The last time I attempted to do a Half Iron Distance race was in August of 2005. It was the CATS Degray Half in Arkansas and I ended up DNFing it after completing the swim and the bike, I just didn’t feel up to running the half marathon. I had planned on going out to the Deuceman Half Iron Distance race last year, but that hadn’t worked out. Since TriSports.com renewed my sponsorship this year, I decided I would make the trip.

I always start races highly optimistic. Not that I always think I’m going to win, realistically I know I’ve only won a couple of small triathlons and duathlons. But I always think there is a possibility I might do really well and place in the top three or something, it is part of what keeps me coming back for more. The Deuceman Half was no exception, even though it was at 6,600 feet of elevation and even though I should have known I really wasn’t ready for a half.

6:34am race morning found me in the cool (67 degrees) water heading out on a 1.2 mile swim, the longest continuous swim of the year for me. Due to the high altitude and the resulting lack of oxygen, I made it a point to start slower on the swim and try to stay relaxed. There were only around 100 or so swimmers in my wave so I thought it would be pretty uncongested, however it seemed that I had people swimming over me and cutting across my path for the first 5 minutes. I’m sure part of the problem was the difficulty spotting the swim buoys. Until we reached the first buoy, we were swimming almost directly into the sun. To make matters worse, the turn buoys were red pyramids. One little known fact of pyramids, the tips of them are their smallest feature. Too me it would have made a lot more sense to put the smallest part of the pyramid in the water so that we could sight off the base of the pyramid, oh well, I guess everyone can’t be as smart as me… On three different occasions I had to stop, tread water and remove my goggles to verify I was headed in the right direction.

After what seemed an eternity, I finally found myself heading back into the cove where the race had started. I fully expected this to be one of my slower half iron swims, but when I checked my watch and saw 34:15 I was pleasantly surprised.

For the last 5 minutes or so of the swim, I knew I needed to pee and I had tried to do so, however I can’t pee in the water while I’m swimming. So I had to make a quick pit stop in transition.

Earlier in the morning when I was setting up my bike, I realized I had forgotten the “yellow netting thingy” that fits in my aero bottle and keeps it from splashing everywhere. I had decided to use the aero bottle anyways and had filled it and my water bottle with Gatorade. As I was running my bike out of transition with Gatorade splashing on my hands I realized what I was in for. Once out on the course my fears were confirmed when “bump” went my wheel and my face was dowsed in Gatorade. I quickly drank as much as I could hoping to minimize the splashing once the liquid levels dropped. This helped a little, but I never was able to make it stop, I just decided to live with a sticky face, fingers, legs, bike… More important than stickiness was staying hydrated so I continued to refill the aero bottle throughout the ride.

I had driven in on one of the roads that I knew I got to, er had to ride, so I knew it would be a tough course. Fortunately the long stretches of climbing were offset by some long flat and slightly downhill stretches. I wasn’t using a speedometer, but since I was continually passing people I knew I was having a decent bike.

When I finally came in off the bike my watch read 3 hours and 18 minutes. If I could run under an hour and a half for the run, I would be in the vicinity of my PR time of 4:45. Leading up to the race I had thought I would be able to run 1:30 or better for the run. I hustled as fast as I could out of T2, that is once I stopped and used the porta john again… Once out on the run course I felt decent, but not as fast as I’ve gotten used to running. When I passed the first mile marker in 7:15 I wasn’t too worried though since I figured I could get faster as my bike legs switched to running legs. However, the second mile went by in 7:40. At this point I made a discernible effort to pick up my pace and was able to lower my time for the next mile by 4 seconds. This was only a temporary improvement that quickly came crashing down as my next mile went by in 8:35. My sub 1:30 half marathon was no longer a possibility.

I continued on as best I could. Seven miles into the run we returned to the transition area and headed back out for a final 6.2 mile loop. For the next several miles I continually re-adjusted the expectations I had in my mind. “If I can run this last 10k in 40 minutes I’ll break 5 hours”. “Ok, that was a slow mile, but I can still break 5 hours maybe.” “Hmm, if I can run a 24 minute 5k, I’ll break 5:10 and still qualify for Halfmax based on time.” “Ok, if I can walk a little this mile, I’ll run the next one.” “What the heck was I thinking signing up for this stupid thing…”

Finally, with my watch reading 5:16:06 I crossed the finish line and collapsed into a chair.

