Great Illini Half IM

Hey! Guess what.

I raced a half ironman about 10 days ago!

I know, I know...last post I said something along the lines of my next race being IMAZ...but after a series of random events, my parents surprising me with the entry fee, and the kindness of shacking up with a fellow Tri Club member, everything fell into place for me to race the Great Illini Half Ironman.

Yay!

I went into this race with crap nutrition and crap sleep as I had been on a night shoot for a TV commercial the days leading up to the race. Needless to say, I had very little expectations when it came to performance. With my recent "blahness" for training coupled with exhaustion and a few too many stop by the craft service table (aka the junk food station while on set), I gauged that I'd probably roll in sometime between 7:30 and 7:45. I mean, my previous Half IM time was 7:59:47...so I figured I couldn't do much worse than that, right?

As far as a race plan went, the Chief of Pain simply said "You know what you need to do to make this race challenging."

Colleen and I woke up well before the 17 alarm clocks went off in the morning, thanks in large part to the folks in the room above us doing the early-morning tri dance. We ate, got dressed, watched a little bit of Fear (thank you, HBO, for sharing Marky Mark with us so early in the morning!), packed up and headed out on the 30 minute drive to Neoga while singing in the pitch black.

Upon arrival, everything was dark. We were still a good 45 minutes from daybreak so we fuddled around and set up transition as best we could. We even serenaded our rack with a (poorly-sung) rendition of Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. Hey--anything to keep my mind off the distance at hand. Right?

But race morning I was surprisingly calm. Perhaps it was because I convinced myself it was simply a glorified training day. Or perhaps I was determined to keep relaxed and focused so I didn't freak out my new tri club friend Colleen (it was her first half and she had the jitters). Or maybe because the race didn't have the usual fanfare...paper plates noted the rack numbers and there was under 200 athletes. Nevertheless, I didn't panic, freak out, or puke. So that's good at least.

Sporting our wetsuits, we waded our way through the water and waiting for the horn. The men were off first, with the ladies wave 3 minutes behind.

The Swim? It sucked. I've heard a few folks say they thought the course was marked a little long. But it was a clockwise swim, and when you couple that with the fact I naturally pull to the left when I freestyle, I ended up at sea with the company of a kayaker a few times. My 1.2 mile swim PR is 38 minutes and some change, so you can imagine my frustration when I popped out of the water to see 47:44. Double-U. Tee. Eff.

Transition was quick with 2:13 spent here and I was off on my bike for a beautiful ride through the mostly flat, cornfield-filled, slightly windy course. Wind from the east? Really?? What's up with that Mother Nature?

My goal for the bike was to just get under 3:45. We all know that cycling is my achilles heel when it comes to triathlon and I've been working hard to overcome this huge mental hurdle I have on the road. I pushed the big ring hard when I could, dropped into aero and spun my way through the wind and sang to myself to keep my mind off the miles (remember on Saved by the Bell when the girls were the "Hot Sundaes" and had that ridiculous music video...yeah...I sang that song for about 20 minutes)...and before I knew it, Colleen from the Tri Club had caught up to me and we biked the final 2-3 miles into transition together. Bike time? 3:44:59. 14.9mph.

Apparently I like to cut my goals close. I'm not trying to make a habit out of it though. I totally could have hit 15mph avg if I just pushed myself a hair more. I really need to stop holding back and unleash the beast on the bike.

T2 was a 2:17 break, but I took my time making the footwear change and joked with Colleen for a few before heading out onto the run.

My goal for the run was just to keep moving forward. Savor the moments I felt great...and just get through the low points of the 13.1 mile jaunt through the cornfields. I used the trick of counting to 100 over and over and it actually really helped me get lost in the miles. I started off a little quick and then settled into my usual longer-distance pace until things started to hurt at mile 9. My hips had had enough at that point and I had to incorporate some walking for those final 5 miles. The pain + the sudden downpour of cold rain that completely drenched me was a bit defeating, but I quickly mentally regrouped and continued to forge on. I wanted a 2:45 run and came in at 2:45:05 (12:36 pace).

So really...I have no complaints.

I set a new HIM PR with 7:22:20.

And you want to know the funny part?

I brought home some hardware. After a little bit of thought, I decided to race the Great Illini in the Athena division. I mean...why not? And of the 6 of us who were registered to race this division...2 actually started. And I just so happen to beat that athlete to the finish line. So I find the fact I brought home a trophy quite humorous. They gave me an award for being slow, but faster than the other slow athlete...

Mehhh...I'll take it.

All in all, a good day considering the events that led up to the race. I have no doubt in my mind that next time I can go sub-7:15, possibly even closer to 7 hours. But nutrition was spot-on, nerves were in check, and I had fun...so really, I couldn't have asked for a better day.

In other news, here are a few things you've missed out on due to my sheet laziness with updating my blog!
- I survived Enduracamps St. Louis...brought to you by the letter "H." It was essentially the 7th circle of Hell as we biked, ran, and swam our way through 5 days of heat, hills, humidity and headwind. It was tough, and I was slow (as usual), but I'm a better triathlete for it.
- I had a 45-mile ride that nearly killed me. GI distress pretty much had me curled up on the side of the road feeling ill. Lovely. I was quickly reminded that we all have days like that.
- I did my first-ever century ride at the Psycho. Actually, it was 103.6 miles if you want to be exact. I had a wonderful first 60 miles...then things unraveled...and then at mile 72 a few slices of watermelon seemed to put me back together again. And all was well. I felt insanely accomplished.
- I volunteered this past weekend at Ironman Wisconsin. Holy crap. That's a whole different blog post though. Can you say INCREDIBLE!? An emotional, eye-opening experience...fo' sho'.
- And it looks like I'll be celebrating my 28th birthday at the end of the month with a century ride followed by a 5-6 mile run. If anyone out there would like to join us, let me know!