Lake Logan Half Iron 2014

Man, what can I tell you about racing Lake Logan that I haven't already said before. If you live in NC, SC, or Georgia and like to race triathlons you need to race Lake Logan. If you like destination races and want to come to NC, you need to race Lake Logan. The venue is amazing. For August in the deep south, it's always cool. The mountains are beautiful. The bike course is flat (for a mountain course), and you will be amazed at how fast your bike splits are no matter which distance you pick.

 2014 is the first year that Setup Events has done a half iron distance at Lake Logan. I had to jump in on that as soon as I saw it on the schedule, and sure enough it sold out pretty fast. I've done the oly out there twice, in 2011 and 2012, and set PR's both times. The best part about it was the bike course, which was incredible. And for a total bike hater like me to admit that it had an amazing bike course is really saying something.

We arrived in Maggie Valley on Friday night. I tried to be sure we got there early in the evening, so of course it was about 11 pm by the time we arrived at Kelley's mom's summer house. I pretty much went straight to bed after that.

Race day came dark and early Saturday morning. I got up about 5:30, ate some breakfast and got out the door. This is when the fun started.

I underestimated the drive time.  I thought it was 15 something away. Turns out, that was 15 miles, not 15 minutes. And 15 miles in the mountains takes 45 minutes to get there. So the GPS said I would get there at 6:25, and I knew that packet pickup closed at 6:30 so I was cutting it close but could still be ok.

Of course, somebody who was apparently not involved in the race was going incredibly slow, you know, just to piss me off. Then they stopped on the bridge to have a casual conversation with the cops who were directing traffic into the parking lot. at 6:25 am. when I'm 100 feet from the airstrip where the race participants are supposed to park. that was a lot of fun for me.

Eventually I did make it into the parking lot. And then it filled up.  An airstrip that is so huge they have no need for overflow parking actually filled up. The volunteers were scrambling trying to find enough spaces for all of these people and I was about 10 cars back in line. The truck in front of me suddenly had 3 people jump out, grab the bikes off of the back with bags and a pump, and get all of the prep work done while somebody's girl parked the truck.  That was fun for me to watch.  All of this time I'm thinking "there's no way I'm going to race today" and "well, there goes the packet pickup closing".  Finally, about 6:45 I get my car parked, throw some air in my tires and run towards the race site.

There was no line at the packet pickup so I was able to get my stuff quickly, grabbed a timing chip, hit the body marking on my way into the transition area and threw my bike on the rack.  I did get to unzip my transition bag, dig and find the chip strap, throw the chip on my left ankle and run to the swim start.  On the other side of that bridge, I hear "The first wave starts swimming in 15 seconds", and I get to see this:

I'm one of those yellow caps

Incredibly beautiful venue & day

So I was in time.  I would get to race today.  My yellow cap got to start in the 3rd swim wave, and nothing else mattered at that time. There was no warmup, there was no wetsuit. But I could still swim.  I could still get my splits and try my speed in the mountains. ah, relief.  Find my zen, it's time to race.

Swim 1.2 miles: Goal under 30 Actual: 32:30

The water was freezing. Actually it was about 63*, certainly wetsuit legal and I was maybe the only person not using a wetsuit. I actually brought it, but left it in the transition bag since I didn't have time to suit up. Fuck it, it's time to roll with whatever today gives me.

Some swimmers coming into the bridge

Beautiful lake! Amazing day!

I was in the 3rd wave of swimmers. As soon as I jumped into that water I was missing the wetsuit, even though I usually prefer not to use it. I kind of ended up towards the front, and when our wave started I drafted off of the leaders for the first few hundred yards.  Once I started passing people from the wave in front of us I settled back into my pace and just tried to stay on course. The swim had 2 turns, then you go back past the starting dock. I've mentioned this bridge a few times already, and when the water goes under it, the lake turns into a river and the water magically drops another 10* because it wasn't cold enough already.  That's the marker, though. Once you feel the water get really cold, you can make a nice fast sprint under the bridge to the dock for the swim exit.  It's a quick run into the TA.

