Mooseman Half - June 8, 2008

Results: 5:07:32, 84th OA out of 723, 5th AG M25-29 out of 36

This was my first half ironman event and I was so nervous and anxious the week leading up to this event that I never fell into a deep sleep all week. The worst was that by the middle of the week they were predicting weather in the 90's for race day. Needless to say the temperature reached 89, which was 1 degree of from the the record high up there. But on the course the temperature easily felt like it was in the middle 90's if not hotter with the dew point and humidity. This was the race I had been training for since the middle of January and the only downside was that I wasn't able to get in my long ride until race day. Needless to say I'm pretty happy with my performance considering the heat conditions and the hilly course. I was predicting myself to finish in around 5 hours, but 7 minutes over my predicted time for the race conditions I'm not going to worry about.

1.2 Mile Swim: 31:32 (151th OA, 10th AG)

The water was 62 on race day which was very chilly considering I have a wetsuit that doesn't cover my arms. The swim start was an in water start about waist deep. I had predicted that I would finish the swim in 30 minutes to 34 minutes. I was in the first swim wave, which included the Elite/Pro's and males 34 and under. It was really awesome to be starting the swim wave with the Elites in the front. The swim was pretty uneventful and there isn't much to report here. The worst part of this was that going into T1 and to the Wetsuit Strippers was that my hamstrings tightened so bad that I couldn't move! I was screaming in pain it was that bad! I'm not sure if it had something to do with swimming in the cold water or not, but it was painful! I would say that swimming is my 2nd best discipline in triathlon, but isn't that great for me this year I think. Part of this could be that I gave up lifting weights about half way through my training plan, which I think affected my swim time.

56 Mile Bike: 2:50:28, 19.7 mph (148th OA, 10th AG)

I knew the bike leg was going to be my worst event of the day and was something I knew I was going to suffer through after the first loop. The course was a 28 mile, 2 loop course that had 1 very gnarly hill and a bunch of rolling hills. I was very surprised that I ended up being ahead of a few people in the final results considering this is not my strongest leg. The first 4 miles of this course had some very rough road conditions from the bad winter here in New England. In fact for must of the course there was very few areas to actually ride in the aero position. Another reason I didn't want to ride aero was due to the fact I didn't want to snap my aerobars again! The first loop of the bike went well. I brought with me on the bike leg, 1 bottle of Cytomax, 1 bottle of Monster Energy Drink mixed with Gatorade, 1 Bottle of Water and 5 Hammer Gels. Needless to say I ended up going thru my water, Cytomax and the 4 gels in the first loop and ended up picking up a few waters, 1 gel and gatorade endurance formula during the rest of the bike. I had predicted to finish the bike in 3 hours so I was happy to finish 10 minutes faster than what I had predicted considering the hills.

13.1 Mile Run: 1:40:10, (59th OA, 2nd AG)

Going into T2 I was expecting my legs to cramp up heading into the run and have that awkward feeling, but they didn't. I started out my first mile very strong and much better than I had expected, a 5:50 first mile! After I saw that on my watch, my quads started to cramp and gave up on me, so I started to walk. I hit the first aid station and picked up water and gatoride. By the time I got to the run, the heat was starting to get really bad! There were plenty of aid stations on this out and back run course, which was great! I ended up hitting all the aid stations for the sponges and the occasional hose down from the neighbors that lined the course. The run only had 1 real major hill with 1 small hill. I ended up having to walk both of these hills because my legs were absolutely dead. I can't even count how many times I ended up walking the run. It was awful because I have never ever walked a run in training, needless to say a race! I was hoping to run a much better half, but with the weather and the fact that I hadn't done a long bike ride prior to the half; pretty much killed my run leg even though I ended up having the 59th Overall fastest run time.

Post Race / Comments:

Keith Jordan, the race director, puts on one great event! They had plenty to do post race for athletes as far as food, drinks, etc. and from what my parents and Jess said there was plenty going on during the race. It was also great that Jess and my parents were up there to share with me my great accomplishment in my First Half Ironman.