Half Ironman Galveston - Race Recap

Well another race is in the books. It was definitely a tough and challenging day but overall pretty good.

If I had to pick a one word theme for the overall race I would probably say: Painful. It was hot, windy, and challenging both physically and mentally. And because of that it was a great race because I was able to learn a lot not only in regards to adjustments to make going forward, but also in realizing how far I have come with my training and racing.

So without further adieu its time to break down the race:

Swim

One word summary: Outstanding

More than one word summary: The swim was a salt water swim in a protected bayou just off the Moody Gardens resort. The wind can still cause a little bit of a current that can push you out away from the course if you aren't careful, but as long as you sight properly it wasn't too bad. The swim was pretty uneventful except for the one inadvertent punch to the face I took from another swimmer, but that is to be expected in a mass swim start.

Its no secret that I spend a lot of time in the pool, 3 morning a week for an hour each morning to be exact. I obviously swim a lot of laps and do a lot of work to try and swim more efficiently. Well Sunday morning I was able to see some of that work pay off. In my first two Half Ironmans I have shown improvement in my time but still had not broke under 42 minutes for the 1.2 mile swim. Well that changed on Sunday.

Swim time: 39:37

Bike

One word summary: Windy

More than one word summary: F&@king windy! The Galveston bike course is bitter sweet all at the same time. It is pancake flat almost the entire way, but it is notoriously windy since the entire ride hugs the coastline all the way down the seawall. There are no turns or navigation to worry about you ride straight out 28 miles and then hit the turnaround and ride 28 mile straight back.

This year we head out on the course and the wind was blowing in a direction where it was a slight crosswind, but predominately a head wind. I could tell right from the start it was going to be a challenging first half to the bike, but I knew if I paced myself and conserved my legs a little bit once I hit the turnaround that headwind would be a tailwind and I could take advantage of it to make up time on the way back.

It took me a little longer than I hoped to hit the halfway point, but considering it was a pretty decent headwind I wasn't going to worry about it too much because 1) I still rode the first half faster than I did last year, and 2) I was going to have a tailwind to help me out on the way back. I am not going to lie, the tailwind was amazing. I was able to gear down and really start clipping along and making up some time. Things in fact were going awesome until mile 40. That is when the wind changed directions and the tailwind we had, turned into a headwind once again. Needless to say I had a few choice four letter words to let out.

I knew the headwind was really going to take a toll on my legs considering I had already put 28 miles into a headwind before the turnaround. But there is nothing I could really do about it except put my head down and grind out the next 16 miles and hope I had enough in my legs for the run. Even with the headwind for 44 of the 56 miles I was able to improve my bike time from the last two half ironman races I had done.

Bike time: 3:05:19 - 18.13/mph

Run

One word summary: HOT!

More than one word summary: I first have to say, I love doing this run course. It is all within the confines of Moody Gardens. Its a little over a 4 mile loop that you run 3 times. It is filled with spectators and the cheering crowds are always greatly appreciated(special shout out to mine to follow a little bit farther down). At that point of the race any type of encouragement makes a huge difference and its great to be able to have that pretty much the entire loop.

The one thing that does not have is much shade. So when the sun comes out it gets hot, especially when it its a high humidity day like Sunday was. For as windy as the bike course is you don't get much on the run. In fact when the sun comes out you pretty much feel like you are running in a oven. Sunday's run was tough. Very tough. It was tough for a couple reasons. You had the heat, the humidity, and of course you were coming off a very windy bike course that took a toll on your legs. I felt horrible when I got off the bike. My legs hurt, my back hurt, and my neck hurt. Running was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.

I quickly changed into my running shoes, and after a stop off at the porto-john I was off on the run course. Did I mention I felt horrible? In fact I don't think I felt that bad since my very first triathlon I did two years ago, but I continued to power on. In fact even feeling as bad as I did I was able to run the first five miles of the run portion at a sub 9 minute mile pace. It was a mental and physical struggle but I was holding the pace down pretty well up to that point. However just after mile 5 is when my legs started to catch up to me. My pace slowly started to climb and I definitely started to get frustrated.

I wish I could tell you how I felt for the next 5 miles after that, but I was pretty much in a haze. I remember seeing my cheering section as I went past their tailgate area, but outside of that I don't remember much. I was hot, sweaty, in pain, and pretty much zoned out. I did keep running, albeit it a little slower than I hoped, but hell at that point any type of running was better than walking.

Finally I was almost a mile into my last lap. I hit my cheering section with about 3 miles left to go. Gave them a thumbs up, hit the beach ball back to them as I ran by and buckled down to finish the run.

Run time: 2:17:37 - 10:30 minute/mile

P.S.- That run time is the same amount of time it took me to run my first half marathon 18 months ago. And that was without swimming or biking before hand.

Total time: 6:09:54 - I was really hoping that I could break under 6 hours for this race, but all things considering (taking over 16 minutes off my half ironman time from Nov, and almost an hour off my time from this course last year) I will definitely take it.

I learned a lot during this race. Not only getting my pacing and nutrition dialed in to almost where I need it to be, but being able to push myself through the times when my body is feeling bad, not just physically but mentally. The mental aspect of this sport is such an important component if you are going to have any type of success. In fact more times than not you are going to hurt during races, its what you do during that point that really lets you know what you are made of.

I need to give a few shout outs to some pretty awesome people:

My cheering section! The whole Lance Armstrong craze stole their spot on the front page of the paper this year, but they still rocked it out just as hard, if not harder than last year. Jody Oltman, Alicia Kerr, Shawn Pohlmann, Justin "shirts are for work" Pohlmann, and Lauren Blair. You guys rock. You have no idea how much difference it makes to have someone cheering you on during a race like that. I wouldn't have been able to do it as well without you all!

My mentor Jarod Meinheit! This was the guy that talked me into my first triathlon, and I haven't looked back since. He was also there racing this race so he can vouch for the wind and the heat. But seriously, none of this would have been possible without his help.

The Tri-sition area! This is shop I go to here in San Antonio, and I can not say enough good things about them. Not only do they have great group training sessions I take full advantage of, but they always get my bike ready to roll for me before every race with a tune-up and any adjustments. I would recommend them to anyone!

So where does that leave me now? Well at the end of this month I am going an Olympic distance triathlon. It will help me work on my speed a little bit before Half Ironman Kansas which is a little over 8 weeks away. I am very excited for that race for two reasons.

1) I am really hoping I can register a sub 6 hour Half Ironman. I think if I work hard the next two months I might be able to make it happen.

2) By the time Half Ironman Kansas is here, I will officially be registered for Ironman Texas 2013 and will officially be training for that!