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Race Result
| Racer: |
Doug Steele |
| Race: |
Kinetic Half |
| Date: |
Saturday, April 19, 2008 |
| Location: |
Spotsylvania, VA |
| Race Type: |
Triathlon - Half Ironman |
| Age Group: |
Male 35 - 39 |
| Time: |
5:30:00 |
| Overall Place: |
75 / 234 |
| Age Group Place: |
11 / 33 |
| Comment: |
First Race in 3 years |
Race Report:
The plan for this race was to test out my fitness, nutrition plan, and level of enjoyment with this distance. Injuries slowed my training significantly over the last few months so I readjusted my goals and I am glad that I did. I achieved a couple ‘firsts’ in this race: First Half, First race in 3 years, First time I didn't hammer the bike. Overall, mission accomplished, with a new level of respect for those who achieve high ranks in the elite and AG for this sport.
Swim: Water temp. was the hype du jour but it turned out to be a non-factor. I wanted to get under 30 mins and I came close. Not a big fan of long sleeve wetsuits, I am not use to the extra work it takes to get the arms moving. Once I got rid of the cobwebs and into a rhythm this part of the race was uneventful….which is a good thing.
Bike: The goal here was to end this leg with enough gas for the run. That means no hammering and pay attention to my calorie intake. I constantly asked my self: “Can you go faster?” if the answer was “yes” then I was riding at the right pace, if it was “no” then I slowed down. For those of you who know me, this strat is very ‘un-doug-like’. So I watched a lot of people blow past me on the bike and I stuck to my plan and let them go. One thing that I strongly believe in, and wished I had done, is a course review or drive. I really didn’t know what to expect from the course, so I didn’t know when to go hard or take it easy. Knowledge is power. Overall I was pretty happy with my energy level coming off the bike, so the nutrition plan worked, and my legs felt ok.
Run: Now comes the hard part, my left hamstring gave me some serious problems over the last few months, so I came into this race under trained for the run. The plan was to keep a steady pace based off of feel. I was prepared to drop out if the hammy decided to quit on me. Although both of my legs were pretty tight I kept up the run and the hammy didn’t have any problems. I actually passed a few people which really surprised me. I was just glad to get through it and felt pretty good coming across the finish line.
The Steele family decided to make this race into a camping weekend so we reserved a campsite at the park and stayed over the weekend. We got a RATS visit from Reid, Shawn and crew but we cut it short since it started to sprinkle.
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