Well. Raleigh happened. I did much worse than last year, far off my PR pace, and yet there is a streak of pride in me. Mind you, it's not a big ol' wedge of pride, just a teensy streak. But that's OK.
I am not proud of my performance. I am proud I finished. I had a terrible race day and I really wanted to quit for most of the run...and a lot of people probably would have. Long story short - the heat got to me and I wasn't able to keep anything in me for the whole first lap. What went in, came back out. For the second lap, I was able to keep in water - but that meant I was on a 7-hour day without calories since the bike. And that's hard. I had to use my brain muscle to power through the day.
Regardless of what Carl Sandburg says, I think a little post-mortem may be useful:
Swim:
2014 - 50:09 (2:35/100)
2015 - 1:02:17 (3:14/100)
Well, 2014 was wetsuit legal, so that may have been part of the explanation. Also, there was a lot of chop on the 2nd half of the swim that I had to fight with. Finally, a lot of other participants noted that their swim times (not distances) were off also, so maybe it was just a tougher swim this year. Still, I don't like being so close to the cut-off, particularly with Maryland in my future.
T1:
2014 - 5:13
2015 - 4:58
Not bad - about the same. It's a long transition, but my bike was fairly close to bike out this year.
Bike:
2014 - 3:35:11 (15.61 mph)
2015 - 3:39:24 (15.31 mph)
All in all I'm happy with the bike. They changed the course this year and that added another good hill plus a 180-degree turnaround on a skinny country road, so the extra couple minutes are fully explicable. I was able to manage bottle handoffs well, kept hydrated, and (unlike last year) managed to eat OK on the bike.
T2:
2014 - 3:52
2015 - 4:22
OK that this was a little slower. I got sunscreened (unlike last year). And coming out of T2, I actually felt really good.
Run:
2014 - 2:51:04 (13:04/mile)
2015 - 3:21:03 (15:21/mile)
The run was what killed me. I felt good heading out, but as soon as I started taking water & nutrition, my stomach turned on me. I walked the whole first lap. By sticking only with water, I was able to run downhills on the 2nd lap. But it sucked. It was super-duper hot and I haven't had a chance to heat acclimate, because the weather has been so nice (or even cold) this spring.
Total:
2014 - 7:25:29
2015 - 8:12:04
I think that's all I want to say about the race right now; it's done, I made it, and it's time to go on vacation & then get ready for IM Maryland.
