5430 Long Course

Last Sunday was the 5430 "Half-Ironman" Long course race. My IT bands have really been acting up lately, and with Worlds just 3 weeks after the race I couldn't risk the injury running the half-marathon. Just for fun, I raced the swim and the bike, and then called it quits at T2. I had a great time, especially since I could go all-out on the bike and not worry about saving any energy for the run.

Before the race I wasn't really "in the mood" to put in a big effort. I didn't feel like swimming, and I hadn't prepared for the race in the days before. I was just going to go out, put in a hard effort, and call it a fun, hard training day. I positioned myself at the front and center of the swim start, and at the gun I took off and led my wave into the glare of the unknown. It was really sweet to have smooth, open water to swim in. I didn't worry about anyone drafting off me and just swam directly into the glare of the sun off the water. One by one I found the swim buoys, until finally I ran into the stragglers of the waves before me and had some splashes to follow. I just kept chugging along and came out of the water over a minute ahead of the next person in my age group.

I felt like crap, like always, on the run up to transition. I took my sweet time getting on the bike and let my legs warm up for a few miles before putting down the hammer. My buddy Josh caught me around mile 10 and I tried to stick with him, but he dropped me after another 10 miles. I finished the first 25 miles in 58:26! After 28 miles I knew I had gone out too hard, so my goal for the second half of the bike was to keep everything under control. Another buddy and tri-team cohort Dan caught me around mile 38. Instead of playing "leap frog" with him on the bike course I decided to do the conservative thing and just hung out behind him for the next 14 miles. It's really surprising how much of a benefit you get riding behind someone outside of the "drafting zone". Psychologically, pacing off someone in front of you makes the effort you're putting in seem a lot easier, and I'm pretty sure you can get a tangible draft riding 25 feet behind someone. With a few miles to go I put down everything I had and was determined to make my legs hurt. I mooned the 3rd bike aid station as I went by, I'm sure my friends volunteering there appreciated it. I came into T2, jogged my bike to the rack and caught my breath, cheered on a few friends as they trickled into transition and on to the run, then I went to work.

26:58 - 1.2 mile swim
2:15:53 - 56 mile bike

Excellent swim!
Pushing hard on the bike.