A Tale of 5 Half Marathons

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Some races just stick with you. The fact that the last 5 half marathons have remained in the memory banks … well, it led to this writing. The quest for all five of them was the same: get as close to (if not under) 2 hours. It was a small goal of mine since I started in the sport back in 2009 with the 13.1 Fort Lauderdale and finished with a 2:15. It took several races and 2+ years to get under 2:10 with the A1A Half in 2012. Some attempts were not really attempts (Miami Beach Halloween Half) and others were a part of a triathlon (every Miami Man). So I had a good amount of time and focus to make it possible.

The 13.1 Fort Lauderdale (Nov 9) is a race (along with the Publix A1A Half) I have done a few times already and I like the course – run around downtown, head to A1A, and then go north and south. The race started out normally, albiet a bit humid. But as the miles ticked on, it got more and more humid until I hit about mile 8 and the downpour started. I think it rained on and off for the next few miles. I had already slowed up a bit due to the humidity, but once the heavy rains started, it made everything else heavy: shirt, shorts, shoes, mood. Needless to say, the rain washed away any goals for that race. I plodded along mixing jogging and wringing water from everywhere for a 2:36 half. 13.1 Ft Lauderdale Runtastic stats

#1 for both of us

It’s amazing what a difference a month makes, especially in South Florida. A slightly warm and very humid beginning of November led to a cool and dry beginning of December. The start of the Weston Rotary Run for Tomorrow Half Marathon was quite chilly (55° F) and partly cloudy. This was the first time we had run this race and was quite pleased with it: even being a small, local run race it was well laid out and organized. The start/finish was in a town center for a planned community and the course was a pair of out-&-backs. It also helps that Weston is right off I75/Sawgrass. When the gun went off, I stuck to my plan: run at a steady pace for the first 9-10 miles and push it for the last. At least until I found a false flat at mile 7 that lastest about 2 miles. I could tell because my run app that went from telling me I was doing 9:30s changed to say that I was doing 10 min/miles. After that I tried to push it to make up the minute (I did do 2 miles of sub-9), but it had been too long of false flat. When I hit mile 10 I was at 1:36 – if it had been 1:30 or under it might have been more manageable to break 2hrs. As it was, I was greatly pleased to finish with a 2:04, a half marathon personal best of about 8 minutes. Weston Rotary Half Marathon Runtastic stats

The Skydive Ultra was another race that I went into not having done before. No, I did not do “an ultra marathon” there (this post is about half marathons), nor did I skydive (I’ve already done a tandem skydive, twice) – but both are options available to the crazies. It is one of those local races put on by an individual – even smaller than the Weston Half, but offering numerous distances from 10K to 100 miles, in a semi-remote area of Clewiston next to a small airport, appropriately. Each distance had it’s own start time, with the 100-milers starting at 7 (?) am; being in the half marathon group, my “wave” did not start until noon. This brought upon two dilemnas: starting in the middle of the day and what to do about breakfast. For all of my previous races, I might have a little coffee before leaving the house and some gel right before the race. This time I tried a “normal” breakfast of a bacon breakfast wrap from Dunkin. What I did not take into account was hanging around the race site for a few hours – walking between the run course and the sky dive hanger several times, after walking around Wal-Mart picking up snacks and such. This, along with the course having no shade and partial trail, led a slow start and several walking breaks, and that weird feeling in the stomach. It was definitely a learning experience, as I finished with a 2:38 (only slightly off the rainy 13.1 in November). Skydive Ultra Half Marathon Runtastic stats

