Tri Louisville Race Report

This past Sunday I toed the line in my first triathlon of the season - the Olympic Distance at Tri Louisville. I competed in this event last year under a different name - Race the Bridge - and had a blast. This year was even better as the race organizers took a lot of the comments from last year and changed things up for the better. I had a good day and a great experience overall - now on to the recap!

Leading up to the race I'd been feeling pretty crappy. I was stuck somewhere between a cold and allergies. The usual cast of characters (itchy throat, sinus drainage, sinus pressure, watery eyes) had plagued me all week and I'd been pretty much sidelined. Add to that a bad reaction to some allergy medication and I wasn't feeling hopeful about the race. I'd seriously considered scratching all together and then thought about just dropping down to the sprint.

Eventually I decided to stick with the Olympic. The main reason was my friend Jessie; she finished a 2 mile swim Saturday and was dead last. Talking to her about it she was sort of bummed about her finish, but based on where she started with swimming it was a huge accomplishment to finish at all. I figure if she can have the guts to get in the water knowing she might be last and do it anyway, then I could do the same with the Olympic. Tri Louisville has no cutoffs since the bike and run are just loops so I figured I could coast through an Olympic - even if I was dead last.

Saturday night I got all of my race gear out and began assembly. I secretly love packing my race bag. It's heaven for a type-a person I think. Lists, check boxes, neatly organized piles. Ahh, bliss. It was my first time traveling with my new Blue Seventy bag and I was excited to see if it all fit. Sure enough, I was organized and all packed into my bag in no time.

Step 1 - put all Tri stuff in one place

Step 2 - separate all the 'stuff' by discipline and put in piles

Bike stuff all piled up - don't forget nutrition!

Step 3 - Pack into your bag, put it by the door and you're done!

Race Morning the alarm went off at 5:00am. Hubz was sleeping elsewhere due to his constant coughing so I could get up gradually. I sat in bed for a little bit watching netflix before finally getting up. For me it's not about the amount of time it takes to actually get ready, but more about the amount of time I need for my "system" (i.e. digestive) to wake up so I can take care of business before I leave.  I pulled on my new Coeur kit, grabbed my bag and headed downstairs. I'd already frozen my waterbottles so I filled them, ate some toast with almond butter, and headed out.

The race venue was only a few miles from my house. I thought I'd gotten there early enough but parking was already swamped. I got there around 6:15 and transition closed at 7 - plenty of time I'd thought. As I stood in line to pay for parking I started to get a little antsy about it. Luckily my friend Connie was parked right next to me so seeing her and having someone else to navigate the situation with definitely helped.

Transition was small and sort of tight. The racks for the bikes weren't high enough for most of the bikes and it lead to a lot of bikes slipping as people were trying to cram in anywhere. I was on a rack with mostly older guys (weird...). These space hogs had already set up their big towels and thrown their bags under the racks so there wasn't much room left for me. I squeezed in, set up my towel and found a spot to throw my bike on the fence line.

After that I was just a trip to the port-a-potty and a short walk away from the swim start!

The Swim
So the swim was a 1500 meter open water swim in the Ohio. There's this nifty little canal that was perfect for this event. Everybody started from the same place, a nice quiet and isolated dock east of transition, but then the Olympic went out and around the island whereas the sprint went straight down the channel.

I was in the third wave so we got moving pretty quickly. We jumped in and had to stand in 4.5' or so of pretty gross water. It reeked of gasoline and the bottom was at least a foot of mud. Those were the longest 75 seconds of the entire race. Once the gun went off my wave darted out towards the first buoy. One of the kayaks warned us that the current off of the channel was really strong and he was right. I had to swim hard to my right to avoid getting pushed into the island. Once I made the left turn around the island though it was smooth swimming. It was obvious I was out of practice in my wetsuit and my swim wasn't as strong, but I felt pretty good. Sighting was pretty crappy though. I wore my tinted goggles and in retrospect I probably could've done without. Whether it was the tint or just my bad eyesight I couldn't see the buoys for anything. Luckily, I knew it was a straight shot west and there are two big bridges that direction so I sighted on those. Once you make the turn back towards transition though it was a little more difficult. I couldn't find the buoy and then once I did, I couldn't see where the exit was. There is a big brightly colored building that I knew was in front of transition. I just set my sights on it and swam until I got close enough to figure it out. By then my triceps were screaming and I was about ready to be done with the whole swimming thing.

