The life of a Dad who strives to be the best dad possible

SOMA Half-Iron Triathlon Race Report

Half-Iron

Wow, what a day.  Some days, you just know that, with a little effort and drive, good things can happen.  The Sunday of SOMA just felt like one of those days and I was fully ready for the test I knew it would represent.  Plus, for many athletes, including myself, SOMA is primarily a prep race for Ironman Arizona.  It is a chance to test one’s fitness four weeks before the “big day” arrives.

Going into the race, I had three main objectives: (1) push on the swim and try to set a personal record (of PR) for a Half-Iron swim (previous best was 28:11), (2) push on the run and have a sub 1:40 run, and (3) finish in under 5 hours.  I had never gone sub-5 at a Half-Iron before and wanted (badly) to break that threshold.

While the swim is the typical rectangle and the run is a bland “two loops around the water”, the bike provides the only quasi-unique thing: the disturbed air effect.  All triathletes (or at least all that pay attention) know that you cannot draft on the bike.  Taking advantage of someone else disturbing the air (and thus, making your path easier) is a big NO-NO because it violates the whole “You versus The Course with no outside assistance” vibe.  (Plus, those that cheat are just lame.)  But, at SOMA, the bike course is a three-looped course, with 18 total turns, 7 of those U-turns on a relatively condensed set of city streets.  The result being that there’s disturbed air everywhere on the bike.  You can’t help but constantly be in someone’s slip stream.  You are constantly passing other cyclists.  In short, the bike times tend to be faster than a normal Half-Iron.

Pre-Race

Nothing remarkable except the usual, “Toby might actually be a moron” stuff.  Yeah, even though I have a graduate degree, yet STILL somehow make sleepy-headed mistakes is beyond me.  I am setting up my bike and transition area and mentally complimenting myself on a clean, uncluttered looking area.  I have a towel, folded in half, and two very small piles on that: (1) a bike helmet with opened sunglasses inside and (2) run shoes with one rolled sock in each and a visor sitting atop.  Yeah, it looks amazing.  My bike is ever better.  Three gel packs, a salt-stick filled coin purse, and caffeine tablets in a small Bento Box and one large water bottle on my bike.  That’s it.  Nothing else.  Pretty sweet right?  I mean, it’s tough to be that good.  Except the “nothing else” part includes my bike computer, sitting at home, on my desk.  Ugh.  Oh well, I thought, people rode bikes for decades, if not centuries, without bike computers.  Certainly I could do one Half-Iron without mine right???

Swim

SOMA TriathlonWithout only two minutes between waves, about 100 yards to the start line, and only being allowed into the water after the prior wave had started, I dove in as soon as permitted and swam to the front to wait.  The gun sounded and we were off.  Pretty minimal contact but I had significant trouble sighting.  Not sure why, but I was forced to follow the “white-water” (i.e., other swimmers) rather than spot off landmarks.  I generally avoid using the thrashings of other swimmers for sighting as I have no way of knowing if they are swimming straight, but it was simply unavoidable for the first half.  With the sun behind me on the second half, I could easily spot off landmarks, opened up a little, and tried to work.  My swim time was 30:22, good enough for 8th in my age group (out of 115) and 27th overall (out of about 800) so not too bad.  I wanted a sub-28 but it was not too be.

Transition 1

I avoided the wetsuit strippers like usual and sprinted to my bike.  I had a bit of trouble getting the wetsuit off my arms but still had a very respectable 1:20 T1 time, second fastest in my age group and keeping me in 8th place.

Bike

Given the lack of a computer (and thus, no power meter numbers), I was flying totally blind.  No speed, no cadence, no power, nada.  To be fair, not really that big of a deal.  I intended to “manage” the bike more than race or work.  I wanted to have a sub 2:45 split but not at the cost of any extra glucose.  If staying smart and pacing appropriately yielded a 2:45 bike time, I was good with that.  If I had to add any extra lactic acid into my legs to go faster, no thanks.SOMA Triathlon

I settled into the bike and just ignored anyone that passed me.  Well, this one female pro passed me and its tough to ignore any pros that go by you.  They just look so smooth and effortless; it is impressive.  But, in general, I chatted with people I knew, rode my race, and stayed focused on my overall objectives.  Because of the building and looming heat (the temperature ultimately reached 97 degrees that day), I did consciously drink more water than normal.  I knew I would want it on the run.  My overall time was a 2:41 and I am very pleased with that, under the circumstances, and 42nd in my age group.  Not great, but improving overall and more importantly, keeping me in my zones and ready to run.

