Spirit of Racine Half Ironman

I completed one of the last big hurdles on my way to Ironman Wisconsin. The Spirit of Racine Half Ironman was held on Sunday, July 23rd, and we couldn’t have asked for any better weather. July in the Midwest is usually brutal at best, but 70’s and low 80’s were forecast and that’s what we got!

I got into Racine around 2:30 in the afternoon, checked into my motel, and headed down to the beach for registration and bike check-in. It was a good thing I got there when I did, because I thought the line looked pretty long. After waiting in line for about 45 minutes, I finally made it through. By the time I got back to my truck and grabbed my bike the line was about 4 times as long as when I went through!

The group from Des Moines had made dinner reservations at a little local Italian restaurant, and I joined them for that. We ate a ton of pasta, but still had room for an ice cream cone from Baskin-Robbins on the way back to the motels. Roehr drove over from her long training day in Madison to be my race-day “sherpa.” And, I put her right to work!

Her first job was to mix my race nutrition – not an easy job in a motel room without any utensils. I was VERY thankful to have an experienced triathlete (yes, that’s what you are now, Roehr…) there to help! We headed down to the race site around 5:30am and got my transition area set up. There were over 1600 participants registered, but I thankfully, had a pretty easy spot to find.

My sherpa carried a bike pump and my sandals, took lots of pictures, listened to me ramble (a common pre-race practice of mine), and gave out lots of encouragement. I needed lots of encouragement as I looked out over the swim course. Unlike a lot of races that use a triangle- or rectangle-shaped course, this was a point-to-point. So, we had to hike about a mile down the beach to get to the start. I stuck my toes in the water to check things out, and it was pretty cold, but thankfully, I’d done much colder. There were also some waves, but, again, I’d also raced in worse.

The pros went off first, then waves of age-groupers for the next 45-60 minutes. I went off at 7:24am heading due east, so all we could see was the sun, right at the horizon when we looked to site. Even that wasn’t so bad when compared to the little waves I thought I had seen on the shore that had turned into monsters as I swam in them. I can only compare the experience to swimming in a washing machine. Between getting kicked and grabbed, and the waves throwing you all over the place, I had a couple moments of near panic. Soon, we rounded the first buoy and headed south, so now the waves were rolling us side to side, instead of smacking us in the face. Having grown up on water and even working summers on the water, I didn’t think I’d ever get sea-sick, but I sure came close during that 40 minute swim. Let’s just say that I think the wetsuit might have been my most valuable piece of equipment that day!

I got a slight cramp coming out of the water, but I didn’t really care because I was, well, out of the water! Sherpa Roehr was near my transition area cheering loudly, and I grabbed my bike and headed out. There wasn’t a ton of wind, and the course was relatively flat, so I just tried to get into a rhythm and get the 56 miles taken care of. This race was to be kind of a dress rehearsal for the Ironman, so I wanted to practice my nutrition, pacing, mental strategies, etc. I got about 8 miles into the bike, only to notice that my bike computer had died. Not completely, just enough that the only valuable information it would give me was cadence. I couldn’t tell speed, mileage, etc, but that wasn’t that big of a deal. I really needed cadence more than anything, so I just kept plugging away.

After about 40 miles, my nutrition wasn’t tasting all that good, I was getting hot, and my back had started to cramp. Overall, I was just getting cranky. By mile 45, I just wanted off the bike. My legs felt good, and I started to dream about getting off the bike and onto the run. There were even brief times that I thought about getting off the bike early and just running in my cycling shoes to T2, but instead, I dug deep and tried to do some weird stretching on the bike, and survived my way back to the transition. I asked my sherpa if it was a bad thing to run on feet I couldn’t feel. She basically told me to get out there and start running. No sympathy from my sherpa!

This was one of the first races that I felt really good right off the bike. That was a big encouragement to me since 13.1 miles is a long way to run if you feel like crap! The run course is a two-lap out-and-back course along the shoreline, up the tallest lighthouse on Lake Michigan. I really like the course because it broke up the run into bite sized pieces. I basically looked at it as four 3.25 mile legs of a race. And, I could see all of the people I knew a bunch of times during the run. There was an aid station at every mile and lots of nutrition and cheering from the residents of Racine. By this point in the day, it was getting pretty toasty, so I took advantage of the various sprinklers and hoses that people would spray to keep us cool.

After the first 6.5 mile loop, my old hamstring started cramping. It was to the point that I could only run on totally flat surfaces or declines, and only walk on the uphills. That slowed me down a bit, but mentally I was still in the game, and I think that is 85% of the battle at that point. I cheered on some friends that had great days, and friends that had pretty miserable days. As I hit the last little downhill section to the finish line, I felt great. My goal was to cross the finish line with a smile on my face, and I crossed it running, smiling, and very happy!!

I didn’t know it at the time but I finished the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run in 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 17 seconds. In the back of my mind, I wanted to break 6 hours, and I did it!

Actually I think the toughest part of the day was still ahead of me – the drive back home to Ames!