2009 Pigman Half Ironman

On Sunday, August 16, I competed in the 2009 Pigman Half Ironman, which turned out to be my first bad weather event. How bad was the weather? 20mph winds gusting to 30 with rain. I’m pretty sure I saw a couple of people attempt to ride out on the bike leg, only to turn it around and call it a day.

I woke up at 5am to see it dark and drizzling. My the time I made my way down to the car, it had stopped raining. I got dropped off and proceeded to wait in line to get body marked and chipped. I would have preferred it if I could have put my stuff down in transition and then go get marked and chipped.

I had just finished getting setup, which thankfully included getting my stuff in plastic bags and covered, when the first down pour hit. At least it was 70 out. The rain let up while I was waiting in line to use the bathroom. I headed back to finish my last minute preparations when I heard that transition was being closed, so I pulled on my wetsuit and headed down to the beach.

Then down pour number two happened, and made the first down poor look like a light drizzle. I ended up hiding under/behind a large tree with others, so I could finish putting on my wetsuit. The mandatory pre-race meeting was going on, but I didn’t feel like leaving the shelter of my tree to go stand on the beach. I guess nothing too important was said as I managed to finish the race without incident.

The second down pour subsided and I decided to go warm up in the lake, which was warmer then the pool I usually swim in (although the event was still fully wetsuit legal). I don’t know why, but I really don’t feel like warming up much. I think I’m too excited, but I still probably got in at least 100m. Since it was so warm, I didn’t have to get my face used to the water for a change, which was nice.

The swim was a time trial start, after the pro’s had a mass start. My first two races had me going soon after the pros, but this time around, I was in one of the last waves to go. When a wave was called up, everyone lined up, and started at 3 second intervals.

I was feeling pretty good in the the water, especially in the first 400m or so. My GPS backs this up, as that was the fastest I swam. I don’t know what happened after that, but I did slow down. I didn’t feel too tired, and my arms were not feeling all that bad either, but I was going slower, but still passing quite a few people. The waves in front of me were black, pink, red, and then purple, and I know I passed a couple of purple swim caps. I ended up finishing the swim around 35 minutes, which was 109th overall. I would have liked to see my time closer to 30 minutes, but I’ll take my time.

The theme of slow as molasses T1’s continue with this race, although the monsoon was a contributing factor. I got my wetsuit down to the waist, and was able to run most of the way to my bike, which was a marked improvement. I also got my wetsuit off in short order, and threw it into a garbage bad and off to the side (I was on the end of the transition rack). The first thing that took a heck of a long time, was putting on a long sleeve shirt to act as a base layer. It was next to impossible to pull it down over my wet body, in the rain, but eventually I got it on after hopping around on one foot turning a circle a couple of times. After that I tried to dry off as I put my shoes on (what was I thinking, it was raining out), and get the rest of my stuff together, while trying to keep everything else dry. At a point I think I stopped caring about speed, and given how wet I was, I should have stopped caring about keeping things dry.

After my 7 minute T1 (which looks to be the 16th slowest), I was out on the bike, and heading directly into the monsoon. The iBike was reading 25mph winds, plus there was the rain. The visor on the aero helmet worked wonderfully, and I only got rain in my eye once, which was due to a cross wind. Wind is not my friend I’ve decided. It completely demoralizes me riding into a head wind. Even with a north bound section on the first half, I was still able to pull a negative split (19mph vs. 20.9mph), although I didn’t have much left in me for the run.

Trying to avoid the melt-down I had from my last race, I set my pace goal of 8:00/mile, as was able to maintain that with a little bit of effort. Unfortunately, I realized that I was only able to do that pace because of a tailwind as I turned around and the half way point. I immediately dropped to an 8:30/pace. I had been walking every aid station to make sure I was getting enough fluids, but now I was looking forward to taking a break from running.

Final Results

Up Next

I’m looking at two Olympic distance events to finish out my season. Considering how much training I have been doing, I should do pretty well in those two events. I now realize that the amount of training I have been doing in preparation for the half-iron events has not been enough to meet my goals, which is an important lesson. Hopefully I can look back in 13 months and say, I’m glad I learned that in 2009 instead of 2010.