Honu 70.3 (Justin's Race Report)

Hey All-

Liz provided great insight (and pictures in her post below) into our training mindframes (nonexistent?) the two weeks prior to Honu so I won't go into too much detail. Even with the lack of race week training, we ate pretty well and stayed active (and more importantly, not sunburnt). So skipping ahead, here's how the race went...

Swim:
45:54 [2:18/100 yds]
Definitely not pretty from a time standpoint and only a mildly better time than last year's St Croix (I guess I'm not suited for the no-wetsuit, ocean swims). I spent a lot of the swim fighting off 2 whales of men- sadly we were going about the swim speed- and am pretty sure I was bear hugged at least twice mid-swim. Once I was able to get a little breathing room I realized the person passing me on my right was swimming the breast stroke. For personal pride I sped up but it still wasn't pretty. The biggest difference in my swim this year is that I actually felt good when I left the water. There was no gasping for air, sea legs, or blurred vision which was great!

T1:
3:40
Liz had me beat out of T1 and my only thought was to get my butt moving and hope not to blow up on the bike...

Bike:
2:57:33 [18.9 mph]
Having heard horror stories about the winds and heat on the bike I definitely gave the course a little too much respect. I drank constantly (went through about 6 bottles of Gu2 and Gatorade Endurance on the bike alone plus my normal gels/food) to prevent dehydration. For whatever reason, I enjoy going uphill and this is where I get to pass most people. With only a short section of heavy winds and the heat not getting to me yet, I decided to push the pace a bit on the turn around. My hard work paid off as I passed Liz with about 10 miles to go on the bike. At this point the heat was finally starting to hurt and the nutrition wasn't going down quite so smoothly.

T2:
3:18
I devoured a PowerBar and decided to carry a water bottle for the first time (which I clutched like a priceless treasure until crossing the line)

Run:
2:00:17 [9:11 min/mile]
I had 2 goals heading out on to the run course: 1) Don't blow up 2) Break 2 hours
Immediately leaving the transition, I found two running keeping about a 10:30 pace and decided to tag along. I knew that if I could stay hydrated and feel good through 7 miles, I could care less what I did to my body for the last 6. For a while, I kept looking over my shoulder waiting for Liz to pass me since I kept seeing her right behind me on short turnarounds. Miles 8-11 followed an endless rode out-and-back where it seemed like an athlete graveyard. Runners had devolved into zombies, completely spent and praying for the race to end. Something about this made me happy...I felt strong knowing I had better race prep to pass all this people on the run. At mile 10 I tore past our local Hawaiian buddy Michael and had to talk a little smack on the pass.

I am very happy with my total time of 5:50:40 and have a lot of work to do before Lake Placid. Up next, Liz, Courtney, and I will be racing the Health Net Oly Triathlon in CT this weekend.