Iron Pol

After a long vacation week, it's time to get back to work.  And for the faithful readers anxiously awaiting the Spirit of Racine race report, we start with the picture on the left.  It should be noted that it is difficult to see people walking to the start, and impossible to see much beyond that.  About the middle of the picture is a bouy that can just barely be made out.  And this is around 7:45, almost an hour after the race was supposed to start.

Due to extremely poor visibility, the race start was delayed about an hour, and the swim route adjusted to bring the course closer to the shoreline.  Even then sighting was nearly impossible and swimmers were all over the course.  I missed the final turn bouy by more than 100 feet and had to swim back out and around that marker before heading to shore.

Even so, my final swim time was 37:39.  That makes me question the actual distance, as it was an improvement of nearly six minutes over last year's swim.  While I may have gotten faster, I question whether I'm THAT much faster.

I blazed through T2 in just over 90 seconds, and started the run in extremely hot conditions.  The temperature pushed 90F as the day wore on, and I went through a lot of water for cooling purposes.  I struggled on the run and finished with a time of 1:55:59 compared to 1:45:51, last year.

The gains made on the swim, bike, and transitions were enough to offset the loss on the run, and I finished with an overall time of 5:27:55.  My goal was to break 5:30, so mission accomplished.  I'm a bit hesitant to consider it a PR as I believe the swim was short, but I can only go by the numbers I have.

I was speedy in T1 as I went without socks and I had preloaded my drinks onto my bike.  Last year, I had the bottles in a cooler with ice.  Even though I forgot my gels and had to run back for them, I was way faster than last year.

I felt sluggish on the bike, and was concerned about losing time over last year.  While I think my actual pace was slower, this year, I didn't stop to change anyone's tires, and came in with a bike time of 2:49:27 compared to last year's 2:53:06.

One big change from last year was the strong presence of course marshalls.  They were up and down the course, and it appeared to have an impact.  Last year they had full fledged pelotons all over the bike route.  This year, drafting was much less prevelant, and most of that was the hard to avoid situations on major hills.

I blazed through T2 in just over 90 seconds, and started the run in extremely hot conditions.  The temperature pushed 90F as the day wore on, and I went through a lot of water for cooling purposes.  I struggled on the run and finished with a time of 1:55:59 compared to 1:45:51, last year.

True to my resolution to improve, or at least change, the way my run pictures turn out, I made sure to do something different as I ran by photographers.  I don't know if the "arms up in victory" pose is any better (since this is at about mile 1), but it is at least different.

The gains made on the swim, bike, and transitions were enough to offset the loss on the run, and I finished with an overall time of 5:27:55.  My goal was to break 5:30, so mission accomplished.  I'm a bit hesitant to consider it a PR as I believe the swim was short, but I can only go by the numbers I have.

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