I’ve been running a lot lately, upwards of 60 miles a week so I figured I was ready for a half, looking back now at my training log I realize I was substantially under trained. My longest block of continuous training was around two and a half hours, longest bike ride of the year was 47 miles(two months prior), and my longest swim workout was 2400 yards back in January. I was really disappointed at the time. I had hoped to maybe set a PR or at least place in my age group, the trophies were really cool sculptures. Instead I had placed 4th in my age group and had been reduced to walking on the run. Looking back now, I realize I was remarkably under trained, I was racing at 6,600 feet, and yet I had still managed to complete a half iron distance race with my second best ever time. I think I enjoyed the race, I finished it, and best of all, I had even been able to start it…

I thought I would do better than I ended up doing. However, despite my eventual result, the highlight of my day was being able to compete at all. Hopefully I’ll always be thankful for this ability, but this race was especially meaningful as the previous year at this race I could barely walk and it was still questionable as to whether I would ever race again or not. People who saw me at RFS last year will understand…

I lined up for the 400 meter pool swim with the 7:00 group. While I knew I could swim as fast as some of the people towards the back of the 6:00 group, I would prefer to pass swimmers than get passed. Once in the water my placement worked out well as I wasn’t passed and I had passed 3 people by the end of the swim. I wasn’t real excited about how I felt in the water, my lack of focus on the swimming aspect of this sport has definitely affected my abilities, but I was confident that any time I lost in the water would be made up with my increased focus on the run.

After the long run to T1, I quickly grabbed my bike and headed out on the bike course. Things were really windy and I had to keep reminding myself that everyone else was suffering through the same wind. The bike course for this race is quite technical, staging a triathlon in the center of a city the size of Columbia doesn’t allow for a lot of options, it’s a wonder it can be safely pulled off.

It is a two loop course and towards the end of the first loop I had managed to get my average speed up to 22mph, at least until I got to the “wall” after which my average proceeded to drop some. This decline in my average speed continued up Old Hwy 63, another nice hill, not quite a steep but a longer hill than the wall. Once back on some flat and downhill stretches I managed to get my average back up above 22mph, but I knew I had to ride the wall one last time plus deal with the technical aspects of the course on the return back to transition. As I rolled into T2 I saw 21.5mph as my average, not as fast as I had hoped, but not terrible either.

I really thought I would excel on the run, but it turned out not to be my day. Not to come up with excuses, but from talking to others there was a really high pollen count that weekend and apparently lots of people had problems with allergies. My deal was that I couldn’t take deep breaths. Instead I was forced to take small shallow breaths, if I tried to breath deeper I couldn’t due to pain in my chest. I’ve experienced this before and have wondered if I have exercise induced asthma, I had never considered that it might be an allergy issue. In the end I ended up averaging 6:43 per mile over a course I expected to run 6:00 pace or faster.

I ended up in 4th place in my age group, back by 1:36. Overall I was in 15th place, around 8 minutes behind the winner. Definitely still some room for improvement!

…minus the EPO tainted blood bags of course! For anyone unfamiliar with Jan Ulrich, he famously finished second in the Tour de France a total of five times (wikipedia). I’ve had similar luck in the MaxTrax Duathlon (formerly known as Wild Wings Duathlon), finishing second twice and third once. In addition, I’ve already finished second overall in two different 5ks and 3rd in another this year. On Saturday I lined up at the start of the Short Course to try one last time to win it before moving up to the long course. The last time I had raced it was in 2004 and I narrowly lost to Patrick Riley by 30 seconds. He went on to win it the next two years, however this year he didn’t show up.

