Taylorsville Half-Ironman Race Report

I started out the season this year with a 1/2 Ironman race... wasn't sure if that was a good idea. But, with moving and everything going on in life, it seemed to be my only option to get a race in before Kansas 70.3.

The day started out much different than normal with crazy thunderstorms and a cold front moving through. It poured rain for a while and a lightening bolt actually hit just outside of transition area, knocking one guy on the ground! I actually felt some of the electric shock go through my clavical while I was digging around in the back seat of my car looking for something.

The swim temperature was much warmer than I thought it was going be. I ended up using the Xterra speedsuit instead of their wetsuit. The two loop course with a turn within the first 50 yards or so. That corner was super congested and after rounding the corner I was probably in 20th. I don't like starting out fast on the swim in long races like this because I know that if I ease into and find a rhythm I end up being faster than most of group. By the next turn I was in first on the swim. However, by the end of the swim I ended coming out of the water in 3rd.

The bike was incredibly hilly... which made it hard to find a rhythm... but I recently found that I'm actually fairly good at climbing in comparison to other triathletes (as far as roadies go, however... that is a different story). I quickly found myself in first on the bike ride and then by mile 10 another athlete caught me. We ended up doing kind of a slinkly motion with the hills. He was faster going down the hills and I was faster riding up the hills. Around mile 40-45 he ended up flatting and I think he dropped out the race b/c I don't think I saw him on the run. I had the opportunity to ride my new bike (Scott Plasma) and it felt great. I do have a little getting used to the Zipp 808 in the front with crosswind conditions... but I did notice some improvement with battling the wind by the end of the ride. Here is a link for the elevation map on the bike:

http://www.headfirstperformance.com/Half/bikeprofile.htm

The run was a triple out and back. I felt kind of crappy on the first loop since the sun started to come out and the humidity was rising quickly. When I got to the turn around, I asked the volunteers if it would be possible to get another aid station between the two at the end points on the run b/c it was getting hot. Thankfully they worked that out.

I ended up winning with a time of 4:23 and beat the next guy by about 8-10 minutes. I beat the last years time by about 8 minutes. I'm not sure, but I think I may have made a course record. Also, at the end of the race some of the workers asked me if I was pro. I answered with, "no... but I'm hoping to be one some day."

Mission Accomplished

Well... I made my goals for the winter. I swam 28.5 miles in one week and completed 153 miles between the time of the start of the semester to spring break. All while working 20+ hours a week, and doing 20+ hours of clinical a week, and studying for my classes. Should benefit me this race season in the water.

Swim Swim Swim

The IWU Cycling and Triathlon Club is doing an event called Swim Across Indiana. The teams of up to five people that will try to swim enough laps between the team to either swim north to south (283 miles) or east to west (153 miles). I couldn't convince my team to go to north to south, so I decided to try to test myself in a different way. I want to try to swim the east to west by myself. My miles will count towards my team but after my team crosses the finish line I'm going to keep tracking my yardage. I have eight weeks (the start of the semester until spring break) to log about 19.1 miles a week (or about 2.75 miles each day). I think I should be able to do this without too much of a problem because I'm only taking 8 credits this semester (it's all I need to graduate with my BSN). My goal is to eventually work up to swimming 28-miles in one week.

Inbetween all my swimming I've been trying to find a job for after school. So far I've applied to about 15 or 20 jobs in the Louisville area and have posted my resume on www.monster.com. I'm hoping to land a couple interviews over spring break and secure a job. Once I get that taken care of, I think I'll start hitting the books for the N-CLEX. Oh... the dreaded N-CLEX!