Duke 1/2 Half Iron 2008 Race Report

First of all, I want to shout out a huge thank you to Setup Events for putting on a great race and supplying enough water and ice cold towels throughout the race to keep us hydrated and cool. And another huge thank you to all the volunteers who braved the heat all day long. I’m sure it was just miserable for them!

Here is my Duke 1/2 race report. The temperature was forecast to be 94 and sunny, so I had mentally thrown out my goals for the run and just decided to try to relax and do my best under those conditions.

Pre-race routine:

My swim buddies, Tom, Matt and Deb, and I had all signed up for this race the same week, so we were all near each other in transition. That was cool.

I had forgotten my stopwatch, so could not follow my heart rate as planned, nor could I watch my time. I had to race by feel alone.

Official Results

Swim: 39:40, 4 AG
T1: 1:49
Bike: 2:55:53, 3 AG
T2: 2:52
Run: 2:33:03, 4 AG
Overall 6:13:16, 4th AG out of 10 (9 who finished).

Considering the depth of field of this race, and the brutal heat, I’m really pleased with my result.

Swim

I was correct in my prediction that the race would not be wetsuit legal. The water temperature reading was79.1. There was hardly any chop at all on the water. I was really disappointed, as I had trained well for the chop, and was looking forward to playing with it as I had done in training.

No opportunities for drafting today. I looked for Kari W in the water before the horn blew, hoping to get on her heels, but didn’t find her.

Going out, I aimed for the little island of trees, but as I neared the turn buoy, I realized that was too far right. I had swum a bit too wide.

On the way back, the current was pushing me to the right, so I had to work hard to stay on course.

All in all, I felt my swim went well.

T1

I drank a Boost as planned. Nailed my flying mount on the new bike 🙂

Bike

Since I didn’t have a stopwatch, I set my computer to display time. That way I could be sure I was drinking and eating gels according to plan. This meant that I could not watch my average speed. I had planned to try to keep it at 19mph.

I only carried my aero bottle plus one spare bottle on my down tube = 40 ounces. I was counting on the bottle handoffs today. Based on my sweat rate testing, I wanted to take in 30 ounces for the first hour (cooler temps and not pushing as hard) and then 40 ounces per hour for the rest of the bike.

I maintained good discipline and went easy for 30 minutes to let the Boost I drank in T1 settle. Then I picked up the pace a bit, worked up the hills, steady moderate pace the rest of the time. Whenever I was on a flat, I’d look at my speed and it said 20. yeah!

At the 20 mile mark, I was getting low on water and hadn’t yet seen a bottle handoff. I started to wonder if I had gone by one and missed it. So, I eased off on my pace and started to conserve water. The handoff came about 2 miles later. I needed to grab 2 bottles, and there were only a couple of volunteers standing right next to each other. I didn’t have time to put one in the cage so just laid the first one on my aerobars, as I grabbed the second. Then I hit a bump, and my first bottle fell to the ground. I really needed both, so turned around and went back for another. That cost me about a minute.

After that, I picked up the pace again. At mile 30, my time was 1:30. I was excited at the prospect of beating a 3:00 bike split, so I started going kind of hard. Worked hard up the hills, went a little easier down the hills. I pretty much passed everyone I saw for the entire ride.

I thought of myself as a robot the entire bike ride. I imagined going up hills that I had to push a button to switch into climbing mode. Working harder up the hills. “work it, work it, work it” Then, on descents, I pushed another button to go into tight aero mode. “knees to the top tube, tight tight tight”. This mental game was fun for me and kept me focused the entire ride.

I was with a clydesdale for a good bit of the ride. I’d pass him going down because I can get so tightly aero, and he’d pass me going up (he was not a really big clydesdale). Then we caught up to another group. Going down one of the best descents, the group spread out and were blocking me. I actually had to hit my brakes. I can never understand why people lolly gag going down a hill! I was ticked me off, so I shouted blocking, and they moved out of my way. After passing them, I accelerated for a few minutes to get way ahead of them. Never saw them again after that, thankfully, as there was one more nice steep descent where I was really able to fly. My max speed was 44.8 🙂

The last 10 miles was against a headwind. Not really strong, but enough to work hard. I hunched myself down into the tightest possible aero position and pushed hard. Probably a little harder than I should have, but maybe not. I wish I had my HR data to know for sure how hard I was going. I was never breathing very hard, and my leg muscles never burned, but I was working hard.