A bunch of happy people

This lead to the second half marathon in downtown Fort Lauderdale & along A1A for this season: the Publix A1A Half Marathon. It follows most of the same course as November’s 13.1 Ft Lauderdale and can be equally as chilly; this year was no different. It was in the very low 50° F at the start and I don’t think it went much higher than that by mid-day. The pomp & circumstance of the race signalled the start and I started out good. That was until the laces for my right sneaker came undone before mile 1 – twice! After the second loosening I double-knotted it. I was wearing my Saucany Kinvara that I had gotten a few weeks ago. I usually swap out the regular laces for the elastic/bungee style after a test run or two but I didn’t have an issue before the race. I was a bit worried that the time spent stopping to retie would have an effect, but once I hit A1A (and stumbled over a reflector) I got into a good groove, or in this case, gear. From Sunrise Blvd (Birch State Park) and on each mile reading had under a 9 min/mile. I even had energy to push it the last mile or so. Which considering I only took a total of 1-1/2 gels goes against convention of a “whole gel every 45” that the packs state; I think I took 1/2 a gel every 45 minutes. So the combination of chilly weather (w/out rain), effective fueling, and training all led to it: 1:57:19! A1A Half Marathon Runtastic stats

Bike & run exit for Intimidator

So riding the high on the success of A1A Half Marathon I entered into the run leg of the Intimidator (Florida Challenge) Half Iron Relay on March 21 with confidence. I had never done a triathlon relay before, but I learned from the late start of my wave at the SkyDive Ultra about what not to do: don’t do too much standing, light on the food, and stay cool. The latter was almost too easy with Mother Nature keeping it overcast with a slight fog and chilled all morning. But then the clouds broke around 11:30am and the temperature slowly rose. After about a half hour after the clouds broke, Jess came into transition after finishing the swim and 56 mile bike and I got the timing chip and her Garmin. I knew after the first mile or two that it was going to be a hot one. I stuck with a slower pace than from the A1A Half, although I still ended up pulling the black WoB tank up to my shoulders and used it to hold ice and water around my neck. That helped a bunch, along with the numerous shaded areas along the trail. Staying in control and not overexcerting myself definitely made for a good 2:28 run – not that I could have beaten A1A, but it was probably a PR for super hot weather. Even with the slight rolling terrain and bridge.

If you want to try any of the races yourself, check out the list below

Race Report: Egg Hunt Sprint Triathlon 2015

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First multi-sport race of the 2015 season, first race at C.B. Smith park. Day started out early and was going good until we got the park – cars were crawling to get in. Turns out the lines to get in merged into one lane, which then split into three paying lanes. Tradewinds only counts the number of people entering but C.B Smith insisted on collecting entrance fees, which added 15 minutes to parking. Luckily we got in the park line by 6am so w had time when we eventually parked and then hunted for transition – just follow the other bikes.

Transition, just like at Tradewinds, is situated in a parking lot and the racks were well spaced. But I think the numbering was out of order, or at least they weren’t consistant with the alternating from side to side. Got transition set up: bike, bike shoes, glasses, helmet [check], run shoes and race belt [check], goggles and swim cap [check]. A quick double check and then heading to the lake – where is the lake? Walked out of transition the bike-out end and then walked around to the other end where the lake is. It took reading the shore flags to figure out where the swim start and exit were – “if those say ‘start’ then the other pair must be the exit.” Water was a comfortable temperature and somewhat clear (for a lake), and the sun was creeping up, so I was glad I had semi-tinted swim goggles. When the race started (and I always seem to be in the first wave of these sprints), we got into the lake and told to spread out … why did no one spread out? I found myself in the middle of square of guys in knee deep water. “GO!” I think I spent the first 50 meters wading and doggy paddling until there was room enough to actually swim. Then another 50 meters or so until I could get around the slower guys in front of me. Before I had even gotten to the first turn bouy, I was almost completely by myself – all of the speed demons were pulling far ahead and the rest were behind me. After the first left turn the second leg was almost all in the sun – it was very difficult to spot the bouys. I actually stopped for a second or two to get my bearings. Made the second turn and got into a rythym heading to the swim exit. Crawled out and jogged into transition – which was not a direct shot.

Clipped the helmet on, strapped the shoes on, shaded the eyes with glasses and grabbed the bike. The mount line was pretty close to transition (10-15 feet) so it wasn’t long until I was weaving around the inner loop of the course. The bike course is not as technical as Tradewinds, but it is no walk in the park. There are some long and short curves and about 6 right turns per loop. Just like with the swim, there is one leg going directly into the sun. Some of the cones to separate the bikes from the cars seemed a bit too inside – I was heading east (into the sun) when I heard a crash behind me. I glanced off to my left and just caught a guy on a bike go down. For a half a second I considered stopping – I heard later that the guy bounced back up. Second lap on the bike was pretty much the same, but without the crasher and more cyclists on the course. So many cruisers and hybrids, oh so many beginners. There were many instances where I had to go a bit outside to get by the newbies. They did provide some good slingshots.

