HITS Marble Falls Half Ironman race report

Pre-Race

Roger and I drove to Marble Falls the day before the race, picked up my packet, attended a pre-race meeting, racked my bike and checked in to our hotel. I don’t ordinarily attend pre-race meetings, but since this one was going to have two separate transition areas, I wanted to make sure I understood all the logistics before the race.

Race morning we headed over to T2 first where I dumped my run stuff, then Roger took me back over to the swim start/T1. I thought for a moment that I had left my bike computer in my bag at T2 and had a momentary freak out because I didn’t think there was going to be time to get back over there. However, everything ended up being okay as the night before I apparently had been worried that future me would forget it (and I did) and so I put it in another bag I knew was headed for T1/swim start. Whew.

I did manage to leave my body glide, however. Thankfully I spotted Karen and asked her if I could use some of hers on my neck for my wetsuit (I had already handled the other areas when getting dressed that morning). I got everything set up, headed to use the bathroom and put my wetsuit on. I had though to perhaps try a warm up swim, but I didn’t really have time so I hung out with Karen and Amy until it was time for everyone to filter into the water.

Swim (1.2 miles)

All 300-ish participants would be starting the swim at the same time. Mass start. Yay. I lined myself up near Amy promising her that I would spend plenty of time reassuringly touching her feet during the swim so she would know I was there. She expressed some concern about being in front, but I thought it was okay. I think we could have been further to one side or the other. I think we were too much in the middle. When the race started I got squished into a bottleneck of people and couldn’t really make much forward progress. I lost Amy almost instantly. Oh well, sometimes I have been able to find her again. No such luck once things got cleared out.

I tried drafting off various people, finally finding a great pair of feet which I followed to the far turn buoy. After the buoy, the guy stopped, looked up and did a HUGE break stroke kick right into my head. I involuntary shouted (under water) and popped up. Either he felt me or heard me or both because he turned around and profusely apologized (which made me feel somewhat better about the human race at that moment). He continued, but I was disoriented and my left goggle was full of water (and not entirely covering my eye, anyway). I emptied it, put it back on and assessed my situation. My head hurt, but it wasn’t so bad that I thought I needed to stop. Wary and alone I continued to the second buoy, making an awesome turn and recognizing mister kicky man. This time I stayed away and he did the same stupid breast stroke sighting. I decided to give up on him and swam the way back on my own.

By this time, my head was feeling much better and I felt like my stroke was strong and solid and I was feeling positive again. The final buoy was ahead of me and super easy to sight thanks to a giant crane up on the bridge above it. It was probably the easiest sighting I’ve ever had at a race. I made the final turn and headed for shore. Roger was there when I came out and yelled my time out to me, which I was happy with, though I think the swim may have been slightly short. I’m still happy with it, though I probably would have been a little better off if I hadn’t been kicked in the head.

T1

I ran up the boat ramp, which was not to slippery and headed up the hill to transition. The day before, walking up the hill had seemed brutal, but it didn’t feel too bad. There were wetsuit strippers there so I flopped down and an awesome volunteer quickly whipped it off my bottom half. I dumped my wetsuit into my bin (to be later shuttled over to T2). I grabbed my sunglasses and helmet before running my bike out to the mount line. It was a great transition. I totally won my age group in T1. :P

Bike (56 miles)

It was still overcast and fairy cool when I headed out on the bike course. I don’t know what to say about the bike. It was hilly. And windy. And hilly. It was stupid hilly. My nutrition goal was one honey stinger gel every hour and then one little item from my bento box every 15 minutes or so. The little items were little bits of chopped up energy bars, broken pieces of pretzel, teeny peanut butter sandwich crackers and honey stinger chews. I felt good about my plan having tested it out on other long rides/runs and it was similar to what I did for Vineman two years ago. I was doing a good job with my fluids because I knew there was the possibility that the sun would come out, things would get brutally hot (well, by current non-acclimated standards) and I would need the salts and fluids.

An hour into my ride, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stick to my goal pace, but I just hung in there and kept riding. I rode up and down and I was constantly shifting and constantly up and down out of my aerobars. It was really hard to find a rhythm or get into any kind of groove. I was hoping I could make up some of time on the downhill sections, but it wasn’t averaging out that way. For awhile I had a lovely tailwind and a mostly downhill section and I flew through that. It was lovely, but it wasn’t the majority of the course. The course was fairly lonely. A small field makes for very few spectators. I saw Roger on the bike course at around mile 35 and that was a great boost to my mood. I was bummed that Emmaline was in the bathroom with my mom, however. But they passed me a little bit later cheering me on and so it sort of worked out.