This is one of my favorite lakes to swim in, and the bridge and cold water never disappoint.  Thanks to my friend Susan for getting these pictures. I didn't even see her on race day but she said I could steal these from her facebook post.

T1: 6:06

yea, that whole "no time before race start" thing came into play here. I still had to put the stickers on my bike and helmet, get the new bike shoes on, and get everything ready to ride.  No way I was going to hit my 90 second target this time, and I knew that going in.  I decided not to let this bother me. The whole point of the day was to test my nutrition and pacing, not to test my ability to prepare.

Bike 52 miles: Goal under 3 hours, Actual 2:53:53, 18 mph, Good!

What did I just say about testing my nutrition? Well normally when I'm setting up my TA I use electrical tape to secure some gels to the top bar of my bike, and I didn't have time to do that this time. So of course right after I hit the mount line, I realized that I also didn't grab them out of the bag.

I call this is called the Hungry Hungry Half because I was kind of hungry when I got into the park after forgetting to grab a granola bar when I left the house. So when I was swimming, I was hungry. I hit the bike and I was hungry. As soon as you leave the park, half a mile into the ride, you hit the first climb. It is steep and quite a challenge. For the oly course, you crest that climb and get a nice descent, and the next time you face a steep climb is going back up that nice long descent. For the half course, they threw in a shitload of hills.  I had 2 bottles of sports drink and 1 bottle of water and I was already hungry. This is not a good situation.

When I first started out I thought the bike was geared up a bit high, again something I should have set pre-race. I geared down to make the first climb, then in the flats played leap-frog with another guy for a while. Then I finally realized after about 5 miles, that I was in the small chainring! Gah! it wasn't geared up too high after all.  So of course I pushed up to the big chainring and left that dude in the dust. 

I did finally bum a gel off of another guy around mile 35, and that changed my entire outlook. I remembered his bib number and gave him back one of my gels after the race was over, and thanked him profusely. The hungry hungry half was not quite so hungry anymore!

Mile 31 had a hard climb thrown in.  Mile 39 had one of those gut wrenching, throat pounding climbs that is so steep and so long you think it's never going to end.  Since I am training for a full iron I kind of made my way up that sucker like a billy goat. But it was a really hard climb. and 39 miles into a 52 mile ride is a pretty tough place to put a climb that hard.

The Garmin was giving me splits, and you could tell it was a mountain ride from the speeds. Up and down, up and down, up and down. There were a few mile splits that were over 4 minutes, those miles had the hard climbs in there. A first for me was getting a mile split at 1:58! I've never broken a 2 minute mile before. THAT was really cool.  I also had a 2:08 and a 2:04 mile. 

Overall this bike course was beautiful, challenging, and FAST. This is the best reason to come to Canton NC and do this race.  This incredible bike course did not disappoint.

T2: 3:31

Again, I got out of the bike shoes before running into TA, so I had to find my running shoes, put them on, tie them, find my bib belt, and I attached my bib while I was on my way out of T2. This took forever. Oh the dangers of pre-race prep time!

Run 13 miles: Goal under 2 hours, Actual 1:55:15, Success!

The run course is an out and back on one road. It goes straight uphill for 5k, then straight downhill for 5k, and that's it for the oly course. There was supposed to be a turnaround to make it a 2 lap course for the half. This is finally when I started to see my friends, since they are all faster than I am.

On the first lap, that uphill is manageable. I clocked an 8:08 for the first mile. By the time you hit that turnaround, you're ready to cruise back.  They say you have to turnaround and go back up that hill for a second lap.

they tell lies.

Really what you have to do is go down the hill, make the turn through the finishing chute and go all the way to the finish line. Then, instead of taking that last step to the finish the race, veer to the left for a "turnaround". Only that's not a turnaround either. You have to take a lap around a field, cross a timing mat at the halfway point, hit an aide station (where I stopped for a gel) in the middle of this field 20 feet from the finish line and 30 feet from the TA, then go back out for a second lap.

Nothing in triathlon hurts worse than the run in a half ironman. Even in a full iron when you run out of gas you know what's coming. In a sprint, you know how much pain you need to eat to push that 5k run speed. But in a half it's pure torture. And the uphill leg of lap 2 did not disappoint.

