race report Utah Half 2011

It was hard this last week to try to recover from Jordanelle and get ready to do a longer distance race. A half Ironman is 1.2 m swim, 56 m bike, 13.1 m run. This particular race is, as the race website claims the "flatest and fastest" half Ironman course out there. And yes, that is what it says on my race plaque, too. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Friday I did a trial 3 mile run at an easy pace, 9:00 miles and my heart rate was about 10 beats higher than it was the Friday before Jordanelle. That made me a little nervous. I have this year continued with my policy of not setting any formal race goals. That is, not writing them down. This probably mostly only affects my superstitions, but nonetheless, I think it has helped me to be less nervous about races. I am sleeping a little better before races, anyway. And that may help me to be faster. Of course, I always want to do a little better in every race. Last year, my time was 5:30. The year before that it was 5:10, but that was because the swim course was cut in half due to bad weather, and it was also very cool for the run, which is a huge advantage. This year the prediction was in the mid 90's. Yeah, not fun.

This time, it was just my husband and me. We woke up at 5:00, headed down to the lake and unpacked the car. It was completely dark and very difficult to set up our stuff. I was having trouble with my bike's gears, which had been messed up in transit from the last race. I used my iphone as a light to try to figure things out, but it wasn't ideal. I also had to use it to help me gauge the tire pressure to pump to. The race ended up starting about 20 minutes late.

First pet peeve: they said they were going to do the "elite/pro" wave at 6:45. Then they said that they were only having the men in the elite wave, and the elite women, since there were only two, would start with the age group women. At first, I thought, this makes sense. Then when I realized that there were only 4 elite guys, it made less sense and I got pretty angry. Those four guys didn't want to have cooties in the water from the girls swimming with them? The women were upset because the age group women were starting last, which meant the pro women would have to climb over three hundred slower men. And why? WHY? Because girls aren't as important as boys?

OK, deep breath. On to the rest of the race. I said good luck to my husband, who started 5 minutes before me. Then I got into the water. This time, I didn't end up doing any stretches to warm up. On a race this long, I never do a formal warm up because I figure I will just start slow. It's easy for me to take the swim slow. It's my favorite part of the race and I find the swim relaxing. The water was very murky and impossible to see anyone in, even if they were right next to you. I have found more and more that I get passed by almost everyone in the first 200 yards of the swim and I wonder if they are really that much faster than me. About halfway through I discover that no, they're not. They just paced themselves badly and I pass them at my own pace. This race is usually way long on the swim, and either they finally fixed that or I was slamming fast. Last year I finished in 40 min. This year it was only 33. I also got smacked hard in the eye when I was getting out and may be sporting a black eye tomorrow. Very slippery on the docks. But they had wetsuit strippers. I love saying that! Yes, I was stripped!

There was quite a long run to the transition area, then a long run pushing my bike on grass to the asphalt. But this bike was my best EVER! I guess all the conditions conspired to make it perfect. It was still fairy cool, and there was a bit of a southerly wind, which got stronger about when I hit the turnaround to head north again. My average speed was, according to my flinky bike computer, 23.8 mph and there were long, smooth sections where I was hitting 27 mph on the flats and my heart rate was mid 140s. My goal was to keep my heart rate between 140 and 150 the whole time, and I did this. My average was 146. I passed my husband at about mile 10, which is later than usual. I figured he must be hitting about 18 mph, and that turned out to be right. My brain, apparently, was still working on the bike. It wasn't working so well later on.

Near the turnaround I saw how many women were ahead of me. A lot. Last year, there were only about 60 women in the race. This year there were 120. And a lot of them were better than me. (I placed 14th overall among the women.) So it goes. As I always tell myself, I can't control other people in the race. I can only control myself. I can't control the conditions, but I can control how I react to them. About two women passed me on the bike, which is pretty rare. I am usually a demon on the bike. But they were more evil. At the turnaround, I was about in 8th place, and I always drop on the run because I'm not a good runner. The good thing is that I hit absolutely even splits on the bike. Well, I guess there was that tail wind, so maybe I slowed a bit. Thanks to all the police officers who kept me from being hit by a car at those tricky intersections! And very little leapfrogging this year. I did curse when I dropped part of my aero water bottle while trying to refill it. Sigh! I also ran out of fluid about 15 minutes from the finish. So I guess it was hotter than it felt.

