Well everyone else is doing it so I guess I will too! I have found the race reports written by friends so interesting, I figured I would share
my thoughts as well.
Signing up for this race itself is a
little bit of an interesting story. In
2009, this was going to be the first half Ironman that my wife and I attempted,
but we got burned out on training so we did the half Redman in Oklahoma City instead
because it was a month earlier in the season.
Fast forward to this year, I wanted to do the half Redman for the 3rd
time and my wife wanted to do the half Redman aqua bike (she is sidelined from
running due to an injury). However, the aqua
bike was sold out. This caused us to switch
our attention to Longhorn since it was the closest race that worked for us on
the calendar. There was no aqua bike,
but there was a relay and we recruited my sister-in-law to run. This would be a great challenge to her since
it would be her first half marathon.
During the early stages of training for this race, I felt
great. Although I wasn’t following any
type of formal plan, I kept up with a running schedule that had allowed me to
PR in my last half marathon and I began riding with the Frisco Triathlon Club
which proved very beneficial in pushing my pace and distance beyond what I
would do myself.
I had to push myself for motivation after Labor Day. I had some travel obligations, my wife had a time
consuming teaching schedule this semester, and the weather for the weeks leading
up to the event did not cooperate with riding a bike outside. Regardless of the challenges, taper week
arrived and I felt ready for the race.
Race weekend arrived and it was time to travel. It was nasty and rainy so I did not want to
put our nicely tuned and cleaned bikes on the bike rack just to get covered
with road gunk. I crammed two bikes, luggage, triathlon gear, three women and
myself into my wife’s Nissan Pathfinder.
It was a bit cramped and unorganized, but we made it!
We rolled into Town and went straight to the Expo. This was my first Ironman branded event, so I
was excited to see how it compared to other events. The process was efficient and the swag was
good. We made our way through the process
of getting bibs, shirts, swag, and timing chips and into the merchandise area
where we bought t-shirts and a cookie cutter.
It was a cold dreary day and it made us very nervous about what the
temperature would be during the race.
Also, I was in shorts so that wasn’t the smartest wardrobe decision on
my part.
We attended the athlete briefing which provided some clarity
about the transitions. This was the
first race in which I have participated with two transitions. This and the weather were probably my biggest
points of stress going into the race. After
the race meeting, we took our bikes to T-1 and found our spots. We then went to have a nice pasta dinner, buy
some throw away hoodies, and settle in back at the hotel where we packed our
various bags and got ready to wake up at 3:45 am.
The night was restless and the morning came too soon. We got up, got our coffee, checked our bags
and left the hotel at 4:30. We arrived
to drop off our running gear in T-1 and boarded the shuttle bus to the swim
area. Once we got to T-1, we got body
marked, off loaded our bike bags and made sure everything was set up the way it
should be. I had a sinking feeling that
I had left my run bag at 2082 rather than 2782, which was my number so I hopped
a shuttle bus back to T-2 to double check.
It turned out that all was well, but the line for the shuttle buses
back to T-1 now wrapped all the way through transition. It moved faster than I thought it would and I
made it back to the swim start area in plenty of time to meet back up with my
wife and wish her good luck as she began her swim.
I then had about an hour to kill because I was in the last
wave. This was nice because I got to
watch my wife emerge from the swim and cheer her on. At 8:25, it was time for my wave to get in
the water. I had been dreading this
moment because of how cold I thought the water would be. To my surprise, it was pretty nice. Maybe it was warmer than expected because I
was in the final wave and the other thousands of participants warmed up the
water for me….. Yuck.
The gun went off and my event had begun. Despite the numerous swim waves, the swim
felt very crowded and there were many elbows thrown and kicks to avoid. I had some side cramping during the first 500
meters, but they subsided. At the first
turn, the sun was very bright and in my eyes which made me have to pick my head
up several times to find the buoys. I got
off course pretty badly when the buoys changed from yellow to orange, so I had
to get back in line. I made the final
turn and began the final third of the swim.
