New Balance Victoria Half Ironman

On June 21 2009, Cycle University Triathlon Team members and marital partners Michelle and Roger, participated in the New Balance Victoria Half Ironman Triathlon, which was Roger's first half iron distance race. Included below are their race reports:

Michelle
What a great race! I highly recommend the Victoria Half Ironman to anyone who is looking at half ironmans in the future.

We dropped of our bikes the afternoon before so all that we had to do before the race was get body marked and get our timing chips. I was getting ready to put on my timing chip and noticed LOL was written in white on the strap. I was amazed that the race had such a great sense of humor. It then occurred to me that it was actually my race number which was 707, and upside down it was LOL. It made me laugh, something that everyone should do before a race.

I saw 2 other CycleU Incycle participants that I had the pleasure of coaching through at least one Incycle class, and I also knew 2 other people outside of CycleU, which was nice.

The race started at 6:45 am with the sound of the cannon. It was the first time I had ever heard that cannon go off instead of a blow horn. Man it was loud. The start was a mass start where I positioned myself on the inside and towards the front. Everyone had spread out along the shoreline so it seemed like a good spot. Then it began. I only got hit a few times in the swim. The most nerve racking was when I noticed a swimmer on my left and right coming in towards me at the same time. I kept swimming and it was fine.

I finished the 1.2 mile swim in 33:56.

Off to the bike leg. It was a two loop course with rolling hills. There was only 1 section that you weren't going up or down. It is not as hilly as the Lake Steven's 70.3 course. At the end of the first loop it started pouring rain. I mean pouring, it was like taking a shower, except with the speed on the bike it felt like you were getting pelted with rain drops (and I'm not exaggerating). My hands were so cold that I could not shift my gears without dropping into my drops, and my toes went numb. By the time I was halfwaythrough my second loop the sky cleared up and it was sunny again. When I was all of ½ a mile from the end of the bike I saw a deer on the side of the road (but unlike Marta it just stood there and watched me ride by).

I finished the 87km (54 mile) bike in 3:36.

I was off on the run, my legs felt great. The run was 2 loops around a 6 mile lake, all on trails. It was beautiful, the temperature was perfect. They had 5 aid stations on one loop of the lake. I ran the entire time except to take in a couple gu's and drink water and Gatorade. After the first lap I was still feeling strong, The course was marked every kilometer, and I told myself I could only look at my watch every 5K to see how I was doing. The second loop seemed to take a lot longer, but it was nice because at the 15K mark I knew I only had a 5K to go and I just told myself, I could run a 5K any day. So I finished strong, feeling good, and thinking back at all the training I put into this race.

I finished the 20K (12.4 mile) run in 2:10.

My total race time was 6:25:44.

I went into the race looking to break the 7hr mark, and would bereally happy to break the 6:30 mark, so yes I'm glad I did it, and yes I will do it again.

Roger
Roger's Victoria Half IM Race Report (aka Roger's Day of Pain)

The day started out well, a little overcast and cool but no wind and no rain. The day before we had some pretty solid wind gusts out side of our hotel so Iwas a little concerned about that. We arrived at the park around 5:30 am and got a nice parking spot near the transition. I wasn't concerned about not being able to leave until the road was opened I wasn't expecting to run sub-6 HIM thefirst time out.

Swim -HOLY S&!T, there was a lot of people waiting in the water to start.... As this was my first mass start at this size I was a little concerned but Michelle thought it best to swim the 100 yards to the start instead of walking. This was a very good idea, I was warmed up and fairly comfortable in the water.

BOOM!!!! (an artillery cannon-up close is bleeding loud). Ok, my game plan was to wait for five seconds and then take off, 1,2,3 ah screw it. Into the water I went and at that point I realized that the analogy of swimming in a washing machine didn't quite do it justice. I saw more disembodied hands and feet underwater than a bad horror flick. About 300 yards in I found a gap in the bodies and was able to relax and get into a rythm. Iwas feeling very comfortable and only needed to pause twice to readjust my sight lines. The second time was due some one using me as a surf board (felt like they were there an hour or so) and actually twisted me almost ninety degrees from the course.

Swim Time: 46:34 PR!!!! YAHOOO!!!

Out of the water and feeling goooood! Actually jogged up into the transition, grabbed my towel and did a quick dry off, socks, shoes, shirt, camelbak, helmet,g lasses, and race belt.

T1 3:58 (not too bad).

Bike off the rack and I'm moving, I'm a little cold but not to concerned. I'm onto the first part of the loop at the first hill, the thought in my head was to keep my cadence up so I downshift into granny and the chain falls into the bottom bracket and gets stuck there. So I have to get off the bike and reach down to pull it unstuck, it felt like I was there for a good five minutes. At the bottom of the first loop the sun came out and it felt amazing, I shifted into the big ring and really started cooking.

I finished the first loop it felt like I was picking off a person about ever ten minutes or so and was feeling in great shape. About the same hill that I lost my chain on I noticed that therains had come through, it took me about 10 minutes and everything from the waist down was wet and frozen--a unique and fairly painful experience.

At this point I noticed the lady with a full on TT bike, aero helmet, and tris uit blow by me on the hill, get about a quarter mile and pull a u-turn in the street and head down hill. The third time she does this I yell out if she needs to add some hill repeats to make the course harder. She slows down and tells me she's training for an IM and helping her friend who is doing her first HIM by riding "with" her.

Just after the water station on the second loop (approx. a third the way in) I hit the second big hill and lose my chain again. I hop off and put it back on,and stand up to get up the hill when I notice that every 4th or 5th pedal stroke my chain skips a gear on the rear cog. After about five minutes of switching gears I realize that the middle gear skips the worst and if I'm in my big or granny gear it isn't to bad. At this point I'm seriously having mental issues, my gear is not working right, I'm tired, cold, and seriously frustrated. I keep going just because I haven't figured out a good way to quit. The rest of the ride is difficult as I have to focus on keeping easy and constant pressure on the pedals to avoid the skipping gear problem.

Bike time: 3:41:48

Into T2, move my neighbors bike so I have room to put my bike and away I go.

T2: 2:43

I finished my water bottle and my entire camelbak on the bike. I was a little tired but felt pretty good going into the run. The first loop was excellent running off road through some great views and cool trail running, on my watch loop 1 took my 1:08. As I ran past the finish line toward my second loop and the crowds cheering me on I felt great. As I went past the aid station I grabbed a GU and and sent it down, about ten steps later it came back up. My stomach went into severe and all encompassing cramps.... oh joy.... At this pointI'm walking some and running some, ok walking a lot more than running. As I hit the next water station I'm forcing down water and gatorade, I'm at the point of running 2 minutes, walking 2 minutes. At the last water station word had gotten around that I was having issues and a very nice man with very good intentions offered me a sandwich, I'm sure he meant well but at that time my stomach was cramping on the water that I forced down.

Run time: 2:43:25

Finish time: 7:18:26

Ok, this long winded ramblings of my first half IM really come down to this final statement: I had a good time and I will do this again. Sure I've got a few areas to improve on, like the running, the swimming, the biking, and maybe a transition or two. But hey, I think I can improve my time next event.