Providence, Rhode Island Half Ironman Triathlon (Part II)

WITH PICTURES

T1 (Here I am coming out of the water and into T1, right before the strippers. You can kind of see that THERE WERE waves in the water.)

This can pretty much be summed up in three words: Strippers.Are.Awesome.

"Obviously" you're thinking (if you're a guy.) Which is fine. You should know that I had three strippers, I think they were a mother/daughter duo accompanied by a large man who I took to be their husband/father.

Yeah, I'm talking WETSUIT STRIPPERS!

Seriously though, they were awesome. There was a long sandy run up from the beach and then I saw them and just started giggling. It was SO COOL! I picked two nice looking ladies, they told me to just sit down and their male counter part yanked me up and I was off. There was another longish run to my bike where I dumped my bike stuff out of its designated bag, put my swim stuff in the same bag, put my bike stuff on and embarked on another long, long, long run to the mount line. Somehow this all took 5:24 seconds. Yeah, I don't know why either.

The Bike (This is the beginning of the bike when we were still passing really pretty things. Note tha thouse in the background.)

I had driven the bike course the day before so I knew it was doable. There is no real blow by blow way to describe a 56 mile bike ride. So I'll just hit the high points:

• The first time someone cheered for me by name I was so confused until I realized I had my name on my race belt - reminiscent of the time I went to the group ride with my name on my bike helmet. Yeah, I'm smooth.



• The first 10 miles were pretty and flew by in around 35 minutes. I kind of figured, and subsequently confirmed, that there was a tail wind but at the time I was just glad that I was moving at a good clip. After all of my hilly, hilly (and consequently slow) races this year it was nice to think that I might finish this ride with an average mph above 12.



• Nutrition was spot on but it required water from the aid stations. I had never done this before but I disposed of a bottle at the bottle drop without incident and as I approached the lady I decided should give me water I said "oooh, I might be bad at this ..." She laughed and ran with me for a minute to facilitate the grab.



• Next there were some hills, but they were rollers. Not like the Harriman mountain. I shifted well and got up them.



• As the ride went on it got harder. I was not surprised and subsequently learned that there was a head wind. Knowing this still makes me proud.



• I was really hoping there'd be someone in the penalty tent when I passed it. I'm not sure why. I guess its kind of like wanting to know who got detention and what they did. It was disappointingly empty but the volunteers looked tough, like they'd make sure you stayed your whole 4 minutes, not a second less. It made me smile.



• Some guy rode by with a banana threatening to fall out of his pocket. I almost said something but didn't. A few miles later, I saw his banana on the side of the road. Of course this also maked me giggle.



• The last 10 miles of the ride SUCKED. It was NOT the nicest part of town, at least judging by the number of potholes on the road. At this point, on the bike alone I had consumed 3+ bottles of sports drink and about 2 bottles of water - with each pothole there was a possibility of me wetting myself. Which for many triathletes is not a big deal, but in keeping with the "don't try new things on race day" rule, it wasn't on my agenda. I'm sure it would have been messy.



• These 10 miles also had a million turns and a lot of traffic due to intersections being closed so we could turn. At one point some lady threatened to beat the traffic by pulling into the shoulder we (well, I - there weren't that many people around me at this time, or so I thought) were riding on. I waved my hand at her in what I thought was a "no" gesture and started grumbling to myself "just stay where you are lady, why can't you people just stay where you are? you're all so annoying." I'm sure there were some bad words in there too. Funny thing is that I wasn't alone at this point. Some dude was right behind me afraid to pass because of the traffic situation. When he did pass, he said "it makes me really mad too." Awkward.



• The last 10 miles sucked but the last 5 miles were truly the worst. They were narrow, trafficy and just generally gross. They embodied all the reasons I currently tend to drive my bike to where I want to ride. But I guess all the times I have done 'junk miles' locally or in the city to get to where I want to go helped.



• Finally I made it to T2 and was THANKFULLY informed that the only porta potties were before you officially entered T2. I have never been so happy to go into a porta potty. I think I peed for 4 minutes. Heaven in a green plastic box.



• I apparently crossed into T2 after 3:43 for an average speed of 15.06 mph. Faster if you back out the 4 minutes of peeing and the fact that I maintain the course was a mile long.



• For many, many, many people this bike time would have been atrocious, but I was THRILLED to have finished in less than four hours. Absolutely thrilled.

T2 (This picture is well before T2 but has to be a fair bit into the race based on the bright glow that is emminating off of my sunburnned shoulders.)

One of the good things about rolling in late is you get your own personal escort to your place on the bike rack and she'll put sunscreen on your shoulders (although, at that point I think I was already pretty crispy ... I had put sunscreen on that morning but that was a wetsuit and salt water and hours of sweating on the bike ago).

Again I took stuff out of the bag and put new stuff in it and took stuff off and put stuff on and was out of there after 3:09. Not bad.

The Run (This pictures is as I'm finishing up the first loop. Still looking strong.)