Some interesting things on the bike course: I was trying to work on being more talkative and friendly on the course. Not sure if this worked. I came up to a guy and passed him, and noticed that he had the exact same bike as mine (but bigger, of course--mine is a 48 cm with 650 cc wheels), a red 2009 Cervelo 92. So I said, snarkily, "Nice bike." He said, "Thanks." And then I realized he probably thought I was making fun of him for not going as fast as I was going. Or something. So maybe this is why I don't talk much on the bike. Also, I almost got hit by another cyclist when I swerved left to take a sudden corner (into a mobile home park). He apologized to me profusely, but it was completely my fault. I shouldn't have done that without checking over my shoulder to see if someone was there. Biking is a dangerous sport.

I spend a lot of time worrying during races that I will be DQ'd for doing something wrong. My sister asked me last night if I have ever been DQ'd. I said no, but that doesn't stop me from constantly worrying about it on the bike course. It's so hard to figure out how to pass multiple people and still follow the rules. Well, without slowing down dramatically.

On to the run. I took off my biking top (which I had on mainly to protect me from sunburn) and braved the run with just my bra top. I did this after having spent at least an hour on Friday looking at the photos from two years ago which is the only time I have run in a bra top. Let me tell you, they were a little scary. I consider myself fit, but there are some saggy parts there from 6 children. My husband asked if I thought it was faster to run without the top. No, that's not why I took it off. It's just annoying having this wet, drippy thing on and it can increase my chances of getting chafing. My kids told me they thought it looked gross to run with only the bra top, but it wasn't really to look good, either.

Anyway, I started the run and somehow managed to do my first mile in 7:40. I still think that was wrong. I was trying to go slow and my heart rate was under 150. I did the second mile in about 8:30, which seemed more right to me. Then I kept running. Um, not much to say here. I got passed by a couple of women. I marked the ones close on my heels, aware they would probably pass me at some point. I wish that wasn't true, but it is. I finished the first half in about 57:00 minutes, which is decent, but not spectacular.

Then the second loop began. This is where my brain stopped working. The temperature was in the high 80s and when I was in shaded areas, I could mostly run. When I wasn't, my heart rate went up and I couldn't. I looked down at my HR monitor and every time it went about 162, I had to stop and walk until it dropped to 140's. I needed more fluid, but every time I tried to drink what I wanted to, it would slosh around in my stomach. Clearly, I wasn't able to digest it fast enough to keep from dehydrating dramatically.

What I remember about the second half of the course: I saw the lead guy at about mile 9, when he lapped me. He pulled over to the side, puked, and started walking. Just like I was doing. And he got passed by the guy behind him, and couldn't do anything about it. It's not just about wanting something bad enough. I also remember that at about mile 8, I realized I couldn't keep running. I started a walk/run plan which consisted of me running 200-300 steps, then walking 20-30. That's how I kept going from mile 8 to mile 11. Then I ran almost all of the last 2 miles and nearly collapsed at the finish line. I remember watching two women pass me and realizing I couldn't do anything about it, even if I wanted to. I also remember passing a woman and her asking me if I was on my first or second loop. She was close to my age group, but she couldn't do anything about it, either.

Almost everyone on the second half of the run course spent some of the time walking. I think this is just the way it is in half Ironman and Ironman races, even for the pros. I learned from Ironman this year that walking can actually be used to your advantage, and that is what I found today. I did slow down on the second lap, down to 1:03 from :57, just under a minute per mile, but it was still under 10:00 per mile, which is actually pretty good. And it was with regular walking breaks every four minutes. So what does that tell you? I honestly think if I'd tried to run the whole thing, I would have run it more slowly than I walk/ran it. That's my new theory, anyway. Your body is so exhausted you can trick it by giving it little rests into going faster.

I finished in about 5:03 and nearly collapsed across the finish line. I found some shade and ate a half bagel until I could move. Then I hurried into the bathroom area and washed my hair in the sink and rinsed off a bit, then changed into some regular clothes. I just got back out to see my husband cross the finish line in about 5:45, which was much better than his lofty goal of finishing in 6:00. Considering his 3 day a week training plan, this was pretty good. Also, much better than he has done before. So we were both very pleased. We found some chocolate protein drink and drank it. I thought I had taken first in my age group, but alas, it was second.

My husband cleaned up a bit and we headed off to my favorite sushi place. It's over an hour drive from our house, so we don't go often. I was very sad to discover that I could not actually eat enough to make them charge us for the "all you can eat" menu. We ate about 3.5 rolls, which was pitiful. I had been looking forward to this meal all month, the only time we got to eat out together because of poor month. And I couldn't even enjoy the food. I was in agony, my legs stinging, lips hurting, feet throbbing, chafing appearing out of nowhere. The food was delicious, but we couldn't even get the dessert sushi I wanted. Wah!

Now I'm home and hungry again and I've got to figure out what to make for dinner. I bribed the kids to do their chores without me home to supervise, and I owe them some candy bars, too. But I don't want to move. Can I have candy bars delivered to my house, do you think?