Finally home after the race and the subsequent "vacation" through multiple states and national parks. Was fun, but a ton of driving and not all that restful.
So, now to summarize the race: I HATE WIND. I had my figures for each leg of the race, figuring on a 6-8 hour finish, not that ambitious I thought. The swim went fine. It was pretty cold, but after going a bit it wasn't really noticeable. I kept up a good pace, but was swimming with my head up way too much, I'm sure it slowed me down a lot, and it also gave me a nice burn that is still trying to heal over a week later. Total swim time was 44:18, a 2:18/100m pace, which I'm happy with. My estimate was 40-50 minutes, so anything on the low end is good.
Had a reasonable transition, and got put together and out on the bike. After the first downhill that felt pretty fast, I felt like I was riding in mud or on a flat or something. Was going very slowly and people were passing me left and right. I even stopped to check my tires, but they were fine. After the race I thought about the possibility that my brakes were rubbing or something, but I never checked them... whatever the cause I was super slow on the bike, and that was even before the wind was bad. The wind was just brutal, and every time I turned into it I felt like I was going backwards. It frustrated me to no end, and a number of times I nearly gave up... nearly stopping like that didn't help my pace any either. In the end, I was the absolute slowest on the bike of the people who finished the race. Bike time of 4:44:03 (11.8 mph) was way off of my estimate of 3:06-3:43 (15-18 mph). Already worried about making the cutoff times was not how I wanted to finish the bike.
Second transition was fine... no one else around to get in my way or anything... haha. Run was not very remarkable. Ran/walked/ran/walked/stopped/... drank too much and had to stop to use the porta-potty. Ended up finishing the run in 2:52, a 13:09 minute mile pace. Within my estimate of 2:30-3:00, but not by much. I was walking quite a bit on my second lap around, making sure I would be able to finish... probably could've (and therefore should've) pushed a bit harder. I didn't think it was possible to still get under 8hrs after that bike, so I didn't really try for that... I guess I could have, would have just taken me beating my only other half marathon time.
Overall time was 8:30:34. I'm glad I finished, but was disappointed in the time. If I do that same pacing on the full Ironman I will be very close to getting cut off, I don't want to be anywhere near that. The positive things I can take away though are that I didn't quit the million times I wanted to on the bike. I should probably figure out a better eating plan overall, having to stop to use the restroom twice (and feel sick/sloshy a number of times) didn't help me any.
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