My First Half-Ironman Race

Nerves

The week leading up to the race was fraught with the sinusoidal waves of confidence and doubt. Confidence in my training and fitness to get me across the finish line. Doubt in my abilities to meet my goal, going too hard too soon and bonking. Surprisingly I wasn’t as daunted by the swim. I’ve been putting enough time in the pool that the distance didn’t feel any more challenging than my normal races¹. I have enough running background that my only concern about the half marathon was how tired I would feel going into it. It was the bike leg I had the most concern about². Few, if any of my training rides had gotten too close to that distance and this race had a formidable hill climb just after half way. I wasn’t sure the pace I would be able to maintain or even what effort level would be most appropriate to ensure I would have enough in the tank to make moves on the run. One one side of the coin this was my first race at this distance and was more of a feeler for the whole ironman thing; on the other side, my competitive side, I wanted to do more than just complete it. I wanted to be in the top 10. That was my goal from the beginning of the season and as much as that scared me now I still had an inkling it was possible if I did everything right. *gulp*

Fuel

Not since my ultramarathon in Iceland have I had to put this much effort into my fuel/nutrition plan on race day³. 4+ hour of almost any activity requires you to eat something and this was no ordinary activity. I had to rethink my storage strategy on my bike. In the shorter races I can just have a gel or two in my pockets with a water bottle on my bike and call it good. Here, I was trying to consume 3-400 calories of carbs/electrolytes every hour. For the bike leg this amounted to 4 Honey Stinger waffles cut up into manageable pieces, 6 Honey Stinger gels, and 2 water bottles with Nuun performance powder. My single little pouch on the bike wasn’t enough but I was able to fit all the cut up waffles in there inside a plastic bag along with two gels. I stuffed the rest in my pockets. I had to go out and get another water bottle cage because one was not going to be enough even if they had some water bottle exchanges during the race. This was also the first race where I opted to carry any “pit stop” equipment should I get a flat. I don’t have some fancy, behind the seat, contraption to hold all my stuff so I rigged something up with an older CO2 carrier designed for a mountain bike, some extra velcro, and numerous trial and error. Now I had a plan for what, and how, I would carry everything on my bike. The next stage was actually racing.

The Day Before

I got to cover part of the bike course by car in the morning as I drove Lindsey to the start of her 25k trail race. She took off at 7am. My race would go off at 8am the following morning so I tried to take note of the temperature at each hour to get a sense for what I would be dealing with during my own race. I didn’t really notice the heat until 9-10am, which meant I would at least have the first hour or so of the bike to get into a groove before temperatures started to climb (as did the elevation). Following Lindsey’s phenomenal 4th place finish overall, and 1st woman to boot, we hopped back in the car to both see more of the course but also for me to ride some of it. I wanted to test some of the uphill climb and get a sense for the duration of the downhill section so I could better predict the duration of that leg as a whole. It was a pretty challenging climb and I tried not to overdo it too much⁴. After that was said and done I set up T2⁵ then went back to our lodging for the evening. We had an early dinner, relaxed on the couch, and were in bed by 8:30pm⁶.

Race Day!

Pre-Race

The race didn’t start until 8am but that didn’t stop me from getting up at 4:45am so that I could take my time warming up, doing last minute prep, going through my check lists, and getting to transition early⁷. I jogged a couple miles with Lindsey to warm up, did a few “strides” in the lake to get a sense for the water, then anxiously awaited the start of the race.

3 Minutes Until The Swim

This race had an “elite” wave, which comprised of about 20 men and women who expected to finish in, you guessed it, the top 20. I had opted to stay with the masses in the main wave, which would start 3 minutes after the elites. While I was still hoping to break into the top 10, this means that I would actually only need to finish less than 3 minutes away from someone in the elite wave to have actually beaten them⁸. I knew this meant I may not even see some of my competitors until the run, if then. I would just have to make this my race and focus on my own effort.

