Brian Ellis Rules!
Thu Jul 24, 2008
Another Half Ironman in the Books!
So after my last (poor) showing at Deuces Wild HIM up in Show Low, AZ I decided I should give this Half Ironman thing another shot and see if I couldn't do any better. OK, the truth is I had already signed up for a ton of these races and they were going to happen whether I liked it or not. Next up on the (s)hitlist was the Mountain Man Half Ironman in Flagstaff, AZ. This would be another race at altitude (7000') so I had a better idea of what to expect this time around but I wasn't sure if it'd make a difference or not.
Pre Pre-Race: My buddy, Jared, flew into Tucson late Thursday night. Picked him up at the airport and then we headed up to Flagstaff the following day. We rolled into town Friday afternoon and spent Saturday bumming around, picking up our race packets and scoping out the course. The course was beautiful; Jared and I snapped a bunch of pictures as we drove the course. It was through the mountains of northern Arizona (hence the name "Mountain Man Triathlon") but surprisingly enough, there weren't that many (killer) hills. In any event, after all that we got our gear prepped for the race, grabbed dinner and called it a night.
Pre-Race: Got up nice and early, ate some breakfast and headed over to the race. This was the largest turnout in the history for this event and with VERY limited parking it definitely paid off getting there nice and early. I had some trouble putting my race wheels on my bike in the dark and in the process buggered up my rear derailleur. Luckily enough, the fix was simple and after a little bit of stressing out the bike was back in business and ready to race. Setting up transition and getting ready for the race was just business as usual.
Swim: The swim started about 1/4 mile down the beach so we had to walk over to the start. After about 5 minutes of milling around they had us cross the timing mat and get in the water and wait for the start. The water was cool and visibility was about 6" - standard for a lake swim. As with all my swims, I just try to pace myself and take it nice and easy and this one was no different. There was minimal bumping and after 34:58 I was out of the water and ready to start the bike. This swim was 1 minute shorter than the swim from my race six weeks ago so no real difference there.
Bike: Transition was uneventful and after a couple minutes I was out for a nice little bike ride. The course was a combination of out-and-back and a couple loops at the end of the out-and-back. I had no real goals other than a) save enough for the run and b) don't get a flat tire again. I stuck to the plan and took it nice and easy just about the entire time. About 5-6 miles into the ride my drivetrain started making this god awful squeaking noise. I'm not talking about a quiet little chirp either. This was a loud screeching squawking noise that echoed throughout the woods. As I approached people to pass them they'd turn around with a dumbfounded look trying to figure out what on earth was happening. I have no idea what the problem was but it only happened when I was pedaling. After 50 more miles I was ready to go insane and glad to be done with the bike. I successfully met my goals of not killing myself and not getting a flat and when it was all said and done my time was 2:44:05 (20.8 mph). This was about 15 minutes faster (not counting the 10 minutes from the flat tire) than my bike split from my other Half Ironman.
Run: After another uneventful transition I was off to start the half marathon. The course again was a combination of out-and-backs (think Y-shaped) so there shouldn't be too many surprises. I had no real goals or ambitions other than "run the whole thing". I started off at a nice easy pace and after a mile or so I thought to myself, "I could keep this pace." At the 1.5 mile mark the course split off and headed up a hill. Well, it wasn't so much a hill as it was a mountain (hence the name "Mountain Man"). The 'hill' was a full 1.5 miles and somehow I managed to keep shuffling along the entire way. Once I reached the top I was glad to turn around and head back down to the flats. The rest of the course was rolling hills and far cry from the mountain early on in the course. There weren't a lot of mile markers and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing which ended up being a blessing. I just kept trotting along and the idea of walking never really entered my mind. Once I reached the second turn-around it was about 5-6 miles back to the finish and I was thankful to be on the home stretch. Mile markers started appearing with 4 miles to go and that turned out to be the worst tease of all. Each of the last 4 miles were marked with "X miles to go" signs and I swear those were the longest 4 miles of my life. I kept trotting along and eventually I made it to the finish, running the entire thing. Mission accomplished. My run split was 2:06:06. Certainly nothing to brag about but I ran the whole way so that was a small victory in itself.
My total race time was 5:29:29 which was about 40ish minutes better than my last race. The whole day it was overcast which meant it was nice and cool the entire time and it's safe to say that played a huge part. So I'm pretty excited about my performance overall though my run still needs a lot of work if I want to get any better. I placed 22/89 overall and 5/10 in my age group. A lot of the guys that placed around me were throwing down sub-2 hour runs with the top guys going 1:30-1:45, so I guess that's the next thing to strive for... which means a lot more run training.
- Brian @ 9:05 pm - View Comments