Half Ironman also called 70.3 because that is the total number miles you go that race(yes the full is double everything here)= 1.2mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 run
Olympic distance= .93 mile (1.5k) swim, 25 mile (40k) bike, 6.2 mile (10k) run
This is me setting up transition at the crack of dawn.
I'm going to say sorry now that this isn't a condensed race report. This was my race I was training for this whole year up to this point, hence it was pretty important to me. I won't feel bad if you skim it, heck you don't HAVE to read it at all.
I signed up for Muncie (IN where Ball state is) 70.3 back in September 2011. Back when I signed up I had been off of crutches a week or two and needed some encouragement that only can come from signing yourself up for a crazy race. I was finally jogging (I never say I jog, but it was SLOW) in January 2012. In february I was able to RUN 4 miles all together (big accomplishment). I was determined not to get injured through this training process, so I built up my base very slowly. I didn't have a training plan, just a build my base plan. I went with my sister to Saint George Ironman in May (where she rocked it and was a huge inspiration to me). We had a long car drive back and planed the next 10 weeks of training up to race day.
So, we'll skip ahead to race week. Obviously I religiously checked the weather in Muncie as soon as it was on the 10 day forecast. In the beginning it was lower 90's, humid, but doable. Thursday it looked bad! Upper 90's, humid all day, and starting out pretty nasty. The race team decided to move the start to 6:30am instead of 7:00am. Friday I was in clinical lab (nursing school stuff) when I got a voicemail from my sister. I listened to her say that she heard a rumor that Muncie got shortened! I was so sad/angry/ disappointed/stressed, but decided to find out on my own. I got my computer out and couldn't get the internet to work, I tried all 4 computers that I could find and couldn't get signed in properly. I probably looked like a mess, which seems to be a common theme in this story. So, when all else fails... call mom. I asked her to sign into facebook, and check muncie's page. 14 minutes ago muncie 70.3 posted that they had to shorten the race to a 1 mile swim, 30 mile bike, and 6.2 (10k) run. This is practically an olympic distance triathlon (see above distances)
So, I never finished this post and guess I will do my best to remember what else I was going to put.
Our hotel was nice enough and even though I had a ton of homework to do, I wasn't about to be able to concentrate on it the night before a race! We went to bed a lot later than I normally would before a race and had to be up at the crack of dawn to get to the location on time (before they started to shut roads down). I set up my transition area and then decided to ask someone to borrow their bike pump. Well, that was a disaster! The pump completely deflated my tire, then the girl said, oh ya sometimes that happens for some reason. I think she was trying to sabotage me (same age group). Well no one else around me had a pump so I walked up the row of bikes and asked a random guy. Luckily his pump worked and I was able to get more pressure into the tire. I wasn't about to risk it on my other tire and so just returned the pump counting my lucky stars.
Scott and I went down to the swim after going to the bathroom 5 more times. My wave lined up and they had us gradually wade into the water. I'm sure we were all standing in so many people's pee right there where everyone stood right before they started swimming. We went off and I tried to find someone's feet but just like my previous race in Muncie, you couldn't see anything infront of you. It was an uneventful swim for the most part. I swam ontop of several people before I realized I was on top of them. This race had a wave start which means that different age groups go at different times. I hate it but they usually put the slow people (older men and women) first and then faster ones after them. So, the whole time you are swimming through all these slow swimmers. It's dangerous and annoying. I came out alive, but not too happy with how I felt my swim went. I was running up the transition are looking for Scott to tell me what place I was (we had different colored caps for different waves). He told me I was the 8th blue cap to come out. Ouch! 8th, I knew my swim was bad, but THAT bad!
My transition really stunk too. I bought a squirt top water bottle that I could throw away to have on the bike. My other bottle on my bike had some of my nutrition in it. I walked my bike out of transition, mounted, started down the hill, and my one and only bottle of water fell off my bike. I couldn't go get it, there was too much traffic, and it wasn't worth my time. So, I just said to me self, I hope the first aid station is soon! They switched around the aid stations so I had no idea where the first on was.
Luckily it wasn't too much later till I got some water. I was cruising along and feeling so so good. I kept passing people that were in my age group and some people who I thought were, but I couldn't tell because they had scrubbed their age off the back of their leg (really cheap if you ask me, I guess they just don't think they can handle the competition, weak sauce!). I was so mentally in the race and feeling so good I completely forgot to take ANY nutrition or electrolyte pills till less than 10 minutes on the bike! Opps! I jammed as much nutrition into me as I could, but couldn't get much in right before the run.
My second transition was just as slow as my first. I had to run into the portapotty and didn't even bother to lock the door. I was off for the 10K run. I got out of transition right with another girl. She had scrubbed her calf pretty good so I thought it said 36 not 26. She started taking off! I thought, I can't let a triathlete beat me running! I'm a runner! Well, our first mile was too fast for either one of us, but as the race panned out it turned out that it was several minutes too fast for her and only 30 seconds too fast for me. It confuses me when people take off like that. I hit the turn around spot feeling good, but knowing I wasn't running as fast as I could/should. I hit the final turn with about 1.5 miles to go. I was just wanting the finish line, I could tell I was getting some heat exhaustion. I saw Scott with his cute signs for me (what a trooper to come all the way out to the race and not see the finish). I always want him a little ways out from the finish because that is when I actually need the cheering, not at the finish. Well, I had a great finish, probably because I didn't run hard enough. I didn't take any nutrition in on the run either, so I think my total calorie intake during the race was somewhere around 100 if I was lucky, probably more like 50.
I immediately started walking down the finish line to find Scott. We found each other and got food and started the waiting game. We knew my place into the bike transition, but I didn't know if I passed anyone on the run. I went up to the results after a while and saw that it said I was first in my age group! I didn't trust it of course, the results looked a little weird so I didn't want to get excited before hand. It ended up that I did win my age group, which qualified me for the world championships (I turned them down because the race is on Sunday-very hard). I beat a pro triathlete! I felt pretty happy with the race overall.
Several weeks ago, back in August, I signed up for Muncie 2013! So excited to hopefully get to do the whole race next year. It will be lots harder to train because of school, but I'm still excited to be able to.
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