Hot Half - Triathlon Week

Spike10 · 08-24-2007, 11:02 AM

It was hot here in Colorado on the day of my Half, I think the mercury reached 99 in the early afternoon when yours truly was just starting the run, or as I look back we should call it the walk. The day started out very well and my swim time was right where I predicted it to be, unfortunatly I took some of the lake water with me on the ride via my stomach, this made for my downfall as it made me not want to eat on the ride, HUGE MISTAKE!!!, I was about 2 miles from the end of the bike and it hit, a shooting cramp in my right quad, this made me slow up for a while as it subsided and added 20 extra min to my ride from last years race. Into T2, good transition and a good start to the run, somewhere around mile 3 the leg cramps started in my calfs, so on with the walk and I was going at a fair pace. I knew that I would finish but it was going to be way short of my goal time of 6:30, so I shot for a finish of better than last years time of 7:50. The run course is 2 loops and I had lots of company on the first lap but it looked like a ghost town on lap two, as always the aid station crews were fantastic and they kept me well hydrated and cheared me on. The last 200 meters of the race are down hill and you pass the crowd then round a corner to the finish line, all of my races no matter what, I run this section, I got about 100 m out from the end and both calfs cramped and it felt like nails were being driven into them but I kept it up to the end, man was I glad to be done! I have already started planing and training for next years races and armed with my new knowlege it will be a much better year.
The breakdown
Swim - 1:06:15
T1 - 4:30
Bike - 3:21:22
T2 - 3:15
Run - 3:21:48
OAT - 7:57:12
Thanks for reading, keep on training/racing
Spike.