This past Saturday was the Tupper Lake Tinman 1/2 iron distance race 1.2 mi swim/56 mi bike/ 13.1 mi run.
The day started off at around 7:00 with a dense fog that prevent seeing even the first bouy on the swim course. But within 45 minutes the fog lifted and it turned to a blurbird day. The water was a refreshing and wetsuit legal 72 deg.
I was in the 3rd wave out with about 150 in my wave. As the horn sounded all 150 swimmers stated a mad sprint to get into a space and get a rhythm started. I had a decent amount of body contact during the first 1/4 mile but after that it become a bit more spaced out and didn't really have much trouble with bumping into people until the fastswimmers from the waves behind me caught up. I exited the water feeling pretty good with a 39:50 for 1.2 mi. Which is a bit slow for me. I need to learn how to swim faster and keep a straiter line. All the course corrections cost me some time.
I had a good transition and headed out on the bike. My goal for the bike was to keep it under 3 hours (~19 mph) For those that don't know where Tupper Lake is, it is in the Adirondacks of NY state. Rolling terrain is kind of an understatement as there were a few decent sized climbs but nothing too huge. I felt really good on the bike and immediately started passing many racers. At the turn around (28 mi) I was 1:20 into the ride averaging well over 20 mph. But as soon as we make the turn I realized there had been a light tailwind with us. I was thinking "shit, I don't think I can hold this speed for another 28 mi with a headwind." But to my suprise I was only 3 minutes slower on the return and ended the bike with a 2:43(20.6 mph ave) for 56 miles. The bike felt easy to me, probably too easy.............
As I exited the second transition I was feeling pretty good. My goal was to run about a 8 min/mi pace. My first mile was a 7:45 mostly uphill, not bad but I decided this was still a bit too fast and slowed to my goal pace of 8:00 which I held for about the next 4-5 miles and then proceeded to blow up I slowed to an 8:30 pace then 8:45 by mile 8. The last 5 miles were a struggle. I felt like my legs were going to fall off. I wasn't even breathing hard, I just had no gas left. By the end of the run my pace was well over 9min/mi and ended the run with a 1:58 (9:01/mi ave)
My overall time of 5:24:07 was still within my goal range of 5- 5.5 hrs so I pretty happy with than and I'll chalk the explosion on the run up to a learning process. I think I could have gone slightly slower on the bike and not have lost quite so much time on the run. I also need to eat more on the bike. I probably only took in ~550-600 calories on the bike and I should have been closer to 750. I also need to learn how to swim faster and straiter.
Bit overall I am very happy with my performance and just glad to have achieved my goal of completeing a 1/2 iron race.
I also have a couple pics that I'll post up once I get them from my friend. One is a sweet shot my dumbass V shaped sunburn on my pasty white chest from having my race jersey unzipped on the run. It looks like a white and red superhero costume of something.