Eventually you hit the actual turnaround again at the top of that hill, and get to cruise down to the finish line. I still knocked some miles in the low 8's coming back down that hill. 

There was also rednecks shooting off shotguns on some land near the road.  They weren't a threat to anybody, just rednecks doing redneck shit. I made a few jokes about it to other racers that seemed a bit more nervous.

Finish: Goal under 6 hours, Actual 5:31:13 Success!

I finished this race and collapsed pretty hard. I know that I left everything I had out on that course. I brought my zen into the day, and I gave the day everything I had to give. I took everything the course could throw at me. And at the end of the day, I ended up with a 15 minute half PR on a slightly short course.

The post race food was incredible. I got plenty of water, protein drinks, and solid veggie food. Couldn't find any of my friends at the finish line, but that was ok. I saw them on the run course. Lots of people from Greenville, Raleigh, and Atlanta were there. The day itself was just beautiful, cloudy and in the low 70's.  insane.

I finished 26/42 in my age group. The M35-39 podium spots went to times from 4:21 to 4:31, so that is some serious competition.

snapped a couple of selfies while I was packing up my stuff

Getting out was easy, I didn't stick around for the awards.  I did snag a few more pics on my way out of the run course, athletes, and finishers area.

The airstrip that filled up as a parking lot

Athletes walking back to their cars

That's TA in the background

The finish line in the background and the infamous bridge. We had to swim under it and run over it twice.

My happy place. Drinking coffee, sitting on the deck listening to those waterfalls after a hard days racing.

And this fine honey was waiting on me when I got back to the house!

We finished saturday night with a mountain of food. Not anywhere close to vegetarian, I have to admit. There was a country restaurant in Maggie Valley with family style all you could eat that really was all you could eat.  I had 2 fried chicken breasts, 3 huge fried salisbury steaks, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, gravy and hot sauce on everything.  it was pretty impressive, even by my standards.

So to recap, Lake Logan Rocks. This was the innaugural half iron, and I hope they make it a regular event. I also hope they make the bike course 56 miles instead of 52 and avoid that climb in mile 39.  Come do it next year! this place is amazing.

A Game Plan

This is a test, this is only a test. If this were a real race, I would have gone out too hard on the bike and totally blown up in the second half of the run. Instead, my game plan was to test out the speed, perceived effort, cadence and pacing for the full Iron coming up in a scant 6 weeks. Start swimming at my 2.4 mile race pace. Start biking at my 112 mile easy cadence. Run nothing faster than 8:45 minute miles.

Sunday was the Finish Strong Half Iron triathlon, my test for B2B time. I did go out there and execute that plan. Well, almost. My run times were all over the place. And with 2 miles left I figured out that I could still finish with a sub-2 hour run split, so I did pick up the pace then to go for it. But the last 2 miles in a 70.3.... well, anything goes.

I set an 8 minute PR! Holy cow, wait, what? That's not supposed to happen.

Beautiful day for a triathlon

I got up at 5:30 to head over to Vista Point and got there with plenty of time to spare. Got my TA setup, ran for a few minutes, then got in the water for a warmup. It was a cool day, temps in the low 60's, and the water temp was 78* so it was wetsuit legal. I still didn't bring my wetsuit so it made no difference to me.

TA and Jordan Lake - incredible weather!

Swim 1.2 miles - 30:56, 4/12 age group, 30/90 men, 1:27/100yd
I was surprised how much traffic I got into at the start! I thought I had open water. There was no wind, no chop, it was just cool and easy to settle into a pace. Then everyone else got in my way. Eventually I hit the first turn buoy and it got a little clustered up again.

Somewhere in there somebody kicked my wrist. I had the Garmin 310 started up and I was really looking forward to getting heart rate data from while I was swimming, but when I got out of the water it only recorded 4 minutes of data. oh well, that also throws off the overall time too.

