Patriot Half Ironman Race Report

Let’s just say that on mile 8 of the run, I said “what the heck was I thinking signing up for IMFL”. OK, so maybe I said another word instead of “heck”, but what’s the diff

The good news is that I did PR the race, although the bike portion of the race was 58miles this year and was 60miles last year. But even with 2 miles less, I beat last year’s time by 27 minutes. The bad news is that my swim was 6 minutes slower than last year! I felt fine, but I guess swimming a mile yesterday was not a good idea. I also think something is up with my new full wetsuit. I definitely see a sleeveless in my future. I did lose about 3 minutes when at mile 5 on the run I REALLY had to go to the bathroom (as I did last year!) and someone ran in there right ahead of me, so I had to wait. But, there is no way I could have finished without going LOL.

I am so sore already , I can only imagine how tomorrow is going to feel. I don’t remember this from last year, I remember feeling great, but Cary laughed when I said this. He said I couldn’t even drive home last year. And here I am at 7:05 pm and I’m still up, watching a movie, and writing this blog. So, I guess I am better this year. UPDATE: At 5:30am on Sunday, I could go down stairs a little better than yesterday, so I guess today isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was so hungry I had to get up and make myself breakfast! It’s amazing how little I sleep after a race like this. I’m so tired, but can’t sleep. I guess I’ll be napping today. I might try to play golf to stay loose.

Let’s discuss this IM thing. I had a feeling that I would feel this way, but I’m very worried about doing the IM. I’m trying to stay positive, because I know it is a completely different beast and I won’t be averaging 19.5 on the bike like I did in this race, but really, how DOES one do a marathon after riding 112 miles!??!?!

Big Mike, Chris and I are going to need lots of encouragement over the next 4 months. Chris did the race today too. His comment was “I’m glad I signed up for IM before I did a 1/2 or I’m not sure if I would have had the guts to sign up”. Oh boy, we need positive vibes

Oh, and lest I forget, that of course it rained at the race. It is now Sunday at 5:30am (couldn’t sleep- too hungry and sore LOL), and I am looking forward to cleaning my bike–yet again. I’m getting so good at this!

Nutritionally, I did OK.

Here was my plan:

Dinner night before (5pm)- IHOP multigrain pancakes

Dinner actual (5:30pm)- IHOP pancakes, but ate them ALL- too much

Breakfast (5am)- oatmeal, 1/4 cup nuts, banana, G2

Breakfast actual (5am)-oatmeal, 1/2 banana, some nuts, G2-still full from too many pancakes at IHOP!

Bike- 1/4 cliff bar every half hour/gel at 2:30/3 bottles G2

Bike actual-almost 3 G2/ I only did 3 of the 4 cliff pieces/ so I moved the gel to 2:15 because I was ahead of pace and I missed the last cliff piece.

Run- water at each stop with gel at mile 3 and 8

Run actual- water at each stop with (I’m guessing I do about 3/4 of the gel since I do one gulp of it) gel at mile 3 and 9. At mile 8, I wasn’t feeling so well. I thought I was going to throw up. I also started getting cramps in the chest and upper stomach. So I decided to wait on the gel and did it at mile 9 and drank extra water. The cramps went away. I did an orange slice at mile 8 and 11 too and that tasted REALLY good. I also sucked the salt off of some pretzels at mile 12.

So, I didn’t do too badly sticking to the plan, but a few things I noticed:

1. when I am riding the bike, my math skills are a little lacking (scary since I taught math for 3 years). I tend to think I’m doing the cliff pieces on time and I’m not.

2. I need to take in more salt on the longer races. This should be resolved somewhat when I switch to Gatorade Endurance as I plan to from now until IM FL.

3. I need to eat a lot less the night before the big day