Yes it's true. I did a 1/2 IM: Steelhead 2005
Dan Lee
 
I didn't exactly make this public knowledge, but I did indeed compete in the Steelhead half IM this weekend. Why? I'm still not sure, but here's my recap.

Night Before
Had a nice dinner with Cary, Emilio, and Sue at Shu’s bar/grill. Joe and his wife, along with Ray and Phil were also there but they were across the room at another table. The food was ok, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Finished early and went to my hotel.

Unlike most of the smart club members who stayed at the Boulevard, I stayed at the Comfort Suites in Benton harbor. Why? I was just too darn lazy to book a room in advance. I have no problem with this level of accommodation (aside from the jacked up price for this weekend) since all I need is a clean, quiet room and I’m fine.
Well, the room was clean, but certainly not quiet. First, the neighbors upstairs were jumping up and down for most of the evening. I’m not sure I want to know what they were doing. Luckily, they started to taper off around 10:00 pm.

Then the fun began. A family of what seemed like a thousand children booked several rooms on my floor. One right across from me, and a few down the hall. ALL NIGHT LONG, the children were running down the hall from room to room, slamming the doors behind them. Since they were only in the hall for a few moments before dashing into the room, you couldn’t really yell at them unless you caught them darting from room to room. Finally, I was fed up and jumped to my feet as I heard them running and opened my door to give them an earful. Just as I opened my door, I saw their father ushering them back into the room (about time!). I think he was freaked b/c standing before him was an IRATE triathlete in his boxer shorts with full body marking on his arms/legs just glaring across the hall. That was then end of that, but it was 1:00 am and I couldn’t get to sleep. Next thing I know, my alarm clock is ringing at 4:00 am. So, I think I got at most about 2 hours of sleep.

Race Day
I got up at 4:00 am and had my pre-race meal (2 bagels with jam, and Gatorade with 2-scoops of carbo-pro). Yum.

I heard someone in the hallway opening and closing his door for about 5 minutes. I think that was a little payback for last night. Oh, and on my way out of the hotel at 4:50 am, I may have accidentally dialed the room across from me.

Swim
Just seconds prior to the start, I began to have an urge to pee. Uh oh. Can it wait til I jump in? No. There were a lot of “firsts” in this race. Despite racing since 1997, this is the first time I’ve peed in my wetsuit.

As most people know, I’m not a strong swimmer. Heck, I’m not even an avg swimmer. We jumped in, and I saw the main pack of swimmers right ahead of me. I tried to catch up but they kept getting farther, and farther, and farther away from me. Then, I was pretty much alone.

The swim seemed like it would never end. It was a point to point swim with a line of color coordinated buoys. The first few were green, followed by orange, with the final buoy being green again. That last green buoy took an eternity to reach. Final time...46 minutes. I know I’m slow, but that was slower than my worst case scenario. Fortunately, everyone I spoke to agreed that their swim times were slow. Could have been the chop (it wasn’t unbearable, but there were some decent sized waves) or maybe the course was long. Either way, I’m disappointed in my time, but it is what it is.
Running into T1, and I had another urge to pee. Probably all that lake water I swallowed. I tried to pee during the swim, but I couldn’t do it. So, I jumped into the porta potty and went. This was another first. I’ve never peed during a race.

Bike
Conditions were great. Very little wind and the temperature was in the 60’s/70’s. Couldn’t have asked for a better day to ride.
About 5 miles into the race, I saw “him”. Who? Sombrero Man. THE sombrero man, you ask? Yes. The one and only. This was his first appearance outside of a full ironman-distance event. I am truly honored that he made an appearance at this race. I’ve never seen him from the racer’s perspective and I probably never will again. He was jumping up and down, hootin and hollerin, and I think I may have even seen a leg kick. Now I see why the ironman competitors get such a “kick” out of seeing him.