Back in transition it was a quick one set of shoes off, another set on and making sure the helmet was off and that I had grabbed the race belt before trotting out. The run course is a nice, shaded 2-loop 90% paved trail. There are 1-2 bridges that, if wet or raining, could be a concern. It also is not 100% flat, but the inclines are either long and slow or steep and short. Mile markers would have been helpful as I didn’t use a gps, but the loops went around the lake so the transition/finish was pretty much visible the whole time. It took about a mile or so to get comfortable, but I definitely feel like my second loop was faster then the first. And the fact that I did a 26 minute 5k is good. Especially siince I had just done a 5k on Thursday in Ft Lauderdale of 24 minutes (and the Corporate Run was super crowded).

Final words: pleased with my 1:10 sprint, pleased with my 9th place in my age group, not so pleased with the early morning park entrance, defintely not pleased with the 45 min delay in duathlon awards that got contested and the fact the triathlon awards weren’t ready right after, but still pleased with the overall course. Due to the length of the award ceremony and amount of first timers that got podium, a lot of other people also think so, too.

MiamiMan 2013 Race Report

Race Morning:

Cruising somewhere in southern Dade

The forecast was a mix of showers and clouds, with the rain percentages between 40-50% all day with mostly cloudy skies. The drive down to the Larry & Penny Thompson State Park held to the forecast. But by the time we got to the park, it had stopped raining and it actually held off for most of the day. It did sprinkle briefly waiting at the lake for the swim start, but other than that, there were only a few light spritzes out on the bike. In fact, it was during the bike that the skies actually cleared and remained sunny the rest of the day. It was due to the forecast that I didn’t apply sunscreen before heading out of transition – coulda, shoulda, didn’t.

Swim:

I was lucky (but later it turned out not) to be next to the end of the rack next to another rack set, so I had room for my bag. After setting up my little area next to my bike and covering both sets of shoes with towels (and the garbage bag used to cover the bike overnight, fearing the day full of rain), I took a gel and left transition for the short walk around the lake to the beach where the start would be. At first I was a bit worried that my AquaSphere goggles were going to be too dark, but when I held them up to my face I was relieved that not only were they not so dark from the inside, it was almost as clear as regular. The reported temperature for the water was 78° (so wetsuit legal) but I think the brief sprinkle cooled the lake a few degrees. I was in the second wave after the pro/elites, and decided to start off about half way back and towards the side as I didn’t want to get caught up with the speed demons, and just got into a steady rhythm with my stroke. First lap went without any real incident, so I trotted out and over the timing mat to get back into the lake for lap two. It was the second lap where I found myself drifting to the left several times: first time I looked up and was heading straight for the pier & the other times was just before the topmost buoy. I think it was also the second lap where my right hand (middle finger specifically) slammed right onto the foot of another swimmer that was doing breaststroke. I would have given him the finger, but it really hurt. Other than that, I felt consistent and strong the whole swim. I came out of the water, got my wetsuit ripped off by strippers (man these girls are at all the big events!) and slowly trotted into transition.

Result: happy with my time of 39 minutes and change

Difference from last time: I didn’t feel like I had “worked” to get through the two laps and beat my time of 45+ minutes

Bike:

I sat down in front of my bike & dried my feet, got my bike shoes & helmet on, and headed out of transition. There were numerous puddles and wet roads for the start, so much so that I think that was the reason for my right shoe being squishy for the first few miles. There wasn’t much wind for most of the beginning and I kept tabs on my Garmin the whole ride to make sure my heart rate didn’t get too high. It was going around the box two times that the clouds seemed to disappear and the winds picked up. Line of the day heard in my head: “You know the winds are strong when you see white caps on puddles.” So needless to say, heading back to transition was almost all headwind. I made a point to stop 3 times while out there on the bike to fuel and stretch my lower back, and that helped as later on my back wasn’t sore or tight, as it was for Augusta. I used the same nutrition I had used in training since Augusta: HEED in water and Clif Shot gels. And yet for some reason I started yawning around mile 45 which continued through to the run.

