Humbled by the Heat

Blazing heat, brutal humidity.   That is what's in store for me on May 21, and the Galveston 70.3 this weekend was a great precursor to that race. 

I rode down Saturday with my friend Brandi.  She and I have been swimming and doing track workouts together, and she's a great training buddy, always pushing me to my limits.  A side benefit to training with her is that she's a journalist, and I get to hear about news stories on the criminal justice beat before they make the paper.   Meeting new, interesting people like Brandi is, in my opinion, one of the best reasons to do this whole triathlon thing.

Arriving in Galveston, we immediately noticed the horizontal palm trees - full force wind at 22 mph.  By Sunday morning the wind had died down some but was still around 18 mph.  This made for a choppy swim.  I was tossed around but felt good overall and was pleased with a 40-minute 1.2 miles - not a PR, but a solid time for me, especially given the conditions.  The first half of the bike was spent fighting a headwind.  We rode from Moody Gardens south down the seawall, across San Luis pass, and then turned around to head back.  The tailwind back was helpful and certainly improved the overall time.  My bike split was 2:58, again, not a PR but a solid speed at 19 mph.

Then came the "run."  At the start, which for me was right around noon, the sun was blazing overhead.  My stomach hurt, and I felt light-headed.  And I walked.  The course was four loops all within Moody Gardens.  I probably walked almost half of the first lap.  Then I saw a porta-john and used that as an excuse to stop moving altogether, spending at least 3 minutes basically resting in the can.  Emerging, I saw my friend Craig.  He was keeping a good clip, so I decided I'd try to stick with him for a while.  It was just the push I needed to get my head back in the race.  I couldn't keep up with him for more than a mile, but I'm so grateful I saw him.  I was able to continue the race mostly running after that point and finished the half-marathon in about 2:17 with an overall time of 6:00.  Of the three half irons I've done, it was my slowest; however, my fastest was only 4 minutes faster.  I'm nothing if not consistent. 

Despite my time, I'm glad I did this race.  I think it will help tremendously with my prep for IMTX, and there are a number of lessons to be learned.  I thought I hydrated well on the bike, but apparently I could have hydrated a lot more.  I need to practice the bike to run transition.  Given that the second half of the run was 10 minutes faster than the first, it's clear that my problem was more mental than fatigue.  And most important - I've got to get some new bike shorts with better padding and/or a different bike saddle!  Oh, holy mother, was I ever in pain on the second half of that bike ride. 

Click here for a link to a picture of some of our group pre-race on Sunday.  My friends Teresa (5th from the left) and Seth (tall guy in the middle) are both doing IMTX.  We'll all be sporting those blue T3 jerseys on race day, so we'll be easy to find.