Ironhead Productions Prairie Man 1/2 Ironman

See...no chip

If you were to take the time to actually look at my results, you'd find I have none until I get from the bike to the run. It turns out that I lost my chip in the water.

Thanks, however, to Kent for clicking off my splits, for me. He even got my horrible transition time of 2:05. I have to work on that.

Big Thanks, however, to Brandon and Amy Marshes's Master's swim program for helping me to pull off a 36 min and 19 sec swim. It is the same as my Wildflower swim but I was wearing a wetsuit at Wildflower. The swim was a big triangle with bouys every 200 meters or less. I was told that I was in the first 10 of my wave, to exit. Wahoo!

Lisa riding like the wind and having fun.

On to the bike. It was a four loop course. My tri-advisor, Coach Patrick had suggested that I could hold 140 -150 watts and still feel decent for the run. Thanks for the Coaching...wish I had pulled it off! The course was flat and fast which makes for a good bike. The only area that I might have complaints about was on the back part of the loop where you had to ride with the traffic. It was a two lane road with traffic flowing both ways. Who thought that traffic should be allowed during a bike race was a good idea? I had to slow down and get behind some of the cars because they were riding so close to the side (there was no shoulder) that I couldn't pass.

But, right after that was a fast downhill section that I was able to make up time on. It was all going really well till, on the last loop, I went to pass a woman who, at the same time I'm passing moves to avoid a bump in the road and our handle bars locked. We both went flying. I bumped my head but thank God for my helmet. My bike came out the worse for wear. The other lady had more road rash than I did but her bike seemed fine. We both got up, and the race officials came by and said we looked ok and that we could keep on going. I don't know for sure but that was about a 4 to 5 min delay. Back on the bike for the last loop. Things didn't feel quite right with my handle bars all squished and cock-eyed. I kept slipping off the elbow pad. After some fancy 10th grade math we (really Kent) deduced that I had a 2hr and 48 min bike (including the crash) for a 20.2 bike avg. That's my fastest to date!

sad bike

Into transition, where the officials pull out my chip and swipe it for me. Someone must have found it in the water. On to the run.

Even after the bike wreck I'd have to say this is where it went downhill. I must have really screwed up my nutrition, never having raced such a long distance is such hot temps. It was 90 degrees but up on that dam it felt like 95. I got hot and couldn't keep my heartrate down. I couldn't catch my breath and started cramping before mile two. It was so bad I walked nearly the entire thing. I counted....I'd run about 40 steps and have to walk till my breathing calmed and my cramps released. I wanted to quit a dozen times cause I knew that this would be my worst half ever and I had been out for a PR. But, I decided I would take something away from this and that if I quit I would be even more disappointed than if I walked the whole thing. That's just me...others would rather save it for another race but this was supposed to be my THE race, for the tri season so I was going to stick it out. I shuffled/walked (mostly walked)13.14 min/miles. It started raining when I had 1 mile to go...hard. Kent passed me Eden and I ran in with her. I'm not sure Jack Weiss would approve but at that point, I could care less about a time penalty. Guess what...I ended up 3rd in my age group (out of 8 finishers and two DNFs). However, I came in only 113th out of 192 but consider 10% DNF'd.

Rainy finish with my training pawtner, Eden.

I have to say this race was harder, for me, than AZ. The course was far from scenic and the dam run was downright boring not to mention the water and air temp was freaking hot and to top it all off, the after party sucked. Now, I'm home making plans to mend the bike and the body. Thanks to Charlotte and Lisa for being there to share in the pain. Big Thanks to Charlotte for sharing her salt tabs with me. I think it was too late, at that point, but who knows...maybe it could have been worse without them.

Charlotte, me and Lisa ready for action