I eventually settled into a brisk pace but got stuck behind 3 bikers who were driving me batty. They would sprint along ahead of me at 25-26 mph, then they’d fade back down to 20. I could easily pass them, but I couldn’t create a gap big enough to hold them off. And since I was leap frogging the same 3 riders, I would have to assume they were drafting.

At this point, I’m averaging around 22.4 mph. I’m having a great day. Then I began to hear a weird noise coming from my back tire, which was immediately followed by an explosion. My rear tube blew (Another first. I’ve never had a flat in a race). I jumped off, pulled the rear wheel off, and changed the tube. I filled it up and was re-mounting the wheel, when that tube began leaking (faulty valve). So I took the tire off again and installed my last tube (luckily, I had 2 tubes/2 CO2 cartridges). I was praying this tube would hold b/c I was out. I was also having thoughts of how I would react if this tube didn’t work (would I DNF? Am I here to just finish or would I need a decent time to be satisfied? ) Luckily, the tube held air. I have to say the riders going by were very nice and most said some kind of words of encouragement.

For the next few miles, I was riding angry, which was not in the race plan. I only lost 5:39 to my tire changes, so I knew I could still have a decent ride, but you can’t help but hammer down the road to try to make up some time. By mile 40, my butt was hurting. Tri shorts are just not comfortable for me on anything longer than a 40k. Then, my hips began tightening up like crazy. I started to back off a bit around mile 48 to save my legs for the run. At mile 50 or so, Ruben went by me like I was standing still. I yelled “Go Ruben!!!” I hear he went on to win the aqua bike. I began standing on my pedals to give my legs a stretch...Ouch. My quads starting cramping every time I straightened them. I think I pushed a little too hard on the bike.

My Garmin said my ride time was 2:29 (It also said the course was short. Shh!!!). But that doesn’t include the flat tires. Including the flats pushes it up to 2:36. This is still what I would have considered a good day, but I could have had a GREAT day if not for the flats.

Run
I felt really good at the start. The strap on my Garmin 301 broke off at the start of the run so I had to hold it the whole race. Speaking of my Garmin, I bought it for the sole purpose of pacing me in my 1⁄2 ironman. It worked for the first few minutes of the run where I quickly learned that I was going out WAY too fast, but then it lost the GPS signal shortly thereafter and was basically an expensive stopwatch for the rest of the race. But I digress.

My plan was to run 8:00-8:15 per mile and walk the aid stations. I assumed this would avg out to around an 8:30 pace. Surprisingly, I held this pace pretty comfortably the whole way. I probably could have pushed it up a bit, but I was worried about the cramping. Also I’d never run over 10 miles prior to the race, so I felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

I ran into Patrick Owens during the early part of the run. He introduced himself and we ran together for a 1⁄2 mile or so. It was nice to chit chat for a bit. Then he took off.

The first part of the course is shaded. Then you run out in the open for the rest of the race. It was only in the low 80’s, but it felt really hot.
My legs started hurting around mile 7. My knees were aching like mad. I kept repeating “No pain. No pain”. It’s funny how if you repeat something to yourself 1000 times, you start to believe it. It was hot, so I upped my intake of thermolyte tables and I think this helped hold off the cramps. My right foot started to ache around mile 11. This was new. I’d never felt a pain in this area before. Then my groin started to tighten up around mile 12. Another new pain.

I caught up to Patrick around mile 12.5. We were jogging together at a brisk pace, when he said, “let’s pick it up.” I ran with him until we got to around 200 yds from the finish line, at which point he just took off (or I faded). Final run time: 1:51:31. Pretty much spot on what I’d expected.

Conclusions
I’m glad I did it, b/c I’ve always had a curiosity about long course racing.

I didn’t have fun. I ceased having fun after mile 40 on the bike, and mile 6 on the run. This type of racing/training is not my cup of tea.

I wish I could have broken 5:15, and I would have without the flats, but I can live with 5:19.

My ITB’s are on fire. I’ve never felt them hurt like this. More reasons not to do long course.

I saw Sombrero Man.