I enjoy reading others RR, so I figured I would contribute. This is a bit long be for warned
Well the day started off at 4:15 am. At previous races this year I’ve had issues with my stomach and undigested food,
so with Steelhead being my A race for the year, I wanted to make sure I gave my body plenty of time to do its thing.
Pre Race Breakfast:
2 Packets of Quaker Instant Oatmeal
1 cup of incredibly bad coffee ( First cup in 7 days) but despite the bad taste it definitely gave me a quick
pick up and got things rolling downstairs.
After a quick eat, I mixed up the Infinit and pre race drink (Spark- from Advocare) and began sipping a G2 and
water mix. My dad and I hopped in the car around 5am and headed out for the 19mile drive to Benton Harbor.The longer
ride to the race site definitely helped me in the long run. It gave me extra time to digest my food and to go through
the game plan in my mind. I’ll shorten the next part, Parked car- Got on bus- Walked into transition.
As everyone else does, I pumped up the tires, lubbed up with body glide took a pre race poo and took off for the 1.2
mile stroll down the beach. Who knew it would take so long to walk 1.2 mi in a wetsuit. But really it helped to clear
the mind a bit and enjoy the sun, and the smells of the lake.
The pros started at 7:00 am and I had the pleasure of taking off in Wave 10 (18-24), so this gave me time to hang out
with my dad for a bit and to give my caffeine ridden drink a chance to kick in.
Finally 40ish minutes later it was our turn to start the day. I lined up at the front and awaited the horn. I expected
the start to be a bit more aggressive but everyone seemed to find their own water right away. I put my head down and swam
hard for a few hundred yards and began to look for feet. Somehow this year, I’ve been able to find a good set of feet
from the get go, and this race was no different. Although with the waves, sometimes I would catch one wave and the guy
in front of me would snag another and we would be pushed opposite directions, so a bit of zig zagging was inevitable.
The swim was fairly uneventful, hit the sand at 27.08 (Official Time 28.33 entering t1) or so and started the run up the beach. Note to self, running in the sand
is no fun.
Luckily my bike was one of the first bikes you come to when entering transition. With a quick wipe of the feet
to get the sand off. Sunglasses on, Helmet on- Time To Get Nasty
While it was nice to have my bike right by T1 entrance, it also sucked having to run around everyone to get across to the exit, also
there was a big cluster of folks clipping in right outside the T1 exit. But what can you do?
Right from the get go, I tried to get in my HR zone (Zone 3 142-158). After the first two turns a girls water bottle explodes
off her Xlab lands in front of me, and without hesitation she slams on her brakes to retrieve her bottle, luckily I was able to swerve
around her.
Back into the bars and heading up the first hill. HR still a bit high around 160, but I know I’m not pushing too hard but rather
a higher HR due to the swim and transition etc. I didn’t have a chance to pre-ride the course before hand, but man I had no idea that the roads were so rough. It was actually incredibly irritating to be smashing those black rivets/ holes/ gravel etc.
But the day must go on. Nothing really to spectacular goes on for a while. I guess around mile 18? I drill a pot hole catapulting my
taped on co2s and pit stop onto the ground. Luckily my Pit Stop managed to hold on for dear life, so I made a quick stopped, ripped off whatever was handing from the tape(Pit stop and one co2- no co2 chuck though 
hopefully I don’t get a flat) and shoved it into my jersey.
I found my rhythm again right away and continued passing people. Again some more turns, a massive sand filled ditch in the road, more turns, some wind, passed some people passed a bit.
Mile 40 WHAM. Nasty head winds. My average was around 22.5-22.8 from what I remember, and I knew right after making that turn, that my average would significantly drop. It was all I could do to keep my legs from imploding. I brought by HR down to 148-150 knowing the extra effort to maintain my HR of 155 would be too demanding thus taking away for the run. Some of the bigger guys (not fat etc, but weighing more than 160 didn’t seem to be bothered much by it, I myself am 150ish, so wind isnt really my friend) (Official Time 2:41.42)
Needless to say, there were many curse words and rough patches. But kept on pedaling.
T2. 
I’m still pretty mad about the battle that went down for the last 16miles, and worried by quads might cramp up or my day is ruined. But hopped on the bike, socks on and off I went. My legs felt great!
I came out of T1 a 3:20 Flat and knew I had to run sub 1:40 to break 5 hrs. Which I knew I could do.
Mile one at 7:07 with the hill, Nice to get that one out of the way early. The plan was to run at 158 for the first lap and up to 162 for the second lap. I jogged/ walked fast the first couple aid stations to make sure I got my fluids in. Even with the short walk breaks for fluids I was knocking off each mile at 7:40- 7:45 really comfortably. Which was the game plan. I continued to take sips of my EFS flask at each aid station and kept my HR spot on 158 no matter what.
Miles started to come down to 7:35s or so running through the park and to the hill. I was still a bit worried about my quads once I hit the middle of the hill and walked a bit, maybe :15 seconds? The next mile was at 8:30. Bullsh*T, no more of that nonsense. Run! After rounding out for the second lap, I felt great so I said zero walking and run your a** off.
From there on out the miles came down to 7:15- 7:20 through the park. Maybe one more 7:45 in there. Here comes the hill again, run this son of a bi*tch keep grinding!!! mile 11 at 7:40. Things are starting to hurt a little bit more, but I knew I had sub 5, just had to stay steady. Made it through mile 12, not sure of the split, but my stomach and legs were not too happy at this point. One more mile, shove some more Gatorade down and keep running!
Little did I know that there wasn’t going to be a mile 13 marker, which in hindsight I suppose it wasn’t nessecary. But I’m looking at my watch seeing 8:00 roll around wandering where the hell the mile marker was. I knew I was a bit out of it when I realized I was steps away from transition and just held on for dear life.
(Official Time 1:41.26- again my watch says 1:37 so I’m sticking to that haha)
Whatever speed i was running at, was all I had. I crossed the line at 4:57. 37 (With only one pee stop in the bushes and having to slow to adjust my HR strap-I hit my goal of running sub 1:40). “Yes I broke 5hrs” “oh no, legs are done” luckily there were two volunteers who caught me. I didn’t feel this bad running but I guess once I came to a stand still, the wheels fell off. Eventually I got myself together and was helped into a chair.
I saw my dad in front of me, but I couldn’t think of what to say- or wasn’t sure what to do really. Other than glue the pieces back together with the Myoplex chocolate drinks. Awesome!
But all in all I am very happy with my race. I have only been in the sport 2 years, and after finishing IM Louisville last year, I ended up with very bad Knee Degeneration and wasn’t able to run or ride for 4 months. And even up until March I wasn’t running above 20minutes at a time. So really only about 4 months
of running my legs since Last August, I have come a long way in a short time. Not that my race is really fast, because it isn’t- but I’m looking forward to
next years 70.3s
I would like to thank my parents, friends and my coach Dave Kuendig for all of the support this year.
Thanks for reading