|
9/30/7 Greenwood Half Iron Race Report Well hello everyone! I have a race report from the South Carolina Half Ironman that took place on Sunday. I have to say, I am always excited about this race b/c I get to see so many people I know on the run course. The day before didn’t start out as planned though. I had a 3 hour ride to get in on Saturday, still training for Ironman, and my bike partner overslept in a big way. So instead of getting the bike started early at 8am, it became a late ride starting at 10:45. I had decided to do the bike course of the half Ironman that was taking place on Sunday, and later questioned my decision. The wind was bad, and I didn’t keep my heart rate as low as I should have. . . .oh well. The rest of the day went fine and I had a restless nights sleep and awoke at 4:30 am. The race site was only 30 mins away, but if you didn’t get there early you parked about a mile away and I didn’t want to do that. Transition set up went as normal and Julie and I headed over to the swim start. The swim started about 30 mins. late b/c the buoys weren’t out yet, but I used the time wisely. . stretching. The elites went off first, and I have to say, I laughed. They went so far off course they had to add an extra 500 meters, but at least I was learning from their mistake. . . .NOT! I start the swim feeling ok and getting into a groove trying to make sure I stay on course. now, you would think I would have learned but I went off course anyway. Maybe I just like a challenge A friendly kayaker escorted me to the turn buoy, probably thinking I was trying to cut the course short on purposeJ. I come out of the water at 39 mins and just want to scream, but you know it’s a long race and this is “technically” a training day. |
The bike starts out okay, I am really just happy to clip into my pedals. I was told the wind from the prior day wasn’t expected, but whoever predicted that definitely on something at the time. The wind was the same, and I watch as my heart rate goes up. Forrest suggested trying to keep my HR a little higher around 140-145 and see how that effects my run. See, I was trying to test out a pace for IMFL not really trying to PR at the half Ironman. I am sure my avg. was 145 for that bike b/c every time I looked down I kept telling myself to slow down. I strolled into transition with a 3:01 bike time and am extremely disappointed. I now realize that my time from last year, which I should have smashed, is probably not even feasible at this point. I try not to do the math, b/c I am a numbers person, and focus on just doing the run without putting numbers in my head that could get me to the finish line faster. I know from experience that once I hit the run, anything can happen. My knees can blow up and force me to a hobble, or I can have the run of my life. I try to turn negatives into positives so, I focused on cheering other people on. I took my 1st mile very slow, which was okay b/c I tend to go out too fast sometimes. I stopped off at the portolet and felt 100% better. I have to tell you their isn’t anything better than seeing all the friendly faces and cheering everyone on. It was kind of funny b/c at mile 5 this one guy in front of me said, “well if nothing else you’ve one the popularity contest, you must be kind of nice”. I told him not to fool himself, I just train a lotJ. I started keeping better tabs on what my miles were and surprisingly they were registering a little under 8 min. miles. I didn’t know if I could keep that, but it felt good. Mile 9 I decided to hammer gel again b/c I could remember whether the aide station was at 10 or 11. that decision wasn’t wise, it was way too early. I managed to suffer the rest of the run w/ urges of vomiting. I did however manage to chase a few poor souls down and finish at 5:30. I placed 1st in my age group, and was just happy to be finished. Special thanks to:
Atlanta Bread Company
|
|
Close Window
|
|