This past weekend was the Diamondman 1/2 Iron triathlon in Bear, DE. It was a big test for my fitness and pacing for Ironman so I was hoping to have a good day. With hurricane Hanna moving through Saturday it was a great blue sky day for a race! I decided to drive up the morning of the race which was not a good choice having to leave at 4am.... luckily Mary did the driving and helped me with everything... thanks Mary! I didn't start very well in the swim because of getting to the line late, but surprisingly within 5 minutes I was having a good day. I am not the best swimmer, but I don't slow down so I tend to catch up as the race goes on. At the turnaround I caught on with a small group and got into a nice draft for the return. It was also good because we were going directly into the sun so sighting was almost impossible. Leaving the water I felt good and was ready for the bike; 57th out of the water is OK... The bike leg was a challenge! I have only raced 1 1/2 iron distance before so I wasn't sure what kind of pace to maintain... should I go all out on the bike? 56 miles would be a great distance for it, but then a 13 mile run? Maybe if it was an 8 mile run or even 10, but 13? I felt very strong and even though it was windy I was keeping a good pace. the course had been changed so we had to cross a large bridge which was a climb 4 times total. The first time was great out to the turnaround, and I saw the 3 leaders coming back. After that I thought I could catch everyone else. I kept my pace though and tried to get my nutrition right for the rest of the day which brought me to my first problem. I was thinking we would have whole water bottles for bike cages, but at the bottle exchange they were not the right size... I couldn't keep one with me on the bike. I made the decision to just try to get by with the 2 I brought which probably wasn't the best idea. That is what a test race is for though, right? Everything went well until the last trip up the bridge. By this time I was well through the field and passing people on their 1st way in so it was crowded... that isn't usually a problem, but the cars had backed up behind the groups of racers. Now I am trying to pass racers on the left while I have slow cars I am passing on my right! Scary stuff... luckily I was only held up a few times, but in the scrum I must have gone over a bridge seam too hard and my front tire began going soft. Luckily I was able to keep it going OK and finished the bike leg with about 30 pounds in there... that was close! I went into T2 6th overall and had the 5th bike time. Now comes the hard part.... I left T2 in 7th place behind a guy that I wanted to try to pace with. After a good first mile I began to come to my senses and let him go... I have to pace for runs like this! The course was on the C&D canal path by the water which was great, but I wasn't used to the crushed stone. By the turnaround point I was getting pretty happy; I had maintained a great pace and still felt strong... I thought I may even be able to negative split the run! Well, I was definitely ahead of myself.... by the time I got to mile 10 I was having a hunger knock and slowing down. I quickly went into survival mode... how fast do I have to go to stay where I am? Needless to say when you are thinking like that you are not doing well.. I was passed by 1 guy at mile 11 and 1 about a 1/2 mile out.... I had nothing left, but still was happy. Much to my sup rise I finished the run 21st, and ended up 9th overall! I also won the 35-59 age group with a time of 4:38:39 which left me happy! It was also the first race in my new kit for my team Sublime Athletics. I will be racing and promoting my coaching service and should have a website up soon. Next up is the Michaux Endurance series finals if I ever recover from this race. I will keep you posted and thanks for reading!
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