Ok, well first off, I have the best cheering section/supporter ever! Yep, Red came, he saw, he cheered, and he got a stinky, sweaty hug in return. Gave me something to look forward to on the run though!
So in the past couple of years Muncie has been unbearably hot! When I did it in 2011 it was 103 by the time we got off the bike and onto the run. I was miserable and finished in 6:45 dehydrated, unhappy, and feeling nauseous. My friend did Muncie last year, 2012, and Ironman actually shortened the course to an Olympic distance because the temperature was 105 with a heat index over 110. This year the temperature was nearly perfect. It was about 68 degrees when I headed out in the morning, the water temperature was 76 even, which made it wetsuit legal. I was super excited about the prospect of wearing my wetsuit! It makes swimming virtually effortless which makes me a happy midget. By the time I was done for the day it was about 85 degrees. There had been a slight breeze all day, and a few clouds, which meant that even in the 80's everything was completely bearable. On to the race!
The Swim: 38:48
Like I said, the swim was wetsuit legal, which made me very happy. I think nearly everyone brought their suit just in case the weather played in our favor, but there were still a few that didn't have them. I like my wetsuit now because it makes my swim super easy. I still have the issue of the collar part eating my neck, but I'm hoping to figure it out soon. Red was laughing at me because I was trying to put my suit on in the chute while waiting for my wave to go off. They were spacing us about 5 minutes or so apart, so I had PLENTY of time because there was a wave of red caps waiting to take off, then a sea of orange caps, then my wave of purple caps. When I was finally situated in my suit I placed myself closer to the start of the group than I have in years past, and I think it paid off. I normally don't feel like I'm super fast, but I usually have to swim around a lot of other people to get to clear water, so I thought I would give the front a go, and it was ok. I ended up sprinting about the first 500 yards because the girls in front are super fast. Once we all settled out I spent most of my time realizing how much I suck at sighting, swimming straight, and staying on feet. I would find a set of feet and draft like crazy but then lose them almost as quickly as I found them. At one point I popped my head up to see where I was going and realized I was about 30 yards inside the buoys, doh! I corrected and decided to pop up a little bit more frequently. I caught a large portion of the orange wave that was in front of me, tried to keep my eye on the fast purple caps, and ended up even catching some of the red caps. There was a group of blue caps, pretty sure men 30-35, who ended up catching some of us, because they're freakishly fast! They weren't the nicest either because they didn't care if they swam over you or not, but it wasn't too terrible. In high school we would play sharks and minnows where you could drag people under and over the water, so fighting in water was normal to me. I was able to hop on one guys feet for a bit but then ditched him because he was following the buoys in and it was a much faster straighter line if I just went to the finish chute. I finally got up to the finish chute and wasn't dizzy for a change! Woot for seeing straight!
Transition One: 4:06
I took off my suit, threw on my sunglasses, helmet, and shoved my nutrition in my kit and was off. I ran the whole way up to transition and was so quick that Red actually didn't even get to see me because I ran faster than he did.
Bike: 2:56:02
I broke three hours!!! Woot!! The bike is by far my least favorite part. I've been working really hard trying to get faster and stronger and it is finally paying off! I typically come out in the top 1/3 of my age group on the swim, then I usually drop to the bottom 1/3 on the bike and have to run my way back up through people on the run. This time I only lost 1 spot on the bike! Wooty woot! I set an alarm on my watch to remind me to drink every 15 minutes. This isn't a normal problem for most people, but I get side tracked and worry so much about trying to keep moving that I forget to drink or eat. I solved that problem and it made a huge difference! I could have asked for a much better course though. The roads were horrible. Within 5 miles my front water bottle cage broke from all the bouncing and BMX looking moves, and I didn't even wreck! We headed out to a main road for about 15 miles, then hit a road that was so small and so pot hole covered that they dubbed it a no pass zone for a mile. Yep, in the middle of a race you couldn't pass. Ugh. We then turned on to "Bob's road". It was beyond bumpy, tiny, pot hole filled, gravel covered, and ridiculous than 95% of the roads I have ever encountered. We had to go out 8 miles, and back 8 miles on this nonsense, and no one was happy. I jokingly asked someone what they thought and they launched a slur of expletives that made it PAINFULLY clear that they were far less than pleased. One guy saw me trying to not die on an especially bumpy part and decided to take his time passing me to tell me "good job", and be nice. Well some other girl decided that she wanted more room on the road and didn't wait to see if she cleared him before passing back into my lane and clipped his front tire with her back tire. This sent him flying across the road into the cornfield on the other side. The people in the front are mean! There were quite a few people who were just trying to get in front and didn't care if they took you out in the process. I'm used to being farther in the back where everyone is nice and encouraging because they know you're hating life because you're slow. I now know that I need to get even faster so I can be farther in the front where there aren't nearly as many people!