The only real 'oh crap' moment I had in the entire race was the swim exit. As I approached I saw the dock and I saw people getting out of the water. I just kept swimming, waiting for my fingers to drag the bottom but they never did. There was no bottom here. There was just a platform that went about a foot into the water. It's hard to describe how this screwed up the exit but it effectively meant there was nothing to push up and off of to get onto the dock. I felt like a beached seal. There were volunteers helping people out but I was essentially 175 pounds of dead weight. I pushed myself up on to the dock and my arms felt like useless limp noodles. I used my hips to scoot up enough so that I could get to my knees before a volunteer pulled me up. Poor guy, I don't think he was expecting my...heft.

Once I was out, a kind gentlemen kindly helped me unzip my wetsuit and then it was up some steps and into transition.

Garmin Stats: 1.25 miles, 25:55 minutes
*The race did not have a split for my swim. This seems like a FAST swim and a long swim, so I wish I had something to compare it to!

The Bike
 The Swim to bike transition is always a little harrowing for me. My heartrate is through the roof, i'm a little disoriented, and it always seems so fucking far. From swim out to my bike it was .18 miles, which feels far to me. So I walked. I focused on taking my time, catching my breath and getting my heartrate down. I got to my bike and got my bike garmin on and got my equipment on no problem. Then it was an easy out onto the road.

The course was pretty much the same as last year: 4 loops of a flat course with one little pitch up. There were some key differences in that it was entirely closed to traffic (and actually monitored by volunteers) and the turnarounds were MUCH much wider than last year. These little changes made for a much more enjoyable bike. Of course I heard "on your left" more than I'd like to admit but I made a plan to take the first lap easy. The first 6 mile loop I focused on high cadence and getting comfortable. I opted to take extra time and wear my cycling gloves and I'm glad I did - I think they're more comfortable and they make me feel safer if I were to bite the dust. So the first few miles were a little slower but that was the plan: get comfortable, figure out the course, and keep cadence up.

Each consecutive lap I worked on pushing it a little bit harder. And then it was done. I drank and I ate some honey stinger chews at one of the turnarounds. In retrospect I didn't eat enough. I really need to work on that on the bike.

It's been difficult not to compare this year to last year. I keep reminding myself I'm 4 weeks behind where I was last year, so it's not really fair to myself to compare the two. Still, I averaged 14.5mph on the course this year and 15.0 on an almost identical course last year. That's actually not a bad place to be right now.

By the time I hit the final turnaround I was ready to be off the bike. I pulled into transition and found my rack. Unfortunately my rack was a mess. The speedy dudes ahead of me had just thrown their bikes up and knocked my stuff all over the place in the process. The low racks made it hard for me to get my bike up without tipping over others. I ended up setting my bike up by the handlebars, which wasn't ideal. I put on my shoes, visor, and race number, grabbed a huma gel and headed out on the run

The Run
The run was 2 loops of a winding course for the Olympic. Luckily there was some cloud cover because it was starting to get hot. I opted not to get water at the first aid station and immediately regretted it. I started out run/walking about a 3/2 pace. This was slower than I would've liked but I really wanted to run more on the back half. The run was pretty uneventful. There were some subtle 'hills' (it's really pathetic to call them that...probably better to just call them inclines) and I walked most of those. I had some unexpected trouble with my shoes. I upgraded to the Adrenaline 18's and was in between an 8.5 and a 9. I really didn't like my 15s in the 9 but loved my 14s in the 8.5, so I went with the 8.5. I'd finally gotten them stretched out a little bit and Saturday night I added my bungee laces. Well this definitely made them too tight. For the first two miles or so my feet felt trapped. It was no bueno. I'm still working on it but it's definitely an adjustment. All in all I was ok with the run but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement. 

Total Finish Time: 3:26:22
*This would totally be a PR EXCEPT I think the course was short. While the swim was way long the run was only 5.80 and the bike was almost a mile short. So I'm not going to count it as a PR.

It was, however, a great learning experience and a great first race of the season! I definitely have a long way to go on the bike before I'm Ohio Ready and my run could use a lot of work but we'll get there...soon. With all of the improvements from last year I'll be heading back to Tri Louisville again next year!

Ironman 70.3 Muncie Recap - Part 2

This is part 2 of my recap of Ironman Muncie 2015. If you missed it you can check out part 1 here.

