, so I need to start training for it. Next race I plan to start out at a 8:00 pace, and then pick up the pace in the 2nd half if I am still feeling good. I’d like to shoot for 4:45 (with an actual 1.2 mile swim), but it will be close. I know Pigman has a bit more climbing then Racine, and I figure I’m due for a hot day in August. If not 4:45, at least do better in my overall placing then I did in Racine.

I still need to work a bit on my transitions, but it’s hard to simulate what it’s like on race day. However, this year was my practice year anyway, so getting real experience doing the transitions on race day is part of what this year was about.

I tried out a new nutrition plan for this race, opting for about 900 calories from a mix of Gatorade (150 calories) and Carbo-Pro in 24oz of water. This worked well from an energy standpoint, but I still felt some discomfort in my stomach. I think it was because it was so cool out, that I didn’t drink enough plain water. Although during this past winter, I’d down a 32oz Gatorade without any problems at all while working out. I like the form factor of the Cliff Shot Blocks, but I think it’s too much sugar. I may try to make a paste out of the Carbo-Pro to cut down on the amount of liquid I take in as part of my fuel.