Race Result

Racer:	Steve Smith
Race:	Great Floridian Half Ironman
Date:	Saturday, October 23, 2004
Location:	Clermont, FL
Race Type:	Triathlon - Half Ironman
Age Group:	Male 35 - 39
Time:	4:26:00
Overall Place:	3
Comment:	Very solid race ... man Josh can run.

Race Report:

Well, I *almost* made all four of my goals. This is a quick report 'cause I have a slew of old race reports that need finishing (including the complete race report for this race, LAST YEAR, IM-USA, and marathon race report from 2002 :)

I managed to forget one piece of gear going into this race, nutrition (well, I did have my two Accelerade bottles, but I left my gel & salt in T1).

I was pummeled in the water by the eventual winner, Marc Bonnet-Eymard (by 4 minutes ... damn swimmers! how many times have I uttered those words this year?) and absolutely crushed in the run by the second place finisher, Josh Ritchie (I was up by 5 minutes on Josh as we entered T2, he would out-split me on the run by 6:45! with a final run time of 1:21) to be 2:48 and 0:59 back respectively. The next closest guy was more than seven minutes behind me.

Marc & Josh (and, well, I) are having fantastic years. Marc has won a ton of races down in Florida this year, beating some very, very solid competition throughout the year. This race is in Marc's back yard, and it's not easy to beat someone in their hometown race, I know that much.

Josh won the USAT Duathlon nationals. We talked a bit after the race and he is a super nice guy, but it still sucks to get beat by a duathlete, even a nice one :) Josh was 4 minutes behind me on the swim, and two minutes back on the bike. Marc & I were within 1-second of one another on the bike & I outsplit Marc's run by 2:19.

Still, I learned a lot in this race. I felt great on the run, keeping a very steady pace of about 6:40 for most of the race (I didn't catch my first mile split (pro'ly around 7:10), and I did 14:15 over the two miles that include The Monster Hill early in the run; after that I ran consistently around 6:40, give or take a few seconds. In the first seven miles I had to pull back the pace a few times, just a hair or three, to avoid cramping in my hammies. Perhaps the salt tablets would have allowed me to go just a smidge faster, perhaps not.

Once I realized I'd left my gel in transition, I came up with this plan: ride my normal ride, get into T2 & pound some gel immediately. Take T2 & the first three miles easy (up That Monster Hill) and give my stomach time to digest. Continue to work on my gel flask as best I could after that. This mostly worked. I didn't slow down during the run and while I did have some stomach cramping issues around mile 4, they were short-lived. I finished the flask of gel by mile 7 and didn't take in many calories after that. I thought I did a pretty good job of dodging the bonk bullet, even if it did cost me nearly a minute in transition. I chose to bring my training/marathon shoes, with laces, and I pounded gel before lacing up my shoes & stretching a bit in T2 ... I was a full minute slower than the top guys in transition. This probably worked to my advantage. If I'd raced out of T2 with Josh, I probably would have tried to keep up (no way knowing what I know now), missed my calorie window, and exploded at mile six.

Given all that, I was really happy with my race. I'm not sure why the bike splits were so much faster this year. I definitely have better overall bike fitness this year, but I was probably closer to peak bike fitness this time last year. Also, the winds seemed much harder this year, but that could be selective memory. I was a little disappointed in my swim; I felt great during the swim (getting a great dolphin series out into deeper water and leading my wave, at least on my section of the wave). Marc swam essentially this same time this year that he swam last year; I was about a minute faster, but most of that can be attributed to my starting on-time this year. I just have to learn how to pace my race swimming. In retrospect I felt TOO good during the swim.

I really enjoy this course. It's challenging, no doubt, and hot & windy & sunny. But those are all things I like. The food selection was pretty dim this year, but my only criticism from last year wast that a lot of the Half athletes ate most of the IM food, so maybe next year they'll balance things out.

If you plan on doing this race, it pays to make your reservations early. Hotels & rental car prices can skyrocket on some weekends. Also there is at least one hotel down in Clermont now (Holiday Inn Express) and another motel across the street (that I hadn't noticed before).

Oh, the most humorous point of this race ... I talked quite a bit with Mac Brown, the guy who came in fourth, as we walked back to TA to get our gear. When we'd left the finish area Josh was in 1st, me 2nd and Mac 3rd as Marc had yet to come in. When I got back to the finish area I noted that Marc (who I'd figure to be the favorite) had indeed won, dropping me into 3rd. I grabbed some very tasty ice cream (moose tracks .... mmmmm) and wandered around a bit when I ran into Mac

"Dude," (he's from California) "Did you see that some old guy came in & crushed everyone"

"Huh?" Says me "No ... Ahead of Marc?" My mind scrambled a bit. There are not many 40+ males who can beat me in a half, and I know most of their names. Still, I hadn't really looked at the start list 'cause I figured Marc was the guy to beat.

"Yeah, he cruised in not long after we did ... something of a hyphenated last name ..."

"Yeah," says I, "That'd be Marc!" and I think for a long, hard second. "Uh, he ain't old, he's 33." Of course, I'd turned 35 just 24 hours earlier, but I didn't point that out at the time. I did lay a bit of pummel on that young punk Mac (26), but it was hard to take any satisfaction in that 'cause he was a pretty nice guy. For a kid.

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Aug 25, 2004 - Goals:

Keep track of my gear
Top three overall
Don't jeopardize IM-Florida
Win