Result: felt good and consistent for most of the ride and pleased with my time of 3:21

Difference from last time: Maintained good heart rate and consistent pedal stroke throughout, but I am sure a port-o-john stop would have been better, as I only improved my time from 3 years ago of about 3:40

Run:

Got into transition and slowly trotted to my rack, resetting my Garmin for the run. I plopped down to get my bike shoes off, dry my feet again and put on socks and running shoes. After grabbing my race number belt, fuel belt and hat, I headed out for the run. Were there port-o-johns by transition? I passed the sign for “Finish/Lap” arrows and then realized something: notice how I didn’t mention I had put on my Garmin wrist strap? Or sunglasses? Yeah, just as well. So trotting away from transition I felt some pain in both of my armpits. After looking to see the exact areas, I came to the realization that the slight burning was due to chaffing from my wetsuit. Which is odd since I’ve worn this for 3+ years and never gotten pit burns. Thankfully the pain was not bad and dissipated after a few miles. About mile two I felt tired again. Jogging through the brief portion of Zoo Miami I spotted a restroom next to a snack area. Wow, there was an electric wall air conditioner set to 72° F, right above the urinals!! It was about the route where we were routed to the front parking lot and entrance to the Zoo that the tiredness started to get me. I said to myself, “Well, no PR today, let’s just enjoy it as best I can.” I sat down at the aid station near a timing mat for about 10-15 minutes, munching on peanut M&Ms, pretzels, even strawberries. After that I met up with Keith Andrews and we ended up chatting for about 8 miles. Did I care that we spent more time walking than running? Nope. I enjoyed more that we talked about a variety of things (athletic and non) than the race. About a mile after Keith and I started together, my wife caught up to us. Yep, second half iron in a row that Jess would go by me even after she start a few waves back. Speaking of animals, where were most of them? Just birds, two primates and tortoise? Seeing only a small handful of animals was a little disheartening – I wonder if ZooMiami had any paws in the route change.

Result: the timecard might not look good, but I would not change a thing

Difference from last time: none

Overall:

What I had thought would be my “A” race ended up being more of a long day. While I had a good swim and a decent bike, I think the lack of long bricks hindered me, especially as my nutrition might have been the culprit in my tiredness. Speaking of lacking, the port-o-johns on the bike course were definitely lacking. Multirace commented on a Facebook post that an aid station had one, but it must have been set so far back that it was unnoticeable from the road. Speaking of changes made to the course, I seem to remember seeing many more animals several years ago. In looking at the race program for this year and comparing it with my Garmin map from 2010, a large portion of the animal route was cut off: hippo, zebra, giraffe, gorilla, and African elephant were all avoided. Which goes against one of the races “features” of having one of your run photos with an elephant in the background.

Hopefully some changes will be made to the MiamiMan bike and run courses to make it more enjoyable.

Ironman 70.3 Augusta Race Report

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First off the Augusta area is a nice place for a triathlon. The amount of volunteers was amazing and the police were friendly – thanking me for coming out after I would thank them for their service. The weather was also perfect as the day started out in the low 60s and reached a high of mid to upper 70s with partly cloudy skies. The downside to being the largest competitor field of any half-iron distance triathlon is the number of waves at the start: 27! I had to wait over an hour for my wave to get onto the makeshift dock.

View of swimmers coming down-river

So the swim: the announced water temperature was 69 degrees Fahrenheit but it didn’t feel so cold when I (finally) got in. I did feel a bit of a chill on my face a little later on but not too bad. Being in a big wave was bad at the start with a bunch of other guys jockeying for position, but it thinned out pretty quick. Going with the current is a nice way to start a triathlon. The replacement goggles I had picked up at the expo worked well as I had no issues with glare (full tint), fogging or leak at any point. I got to the ramp and trotted over to the strippers (forgot to bring singles) and then headed into transition.