I also got kicked around in the chest and belly some, but that didn't really bother me too much. My face stayed pretty clean this time. Again I was trying to set the same pace I want to use to go 2.4 miles in B2B, so I didn't try to start out super fast to avoid the crowds. Just let the other people come and go, I'm just trying to keep my pace.  Time to get all zen about it.

Near the start there was a sandbar, so about half the field stood up and walked. Then we hit the first turn buoy, then the second and headed back to shore. The water was pretty clean the whole time. I'm really surprised to see the pace at 1:27/100, I was expecting more like 1:45. Most races I'm stuck at 2:03 per 100. My RAM team coaches have been really tweaking my form and head position recently, and this shows that it really pays off. I also think the course might have been marked a bit short. Either way I was the 30th man out of the water? freaking sweet.

T1 - 1:58
Should be under 90 seconds! damnit! The run from the water up to TA was counted in the swim time, so this was all putting on the bike gear and getting out of the way.

Bike 56 miles - 3:13:13, 8/12 age group, 61/90 men, 17.4 mph
After resting up in T1, I was ready to ride. Again, test out the speed for B2B, settle into a cadence and game plan that I can use on race day. Take a gel 15 minutes in since that will be 45 minutes into the race, and take more gels every 45 minutes after that. Water and Heed on a schedule.

It takes 4 miles to get out of the park and onto Hwy 64 and they are all uphill.  After that it gets pretty smooth with flat sections and rollers. Once you hit mile 40 it gets into some serious up and down stuff and is supposed to be pretty torturous until the end. Just get into a low gear and grind it out. My friend Brian said it was the hardest bike course he's ever faced. I thought it was significantly easier than the IM Raleigh bike course - that thing was brutal.

This is what I felt like. Evil Genius with my bike shoes and helmet on Saturday Night

I did exactly that - go execute that plan. Once I got out of the park I geared up some and tried to hold a perceived effort that I could sustain for 112 miles. Test the bike and the fit and the gearing and the cadence and just see what works.

Normally in a half ironman my only two goals are to break 3 hours on the bike and 6 hours overall. I know that hitting my time goal at B2B sort of hinges on a 6 hour bike split. Time to get rid of all of those expectations. If this course really is as challenging as it is supposed to be then I need to just take whatever it throws at me. After mile 40 all bets are off.

What I did not expect after mile 40 was the descents. They were screaming! literally. I was screaming going down them it was so much fun. The climbs were tough, yes. But the heat stayed away, and I just put Roberta into the middle chainring, geared it down, and spun the pedals around. Grind up the hill, scream down the descent. There were some long and steep ones, some short and really steep ones, but overall it wasn't nearly as tough as the Ironman Raleigh bike course.

I also didn't expect to get passed as much as I did. I got passed by a lot of other bikers.  Well, 31 of them finished faster than me, sure. But I only passed maybe 3 or 4 people the whole bike split, and even that was in the last 20 miles. and there were plenty of girls that flew past me as well.

After the really hilly miles 40 to 53, we turned into the park again and the last 4 miles were all downhill back to the TA.

T2: 58 seconds
Bonehead, I totally forgot to take my feet out of the shoes before I pulled up to the dismount line, so I lost a bit unclipping them and taking them off in TA. Running shoes on, grab everything else.... ah I can live with under a minute. That's still pretty good.

Run 13.1 miles - 1:55:41, 7/12 age group, 27/90 men, 8:49 pace
The plan was to keep 8:45 miles and adjust for the hills. The course was a 2 loop out and back, so every hill we had to go up, we also had to go back down then go back up again. Maybe I just took the bike easy enough to still have some gas left in the tank, maybe the speedwork in this build phase of the Ironman training plan is having an effect. Whatever happened, it worked. This was the first time I've broken 2 hours in the half iron run split before.

