Galveston 70.3 Race Report

At last, I was able to put all the training to the test.  Amazing how much training goes into one day of glory!

I went down to Galveston Saturday to check in, drop the bike off, and relax a bit before.  It was nice to have some camaraderie with the Outrival Racing Group and to also spend some time with my parents.  I'm grateful I was able to stay somewhere comfortable prior to racing.  I'm actually glad I got there early since my brake calipers were not releasing.  I wasn't planning on using my brakes too much, but better safe than sorry.  The guys at Bike Barn replaced my front calipers and tweaked the rear and I was in business.  So, I dropped the bike off and then put the feet up before the ORR team dinner.  I stuck with something simple...spaghetti with meat sauce and water.

After dinner I returned to my parents house and mixed up my bottles of nutrition for the next morning.  I went with 1 sludge bottle and 1 regular bottle of Infinit Nutrition (900 calories total) for the race.  I mixed 1 bottle of Energy Lab Execute to sip on after breakfast and through the morning before the start.  Then it was off to bed at 8:30.

I actually slept ok considering it was my first race.  I woke up around 3:30 and then 4 and decided to get up.  Breakfast was a double serving of Rice Cereal, honey, glass of water, a banana, and a plain piece of toast.  Then it was off to transition.  I've never set up for a long race before so I wanted to make sure I had time.

I tried to go minimalist.  I put my shoes down with socks in each slightly rolled up and my gels and salt tabs in my hat for the run.  That's it.  I put my race belt and sunglasses in my helmet and was good to go.  Put my two bottles on board, a handful of Electrosalt, and a few PowerGels.  I aired up the tires to pressure and then began my warm up.  I did a little jogging and stretching and hit the bathroom to be ready.  Here is a picture of my set up.

At 6:30 I put on the wetsuit and walked over the the start.  Opening ceremonies and then it was time.  The pros got a swim warm up, but us age groupers had about 2 minutes per wave.  Looking back I should have swam a bit more than just jump in and wait for the gun.  The good thing was that our wave went off right after the pros, so clean water.  

Then 7:15...BOOM!!  Here is where I panicked.  I thought...go, go, go...go hard for a few minutes to warm up.  Bad idea!  The dark water, cold water, wetsuit, adrenaline, and everyone kicking and swimming made me panic and feel claustrophobic.  The negative thoughts immediately crept in.  I thought to my self...How would I ever do this whole race!  Give me a lifeguard and get me out of here. So, I paused for 20 seconds or so and caught my breath and reminded myself that I had trained for this (not the true open water experience), but I could do the distance.  So I breastroked a bit, counted the buoys, and put my head down.  After that, I got back into my rhythm and the buoys kept coming.  I just had to watch out for running up on people.  Soon, I could see the swim exit and I picked up the pace.  I felt good.  I put my foot down a bit early and WHAM!!  A charlie horse on my left calf.  I picked up my foot, did a few dolphins dives and swam a bit more and stood up slowly.  Still felt the cramp, but nothing that could slow me down.  I began stripping the suit off and ran to the strippers.  1, 2, 3 and they yanked it off.  Pretty easy.  I ran to the bike and race belt, glasses, helmet, and off I went.  Said by to my family and hopped on the bike.  Even with the start issue, my pace came at about where I expected.  Here is a picture of me on my way.  Swim time:  32:30

You can tell I was happy to be out of the water and on to the bike.  I've never raced on my bike nor done a true time trial so I didn't know what to expect.  The race plan my coach laid out was high zone 2 to low zone 3 on the bike.  Well, once jumping on I was at a low zone 4!  Holy sh&t!  How was I going to get it down???  Slow down...NO WAY!  So I kept pedaling according to feel.  One thing Coach Michelle said to me was during race day, feel is more important than data at times.  Hopefully this was one of those times.  Soon after a couple of miles my HR came down to high zone 3 and slowly to mid zone 3, but never below.  I told myself Oh Well.  Go with it.  My actual HR averaged mid to high zone 3 the whole way.  System checks and all felt good.  I made sure to begin taking on nutrition after 15 minutes and then grabbed water at all aid stations.  I have to say that the stuff from Infinit Nutrition rocks and an all liquid nutrition plan is the way to go.  I drank about 3/4 of a bottle from every station along the way to supplement and took a salt tab about every 15 minutes or so.  I felt good.  We also had a slight tail wind on the way out so I went with it.  At the turn (I didn't think to start slowing down early, so I skidded into the turn) I noticed that the trip home would be more of a head/cross wind.  I kept the pace going, but at mile 35-40 or so I began slowing down a bit.  The last 10 miles or so had my slowest splits.  I made sure to stretch the calf along the way too.  At mile 10, no more calf tightness so I couldn't wait to run.  I took a gel at mile 8-6 to be ready and then drank a bit more and stopped.  We had to ride through the airport and boy was that a rough ride.  I lost a bottle (good thing this happened at the end) and when I picked up my bike later in the day my rear tire was flat and gashed.  Several others had this problem.  Overall, I held a high speed than any of my training rides and was happy with my 1st bike leg effort.  Here is a picture of me coming off the bike and ready even though my legs felt like Jell-O.  Bike time 2:40:12

I racked the bike, sat down to put on socks and shoes and ran out as I put on my nutrition and hat.  I looked at the watch and 6:22 for the 1st mile.  Wow!  Could I maintain it?  For the 1st 3 miles I did, but I began slowing down.  I never felt bad or had cramps.  It was just the body doing its thing.  This was a 3 loop course and on the second loop the negative thoughts began creeping in...Why are you doing this?  Slow down!  Take your time.  You want to do IM?  I began battling these and pushed them out with thoughts about my wife, kids, God, how lucky I was to be racing and go so fast!  Then it was a matter of making sure to take on the nutrition.  I took 2 gels along the way (planned) and about 5? salt tabs and drank coke a bit along with water.  I wanted to make sure not to take on too much (coke was towards the 2nd half) and feel bad.  Then finally the last loop and I picked up the pace (at least mentally I did).  I sprinted into the finish with a 1/2 marathon split of 1:27:32!  Not bad considering this is only the 2nd half marathon I have every run (1st was a 1:21:53 in March).  My legs immediately cramped up.  So I walked a bit and said hi to the ORR cheerleaders and my family.  Then I found my way to the med tent and had them wrap my legs.  Here's a picture of me crossing the finish and my legs wrapped.

I race with a watch, but never kept the full time.  However, as I crossed the line looked up and saw 5:00:45 and was like what!  We started 15 minutes after so total time 4:45:45!  WOW!  I always told myself that I wanted to come in under 5 hours, but this was very good.  I am very happy with this result.  I am also stoked that this was my first ever full 3 legged triathlon.

I can't wait to race again.  I can't wait to keep training to get faster.  This was truly an awesome experience.  Maybe I will get a Vegas Spot in my next race (at least that is my goal!).

I want to thank my loving wife and family for putting up with my training and adaptation to triathlon.  I want to thank my awesome coach Michelle Leblanc of Outrival Racing for making me faster.

Here are a few pics of me in the race.