The Bike
     Goal: Under 4 hours (14 mph avg)
     Actual: 3:44:45 (14.95 mph)

I felt good getting out on the bike course. It was pretty crowded, which is totally unusual for me since I'm always in the back of the pack. The course took you out some (Crappy) country roads and onto the main 'highway' for two loops. It was hard finding a place on the course at this point with everyone passing me. I just tried to settle in and find my rhythm.

I was super conscious at this point of going out too fast. I felt good and was wary of burning out. I'd never really hit the wall on my bike and I wasn't interested in doing it now. The first 10k(it) was strong but according to my splits the first 28 were super strong overall, averaging 16.4mph.

The course was essentially two loops along the highway. Getting to the first turnaround was basically a breeze. The route back from there was more downhill so it was also not so bad. The first 25 miles weren't bad at all. The last 25 were another story. After about mile 30ish I started getting wary. My butt - and other lovely lady parts - was sore. My hips were tight and when I attempted to stretch my right hip even locked up on me. Ok, not doing that again.

The second loop was rough. After I hit the turnaround it felt like I went 50 miles just to get back to the turnoff. There were very few people behind me at this point and the course got a little lonely. Luckily, the temps were still low and I didn't feel like I was baking on the bike. Nutritionally, I nailed the bike. I drank every 10 minutes - thirsty or not - alternating between GuBrew and water. Every hour I ate some bonk breaker, every half hour I ate a Cliff Chomp. Basically, I was full. I brought two bonk breakers but only got through one and couldn't really force myself to eat the other.

Once I made it to mile 35 I realized I could essentially walk the bike and still make it back within the 5:20 cutoff. I was at about 2:15 and that put me at 3:00hrs overall. Yeah, I was gonna finish the last 15 in that amount of time. But how fast? My legs weren't tired so much as I was tired. I was tired of the bike, I was mentally tired. I just kept telling myself, "This isn't about your body, this is about your head. Pedal, pedal, pedal." I started feeling sick to my stomach. Looking back on it now I can't figure out how I felt so bad, because I remember it so fondly. But I was in bad shape. Later I realized the sickness was emotion - I needed to cry. Not cry, but sob. That achy feeling your stomach gets before you just let loose all anger and frustration and sadness. That's what I needed. But I couldn't do it.

Finally I hit the turnaround and turned, right this time back to transition. The 6 miles back to transition were brutal. The road was crap, it was hilly, I was over it. I rested in granny gear a little bit. Someone passed me and as he did he said, "Just keep going, we're almost there." We. Yeah, you're passing me. YOU are almost there. I"m still back here!

Finally I made the long turn onto the Reservoir road and I knew I was close. I slid into granny gear not for rest but for Cadence. I knew I needed to get my cadence up high to prep my legs for the run.

And there it was! The Bike in! And all the people and....and Hubz! He was there, waiting for me. (There was also some asshat with a baby stroller just walking around in the road on his cell phone that I damn near plowed over just out of principle).

As I approached the ladies at the dismount line I chuckled and said, "please god get me off this thing." Hubz was right on the other side of the barrier, smiling at me. In that moment I felt lower than I've ever felt. He was there, sweating his a*s off all day to watch me do this - and i might not finish. It was the first time the thought crept through my head. I couldn't look at him. I just kept pushing my bike back to my rack

T2

     Goal: 4 minutes

     Actual: 4:28

I knew I needed to keep it short because I was losing energy. That sick, dry-heave feeling was sticking with me. All I wanted to do was sit down and cry in the grass and never get up. Just as I racked my bike I heard a familiar sound. It was Tom Petty....and it was a song I loved. A lesser known, unpopular song, but one of my favorites. And as he sang, "not me baby, I've got you to save me," I pulled on my shoes. Between choking, sobs of air, I sang along. I smiled. I moved out of transition. 

The Run

     Goal: Under 3 hours

     Actual: 3:04

Hubz was along the partition as I moved out of T2. He said, "you can walk the whole thing - you're crushing your goal!!". I just wanted to stop and hug him and have him tell me again that I was going to do it. I just tried to keep moving. 

 The run course is an out-and-back along a country road. A hilly country road. As I was starting out I saw everyone coming back. All headed for the finish line. I knew I'd get there, but I wasn't sure how long. I'd been moving for 4:30 when I started the run so I knew I had 4 hours to complete the run. Then it hit me - who cares if I walk this whole damn thing? Not me. This part is for me. This is my victory lap.