The course went out of the park, then turned onto the "other" road, then onto a gravel doubletrack for a while to a turnaround point. There wasn't really anywhere that was just flat to set a run cadence and just enjoy it. Going away from the park was all uphill, so going back to start lap 2 or finish was all downhill. The mile splits tell the best story there:

Mile 1: 7:56 - uphill! oh, going to pay for that later
Mile 2: 8:40
Mile 3: 8:17
Mile 4: 9:20 - first time on the gravel section
Mile 5: 8:47
Mile 6: 8:06 - downhill
Mile 7: 8:51 - this was actually the toughest mile out there
Mile 8: 10:34 - paid for it
Mile 9: 9:28
Mile 10: 9:12
Mile 11: 10:03
Mile 12: 8:07 - push it to go sub-2
Mile 13+: 8:13 to the finish!

Mile 7 was by far the toughest one out there. Going up that hill for the second time to get out of the park was draining.  Again all I was trying to do was test my endurance at that speed to see if I could hold it on a flat course for 26.2 miles. So getting mentally crushed by a hill in mile 7 was tough.  I really tried to shake it off and just keep running.

The gravel road section was tricky. Going downhill at first you worry about slipping. Then hit the turnaround and go back uphill, you worry about basic survival skills. It was a weird section of the course. The downhill didn't seem as steep as the uphill was, but you know it was really the same grade.

I kept watching the Garmin the whole time, and got lap splits every mile. When I started the second loop, I got the idea that I could actually just maybe break 2 hours.  At the 10 mile mark, I knew I had 30 minutes to run the last 5k to break 2 hours. That seemed feasible.  And since I've done plenty of standalone half marathons under 1:45, I really wanted to get that sub-2 run split. Finally I hit the 11 mile mark with just under 20 minutes to go and knew if I put up 2 8 minute miles I would be there. And I also felt like I had the endurance left to suffer for 2 more miles at an 8 minute pace. For B2B I don't want to come anywhere close to an 8 minute mile, so finally after 68 miles of racing I decide it was ok to break from my plan and speed up a bit.

I also ran into a runner in an App State jersey, turns out my alma mater has a triathlon club now! He was not impressed by the fact that I graduated 15 years ago and he was a sophmore because I was currently kicking his butt. Still really cool to see some appy's coming down from the mountain for triathlons.

In the park again, I came into the parking lot with someone else who put up a great finish line kick. I let him go since all I wanted was a sub-2 run split and I clearly had that in hand. Went through the parking lot, ran past the 1st lap turnaround point and turned the corner to see the finish line. Wait, hold on a minute, what does that clock say?

I'm as confused as the autofocus on the camera at that finish clock.

This is what happy looks like

Finish! 5:42:37, 7/12 age group, 41/90 men, 50/124 overall
I knew from the Garmin that I had the sub-2 hour run split that I was going for. Working that out was a surprise. But I was completely shocked when I turned that last corner and caught the finish line clock when I crossed the line! I set my old PR on the OBX half from 2011, that was the only time (out of 5 previous half's) where I broke the 6 hour mark. OBX 2012 was 6:00:19. But the OBX course is flat and fast and made for pr's.  This is one of the most difficult half's in NC. You don't go to a difficult course to set PR's. You don't run a B-level race just to test your plans for the A priority race and set a PR.  Yet somehow, that's exactly what happened.  I'm still totally shocked and can't really figure it out.

But who's going to complain about that? Not this guy. It's fantastic. I saw Kelley and the kids driving into the park when I was heading out on the second lap of the run, so they were waiting for me at the finish line.  It was great having their support when I got back there. Also the kids loved getting to play in the lake for a bit and the finish line environment is always a fun place to hang out.

One of the sponsors was a local middle eastern restaurant Neomonde, that I love.  So I got me a big plate of Neomonde and settled in with a bottle of water.  Good post race eats. And I was starting to feel better.  Kelley and the kids headed home while I ate, then I packed up my stuff and got on the road home too. A local half, test race, tough course, and a PR. Nothing could be better.

Well, one final thought. Why did I get passed so much on the bike? This is the way every race goes for me. I crush the swim, get destroyed on the bike, and run until the tank is empty. Triathlon can be a bikers sport, the faster bikers usually win the race or their age group. I really hate the bike right now. This happens every year. After a few thousand miles I just can't sit there and pedal anymore. Then after I hang it up for the winter, spring rolls around and I can't wait to go fast again.  But every race I put up comparatively poor bike splits! it is getting frustrating.

