Well I guess you can sort of tell how a race goes when it takes awhile to recap it… long story short unfortunately it was not my day to PR the half ironman. I’m still kinda angry and disappointed so I wanted to give myself some time to reflect before writing this report. While I did not meet my goal, I still had a race I should be proud of… I kept going and did not give it up when I wasn’t feeling well. This has never happened to be me before during a race and really sucks that happens during my biggest (and by far most expensive) race but there are definitely circumstances that could have been worse so I will still chalk it up to a win. That’s the extremely short version- sit back and grab a drink because the long version isn’t brief.
The day before the half ironman I was on edge… I felt really anxious and something just felt off all day. I wrote it off as nerves for setting a big goal but I really don’t feel like I get quite so antsy during races I’m not sure if that was foreshadowing or me being crazy but there you have it. We left Pittsburgh by 8am, grabbed breakfast sandwiches and made it to Columbus in about 3 hours. We hit the expo, listened to the first part of the athlete meeting, drove most of the bike course for a review, and then headed to an early dinner. I got my typical pasta and ate pretty normal foods all day- nothing out of the ordinary. I was in bed by 9 for the 4:30am wake up call.
Spoiler alert: I had a GI issues all day basically and they started first thing in the morning. I used the bathroom twice before leaving the hotel room and then two more times prior to the swim start. This is completely abnormal for me- I usually go once, maybe twice but never 4 times. After checking into transition in the morning I still felt really uneasy and anxious, more than I have ever felt before a race. I told myself it was just nerves even though those bathrooms stops were not pleasant and had me wondering what was going on I tried to write it off.
It was honestly almost perfect race weather- definitely excellent for July. It was a cooler day and slightly overcast. The swim was a rolling start so I lined up with the 43:00-46:00 minute group since it was not wetsuit legal. If I had my wetsuit I would probably jump up a group since my time last year was right around 43 minutes. I will add here that not many people did line up correctly. I think I passed maybe close to 100 in the water, it was ridiculous. I’m not even an amazing swimmer and was just barreling by people left and right. I did a lot more weaving and bobbing than I had anticipated but overall had a really good wetsuit free time. 44:00 even! I was less than a minute slower than last year and that was without a wetsuit so I felt that I had made some improvements on the swim and was happy with my time (was in the top half of my age group).
Transition is usually anticlimactic for me. I like to take my time, eat an Uncrustable for some extra fuel and let myself get settled before hopping on the bike for 3 hours. I felt fine and got on my bike excited and started pedaling out of the part. The first few miles of the race involved a lot of people passing, mostly guys that had come out of the water that aren’t great swimmers and got on their $10,000 bikes and were breezing past me. I expect this but it was annoying because NO ONE was calling their passes. I did yell at a few dudes that cut it super close but this was a theme all day… I think like 10% of people called their passes. It’s a half ironman distance- these are well seasoned riders that know the rules.
The bike course is flat, with some wind, with very little scenery. I was only passed by a handful of girls the first half of the course so I was pleased. The first 22.5 miles my average speed was right on target at 18.0mph. I felt great and like I could keep up the pace. I did start getting a little bored as the bikers on the course spread out… I definitely was better at keeping up my pace when I was chasing down someone ahead of me or had people around me. It does get a bit lonely out there for the less than excellent bikers.
I fueled perfectly and successfully stopped at all 3 aid stations. Shortly after the 3rd station around miles 35/40 I started to feel a little off. I felt like I needed to use the bathroom but I had already biked past the last porter john on the course. I hoped that my stomach pain and need to use the facilities would go away. It didn’t. It got worse. By mile 50 I was struggling bad. I had slowed down to maybe 15mph and was in pain. My stomach being all crunched up on the bike did not help. All I could think about was getting off the bike and thinking I would feel better (especially if I could use the bathroom). Those last few miles I was in a really bad place, I was scared of what would happen if I didn’t feel better and that it would be hard to make up the extra time I was taking on the bike. My final bike time was 3:15, only 5 minutes slower than last year but I thought for sure I would have a 3:0X time. I was so disappointed and knew that my A goal was out the window. I held onto some hope that if I was feeling better I could crush the run and make up those 5 minutes.
The good news I did feel better once I got of the bike and stretched out my stomach. My first mile on the course was 8:47 (way too fast). I was excited to be feeling better and was excited to run. I did more running this year during training so I thought I would have a stronger run so I kept my hope up. By mile 3.7 on the run I was averaging 9:32min/miles which was crushing my pace today. I knew I needed to slow down but I wanted to try to stay under 10:00 minutes.
Around mile 7 I started feeling not so great again and made a bathroom stop- another first for me during the race, I tried not to let it slow me down and I kept pushing the pace. Mile 9 my average pace was 10:06 and I had been running for 1:27. I had 4 miles left and I needed to run them in less than 40 minutes for a PR. I tried to keep pushing but started feeling sick again and started walking. I threw in the towel. I knew a PR was not going to happen. I figured If I’m not going to PR and I don’t feel good why even push myself?! I made another bathroom stop. I almost cried. I didn’t feel good and I wasn’t having fun and I just wanted the race to be over. It sucked. I put in so much work, money, and time and I was not going to meet my goal. I felt so down and defeated. I just kept walking. When there was about a mile left I decided to start running again just so I could get it over with. I was mad at my stomach, mad at myself, and just really upset in general.
My final run time was 2:15, about 5 minutes slower than last year. My overall time was 6:22:48. Only about 8 minutes slower than last year, but I felt that I could have been 15-20 minutes faster. And I was still crushed even though this is a good time. It wasn’t the time I wanted or the time I worked for but it is what it is. After the race I immediately went to the porter johns and then tried to force down some food but was not feeling good and was really too upset to eat. When I saw Pat, I had to hold back tears because I couldn’t even bring myself to tell him I blew it and got sick. I just told him I didn’t feel good and wanted to leave, I took a quick post race pic (mostly for my Mom) but it was a very forced smile. After I got my things I had calmed down enough to tell Pat what had happened. He had known something was up and was just letting me vent. As we started driving away from the park, towards the gym (where I could shower before the 3 hour drive home) we had to make another emergency bathroom stop. UGH. What was going on with my stomach! At this point I was more annoyed than upset. My nutrition was dialed in, I ate normally the day before, maybe I was trying to battle off some bug. Worst timing ever.
Over two weeks later looking back on this race I’m still so angry and disappointed. Part of me immediately wanted to find another half ironman to do and part of me thought maybe I should just take a break from triathlons for awhile. I’m still torn. I debated trying to one more this season but the timing really isn’t working out with other plans I’ve decided to nix the idea. I want to just enjoy exercise for awhile without training for anything. I typically do enjoy training but I think there is still a dark cloud from this race. I like working towards something so now I just need to put something else on my radar. I’m thinking about a fall half marathon… but not ready to commit to anything. I do want to focus more on running during this fall and see how I feel. I don’t think I’ve ever set such big goals and had such a big race I did not accomplish what I wanted so I’m not really ready to put myself out there again for races.
Have you ever fallen short from what you know you’re capable of?? Had circumstances beyond your control?? Gotten sick during a race??