The start of the race is a dash across a sloping grassy stretch, maybe 75 yards, until a fairly narrow pathway is reached. This is always the fastest part of the run as the competitors try and get to the front before being funneled into the narrow pathway. I was with the front few reaching the pathway and once the pace settled down there was only one other competitor who was ahead of me and he was setting a brisk pace. I didn’t recognize him, but I was guessing it was Brian Schoenholz whom I had seen on the entry list. I knew he could run, but based on last years bike splits I didn’t expect I would have any problem putting some time into him on the bike, he had averaged 18mph the previous year. I stayed with him initially and then he slowly pulled away. As we finished the first run, he had about a 15 second lead on me. I was quickly out on the bike, and he was still in sight so I hadn’t lost any time in T1.

For the next 7.6 miles I attempted to pull him back but couldn’t seem to make any progress. It was really windy and I didn’t feel like I had any zipp in my legs. I hadn’t tapered at all for this race and it is possible the 40+ miles of running I had put in throughout the week was affecting me. As I pulled into T2, Brian had increased his lead to 35 seconds. Knowing this I hammered T2 and made it out in 28 seconds cutting his lead by 13 seconds down to 22 seconds. Unfortunately 1.5 miles wasn’t enough space to make up the remaining time and I ended up in second place by 12 seconds.

I was disappointed to have finished second for a third time, but at least it was close. It is still early in the season and the extra running I’m putting in now will pay back big dividends later in the year. Fifty-five miles of running last week, sixty this week, and then next week I’ll cut back some to prepare for Race for Sight.

This past Saturday was my third 5k of the season. The previous two had both been run in sketchy weather, for the first it was nine degrees with a negative wind chill and the second it was snowing. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when the forecast was calling for possible snow.

Race morning and it wasn’t quite cold enough to snow, so instead we were welcomed with rain. Personally I would take light snow over cold rain, but once the gun went off even the rain didn’t seem too bad.

The start was for both the 5k and 10k runners. Most of the top runners that I knew of were entered into the 10k, however I had spotted Christian Reed with a 5k number so I knew at best I could get 2nd place, he’s in a different league when it comes to running. Initially I led for the first 200 meters or so, and then Christian Reed went off the front. Knowing it was pointless to try and match his pace, I settled into my own rhythm. Derek Eisenbrei pulled even with me and we ran together briefly and then started to pull ahead. He was doing the 10k so I held back. Andy Emerson who was also doing the 5k passed me around the same time so I picked up my pace to keep him close. Several other 10k runners passed me but for the most part they all remained close, while Christian Reed was well ahead of us all.

At the 5k turn around the 10k runners continued on while I followed Andy back towards the rest of the oncoming runners. The next half mile or so was a little dicey as we had to weave amongst the oncoming runners, many of whom seemed unaware of the surroundings.

After we crossed back under Stadium, we crested a small incline and I decided to forge on ahead of Andy, we had about a mile left and I felt I could pick up the pace some. One of these days I’m going to stop playing the tactical game I play where I wait and pace off someone before I push myself into the “red zone”. Anyways, I moved into second position and ended with a strong final mile, finishing with a time of 18:30. Not quite as fast as I wanted to run, but progression in the right direction. 6:14 pace in February, 6:05 pace in March, 5:58 pace in April…

I’m sitting here at the Laundromat fighting to stay awake as I wait for my clothes to dry. Not only am I sleepy tired, I’m just plain worn out as well. I started the day out at 8am running for 2 hours at Rockbridge state park. Most of this run was “aerobic paced” which basically means I could comfortably hold a conversation while running at this pace. Since I was running with Andy Pele and Jeff Wells we did just that for most of the run. It was only in the last mile and a half that I intentionally went hard and ran at about 6 minute pace for the last section. At the end of our run we had covered 11 wet and muddy miles.

After returning home I had just enough time to grab a bite to eat, perform some last minute adjustments on my bike, and then head out the door for a 43 mile bike ride. The majority of this ride was also spent at “aerobic” pace with only a few segments of tougher efforts mixed in. I also threw in a few dismount and running mount practices into the mix at several different stop signs.

Finally, immediately upon returning home I headed out the door for a quick 1.25 mile run as fast as I could muster at this point. That turned out to be 7 minute mile pace. All in all a tough day of training for this early in the season, but one that will hopefully pay back dividends in the near future.