OBX Number Two

I finished the OBX half iron distance triathlon on Saturday 9/22 in a blazing time of 6:00:19.  Blazing is sarcastic of course, I was a bit undertrained on the bike and paid for it a bit on the run.  Overall we had a fantastic trip, and there are lots of pictures and stories to share.

I still had to put in my hours at work this week, so Kelley and the kids got to stay down in the OBX for the whole week.  They had a blast, getting out to see some of the lighthouses and beaches.  The outer banks is a really cool part of the state.

Bigun and the Evil Genius at the Cape Hatteras lighthouse

Thursday my mom drove up and met me at our house, then we loaded up the car and headed out to Kill Devil Hills.  We got there about 8 pm to quite a warm reception!  The girls were quite glad to see us.

Friday we got up to Jockey's Ridge, which is a really cool state park and hang gliding school with these huge sand dunes.  We hiked up some of the dunes and ran/jumped/fell down.  So much fun, you wouldn't expect a 100 foot high sand dune to be that cool.

Hanging out on top of the ridge

Climbing.  It was that steep.

Up and down the dunes

Me and Bigun hanging out before we climbed that big one in the background

We also made it out to the Wright Brothers Memorial.  It was only about 10 minutes north of the condo.  They made the first flights right there, and they are marked where the first four flights went with a great memorial and visitors center laid out.

The monument left off "Evil"

The hangar, cabin and marker locations for the first four flights

Kids and Kelley on the memorial

Mom and the kids running where the first four flights were

So that was a blast, but might have been too much walking, climbing, and outdoor fun for the day before a 70.3

Saturday:
Race day was upon us.  I felt mostly prepared, but still kind of nervous about the race itself.  We got there about 10 minutes before transition closed at 6:45 am.  I had just enough time to grab my chip, get body marked, and put some air in the tires before TA closed. 

No numerical order or assigned racks.  Everything was just dumped in there.  insanity.

I look confused.  It was a horrible pre-race time.

Finally I got out of there and down to the water.  I was in the second swim wave, so by the time I got checked in and got to taste that salt water finally I knew I was in for a good day and everything else was going to work out just fine.

Swim: 39:03, goal time under 30, last year 44:xx
This swim wasn't nearly as rough as last years.  No two foot swells but that was still some choppy water.  And it was really shallow.  The start was crowded, most of the swim was crowded.  Swimming has been a real strong point for me this year and this time I'm just glad it was done.

Ready to go

And we're off!

You see those buoys?

I was in the second wave to start.  There were three buoys, turn at the third one then repeat again.  The first wave started three minutes before my wave, they all wore green caps.  It was so shallow that you could walk all the way out to the first bouy.  I passed a green cap before the first bouy.  It may be the first time I ever passed a swimmer while walking.  I ended up passing a fair number of green caps.

Made the first turn amidst lots of traffic.  made it to the second turn with lots of traffic.  Heading back into shore had lots of traffic.  Other people suck.  I was glad to beat last years time but it was a bit of a tougher swim than expected this year.

Glad that's over with!

Where's TA?

T1: 3:18 pitiful
Found my bike, threw on the socks & shoes, grabbed the helmet and get out of there.  It was a long run across a parking lot to get into the TA, but come on.  90 seconds in here max.

Don't make me ride?

Bike: 3:06:56, goal under 3 hours, 2011 race was 2:53
The wind was directional this year, which was nice.  I felt pretty strong getting out of the gate there, and saw 19 mph on the garmin and felt pretty good.  Until I hit the bridge.

You could watch the garmin plummet as soon as the trees opened up and the bridge came into view.  19+ mph?  yea, that went quickly down to 15 mph as soon as that headwind kicked in.  The course was two loops, so we went across the bridge, tooled around some on one road on the mainland (which had quite a stench going), then back across the bridge to the turnaround.  Do it all again and call it a second loop.

The cool part was that on the way to the end of the road the first time, I could count how many people were ahead of me (45).  Two people passed me on the bike, so I knew I was in 47th place coming onto the run.  Last year I finished 22nd overall so this was a bit dissapointing, but I still felt pretty good. 