I passed alot of people during this headwind, mostly because I was tucked so tightly, and they were not. I kept wondering if I was pushing too hard the last bit, but also kept thinking how horrible the run was going to be, so I might as well have fun here on the bike. I think it was a good call. Altho, my friend Rebecca did the opposite. She conserved even more than usual on the bike, to save even more for the difficult, hot run. And she made a superb run split and a PR for the race. So, her strategy obviously worked very well!

What would you do differently?: Not forget my HR monitor watch.

T2

I had forgotten to lay out my second tube of NUUN in transition, so as I ran toward the run start, I realized I didn’t have it in my left hand. Crap, I could not run for 2+ hours in the heat without my planned electrolytes. So, I wasted a minute running back to get the one that was in my bike fuel box. That sucked. And, it turned out I didn’t have enough NUUN.

Run

The run course was hilly, hard, hot and did I mention hilly? It winds around in a double lolli-pop fashion that makes it hard to know where you are and how much farther you have to go. They usually have mile markers along the course, but they left them off today. I think to keep people from pushing themselves hard on the run.

I was actually glad not to know where I was during the run. No watch, no mile markers…I again used my “I am a robot” mantra and kept going no matter how badly I felt.

I was so thankful to see they had ice at the aid stations. I stuffed it down my bra at each stop (every 12 minutes). I filled my palm holder every other stop (which was probably every 25 minutes). I sometimes had to wait in line for water, as everybody was stopping alot.

Other than aid stations, I did not walk at all. I used my chi uphill running strategy for the harder climbs. I tried to pick up my pace on the downs. I tried to stay steady on the flats. When the sun came out, I allowed myself to ease up on my pace a bit. That’s how I made the heat my friend. That actually worked well.

I had to pee for the last hour of the bike. Tried to pee while riding. Then, I tried to pee my pants during the first couple miles of the run. No luck, just can’t relax enough to pee in motion. So, I stopped at the porta potty on the run course, and it took me about 2 full minutes to empty my bladder. I felt bad for the guy waiting when I stepped out.

All in all, I kept up great mental focus and a positive attitude on the run. I was able to pick up my pace once I hit the final 1/4 mile stretch and finish strong. I was a little disappointed to learn my finish time was 6:13, not close to my elusive 6:00 goal. I thought I had run alot better than that. But I was still very happy after the race. In retrospect, my finish time and run split is really great considering the heat. I cut 12 minutes off my race time from last year, and I think most people got worse times.

Click photo at right to see me coming out of the finish area. Thanks to my swim buddies Matt and Deb for taking this picture. The woman coming behind me crossed the finish line just before me. She was in the 40-44 AG. Her name was Kimberly and we spent the entire run together. Sometimes I’d lose her at aide stations, but then find her again later. It was nice having a companion during that hot difficult run!

What would you do differently?:

About 3/4 of the way into the run, I ran out of NUUN tablets So, from then on, I had to use the E-caps they offered at the aide stations. I hoped they worked as well as the NUUN. They seemed to be fine.

Also, I was clumsy getting the NUUN tablets out of the tube, and dropping them into my palm holder water bottle. I hadn’t trained to be good at that little task. And I had to do that little task ALOT today.

Post race

Jogged to the lake and waded in to cool off. I was so stiff, I had alot of trouble bending over to take off my shoes. Then my swim buddy, Deb, waded into the water wearing her shoes right in. What a genius! Click image to see enlarged photo of Deb and I in the water. Thanks to Matt for taking this photo!

Duke Monster

Since I still did not make my goal of a sub 6:00 in this race, I am still calling this race the Duke Monster. Don’t get me wrong, I feel great about this year’s race. Fourth place at this race is a great outcome, because there are so many top athletes competing here (that’s what depth of field means).

But I still wish I had been able to make that goal. Before the race, I had envisioned photoshopping this picture of the Duke Monster figure to depict it being slayed. But that will have to wait until next year.

Push Rewind

Remember that movie where Superman flew around the earth to turn back time so he could prevent Lois Lane from getting killed? I wish I could rewind time like that, so I could replay the race different ways to see what works best. Trouble with waiting till next year, is everything is different on race day, so you are comparing apples to oranges. Plus, it’s another year gone by and I’m not getting younger! There are so many things to learn that it will take me 10 years to figure everything out about pacing, nutrition, hydration! Which, by the way, is why the Ironman Champions are usually in their late 30’s.