I finished my first half on Sunday at Troika in Spokane. What a great distance to cover!! It felt like a race, never a slog, but I also felt like I really accomplished something. I feel like we covered a lot of ground, especially on the bike. Other than witnessing a competitor ahead of me crash and badly hurt just 1 mile from T2, it was a great day. I have done almost a dozen olympic distance races, so this was a different experience. Here are some general observations:
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Mostly very fit people, compared to shorter races. Makes sense. Way fewer women too (200 males, 60 females in this race) but they all looked very fit. The majority of the guys looked very fit too (compared to short races and even compared to IM CdA, which I watched)
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Lots of testosterone on the bike, even though its 56 miles. It was hard not to yo-yo, especially in my age group (35-39); dude would pass, then not go much fatser once he was 100 feet ahead. I’m sure I did the same. The one person who really passed me with authority was the 17-year-old kid who did a 2:24 bike leg and a 4:45 overall time. Impressive.
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Lots of suffering on the run. No testosterone there. People slowed waaay down … I felt like crap after the turnaround, but passed many people. I felt weak and slow (ran about a 1:36, my PR is 1:21), but nearly everyone was weaker and slower than me.
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Awesome support. Soaking wet sponges every two miles and plenty of water, gatorade, free hammergel, etc. This helped soooooo much.
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Met Francois. Nice guy. That dude can bike, too. And explain things in detail
So this distance is a riddle I want to solve. I want to do many more in the next few years and improve a lot. My bike is my weak link but I am much stronger on the bike than last year, so I am getting there. FYI: In the last 4 months, I averaged 120 mpw cycling & 25+ mpw running. That’s a lot for me (cycling), but I realize I will need to do more to improve.
Here’s an edited version of my RR:
TROIKA Race Report: To sum it up I had a great first ½ IM. Finished 16th overall, 7th in the 35-39 and ended up with a 4:47 debut. This includes stopping for 3 or 4 minutes at the crash, so I’m pretty psyched.
SWIM: I was in the first of 2 waves in a very tepid (75 degree) Medical lake. I felt smooth, didn’t swim too far off course & the distance felt about right. I entered T1 in the top 10 in that wave and had a decent transition (sub 2 min. even with stuffing all my stuff in the garbage sack). But I lost my timing chip. Oh well. TIME: 29:20
BIKE: I like the Troika bike course. It’s easy but not boring. Rolling hills, nothing longer than a mile or 2, just lots of rollers. I was passed by about a dozen people, most in my age group … But only a few were ahead by very much by the finish. I passed maybe a half dozen. The bike leg flew by and I felt like my pace was about right. TIME: About a 2:39 including the stop at the crash (2:36 on my bike computer). 21.5 average.
RUN: It was warm but it can get a lot hotter in Spokane. Average August day, happily it was not above average. One pit stop cost me 60 seconds but it helped immensly … AWESOME support out there: Soaking sponges every 2 miles, water, hammergel, all that. It really helped. TIME: 1:36 (about 10th fastest run split) 7:20+ average. Pretty consistent. I was hoping to run a few 6:30s at the end, but by mile 8 I knew that was not possible.
FOOD: I could not choke down my Powerbar. It was disgusting, so I only ate half and 2 TUMS; I managed about 5 servings of GU and Hammergel on the bike and choked down 2 more on the run. I took 5 or 6 Endurolytes on the bike 3 more on the run and I think it helped. My hydration was pretty good too: Almost 4 bottles of water during the bike (one was diluted Gatorade) and I took a few slugs at every water station.