First Post

I've finally decided to make a blog, so hopefully I'll be able to maintain it regularly just in case anyone wants to read it.

Last Sunday, I traveled to Morgantown, WV with my friend Chris to race the Mountaineer Half Distance Triathlon. I was expecting there to be a little more to Morgantown, considering it's the home of WVU, but honestly there wasn't too much there. We checked in at the Waterfront Place Hotel, which was the host hotel, then drove the bike course. The course consisted of 2 28 mile loops. I was very disappointed int he quality of the roads that they decided to use on the course. Very bumpy, filled with holes and cracks...not suitable for a race course in my opinion.

We then checked in at our hotel, a Comfort Inn, I went for a short easy run around the hotel, and then we went to Applebee's for dinner.

Being my first Half Ironman, I was a little apprehensive about what I should be eating, not just the night before, but the morning of and during the race. I figured pasta would be a safe bet, and I stuck with what I usually eat the morning of...powerbar, banana, pop tarts, and gatorade. Yeah, I'm kinda a head case when it comes to that kind of thing. I think I've eaten the same thing since high school. Hey, whatever works I guess.

Speaking of routines, I've always done the same warm up... 20:00 run an hour before the race start. With these triathlons, that whole schedule has changed. I ended up running about 15:00 before this race, which seemed adequate, and then got int he water and got a feel for the water.

The pros started 6:00 ahead of my wave, which was the elite open and elite masters. There were about 20 total in my wave, so the start wasn't too hectic. I got in a smooth rhythm, got on the heels of another dude in my heat, and tried to stay with him for as long as i could. He gapped me about halfway, and i was going solo until the final turn where the swimmers from the heat 3:00 behind me started catching me. I knew this would happen, so it didn't startle me. I just tried to stay with the passing swimmers as long as i could. The last stretch seemed like it lasted forever. When I got out I was about 15th out of the 20 in my heat. I had also expected that, but the time I came out with was much faster than I had expected. I was thinking 31-32 minutes would have been solid, and my swim split was 28:56, much better than I imagined was possible. So I was pleased, even though I had a lot of guys to catch on the bike and the run.

The transition included about a 250 m run on asphalt to the parking garage where the bikes were. I passed about 5 guys who swam faster than me just on that run.

My goal for the bike was to take the first lap very controlled, then if I was feeling good I would negative split the second loop. I ate a powerbar and got some fluid as I headed out, and noticed there was a guy from the heat behind me tat was cruising around 22-22.5 mph. So I decided to key off him for about 10 miles. He was a little weaker on the hills, so I passed him on the first big climb, and stayed in front for the remainder of the first lap. With about 5 miles to go til the end of the first lap I hit a nasty stretch of road and all three, yes all three, of my bottles popped out. grrrrrrr So at the turnaround I had to spend a little time grabbing some bottles at the aid stations. The guy I was keying off of passed me here, and got a sizable gap on me at the start of the second loop. He was probably up about :30 on me at points, but again, at the start of the first climb of the loop, I got back close to him again, and then passed him and put about a minute into him to finish off the bike. I went 2:26:30, avg 22.9 mph, which I was pretty happy about, although I played it very conservative and had a lot left for the run.

I wanted to try to avg in the low 6:10's for the half mary, and I took the run out at what seemed a very conservative pace. My split? 5:52. Yeah, this is gonna be a good one. So I stayed with that rhythm pretty much the entire way, falling off pace only in the last 1.5 miles of each loop where there was a formidable climb. It was really kinda ridiculous, and there was someone dressed like a devil cheering everyone on. On both loops, I was the only one runnign up the hill. Everyone else I was passing was walking. So I ended up running a 1:18:30, avg 6:00, and I had the second fastest run split of the day. I finished 6th overall with a 4:17:28, and I was the first non-pro finisher, which i was pumped about. Just need to be more aggressive on my bike, and I'm sitting right in the middle of the pros. Definitely doable.