So I did. I walked almost all of the first three miles. Just get to each aid station, I told myself. I shuffled a little bit down the hills, from cone to cone. But I mostly just walked. Somewhere after the 4th mile or so I started talking to the woman in front of me who was run/walking. We laughed that it looked like we were gonna be seeing a lot of each other. She offered to run/walk with me and I told her I'd see her at the turnaround, then I would.

I kept my word on that. After 6.55 miles Colleen and I were best friends and determined to finish the race together. It was her first too, and she and her husband were both racing. Her son, Miles, was waiting for her at the finish. Colleen gave me something to focus on. I was going to get her to the finish line, and in the process get myself there too.

I ran into Stef after mile 7 or so and she was in bad shape. She was as broken as I was when I got off the bike. She stopped and hugged me hard, but I steered her back on course. I knew she would finish if she just kept going. "Just keep walking, one foot at a time," I told her. I pushed her on her way.

Colleen and I ran and walked. We stopped at each aid station getting ice, sponges, and gatorade. I grabbed some chews eventually to combat the sloshy belly that comes with so many fluids. My nutrition plan was essentially this: HYDRATE. It was getting really hot and the sun was out in force in parts of the course. We just kept going.

Finally we came to the final hill. I asked her, 'Do you want to go first through the finish chute?". "No," She said, "Go for it." So I did. Once I got to the top I could see Hubz sitting in his chair near the finish and I just lost it. That choky, nauseous, sobby feeling was back - but for a whole new reason. I'd done it. I'd flipping done it. I wanted to run the finish chute but I also wanted it never to end. And then, suddenly, it did. I went through the Finish Line at 7:37. I was a (half)Ironman.

I found Hubz and just latched on to him. I showed him my medal. I walked around. I was dazed. I went back to find Colleen. I wanted to thank her. Thank her for helping me help her through those last miles. For helping me find the strength in myself.

I met up with Missy - who was lightning fast at 6:03 finish - and she asked about Stef. I told her I thought Stef would make it but it would be awhile. It really wasn't. 20 minutes later Stef made her own dash through the finisher's chute. We'd all done it.

And just like that, after 7 long hours, I'd done it. I met all of my goals (though I was a little over on the run). I crushed my overall goal. And I'm a half-Ironman. There's no way to describe the feeling of accomplishing something like that. It's the worst best thing i've ever done. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Ironman 70.3 Muncie Recap - part 1

There's enough to talk about here that I'm going to split it into two parts. I know, how dare I keep you on the edge of your seat? Sorry, dear reader.

Friday - the day before the race
Friday Hubz and I packed up the car and headed to Muncie. I took Ghost out for a pre-trip ride to get a feel for the tune up. Glad I had her worked on; her gears shifted much nicer and the breaks were sound. Also I hadn't been on a bike in over a week and, well, I was a little bit nervous with race day being my first re-try on the bike.

After a quick stop at IHop we were on the road. It rained almost every single mile up to Muncie. I'm not kidding. We found our hotel pretty easily, got checked in, and headed to the race site. While the athlete guide suggested otherwise, many had said that the athlete briefing wasn't mandatory. Either way, I wanted to make sure I attended just to hear the rules and get a feel for everything. The expo was a little insane! I met up with Stef & Missy - two friends from the Landshark group who were also  first timers - then got myself all checked in.

After I got all my stuff Hubz and I checked out the water start. I loved the easy beach access and the water looked super calm. Also, water temp was at about 75 degrees - 3 degrees lower than the day before and wetsuit legal! With the rain expected later and the cooler temps it was almost assuredly wetsuit legal.

We got Ghost all checked in to transition and I walked the bike-in and bike-out. Then I said goodbye to her for the night and we headed to dinner. Honestly at this point nothing sounded good - I was nervous! I knew apples had some pasta options and it was on the way back so we stopped there. I had some alfredo thing that actually tasted pretty good. After dinner we went back to the hotel and relaxed (watching Despicable me!). I filled up my bottles for the morning, stuck them in the fridge and set my alarm. 

Pre- Race Carbo Load

Ironman Swag - I'm a sucker for the M-Dot

Race Morning

 I woke up a bit before my alarm went off in nervous anticipation. I immediately started drinking water and ate my BelVita Cookies. Those things travel great and taste perfect on a nervous stomach. Luckily I did one last pack of my tri bag the night before so everything was ready to go. It was surprisingly cool - only 57 degrees! - because of an overnight storm. I was glad I'd packed a throwaway sweatshirt to wear. I pulled on my coeur kit and we headed to Prairie Creek Reservoir.