They ran an olympic race at the same time as the half was going on, but the oly people started 45 minutes after us.  That meant oly racers cheering as I came out of the swim, and by the time I was heading back across the bridge for the first time they were going out.  Cool to see some oly people out there on the road.  And going back across the bridge the wind was at my back, so I just sat upright and took 22 mph while barely pedalling.  Pretty glorious.

I made the turnaround at TA and went back out for lap #2.  When I hit the turnaround the garmin told me I had been pedalling for 1:29, so I knew breaking 3 hours was going to be tough.  I'd have to be just as fast, if not faster, for the second half.  I also knew I was undertrained on the bike, having only gotten in one 50 mile ride this summer.  So sure enough, there was no negative split going back out.  The bridge headwind killed me on lap #2, and the tailwind coming back was the one saving grace.  I was really exhausted by the end of the ride.  So glad to be off of the bike and ready to put it up for the winter.

Finishing the bike was quite a relief.  I knew it was going to be my weakest link and I did exactly what I expected to.  suck.

T2: 1:11, goal under 90 seconds for the win!
Off with the helmet, throw on the running shoes and get the heck out of there.

Run: 2:09:49, goal under 2 hours, 2011 around 2:24
I got off running and tried not to absolutely crush the pace.  Start out slow and hold on for dear life.  I remembered the run went through the airport, onto the roads for a bit, then onto some greenway to a turnaround point and back home to the finish line.  I cruised through the airport stretch and felt pretty good getting onto the roads.  On the bike, the garmin flashed a low battery warning (boy, wasn't that foreshadowing), so I ditched it in T2 and ran naked.  The road stretch seemed to go on forever.

When I finally got on the greenway I was still keeping a steady pace with no walk breaks or anything.  I could feel a few blisters starting to rub on my feet and then I realized that I grabbed the wrong shoes.  My minimalist shoes have the speed laces in them still from this summer, but they shouldn't be used for runs over 10k.  Here I was about 6 miles into the half marathon run, and wishing I had the other shoes.  ouch.

I hit the turnaround point on the run with some enthusiasm, as I had passed the people already who were faster bikers than me but slower runners.  Now typically for me, about 5 miles into the run of a half iron triathlon my legs try to separate themselves forcefully from the rest of my body.  They decide they don't want to participate any more and it brings a kind of pain and suffering that is unmatched outside of that distance.  7 miles in and my legs are feeling ok today.  Feet are starting to hurt but overall, not too bad.

Mile 8 is still ok.

Mile 9 is back on the roads, still no walking, and the pain is starting to get past "comfortable" levels.  This holds through mile 10.

By mile 11 I'm gassed.  the battery is running low.  There is lots of walking.  Suddenly I can't lift my arms over my head anymore (not good for a swimmer).  Kind of barfy feeling too.  Ah, not cool.

The last mile is all inside of the airport.  By this point there are flags out on the field and I'm only running one flag at a time.  The Triathlon Is Stupid Committee has a quorum going in my head and I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.  Don't puke, only 200 yards to free beer.

chugging into the finish

Finish: 6:00:19, goal < 6 hours
I had no idea I was that close to breaking 6 hours.  The goals for all of my half ironmans is to go sub 3 on the bike and sub 6 overall.  So close!

Thank God that's over with

That's what happiness looks like.  Kelley was waiting at the finish line with my mom and the kids.  So great to have them all there cheering me in.  That was mom's first time coming out to a long race!  I was so glad to be done and so grateful to have that much support waiting on me at the finish line.  One cool thing happened with about a hundred yards left to go one of the aide station volunteers called out "Look at Carolina John go"!  So cool, I don't usually get recognized.  Thanks man!

The Beach aftwards
The after-race festivities included a BBQ sandwich and fries, Shock Top beer, water in a can, and pre-bagged pb & j's.  Very strange.  But still a cool environment.

After a shower and some more eats, we took off for the beach.  Check this out:

What an amazing trip!  I got my fourth half-iron in the books