Transition 2

SOMA TriathlonFlying dismount, sprinted to my station, dumped helmet, donned socks, shoes, and visor, and activated my foot pod.  Yeah, I am that fast.  1:03 and beaten only by two people.  Some superhero with a 0:47 and some regular, but lucky, dude with a 0:57.  Exiting T2, I was in 24th place in my group and 89th overall (amongst males).

Run

By FAR the coolest part of my run (well, actually the TWO coolest parts of my run but they were the same event) happened almost immediately after leaving T2: I got to pass my wife and kids and kiss/high-five my little ones.  It was AWESOME.  I love my wife for being the champ that she is and bringing them down to watch Daddy do some ridiculous run even though they only get to see me for maybe a total of 60 seconds.  She’s THAT incredible.  (Of course, she is watching all these super-fit dudes run around in skin-tight spandex; maybe I should worry!)  Either way, seeing them was an ideal way to begin the run.

Leaving T2, after maintaining a cadence of about 90-95 rpms for nearly three hours, my legs always move incredibly fast for about a half-mile or so.  I let them warm-up and looked at my pace to discover a 6:30, which translates into short-term disaster.  So, quickly pulled in the reins and settled around a 7:20 minute/mile pace.  I knew to get my goals of sub-5 and sub-1:40, I would have to run pretty close to a 7:30 average for the whole half-marathon.  My plan was to start with a decently strong, but not crazy strong, pace and simply try to hold it as long as possible.

SOMA TriathlonThe first loop was a breeze.  The highlight was getting passed by the top 4 pros who were all steaming along towards the end on their second loop.  I yelled encouragement to the one I know and tried to extort the guy in 4th (a super-cool Guy Crawford BTW; chatted with him after the race.  Check out his blog HERE) to catch the guy in 3rd.  Mostly though, I just tried to prepare my mind to handle what I knew would be an unpleasant and painful second loop if I wanted to meet my goals.

(Again though, let me give some props to The Wife here.  I knew she and the kids would be waiting near the start of my second loop and I really really appreciated it.  Knowing they were there to see me was simply awesome.)

Once I left my family, the game was on.  My heart rate started at 161 on the run and climbed to 165 by the end of the first loop.  That trend continued to happen and happen faster.  The miles slowly, often miserably slowly, ticked off as my perceived exertion, pain, and heart rate increased.  Somewhere around mile 9ish, my heart passed 170 and I knew that I was close to being on borrowed time.SOMA Triathlon

When I passed the aid station around mile 10, every part of me wanted to stop.  I didn’t though.  I knew I was close the those last two goals and I wanted them and wanted them badly.

Being fast on the track by yourself during training is neat, but means nothing if you cannot produce when it matters.  Maybe I am crazy, but it matters to me how I race.  It is easy to skip out, declare the heat is too much, or whatever excuse your mind is trying to feed you.  My wife will still love me.  She will still bring my kids to watch me race.  My coach won’t fire me.  Nothing bad will happen to me, were I to mail it in and walk.  Zilch.  Except… I would know.  I would know with certainty that I could have done more.  So, I forced (and I mean FORCED) myself to keep running.  I tried to get anyone I passed to run with me.  I didn’t care if it was a fellow age grouper or not; I wanted a pacing companion to challenge me and help me focus.  No one was game, sadly.  I ran alone, fast, and strong to the end.SOMA Triathlon

When final results were posted, I was (and am) elated to see a 4:53 overall AND (probably more importantly) a 1:39 run split.  Funny how a tiny couple of minutes makes a huge difference in perception.  Had that overall been 4:56, I would have been happy, but not nearly as happy as I was to smash that 5 hour barrier.  Likewise with the 1:39.  Would two minutes make any difference?  No, of course not, but WOW does a 1:41 look different to my eyes!

For what it is worth, remember that your goals are always in your reach.  I started the day with no bike computer (something I use religiously in training) and a pretty pedestrian swim for me.  I flew blind on the bike and had to stomach getting passed by tons of other athletes, when I knew I could have pushed and kept up.  I had to control my desire to hit the run too hard too fast because I knew the second loop would make or break the day.  Then, when all energy was seeping out of my dehydrated and exhausted body, I had to fight my own mind that was constantly trying to trick me into slowing (if not crawling) to the end.  Was the pain and misery worth it?  Yes, it was.  In my opinion, it always is!SOMA Triathlon

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