It was much easier to find this time because there was essentially a caravan to the reservoir. Not a lot of traffic in Muncie at 5:00am on a Saturday morning! We parked in a second "lot" a little bit away from transition. I was really glad I'd checked Ghost early because it was muddy and slippery and the last thing I would've wanted to deal with was my bike. I ate a honey stinger waffle as we walked and tried to keep my nerves down. 

I got body marked quickly and easily and set up transition. The person next to me never showed up so I had plenty of space to lay out my stuff. I chatted with some of the girls on my rack and my friend Stef showed up a little bit after. I took time to set up everything but didn't want to obsess over it  - as long as I had two pairs of shoes, a helmet and a bike I could finish this race!

Stef & Missy had to lug their stuff back to their car so Hubz and I waited at the Landshark area. A lot of the tri clubs participating had tents and were set up pretty comfortably by the finish line. I used the port-a-potty and waited around for Stef and Missy to come back. They announced they were starting the race 15 minutes late because of traffic issues so my 7:40 start time was now 7:55. Ugh. I was really nervous at this point - more so than I thought I would be. I saw my friend Jessie who was a few  waves ahead of me and wished her good luck. Finally it was time to pull on my wet suit and get ready to swim.  I kissed Hubz goodbye and he wished me good luck. Then it was off to line up with my wave. 

Stef, Missy & I were all in the same wave which was nice. We talked and I took my last gel and threw away my flip flops. Pretty soon we were "on deck" and the announcer was saying our wave! As we waded into the water the DJ started playing "Single Ladies" and everyone started laughing. It really helped to break the tension. Before too long the clock hit 7:55 and the bullhorn rang out signaling our start - and off we went!

The Swim

       Goal: Under 50 minutes

       Actual: 38:04

Since my wave was pretty big the initial frenzy at the start was a little rough. I let the wetsuit hold me and just tried to find some space. I was really proud of myself for not panicking (something many had warned me about). I kept moving left and looking for an opening. The course is kind of a floppy rectangle with a longer out to Turn 1, then a short section, then Turn 2 and back to the beach. My goal was to really stretch and relax in the "out" or the first side. 

It was hard to find a groove at first because people were super aggressive. I'd never had that problem in a race so It was a little disarming. At one point some woman kept pushing me to the right, practically swimming on top of me. I finally sat up and let her go. Little did she know she was swimming completely off course and into the middle of the lake. I took some sick pleasure in knowing that she'd get payback for her rudeness. I Kept counting buoy's and was at Turn 1 in a breeze. The reservoir was calm and still with almost no wind - sighting was a breeze! The short side went by super fast and before long I made the turn to home. I knew there were about 6 buoy's on this side so I decided I'd build to the 4th one before really digging in to home. I nailed the plan there. I kicked it into high gear at # 4 just in time to see the "Swim Out" sign. I pushed my turnover and really gunned it, passing a couple of the speedy dudes from the wave behind us. Before I knew it my fingers touched sand and I stood up. I looked down at my watch, 

37?

wtf?

I was shocked. If you'll recall I thought I could do a 47min swim but wasn't sure. 37 minutes was a complete shock to me. What a great way to start! After I saw that the butterflies went away. As all of the speedsters zipped past me, racing into T1, I just strutted. I swam a 37 min 1.2, I can do whatever the hell I want from here on out. 

Transition 1 - Swim to Bike

    Goal - under 4 minutes

    Actual - 5:50

From the beach and swim out to my bike it was about a quarter of a mile. I walked every bit of it and couldn't have cared less. I felt good knowing I had 13 extra minutes to play with in transition and on the bike. Also my heart rate was still pretty high coming out of the water and I wanted to start as close to neutral on the bike as possible. 

It was super muddy and dusty getting up to my bike. Luckily i'd anticipated this so I left extra towel available to stand on and wipe my feet off. I put on my helmet and glasses, strapped on my shoes and tucked away my bonk breakers. I walked to the bike out sign and up to the mount line. I took a deep breath and clipped in, pushed off, and headed out for 56 miles!

Race the Bridge Race Recap

On June 14th I raced the Race the Bridge Olympic Triathlon in Louisville Kentucky. It was my second Olympic distance triathlon and I had a blast!

