Race Report - Raleigh 70.3 5/31/15

I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes so live not in your yesterdays, not just for tomorrow, but in the here and how.  Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future. -- Carl Sandburg

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.