September 20th, 2007
Duke Liver Center Half Ironman Bike and T2
I rolled out feeling pretty good considering how nerve wracking the swim had been. It’s weird and maybe this is something peculiar to me but I didn’t think about the swim again till after the race. After I finished the bike leg it was out of my mind as well. Each leg seemed like a brand new event, as if it were the only one I was doing and the previous leg wasn’t just completed but was the day before. I’m sure this is a pretty nice trick to have in my repertoire though it certainly wasn’t something I counted on.
I started out in a pretty big crowd of cyclists which made me think I was doing well so far. I wasn’t passing anyone and was regularly being passed myself. By the 10 mile mark I had been having a little dogfight with a girl in a white Zoot suit shirt. She’d pass me on the flats and I’d pass her on the hills, though the hills were by no means large at this point. Eventually she pulled away and for the rest of the afternoon I only saw people as they passed me. I set myself the goal of a nice evenly paced ride and would hope for 4 hours which I thought would be ambitious.
I had read a blog earlier in the week which helped me defined my nutrition plan. I ate a gel at the first 10 minutes and ate another at 1:10, 2:10, and 3:10. At 40 minute intervals I would eat a balance bar, the first 40, 1:40, and 2:40. At the first 40 minute mark I attempted the bar but it made me feel ill so I decided to eat half at each mark rather than push my stomach into something it obviously wasn’t prepared for. Over the course of the ride I drank a bottle of Cytomax and one full bottle of water and most of three more bottles. There were three aid stations where I would take on a new bottle regardless of how much of the previous I had drank. The first station meant i had to toss one of my real cycling bottles to make room for the sport water bottles they were giving out. I made sure to drink at least a couple swallows every 10 minutes switching between water and the leftover Cytomax. Granted I ran out of Cytomax about halfway but I kept to the plan with what I had left. For salt, extremely necessary because I tend to sweat way too much, I had one Endurolytes tablet every 30 minutes. Those pills are a lifesaver and I think they help me more than the gels do as far as endurance goes. Make sure you have some of these handy for your Livestrong Challenge ride.
A couple of interesting things happened at the halfway point of the ride. My knee started to hurt just like it did last year at the MS 150 where it promptly blew up and didn’t recover for months. It never got to the same level of pain as before but it did stay a constant throb for the rest of the ride, and even today as I type. This makes me a little nervous about the Livestrong Challenge because last year when this happened I was forced to change to the 70 mile route because it started hurting even earlier that day. I’m hoping since I never reached the same level of discomfort this time I wont have the same experience in Austin this year. The other thing I realized is that I was on pace to easily finish the bike ride in under three and a half hours. That coupled with my estimate of an hour swim meant I could be back at the transition by 11:30 and thus could beat seven hours by only running ten minute miles, which would be one of my slowest. I guess I was getting ambitious thinking of how fast I could finish when my goal the whole day was just to finish. To meet the goal of finishing I could walk the 13.1 miles and beat the cutoff.
When I was picking up my race packet at Inside-Out sports the guy gave me the tip to make sure not to burn myself out on the bike because at about mile 37 I’d start hitting some steep hills. I kept that in mind the whole ride and kept my heart rate in check with my heart rate monitor which I had decided would be a good idea for this race. My governing factor of speed though was the constant throbbing of my knee and not my heart rate. I think for the entire ride I never got higher than 145 even with the hills that came later. So my monitor was telling me I could really push it out faster but my knee, and later the other to a much lesser degree, was telling me I couldn’t. I kept the pace the same and shot for the 3:30 mark rather than push my luck.
At mile 37 right on cue the hills appeared. It felt like the Livestrong Challenge in Austin all over again. One big hill after another, some short and others long. They didn’t last long in comparison to the overall course but they were the bulk of the ride’s efforts. As with the rest of the ride I was still being passed but less frequently, which I attributed to the fact there weren’t many left to do so. I did notice after awhile the people’s age who passed me. As with any triathlon the ages were written on the back of each of our calves, mine being 32. So I knew that anyone, male, who passed me with 34 or lower means that I had passed them on the swim. Granted there weren’t many of these people but it did show that I wasn’t the worst one in my swim.
Around the 45 mile mark I finally passed my first rider which made me feel good. I would go on to pass three others before the finish line. There was a cruel trick played as I turned onto the road leading back to the park and transition area. Being a Sunday there were areas with groups of cars parked along the road for church. Each time I saw a group of cars I would think it was the drive leading back to the start/finish only to find that it was yet another church and my hopes were dashed again. As I felt myself getting closer I would stand up and stretch my calves so that they’d be loose and ready to go when I got to the transition. Finally I turned left onto the drive and was so glad to be back on the transition that i pushed out a quick pace into the transition area and hopped off my bike glad to be done and put the ride behind me.
As with the last transition I took my time, especially since i had gotten in faster than I could’ve ever hoped. I could average worse than 10 minute miles, though not by much, and still beat seven hours. I racked my bike and sat down to put on my socks and shoes. I lost some seconds because I hadn’t left my shoes with the laces loose and ready to go due to my lateness getting to the start, not that I minded. I emptied out all the trash from my cycling jersey that I had eaten on the road and threw it on my towel before heading out.
My cycling time was 3:26:47 and my second transition time was 3:49. Tomorrow the run and finish.