Pre-Race
I'd never been to the race sight before so Saturday afternoon I headed down to Eva Bandman park to check out the transition area & Swim start. The park was dead empty which was nice. I was shocked by how low the river was, though, and a little nervous about the debris and mud on the riverbank.

Eva Bandman - This is a cyclocross park!

Ohio River& swim start

Transition Area

That night we went to a Louisville Bats (the Reds affiliate) baseball game. It was super hot and we had to walk a long way from the car. I could've killed Hubz for this because I was doing an Oly in the morning BUT i just decided it was an early warm up. Each person is allowed to bring one unopened bottle of water to the park so I had Hubz bring in one and had two. Not quite beer, but I finished them both.

Race morning I woke up around 4:30 for an 7:45 start. Transition closed at 7 so I wanted to make sure I got up and got all of my necessaries out of the way. I had a bagel and peanut butter and began to hydrate. It was looking like a hot day! Luckily I'd already laid out all of my gear and stored my bike in my car so the morning was pretty easy. All I had to do was wake up Hubz and crawl in the car. I drank an iced coffee on the way to the race site, which has become a bit of a ritual for me. I need my coffee!

Hubz was doing drop off and mom and dad were meeting me there for the race. Hubz could only get me to the front of the park so I had to take everything out and walk my bike about 100 yds to transition. I put in my headphones and tried to relax. When I got to transition I was shocked that my rack was the very front one! I know a lot of people covet these spots, but I was astounded that I was next to some of the fast chicks. Luckily I felt better because the girl across from me had never done a triathlon before. First complaint of the morning was how cramped Transition was. They had plenty of space in the parking lot for transition but not enough racks. We were all crammed in really tight and I barely had room for my towel. Oh well, it ended up being ok but I was nervous about hurting some of these super fast bikes!

I ate my honey stinger waffle (my new faves) and got body marked. After some poor communication I met up with mom and dad near the swim start. It was great to see them! They've really supported me through all of my crazy endeavors and any time that they're at a race it just makes me feel more at ease. At 7:15 I think they did the pre-race rules - though no one heard them - and then at 7:30 the gun went off for the first wave!

The Swim - 37:57 (42 min/mi)
Each wave had to walk out to a pre-set buoy to wait for their gun. To say it was muddy would be an understatement. There were places where the mud was over my knees. The shock of it was worse than anything but the temperature was practically perfect and I got to the buoy. When the gun went off I was able to get out without getting kicked or pushed and I was on my way.

We started out swimming up river, which is sort of north east. Sighting was impossible as the sun was just coming up. The small buoys were light yellow and impossible to see since they looked just like the sun. At one point I followed a group of swimmers way way left. I even passed a kayak! Ugh. The swim just felt long. I finally got to the orange turnaround buoy and headed back down river. I'd been told that with the right currant the downriver section was super easy. I did not find this to be the case. It was choppy! I had to swim like an ocean swim, diving down below the waves and then coming up for a few strokes. I definitely didn't feel like it was easier. Sighting was a lot easier though so I just focused on strokes. I counted sets of ten and kept my eye on the docks. Finally I was back to the start buoy. I swam until my fingers touched the bottom which was just about where we'd started from. Unfortunately, it was still a ways away from the swim out. I stood up and ran, then did sort of a dolphin dive variation until I got right to the steps. I headed up the dock and to T1!

T1 2:40
Based on the rocky shoreline I'd left some crappy flip flops out to stand on until our swim wave went. Well my mom picked them up and set them out for me when I headed up the carpet into transition. I'm so glad she did because the hardest part of transition was how dirty my feet were! I have this thing about having crap on my feet in my shoes. I hate it. Beyond hate it. So having the flip flops was a help. I don't recall feeling like I took too long in transition. I fought with my hydrapak a little bit (*more on this later), but nothing major. As I was leaving the girl next to me - a speedster - told me to take it easy on the bike course. She said there were some serious turns and people don't take them seriously. That meant a lot coming from her so I decided to be extra cautious the first lap. I hit the mount line and was out onto the bike course!

The Bike 24.28 miles, 1:38:37  (Avg. 15.1 mph)

You may recall that at this point in my cycling journey I hadn't quite figured out how to drink from my water bottles on the bike. Underhand mounting, saddle mounting - nothing worked. So in my last pre-race ride I'd worn my hydrapak and it worked great. I figured I'd use my hydrapak for Muncie so this was a test race.

