the blog at eric moon dot net

Ivonne and I took a drive out east this past weekend to take part in the Iron Star Half Iron Triathlon in Montgomery, TX, with a bunch of other folks from Austin T3.   It turned out to be a great way to end my “up and down” 2008 season.

This was the third time we’ve been out here.   I did the race in 2005, and Ivonne and I both did it in 2006.  In 2007 we stayed closer to home with the Longhorn Half Iron (before it became an official Ironman™ 70.3 event). The course has changed since the first 2 years.  The bike is more or less the same, but the run is completely different  – now it’s a point-to-point run going through some gated communities, a vast improvement over the double loop run of years past.

Just like years prior, we stayed with Jack’s uncle about a mile from the race start.  Well, this time it was a different uncle, but the houses are exactly the same floor plan, in the same neighborhood, just about next to each other.  It is such a great thing that they do, opening their house to a dozen triathletes from Austin, cooking us dinner, and letting us change and clean up after the race…. It hands-down beats a cheap motel or driving back sweaty and dirty.

The race start is the same place it was in ’05 and ’06, at the La Torretta Del Lago resort.  The name of the resort has changed, and with the name change came massive reconstruction.  The entire resort is currently a field of mud and rocks and big construction equipment.   Not the prettiest place to start, and we did have to walk about 1/2 mile from parking to transition and another 1/2 mile from transition to swim start, but overall, it didn’t represent much of an issue for the weekend.

The number one worry coming into this race would be the temperature.  Now normally, I am used to worrying about it being too hot when racing in Texas.  But this was November and we had a cold front come through earlier in the week.   I didn’t know quite what to expect, but getting onto the bike soaking wet and riding through a shaded forest did cause a bit of concern.

Swim: 0:33:55 1:47/100m

The swim was fairly uneventful and typical for me.  I did get an elbow square to the jaw in the first 50 yards

or so, but the water was cold enough that it didn’t really start hurting until later that day.  It’s still a bit sore a few days later, but keeping it cold for 30 minutes immediately after probably prevented quite a bit of swelling.

The water was cool, but it was warmer than the air, so we had to contend with a bit of fog on the water

making the buoys hard to sight.  I ended up sighting mostly off of the swimmers in front of me rather than the buoys.  It got me to the general direction of the turns and kept me mostly straight.  The last 100 meters or so was ice cold as it was in the shade and very shallow.  I often got a fist full of mud on my stroke.

I did cramp slightly getting out of the water.  A longer swim would probably have been disastrous, again.

Bike:2:46:36.3 20.2MPH

I did not have a good bike.  I was looking to do at least 2:45 with a goal of around 2:40.  I knew from the first couple of strokes that I wouldn’t be hitting that time.  I was cold and sore.  The cold, I knew where that was coming from, but the sore – no idea.   My legs just hurt.

The first part of the ride wasn’t too bad.  I knew the Sam Houston National Forest was going to be cold.  The temperature reading on the digital U-Stor-It sign read 52F.  That, combined with the shade of the tall trees in the national forest meant I wouldn’t feel my toes until about 28 miles later.  Despite the discomfort, I had expected it, so it wasn’t bad.

After the out-and-back halfway mark, however, the wind kicked up, I got stuck at a train crossing and I flatted out.  The wind was a headwind all the way in and just made things downright miserable.  Sore legs pushing against the wind will never be my idea of a good ride.  Adding insult to injury, I got stuck for about 30 seconds at a train crossing.  Yep, a train came through the course and we had to wait it out.  Luckily, I caught the tail end, so it didn’t affect me as much as the 3-4 guys already waiting there when I pulled up.

And to top it off, my front tire went flat with about 10 miles to go.  It was a slow-ish leak and they are tubular tires, so I thought I might be able to ride it out for the rest of the course, but I was soon riding on the rim.   I made the decision not to change the tire, but instead to just shoot it full of CO2 and refill if necessary.  Turned out it wasn’t necessary and I managed to make it back to transition without stopping again.

Run: 1:32:28 7:04 min/mile

There was one thing I was thinking about as I rode the last half of the bike course in misery.  And that was the run.  I knew my run was strong and I was going to go out hard, and hold on to pace until I crumbled or finished, whichever came first.   I was pissed about my ride, angry about sore legs, and ready to let loose.  The only thing that could stop me was the ubiquitous cramps.

The cramps almost came.  My hamstring started twitching at mile 2 and it stayed on the edge of cramping the next 11.1 miles.   I didn’t care, I was going to run this one as hard as I could and if the cramps stopped me, so be it.  I think the cooler weather helped keep things at bay for the run, but I still don’t have a good solution.

It seems that I tend to pick up impromptu running partners in Iron Star.  In 2005, when I had an amazingly great race for my fitness level (5:08 total), I ran stride for stride with a woman until the last mile.  This year a young guy ran up next to me around mile 3 and ran inches away from me until cramps got him around the 12 mile marker.  It certainly makes for a faster run since I’m sure as heck not going to be the one that slows down the pace – Is there anything more powerful  in a race than the male competitive ego?

Total Time : 4:58:32.2, good enough for 3rd M30-34.

Tags: Half Ironman, IronStar, race report, triathlon

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Racing.