My nutrition and hydration were where they needed to be and I felt good about my preparation for this race. We went out to eat the pasta from the same restaurant we ate last year, except this time the same good salad dressing which is very popular at this restaurant gave me some stomach cramps right after I got done eating. That is all I needed the night before the Half Ironman. It did not go any further than the cramps but I felt like I could not eat more late that night. Anyhow, the ocean was still looking rough by Friday afternoon after the expo the waves were smaller. I was hoping that by Saturday morning it would be much better.
Saturday morning as I woke up I was doing a mental evaluation of how my body felt, no sore or tight muscles, pee was clear, I was ready to go. I was in a hurry to get down to the race start with my heavy bag and nutrition stuff. The cytomax milk shake and muffin were exactly what I felt like eating. I don't like trying to get food down in a rush before a race. I walked on the beach towards transition a good 5 min walk, checking the water that was still looking rough with some clouds covering the skies. I got to transition and in no time I had everything set up. I put my 2 gels on the bike with tape and finished eating part of my muffin as I walked down to the starting line. I saw some of my competitors by the beach getting into the water and I did the same as we all warmed up, it was cold and the current was just looking challenging.
Before the start I saw my wife and mother in law who took a good shot before I jumped into the water. I was in the front as we hit the water, 10-20 strokes later I feel my heart rate higher than normal and my breathing out of control. Going over the chops and over people I started to get somewhat anxious. I told myself to calm down and get into a rhythm but it took me at least 150-200 yards for me to do that. The whole swim I felt like I was just looking over waves and swimming almost with half of my upper body out of the water. I finally came out in 33:xx and ran pretty good into t1.
As I take off on my bike and look down I notice that my 2 gels were missing, the humidity had made the tape to come off. So I lost the gels I normally train with. I did not think much about it since I knew they will have some on the aid stations. I just had to make sure I would catch then on my bike . At the same time I notice that my bike computer did not work so I had to play it by feel, I was hoping to have a way to pace myself with it, but I also had to improvise with that. We had a good tail wind for the first half of the bike, just before the turn around I felt great passing people and people passing me. But I was moving well, I just needed to maintain that to be able to reach my predicted time. Too much of that as soon as we hit the turn around there was this strong head winds. A girl was passing and I could not let her passed me that easy, so I went around her but she came back. We were passing each other back and forth for at least 8-10 miles she was not giving up.
Looking at my time I was shooting to be around the same time I had last year. But I felt short by about 3 or 4 min. I came in into t2 around 2:34 and my legs felt great. Great meaning I could run better than I did last year. So my race goal was under way. To run as far as I could without stopping since I had been fairly conservative on the bike. On the run the heat started to get to me so I just kept drinking and eating in each station, I passed people that had blown by me on the bike. That gave me that extra push I needed at times. I ran my first mile @ 7:14 pace a bit to fast for my entire 13.1 course pace. I decided to keep running by feel and let the heat slow me down. I knew it was going to be a matter of minutes before that happened. Mile 2 went around 7:45 and things after that went around 8:14 to 8:45. I kept it up until about mile 4 where I started to walk but my goal was to run as much of the 13.1 mile as I could. By the time I got to mile 8 all I was saying to myself was to keep going until end without walking, I did that but I paid the price at mile 12. By then I could not eat any more oranges and my legs felt very very heavy. Anyhow, it took me 13:49 to go from mile 12 to mile 13.1. It seem
ed for ever and it was, most people were talking about being 13.49 miles instead of 13.1.It was nice to seat down and eat some piazza, Pepsi and hang out with my family that were there waiting for the entire time while I was out there racing. They keep me going for everything I do, including this hobby of mine. Real endurance athletes they are.
Finally done, I was totally wasted, hurting and thinking to myself I can't do this anymore, this is not my race distance, while looking at the results by the food area. My time was 7 or 8 min slower than last year at 5:07. Not very happy with it, but considering I did not train as much as the previous year and that the conditions were harder I should say it was a good outcome. Never had another thought about not coming back the next year after my race soreness wore off, so here I will be again if things work out well.
Be safe and see you at Memphis in May
Gregory Garcia
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