The run was a two loop out and back. As I was starting a lot of the speedy people were still finishing so the crowd support was awesome. Right up there with 2nd Avenue in the NYC Marathon. Plus they announced my name and that I was heading out on the run and I learned in this race that I really, really like hearing my name. It makes me smile. The run starts downhill and I felt pretty good. I admit that while dodging potholes at the end of the bike and trying not to pee my pants I was also worried about the run. 13 miles is doable under normal circumstances but we were now in uncharted territory for me. Given my doubts, I was pleased at how things felt.

And then I turned the corner.

Ladies and gentlemen, the first hill we come to on our tour of Providence was used as a luge when the x games were held here. A luge. And while you eventually have to run down it, for now you're task is to get up it and know that you'll have to do it again. When I saw this hill I laughed and decided the only smart thing to do was to walk up it. This proved to be the right decision since the only people running were either on their second loop and obviously much, much faster than me or on their first loop and running at the same pace I was walking.

The first mile with the silly hill took 11:51 but after that I ticked off the miles in the first loop in 10:13, 11:03, 11:00, 11:01, 22:34 (for two miles). At least I was being generally consistent and while not smoking and certainly not smoking if this had been a stand alone half marathon, I was pleased. I remember thinking around mile 3 (I think it was mile 3 - wherever 5 hours fell) that I had been out there longer than the marathon and was truly for real in uncharted territory and all things considered felt pretty good.

After 6.5 miles you run back up hill to the capital where, if you're not lucky enough to be on your second loop, you turn and head out for another loop. On the way up I slowed for a bit (admittedly to look strong for the spectators including C who should have been out there by now) and some guy pulls up beside me and says (I kid you not), "Hey, Sugar. I've been following you for 4 miles, don't let me beat you now." When I told him I had one more loop to go he LAUGHED and said "that sucks."

I saw C and waved and felt good. I was as close to certain that I would finish as I could be. I turned and headed back out. Mile 8 was the big hill again and I walked again, finishing that mile in 12:51 and realizing that if I ran the next 5 miles in 11 minutes each I'd finish in exactly 7 hours (this never would have worked because I forgot about the .1) and that would have been awesome. This was a great plan and a great goal for about 3 minutes at which point everything fell apart.

And by everything, I mean, really nothing at all. I was rather nauseous and switched to water only for the last 5 miles but I don't think I hit the wall or bonked. I wasn't lacking energy per se, I was just tired, done, sore, wet, salty, nasty, blistered, bleeding (from the blister) and just done. And I had to pee and knew that I couldn't run 5 11 minute miles with that full bladder feeling. So I decided I'd go to the next porta potty, use it and reevaluate. And by the time that was all done, I knew there was no way I was busting out 5 11 minute miles.

And this is when I pretty much decided I needed to take my time and focus on finishing and not worry about an arbitrary 7 hour goal. So, for the next 5 miles I made little not at all arbitrary goals. Goals like "run to the police man and you can walk to the tree" or "run to the hill and you can walk up it." It worked in that it got me to the end with the last 5.1 miles clocking in at: 12:04, 13:10, 12:37, 14:09, 14:59.

The last two miles? Yeah, I might have hit the wall then. I honestly don't really remember them other than worrying I'd fall going down the big hill and trying to rest up to look strong going into the finish. I think I accomplished both. I finished up the run in 2:37 and my day ended 7 hours and 11 minutes after it started.

After

I found C and got some cheeseless pizza and all I wanted was to (1) sit and (2) eat something that wasn't 100% sugary. We sat around for a bit, I'm sure I was saying random things and she updated me on the car situation and I started feeling kind of pukey and like I couldn't keep my eyes open so I went to collect my stuff and headed back to the hotel where I showered and then we hit the road probably 90 minutes after I finished we were on the road and after much traffic I was home, ate a ton of sushi and passed out.

Thoughts

From the moment I finished and at many points along the way I was pleased. I had finished. My middle of the road goal was close to 7 hours and I was close to 7 hours. On the way home I got an email from Liz (who in the hecticness of the weekend I never got to meet ... which was sad but pretty much unavoidable, but I'm going to crash her Ragbrai party next year so I'm not worried) in which she said this half ironman (to be clear, the HALF IRONMAN I HAD JUST FINISHED) was one of the hardest she had ever done. It was hard but I had no point of reference so reading this was awesome.

Now

This week I've been a bit sore and very tired but not sore like after a hard running race. At first I thought this meant I hadn't worked hard enough but after consulting the expert I learned that this is sort of how you're supposed to feel after long slower efforts - makes sense I guess. So I'm fine. Proud. Content. Happy to take the week off entirely (I haven't even logged onto Training Peaks). Thinking about goals for the fall/future. Monday I was tired and cranky but other than that ... the post race uneasiness hasn't even been that bad - mostly because I had plans last night and there is a John & Kate + 8 Marathon on tonight! The next few days will be busy as well.

This is really long and while I feel like I could go on forever, its time for bed again!