s but I didn’t hear it. I got up at 4:30 and my swim wave was starting at 6:17. I’m usually a little anxious on race day with normal pre-race jitters and I always feel rushed to make sure I have everything I need, get to the race site, and get set up in the transition area before the race starts. This just set it into high gear. After parking, I was topping off the air in my tires and pssssssssst….flat tire, right out of the car. A quick change and I’m off to the transition area for set-up. I hoped that I was getting my flat for the day out of the way early.Swim - The swim went well with no issues. 1.2 mile swim = 44:57
Bike - On the Bike I really wanted to take it easy because I knew the altitude would be a factor since I live at sea level. We started at 6400 feet and topped out at 7500 ft. Six weeks ago at DueceMan I really felt like I went too hard on the bike and suffered on the run because of it, so I wanted to avoid that as well. My strategy Sunday was to keep my cadence (pedal strokes per minute) at around 90, keep my heart rate below 145, and not to hammer the downhills in order to recover for the climbing. The bike went well. I was able to test out a new blood sugar meter mount on my bike which I’ll describe in a later post. Not my best half-iron bike at 3:14 but I felt pretty good. I did have a slight “blunder” coming into the second transition. At DeuceMan my transitions were slooooow so I was determined to quicken them up and gain some time. I was trying a new dismount where you kind of jump off your bike on the fly by swinging your leg over and hopping off. Having only practiced this a couple times I probably should not have attempted it in the race but hindsight is 20/20 right? So as I came into the transition I’m all pumped up and probably already going a little to fast and the entrance to transition is on a down hill. I swing my right leg over and I’m riding on the left pedal and start to loose control. I’m veering off to the left and not slowing down fast enough. The volunteer in front of me starts to panic…TO FAST! TO FAST! My left foot slips off the pedal and since the bottom of bike shoes are plastic my feet slip on the pavement. I avoided a major crash and stay on my feet, but I was unable to stop fast enough to avoid running into the transition entrance. The whole entrance falls down, a large metal pipe falls to the pavement…CLANK, CLANK, CLANK! drawing more attention to myself....oops. Luckily nothing was hurt except my ego, just a little embarrassing. I don’t even think I lost any time.
Run - As I headed out on the run the sun was coming out from the clouds where it had been hiding behind all morning. The first 3 miles of the run would be the toughest and I knew that going in. The 2 and 3rd miles were an uphill switchback that insured my legs were nice and spent before going into the rest of the run. The temperature rose to between 90-95 and I was also really feeling the elevation. I hadn’t really noticed it much before this point. What I did notice was what I thought was a pebble in my shoe of the arch of my left foot. I figured I could ignore it but it just became too much of a nuisance. I stopped around mile 7 and took my shoe off, look inside, shook it out…huh?, nothin’. Oh well, I put my shoe back on and continued, except I could still feel it. Another mile or two passes and I decided to check it out again only this time when I took my shoe off I actually look at my foot. OUCH! It wasn’t a pebble it was a blister. Nothing I could do at that point. I put my shoe back on and shuffled my way to the finish. My run split was 2:23:47, it was my slowest Half-Ironman to date at 6:26:46. The heat and altitude made it a tough day. In my mind, everything this season is practice/training for my overall goal of completing Ironman Arizona in November. This weekend I gained valuable race experience and mental toughness that I will need.