The Swim Itself

As with a couple of my other races this season, I was not surprised when I had some goggle issues. This time the left side didn’t have the greatest seal so I had to empty the water out and squash it back into my face and continue swimming. Fortunately I only had to do that two times before it held for good and then I could focus on the race. For the first time I wasn’t completely in no man’s land and was swimming with two other guys in a little pack. Before the halfway mark we had already dropped one guy so I mostly stuck off the legs of the guy ahead of me. I felt comfortable with the pace and there didn’t really seem to be anyone else that I could have tried to catch up to and didn’t mind drafting a little to try and save myself any energy I could. We had to navigate some of the swimmers from the later waves as we neared the end of our second lap. I was still feeling strong, hoping that I would be near my goal time (~35 minutes) when I got out of the water. I was pleasantly surprised when my watch read 32:12 as I ran up the boat launch.

The Bike

This point-to-point bike leg was both well laid out and deceiving at the same time. The first half was on relatively rolling hills, slowly gaining a little bit of elevation. It was from there that it promptly climbed around 1200 feet in about 12 miles as it wrapped around Mt. Bachelor. From there you were graced with about 14 miles of downhill and a few more miles of flat before reaching T2. While I knew the downhill would be great and give me a chance to recover a little from the climb I still had to get there. Considering that my normal race distance of 40k (~25 miles) only got me to the base of the climb I knew this would be a different type of effort than that. Instead, I tried to focus on maintaining a good, but not crazy, effort on the first half, not getting caught up too much in chasing down the next person or going with someone who passed me. Instead I focused on my nutrition plan, being sure to eat and drink before I was thirsty or before I wouldn’t be able to take in food as easily.

Once I got to the climb I tried to keep the effort as consistent as I could. It was starting to warm up and I already wanted to be done. It helped that I was slowly picking off people one by one as I approached the summit. Lindsey served as a great book end, cheering me on before the climb and just near the top. As I crested the summit I prepared myself for the rapid change in speed, transitioning from a 10 mph climb to a 40 mph descent. I took in some more fluids and food, knowing that my hands might be white knuckling the aero bars for the next few miles. I had made it to the top about 10 minutes before my target time so I focused the last few miles of the bike on mentally preparing myself for the run and taking in any remaining fuel I could stomach.

The Run

I had a target pace of 6:30s. I would only meet that for the first mile or two. The first one was far too fast at 6:05. The second I relaxed a little more but was still at 6:20. After that I settled in a little bit more, running sub 6:40 for the next 4 miles. It was around that point, mile 5 or so, that I began to feel the warning signs of cramping to come. I had a couple gels with me and knew that I would have to use them wisely. I never had to stop but I did slow down to 7:05 pace in mile 8. I took in as much water and electrolytes as I could as I passed each water station and force fed myself a gel whenever I felt my leg cramps getting worse. I didn’t have the extra gear I was hoping for but I felt I was still on target for my overall finish time with the time gained in the swim and bike.

The last 4 miles or so were almost entirely in the sun, which was baking us at an uncomfortable 85+ degrees. No shade and few people in sight made this a real grind to the finish. With a mile to go I picked it up a half, maybe quarter, notch mostly to be done with it sooner than for the time itself. I saw the clock read close to 4:45:00 as I finished, figuring I may actually be a few minutes under that with my later start. Either way I was pumped because 4:45:00 was the faster end of my goal time. I didn’t even think about what my actual finish position and time was until after I had soaked myself in some cool water and taken in some more fluids to relieve the cramping⁹.

In Summary

I finished in 7th place with a time of 4:41:48. Both of these better than my early season goals of 10th and sub 4:45:00. While there are plenty of things I know I’ll need to work on¹⁰ I’m really proud of my performance. This being my debut at this distance I know that I can be even better next time. While I don’t know when I might undertake such a race again¹¹ I now have hard evidence that I can do it, and do it well. The “natural” progression is for people to ask when you’ll do a full ironman. I may be closer to doing one now than I was before this race, I think that is still a ways out. For now I still enjoy the shorter, faster races. The next of which is in 3 weeks.