I kept riding and I felt like I was getting slower and slower.  The last section back (maybe the last 10 miles) was just a total slog. By the end of the bike I was feeling completely mentally and physically drained. I still had to run a half marathon. That was fine, I was just ready to do something different and be off the stupid bike.

T2

Okay, I was a little more relaxed in T2. I sat down on the stool (they have these awesome little stools at HITS races - I’m a big fan) and dried my feet off, put on my socks, shoes, visor and race belt. I tucked my gels into my back pocket and regarded my sunscreen. It was still cloudy and I didn’t FEEL like I was burning. I opted to skip it and headed out for my run with a little bottle of fluids.

Run (13.1 miles)

I was surprised to find that I felt really good the first few miles of the run. My legs didn’t feel yucky and awful at all. Weird. So I tried to run nice and easy, but I found I was running a much faster pace than I should have been. So I kept trying to slow down and relax. I bypassed the first aid station, making a deal with myself to drink my whole bottle of fluids by the time I got to the turnaround point of the out and back run.

At the second aid station, I topped off my bottle with some cold water and took a cold sponge in the back of my jersey, which was great for like 2.5 seconds and then it was… a hot sponge in the back of my jersey and annoyed me all the way until I managed to dig it out and toss it at the next aid station. Still feeling good, I passed Karen going the other way and she looked awesome. I still felt good and was keeping a good turnover going. Even the hills weren’t bothering me too much at this point.

After a little further I passed Amy and she looked really good, too. She told me to just zone out and run. She must have known I was approaching a nasty hill. After that, things starting getting harder. The sun came out and after that point it was SUN SUN SUN. The clouds went away and there was no shade. And the hills got worse. And worse. So I started walking up the first hill and made it to the turnaround at around 1:06. That was good. I felt really good about that time and I knew even if I lost just a little time, i could still make it back for my goal time of 2:20.

But it got hotter. And on the way back I had somewhat of a headwind (sort of head to cross) and the hills felt really brutal and I was getting more and more tired. But I kept going. Some running, some walking. I did what I could to just keep moving. At the aid stations I was totally overwhelmed. It’s like a buffet. They had coke, sprite, sports drink, water, ice, cold sponges, gummy bears, chips, pretzels, tortilla chips, mini candy bars and probably more stuff I didn’t even see. I started taking a cup of coke and cup of ice at each aid station. The miles were getting further and further apart. I needed to see my family. I knew my goals were completely shot by this point, but it was okay, I knew I would finish and that it would be okay.

Finally, with three miles to go, my family found me. Roger told me I could make my goal if I could run a 30 minute 5k. No way it was happening. It was all I could do to do 1 minute walk with 1 minute run. Every time I would run, I could feel all the blisters on my feet more keenly and my stomach would revolt. So I just kept moving forward and finally I was back to the last aid station and I could see the finish just down the hill. I couldn’t even run downhill at this point, which seemed completely absurd to me. Not run DOWN hill? What was up with my stomach? And why did I feel so completely exhausted? And what was the deal with all the blisters?

Finally, I made it down the hill and back up a little one at the end. I was walking and when I got close, a bunch of spectators cheered and acted like I was THE BIGGEST ROCKSTAR EVER. So I started to run because that seemed to make them happy. I navigated the corner of a million cones (somehow there were cones everywhere but it was completely confused as to where I needed to go) saw my family there. They cheered and took unflattering photos of my while I “ran” to the finish line. I finally made it.

Final Thoughts

I really thought I would be able to have a faster time than the last time I did this (in 2007) but it just didn’t work out for me this time. My swim, T1, T2 and run times were all better than 2007 so that’s something, but the bike is what did me in. I’m actually surprised my run was faster this time around because the run course was MUCH harder so I’m definitely a stronger runner now than I was in 2007. I’m proud that I made it through a really tough day. I’m not hurt and nothing is broken. I have a sunburn (I should have re-sprayed myself in T2) and I’m a little tired and sore, but I’m okay. in 2007 I swore up and down that I was NEVER going to do another half. But here I am, I did it and actually, I think I might try again in a few years. :) Maybe a less hilly course next time!

Swim - 35:16

T1 - 1:47

Bike - 3:55:11

T2 - 3:20

Run - 2:31:32

Total - 7:07:08