The bike course was a 6 mile loop through downtown Louisville with the sprint race doing 2 laps and the Olympic doing 4. It was a tricky course because of all of the sharp curves and narrow turns. Also, there were obviously two turnarounds. If you'll recall from previous posts two of my 3 falls on the bike were in turnarounds. My plan: stop the bike and turn it around if need be. What did I care? I was going to get through this ride confidently and without crashing. On the way out plenty of people were already on the course and it was a zoo. I think there were some that were going too fast for the course, passing wildly on turns. The first loop was mostly just getting used to the course itself and the turns. My first loop was a measly 14.6mph as I got used to everything. The biggest problem on the first loop was the realization that my Hydrapak wasn't working! I played with the nozzle and everything - no water came out. Now it was starting to heat up and the sun showed no signs of easing up. I knew I had to get fluids or I'd be a dead man like at Tri Fest. After the first loop there was a straightaway that was flat and even. I told myself, "Gotta drink or get of the road." I evened out my pedals and reached down for my bottle. To my amazement I got it! I almost fell of my bike from the shock. I gulped some down and then kept on.

The last three laps were relatively uneventful. I focused on really pushing the straightaways since the random turns forced me to slow down so much. I kept a steady 15.1 for those laps. I also managed to keep drinking, taking in fluids on each straightaway. I also managed to keep my cadence really high at 88rpm average, which really excited me. I had a legitimately good bike!

After the fourth lap I headed back into transition. Since it was the only road out of the park it was a little bit chaotic with runners heading out (and in) and spectators and finishers walking to their cars. I put the breaks on and focused on getting back to transition without incident.

T2 2:02
I racked my bike and got my hydrapak off pretty quick. Of course, the second I got my hydrapak off all of the water started coming out of the nozzle! Wtf. Oh well. I got my socks and shoes on and headed out through the other side of transition. The heat was intense now and my garmin must've been feeling it too. The damn 405cx - my best friend and arch nemesis - was frozen. I'd planned on using my 5:1 run:walk ratios that I'd pre-set but apparently I wouldn't have a garmin at all. I cursed (a lot) and got out onto the run course.

Run 10k, 1:11:48 (11:35 min/mi)
My legs felt surprisingly fresh after the bike. This was the one time I enjoyed the dirt road heading out to the run course too. The dirt felt good on my feet and it wasn't a big shock to the knees. The run course was a loop too - one for the sprint and 2 for the olympic. One of the nice things about a loop system for the run is that I got to see all of the landsharks in various parts of the run. Most of them were way ahead of me but it was still awesome to see a fellow shark and exchange positive words. At this point the course was really hot and there wasn't really any shade anywhere on the run. They had two aid stations set up and the first one didn't have anything when I got there. I walked a lot in the first loop and then dedicated myself to my run:walk intervals. After the first few it was pretty clear the heat was excessive so I switched to 4:2 run:walk. This really worked for me and allowed me enough time to get the right amount of water and dump a lot over my head.

The second loop was really difficult for slow people reasons. Last few people on the course so there wasn't as much spectator support. Also the park we were using had a lot more people on it now and at one point I had a family of 8 just totally push me off the sidewalk. If I hadn't been so tired I would've chewed that mom out. Oh well. I pushed on in my intervals and kept chugging along.

Finally I was back into eva bandman and headed for the finish line. A nice guy with an RV asked if I wanted some hose water over my head. Oh boy did I! He showered me without getting my feet wet, that dear man, and off I ran to the finish. At the last turn I saw my mom and she was cheering so loudly, it made me so happy. I turned and went under the finish banner. My dad was right on the other side!  I finished my second olympic in 3:33:05!

Post Race Thoughts
I really like the olympic distance. I guess it is kind of the 10k of triathlon. Long enough to be an endurance race but short enough to not want to die the whole time. Not to mention, I beat my time at TriFest by almost 28 minutes! Obviously I ran a lot more of the run course, so that was an instant improvement. But I improved my bike time by a lot. That's what a flat course will do for you I guess.

My biggest complaint about the race was how poorly run it was. I was really upset when I finished and found that there was no food or water left. It was 90+ Degrees and they didn't have any water. That's criminal. It was a relatively expensive race (TriFest was $35, this was $95) and I felt like I didn't get any support or extras from the company that put it on.

But the pros? It's right down the street from me and an opportunity to OWS in a difficult venue. Can't beat that. I'm super happy with my performance and it gave me a lot of confidence going into Muncie!