I always have to back myself off at this point because the excitement of
being on the way in always makes me underestimate that there is still a good
chunk of the swim left to accomplish. I
swam in until my elbows touched the lake bottom and then ran out into T-1.
The wetsuit peelers did a great job and I made it to my bike
without issue. The cooler temperatures
made me want a few more cloths than normal, so I took a little more time than I
wanted to getting dry, changing, and getting out to the bike course. Clocking in at over 9:00, it wasn’t my
finest transition.
The first few miles on the bike seemed pretty difficult and
it took me a while to settle in to the ride.
Once I settled in, the ride seemed pretty nice and non-eventful for a
period of time. I was making decent
time, but nothing spectacular. The
course was very congested I don’t think anyone really followed the rule of
always having five bike lengths between you and the athlete in front of
you. The course seemed to get a bit more
challenging after the half-way point and my anticipation of a tail wind for the
second half was wrong. Outside of a wonderful
three mile stretch around mile 40, the wind seemed to be in my face at every
turn. It also seemed that every turn greeted
me with another hill to climb. I am not
a strong climber and my training routes did not have this type of elevation so
I was discouraged to see my average pace slowly dropping. I started to lose my positive attitude around
mile 50 after completing a series of three killer hills. At this point, it just seemed that the ride would
never end. It seemed that I was so
close, but also so far. Finally, I
turned onto the road leading to transition signaling the end of the ride. Of course, there was another hill; it may
have been minor, but at this point even the slightest incline seemed like
climbing a mountain.
From the dismount line, my rack was all the way on the other
side of transition. As I ran through, I
couldn’t shake the grumpiness that took hold of me on the last few miles of the
bike. I was very disappointed in my bike
time and that was an area where I felt I had improved from my last 70.3. I racked my bike and put my run gear on. My wife had completed her portions of the
relay and she stood at the fence to cheer me on. She asked how I was. In true positive fashion, I said “this sucks,
I suck.” I then scowled at her family
and headed out on the run.
The run started out fine.
Despite my rough end to the bike, I felt good. I had to continue to slow myself down because
every time I looked at my watch, I was running a pace that I knew I could not
sustain. The run was a three loop course and on the way out of the first loop,
I felt pretty good. I knew that I would eventually
walk so I wanted to make up as much time as I could within the first loop. I made it almost to the end of the first loop
before I had to start walking up one of the hills. The run certainly got harder after that
point. I decided that I would run
through the populated areas with lots of energy and also the downhill portions. I had conceded to myself that I would walk up
the hills. I was already very tired at
this point, so thinking about running nine more miles was very tough mentally.
Even though it hurt,
I felt that I was running strong for the first portion of the second lap, but I
hit the wall around mile six. It was all
that I could do to pick up my feet and run down the hills. I was very frustrated that I couldn’t dig
deeper and run more. I was able to
finish the second lap strong. I saw my
family at this point and expressed my displeasure with how I was feeling. But here it was – the final lap.
At one point, I think I was making grunt noises and having an outward conversation
with myself of how I would never do another 70.3. I got through the hills and into the park at
the other end of the course and finally started to feel that the end was
near. I didn’t finish the last lap as
strong as I had hoped, but I made it to the expo hall and ran hard across the
finish line.
Upon crossing the finish line, I sat by the wall and thought
to myself “Should I go to the Medical Area?” “Am I going to die?” "Will I ever Stand Again?" I had never felt so tired after an athletic
event and I truly think that this was the most challenging event I have ever
done. My wife found me and took me over to
the food area where she got me pasta. On the way there, I shared with her my
desire for this to be my last 70.3.
However, after eating my food and sitting around for about 10 minutes, I
had already forgotten the pain and started thinking about the next one.
It wasn’t my best, it wasn’t my worst. Looking back on the race, there are portions
that I am proud of and portions where I failed to meet goals. I am
going to introduce more structure in my training and in my nutrition for the
next one. Ultimately, I am happy with my race
experience, but wish that I would have had a better attitude coming off of the
bike and throughout the run. After all, this is what I do for fun!
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