Because my bike was already in its place in transition, I arrived at about 5:50 for a start time of 6:58. I usually like to get to the site quite early, but most of the reason for that is to stake out a spot in transition. Since it was already there, all I had to do was to set up my transition space and go. As I walked into transition there were already announcements on the p.a. system about everyone clearing out of transition by 6:15. I set up my area and inflated my bike tires. I had deflated them the day before on the advice of fellow triathletes who said the heat may make fully inflated tires pop.
I grabbed my wetsuit and went looking for The Great Magnetic Wife. I relieved myself one last time and got into my wetsuit. The first waves were already starting. The Great Magnetic Wife went up to the Mill Street Bridge to watch. This is a very well run triathlon and they were starting the waves exactly when they said they would. That is a nice change from some triathlons, particularly the L.A. Triathlon. The one criticism I have is that the wave went off a little too close together. It is a water start and all of the athletes have to go down a narrow set of stairs, jump into the lake and swim to the start line. There were people still trying to get into the water when their wave started. This was through no fault of their own, just took time to get all of those people in the water. Fortunately, I was able to get in the water and start reasonably close to the starting line.
As is usual with triathlon swim starts, it was all legs and elbows for the first five minutes or so. The first sighting point was the Mill Street Bridge, but after we swam under that it was difficult to sight. The sun wasn't quite up yet, and there was no landmarks on the horizon to look for. The buoys that mark the course are tough to see from a distance. I figured the best thing I could do was to follow the pack. After about ten minutes or so, the sun started peeking over the horizon and strait into my eyes. This made it even harder to sight. I just kept swimming. I was still following the pack, so I figured I must be okay. Suddenly a guy swam into me at about a 45 degree angle. This was odd and a bit annoying. I looked up and saw what he had seen: we were way off course. We were approaching the first turn buoy, but we were at least a hundred yards inside of it. I had to back-track a bit to make a legal turn. That is not going to help my time. It was much easier to sight the next turn buoy and the swim back, as the Mill Street Bridge made a good object on which to sight. As I was swimming it felt like a decent swim. Not particularly fast, but this was the first leg of a long day, I wasn't going all out. When I finally got out of the water and looked at my watch it said about 55:00. That is a horrible time. Oh well, if you double that, it would be within the swim cut-off for the Ironman. My official time for the 1.2 mile swim was 55:18.
One of my favorite parts of this triathlon is that they provide Wetsuit Strippers. There were two volunteers waiting when I got out of the water to strip of my wetsuit. They grabbed the upper part and pulled my arms out. They told me to sit down and then they pulled the rest off of my legs and handed me my wetsuit. The was great. They got me out of my wetsuit in about ten seconds. it can take me up to a minute. I changed as quickly as I could into my biking gear and headed out. I was going to be on the bike for about three hours and I could feel a slight urge to use the restroom. At the last moment I decided that I should probably do that. So, I detoured to the port-o-potty. Another minute or two in transition, but it would make for a much more comfortable ride. T1 time, bathroom break and all was 6:47.
I felt very good on the bike and was going at a very good pace to start. I looked down at my watch and it still said about 55:00. When I was getting my wetsuit stripped off, it must have hit the stop button on my watch. I figured it was about ten minutes since then, I would just have to estimate my time by adding ten minutes on. I started my watch again. Since I rode the course the day before I was knew what to expect. However, I was going faster than I expected. Almost very time I looked at my speedometer, I was over 20 mph. There were a few rolling hills that slowed me down, but nothing really steep. The course was more technical than I remembered. Probably because I was riding at a fairly leisurely pace when I rode it the day before. But there were a number of 90 degree turns coming at the bottoms of hills. As I made one turn, I believe it was on the second loop, I heard someone behind me crash. I finished the first loop at an average speed of 19.9 mph. That is pretty fast for me. The second loop was slightly slower, not because I was getting tired, but because the wind was starting to kick up a little bit. The third loop was a little slower still for the same reason. My final time for the 56 miles on the bike was 2:51:39.
Heading into T2 I had to take another bathroom break. Three in one triathlon, that is a record for me. I changed as fast as I could into my running shoes, used my spray-on sunscreen and took off. About 25 yards into the run I realized I still had my bike helmet on. Ooops! I ran back to my transition spot, took off my helmet, put on my visor and headed out again. I felt very good on the run. I used the run-walk method that I usually do: run for five minutes and walk for one. I was feeling good and going at a natural, comfortable pace. It was supposed to get hot and even though it was certainly warm, it was not too bad. I did the first loop of the two loop course in 1:15 minutes.
As I was finishing the first loop a group from the L.A Tri Club, who had already finished, was there to cheer me on. They were encouraging me and saying, "you're almost there!" I had to say, "thanks, but I still have a lap to go."
Almost as soon as I started the second loop it started to get really hot. My pace slowed down considerably and I was taking in a lot more fluid. Suddenly my sweat caused the sunscreen to drip into my eyes and it stung to the point that I couldn't open my eyes. Fortunately, I had just filled my Fuel Best water bottles and so I doused my eyes with water to wash them out. The rest of the run was slow, but I kept with my five minute run, one minute walk and finally finished. My final time for the 13.1 mile run was 2:40:07, my slowest ever half marathon time.
After I crossed the finish line there was a Slip and Slide set up. It looked like fun, so I ran and dived onto it and stopped. There wasn't much slide in it. It could more descriptively be called a Hop and Stop. I crawled down the rest of it and at the end was a pool of water that had had about a thousand plus athletes go through it before. It was kind of disgusting. Oh well, that was the only way out. I hopped into the knee deep water of the pool and went and got my finisher's medal.
I had a much slower swim and and slower run than my previous half ironman race, but because the bike was so much faster, my total time of 6:40:39 was a 37 minute improvement over my last half ironman.
