Race report from Waconia HITS full Tri.
I went into this race with the
mind set to actually race and not just do it to finish so I had no idea
how it would turn out.
Rachel Zambrano
you inspired me to do this n you will remember when I explain. In
Austin when we ran the Marathon Rachel had gut problems from pre-race
dinner. Well she was talking with my wife at some point when I was not
around n asked my wife if I was holding back n had more left. Not sure
what my wife said but I believe Rachel said his race results never
reflect that. Which is true. So I decided to race it. Thanks Rachel for
helping me PR. I PR'd by one hour twenty two minutes.
August weather
here can be brutal n humid so when I got up n got to be time for swim
start it was cloud cover n fairly decent temp. Swim went well. Nice
clean lake n calm. It was a two loop swim n they had us come out of the
water n run a ways on the beach n back in at the start for our second
loop. The half started at the same time. My swim time was 1:17:58. 9
minutes faster then IM WI last September. I was very happy with my swim.
T1 3:12 n off on the bike.
The bike is my strongest leg. It was a four 28 mile
loop coarse. Went out hard and kept it going for two loops. Third loop
was still hard but toned it down a bit. A few of the roads were bumpy n
had no shoulder so traffic had to go around you. Roads kept rattling my
bottle cages loose and I lost a full bottle of nutrition n almost lost my
second one but noticed it had fallen out n went back about 100 yards to
pick it up. This happened on my third loop so I really needed that
nutrition as miles were adding up. Nice thing about 4 loops you went by
your special needs bag three times which was nice. Other than having
bottle cage issues bike went well. 5:20:14. I ranked 19th in the swim
and 1st on the bike. I had no idea out on the coarse because they ran
the full n half together. Wish they would have had a way on bike n run
to identify half n full athletes. Passed a lot of people n never got
passed by anyone. I was nervous I had gone to hard on the bike n would
have nothing left for the run. My running is not fast n I need to work
on that.
T2 2:30 and off and running. As soon as I got off my bike the
sun came out n it got hot n humid. Run was brutal. Out n back twice for
the full. 6.55 miles. I decided to not wear my fuel belt like I did in
WI. The aid stations were not as often as Ironman events n I needed more
at some points in the race. Quads started cramping about two miles
into run n I thought oh well swim n bike went well. Kept running n that
went away. Pounded water n coke at every stop. Crammed ice in my Tri top
n used the sponges to wet head n neck down. I always try not to get my
feet wet but it was impossible not to. I had a fresh pair of socks n
shoes in my special needs bag half way. That felt awesome for about 4
miles n they were soaked with everything dripping off me from trying to
stay cool. Was in third place till around mile 22 then got passed.
Finished run in 4:57:04. Need work on my run. Ended up 6th overall n 5
th in the males. 1st in my age group. Total time 11:41:01. Very happy
with my race.
