September 18th, 2007
Duke Liver Center Half Ironman Lead-up
Getting ready for the Duke Liver Center Half Ironman was an effort in itself. Friday night the race website put up an update that the lake temperature was 79 degrees and on the verge of being wetsuit legal. In triathlons if the water is 78 or below everyone is able to wear a wetsuit if they want. From 79-83 you can wear a wetsuit but you won’t be eligible for any prizes or points, and from 84 and above wetsuits are not legal for any reason. Finding this out sent me into a bit a of a panic because I didn’t want to be the only one without a wetsuit and I had been reading how that if there is any chance to wear one that you better do it. Also I figured if there were rules for it there had to be a pretty good reason to do it. So I called my friend Paul whose a surfer and he had a couple spring suits, which are wetsuits that have half arms and half legs and usually made just for surfing. He offered to let me borrow one for the race.
That night I did a lot of searching around and found almost universal agreement that doing a triathlon in a spring suit was a bad idea because they tend to be looser and hold more water and end up slowing you down and not helping. So I was on the fence and decided I’d ask for some advice the next day at the packet pick-up.
Saturday I woke up around 8:30 and met Charlie and Zack at a local diner for a big breakfast which I had read was a really good idea. It said to eat a big breakfast and big lunch and small dinner. Afterwards I helped Charlie empty out his storage unit and got home for one of my only “breaks” of the day. An hour later I headed out to Inside-Out sports to pick up my race packet which was pretty straight forward. While i was there I saw a bunch of people at the wetsuit racks and a couple people carrying them and one trying one on. It didn’t really help my frame of mind on what to do.
I finally found a guy next to the counter and asked him if I needed a wetsuit because I didnt have one. Another guy behind the counter said a wetsuit always helps. The guy behind the counter came across as one of those guys who knows everything and looks down on you but the other guy was pretty cool. He said if you can afford one it wouldn’t hurt and I said I could buy one but not really afford one. The other guy behind the counter then asked what was I looking to do and I said just finish and he said not to worry about it then and went back to what he was doing. I told the other guy I had a spring suit I could use and he said I shouldn’t worry about it but if I wanted to be sure to wear it out in a pool for a few laps and then decide. In the end I decided not to wear a suit at all because of what I read, heard, and the fact that doing something new on a race day is never a good idea.
By this time its after three and I still haven’t had any lunch and I wanted to be in bed by nine. Paul had called to work out when to meet up for me to get the wetsuit and since at this point I hadn’t decided against wearing it I had to meet him. I got a burrito which wasn’t the pasta dinner I wanted but I figured it was at least a lot of calories and got halfway through it before Paul called to meet him at a local park. Thankfully he said he could do another errand first so I could finish eating. I spent the next 30 minutes laying out my transition towel and making sure I had everything when he called to go meet him. So I spent the next hour driving out to the park, shooting the shit, and driving back in a rush to meet Laura for the Carolina Rollergirls match.
The Rollergirls were playing the team from Texas that basically started the whole sport and I had been on the fence about seeing them all week since it would be over around 8. Laura talked me into going so I had to be back at my house by 5:15 to meet her and drive to Dorton Arena. On the way Murphy struck again and my server from work went down but I was able to hold off on fixing it till after the bout. The bout was awesome and well worth attending, even moreso because it gave me the longest continuous time in one place of the entire day. The bout was probably the most competitive and roughest I’ve ever seen with the final score coming down to four points difference and the Carolina Rollergirls losing for the first time at home. I had felt guilty about not working the bout on the stats team but with all the mess going on that day I’m glad I didn’t.
Next up I had to get gas, then get dinner and some more power bars. I also picked up some bagels and peanut butter to eat the next day for breakfast because it was another tip I had found. I got home at 8:30 still having not eaten, having to fix the server for work, and pack up my transition towel. By the time I wrapped everything up, including more wetsuit research I finally got to bed at 10 and spent the next few hours tossing and turning trying to get to sleep after being so wired all afternoon running around. In the end I think I got five hours sleep before waking up for the race at 4:30 in the morning.
Next post will be up to the bike leg of the race.