Now thanks to the way the course was made, there weren't too many places for drafting, which is good and bad. It's good because then we were all equally screwed, it was bad because then we would get penalties if we were caught drafting and also had to work super hard. There was one part during the last 5 miles of the race where drafting was a strong possibility. This is the only place that I saw a Draft Marshall. They weren't messing around either. There was a group of us of about 6 or 7 people, all trying to figure out who was passing who when the motorcycle showed up. The person on the back literally took out a stop watch and slowed down to monitor a girl as she passed a guy who was refusing to be passed. I ended up saying screw it and just slowed down instead of fighting a head wind and a stubborn mule just to potentially get a penalty in the last 5 miles of a bike. I was very happy to get off my bike and even happier when I looked down and realized I had a strong potential to get under three hours! I came into transition and Red let me know that I was in fact under three hours and told me I looked great!
Transition Two: 3:14
I hung my bike back up. Chucked my helmet and bike shoes, hooked on my bib number/spi belt and headed out of transition. I was actually feeling really good and I remembered what Miller told me about the beginning and decided to try it out.
The Run: 2:04:21
Miller wanted me to stay around Zone 2 during the first part of the run then hit Zone 3 and stay there for the second half because he thinks that I have the fitness to hold Zone 3 for extended periods of time. Well, it was pretty warm, and I was pretty tired, but I was also quite determined. I refused to let myself walk at any point. I learned during the Flying Pig that I feel better when I just take water and such on the go and don't walk aid stations. I was able to watch the very front people come in instead of the middle people slog along. I didn't know where I stood anymore for the race, but I kept checking calves trying to see ages. I realized that the look of the people around me was very different than what I was used to. All of the people around me were fast looking guys, not many people walking, and very fit looking girls. Turned out that I was closer to the front than usual. I don't know what people will look like if I ever get to the real front! The aid station volunteers were wonderful! One girl had a cup of water and a cup of ice and I asked for ice water, she handed me the ice and said it would melt. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer. It was fine though because the ice felt good. I figured out the easiest way to feel good was to drink a cup of water, then dump a cup of water and ice in my top and shorts. Best. Plan. Ever. I asked another volunteer for ice water and she dumped the two cups together so I didn't have to juggle a million cups. It's the little things during the run that make life SO much easier. I knew I was slowing down, but I was trying to keep my heart rate up and according to my watch I was only in Zone 1.9 while running 9 minute miles at mile 8? Yeah, remember all that water I said I was wearing? Apparently it doesn't ruin my heart rate strap, but it does stop it from registering my heart rate to my watch. Oh well. In my head I thought I could push faster, and probably seeing that Zone 1.9 on my watch rather than Zone 4 kept me pushing harder the last 5 miles. I was 2 miles from the finish before I needed some real self talk and not let myself walk, which was totally worth it.
In the end I finished in 5:46:31, which was nearly an hour faster than 2011. I was very tired but I felt better after sitting. I came out of the water in 23rd place in my age group, I came off the bike in 24th place in my age group, and by the time I finished my run I had ran myself up to 17th place in my age group. Now I just need to increase a bit of my speed and potentially find a way to take in more actual nutrition during the run, and hopefully that will let me get under 5:30 like I wanted to. Will I run Muncie again? Not unless I absolutely have to. I raced well, but the logistics, the course, and only seeing spectators at transition makes this a course I would rather never do again. There are a ton of other half ironman distances that offer much better things than this one does, it's just the closest M-Dot race, but I'm thinking the others will be worth the travel.
What's next? Hopefully learning to blog more often, but definitely Rev 3 Cedar Point! September 7th is my next big race! Yeah!!
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