See – no sun-glasses! 🙁

Onto the bike: so the first transition is where it started going downhill for me. I got to the correct row (2240-2290) but somehow my bike and gear were not at my number – I spent a moment or two staring at sticker 2272, trying to figure how my stuff had moved since I was certain I had checked my bike on my race number. When I spotted my setup a rack down, I then couldn’t find my sunglasses – checked everywhere and then remembered that I had not taken them off my bag earlier that morning. After digging in my bag produced nothing, I am guessing that they had somehow fallen off between the car and transition. So I added bottled water to the Perpetuem already in my bottle (next possible error), put on my shoes and helmet, turned on my Garmin, and left transition.

We had driven most of the course Friday on our way to the expo, so we had some sense of what to expect, but I realized later the hard way some of the inclines are different in a bike than from a car. The first 20+ miles were manageable in elevation changed, but the roads were rough and a bit “bouncy” in the saddle. It was a few miles before the bouncy areas that my neck started to bother me (this will play a part later I believe) and the plain water (left my Nuun tablets at home) in my aero bottle along with semi-warm Perpetuem started to bother my stomach, or so I think as this combo was new. I usually freeze the nutrition but couldn’t due to the time from transition closing (7:15) and my swim start (8:44). So then I decided to grab a Perform at the first aide station to mix with the plain aero water – it might have had good stuff in it but the flavor was eck. Downhills were awesome (one was so long, I must have hit 30+ mph) and plentiful – except that an uphill usually preceded it. The long and low up hills were fine and there was only one steep incline (right after a downhill) that I did a little weaving for. I did a lot of switching from big to little chain ring, although there were some rollers I was able to develop enough speed to not have to switch into the little ring, just lessen the gear. Some areas were freshly paved – one intersection within possibly last week, that were nice towards the finish of the bike. Overall the bike course was full of nice views of hillsides, horse pastures, Jimbob’s Auto Sales, lakes/rivers and nice country with houses. Rolling into the Augusta Rowing Club meant the bike was finished and I could hop off and trot back into transition.

The run: oh, how that one hurt! Literally and physically. I started out okay, doing 8-2s for the first 3-4 miles of the two loop course. Then the pains started: neck pain (from earlier) spread to the shoulders and down my back, cramps in the lower abdominal area (thinking from un-chilled bike nutrition), and then upper leg and feet pains. The Heed I had with me I think settled the ab issues. I also found interspersing jogging with speed walking and regular walking worked out for me. The run course was pretty nice – the inner hook (east then west on Broad Street) was more populated with spectators than the outer streets. Aide stations were also nice, spread out and well stocked. I had my two fuel belt bottles with Heed, so I didn’t need (or want) the Perform, pretzels, gels or fruits; I did keep my bottles full whenever I passed the aide stations, except until I got near the end. I always seem to be able to jog the last mile of a long or rough run – crowds are always an adrenaline rush.

Our cheering section waiting by the swim exit

The end: the first thing I did after collecting my Finisher medal and hat, water bottle and photo? Take off my Newtons! Wow, my feet felt better (not 100%) so I walked over to the massage area to get on the list, grabbed a beer and then said “hello” to my parents and in-laws before heading back for my massage, followed by pizza. The not wearing glasses for the bike would rear it’s pain later that day, requiring drops, and Five Guys would be the dinner we would consume – yummmm!

Lessons learned: double check that you have sunglasses, SoFla boys hate hilly courses, figure some way to keep nutrition chilled if you have a long wait until your wave starts.

What do I think of this race? If you are not a fan of swimming and/or don’t mind hilly bike courses – DO IT!! There is a reason this is the biggest 70.3 in the world and a popular one for first-timers of that distance. I may never see a 26 minute 1.2 mile swim again. Unfortunately as of press time I have yet to resolve Garmin’s error in uploading my data to Connect, even though it imports to Training Center fine, so I can’t do screenshots of the maps or data, nor see what speeds, elevations or heart rates I had.

Oh well, on to the Miami Man Half in November!

Rocketman Half Iron Race Report