Race Result

Racer:	Rob Weitzel
Race:	Eagleman
Date:	Sunday, June 12, 2005
Location:	Cambridge, MD
Race Type:	Triathlon - Half Ironman
Age Group:	Male 35 - 39
Time:	5:13:00
Overall Place:	285 / 1434
Age Group Place:	54 / 207
Comment:	Injured, Undertrained Windy and Hot Ughhhh!

Race Report:

PRE-RACE

Eagleman was suppossed to be my "A" race. I had come off a very successful racing season in '04 and planned on wratcheting things up another notch in '05 with the intentions of carrying over my fitness and building upon that. Needless to say good intentions do not always make for the desired outcome, and I ultimately ended up hurting my achilles back in March to the point where it was very painful to even walk on it. being the stubborn guy that I am I felt that it would go away, I could train through it blah blah blah. Then comes May and I am still in pain and no better off. I finally decided to seek therapy and headed to Dr. Neil Mclaughlin's office. After one stinking session I was able to run, but with only (3) weeks until Eagleman and no long runs since March or basically any running for that matter I had trepidation about doing a 1/2 Ironman. My injury was daunting enough, and my undertraining concerned me, but the weather forecasts were not to friendly either with temps expected to hit 90+. I am not a hot weather runner so my fears really began to rise.

SWIM:

My wave was #6 35-39 L-Z The course seemed well marked from the beach. The temps were already getting hot in the morning sun. When our wave went off I was surprised about the lack of pummeling that went on. I modified my position in the water over the winter and it seemed to help. The water was very refreshing, and I was feeling very strong and comfortable in the water. I was hanging with the crux of my wave and did not get dropped as I normally do (maybe all of the good swimmers were in the 1st 35-39 wave?). Nevertheless I kept sighting for the boat with the big American flag on it. At some point I must have become unfocused or something because I was shooting for an orange buoy. I am still not quite sure why, but it was well to the left of the boat with the flag I was searching for. Needless to say I was forced to backtrack a bit, and head back towards the correct left hand turn. Once I hit that it seemed like the buoys disappeared on the return leg. I was still feeling strong, but sighting was problematic for me. I finally found the buoys I needed and ultimatley made it back to the swim finish feeling good and strong but I lost a lot of time with a 50:XX swim time! YIKES! Good thing I am treating this a an easy training day, and god I am a horrible open water swimmer I tell myself.

T1:
I sprint to T1 strip off the wetsuit slip on shoes helmet, sunglasses and bolt out total time 2:XX, not to bad considering the distance I had to run from the swim finish to my bike and back out to the end of T1.

BIKE:

What can I say I love this course. I planned on trying to make a race of it on the bike. Unfortunately for whatever reasons the wind gods were not with me. I think the first half of the bike was into a headwind. I throttled it down, changed into an easier gear and simply spun it out through the stronger headwinds, and when there was a tailwind I jammed it into a harder gear and tried to hammer it out. I felt pretty good on the bike and not overtaxed whatsover except for some reason my underside took a beating. I passed tons of bikers (a lot who have not learned the ride right pass left rules yet) so even yelling passing left did not help and in a lot of cases Ihad to cross the double yellow to make the pass because some were riding 2-3 abreast. I must say that I did not see the packs of drafting riders that I have seen in races past come blowing by me. The sun was not to bad on the bike either and that was a saving grace. I did start getting out of the saddle every 15 minutes to stretch the quads out and keep them loose for the run. I hit T2 with a bike time of 2:31:XX

T2:

No problems there. Put on dry socks, shoes, hat and bolted out. My socks were a new brand (left foot right foot), so getting them on wet feet was more difficult than I had anticipated. time 2:XX

RUN:

The heat was on. I felt sorry for those folks who had started in later waves and who would feel the full brunt of the days heat. I made a galiant effort to make it around the bend out of Great Marsh Park and out of sight when I resorted to a walk. I tried to calm down, my adrenalin was pumping, and my HR was up. I tooka few deep breaths and tried to get it all settled down. I was able to get into somewhat of a pace, but I had no idea what to expect, and I felt that I was not going to make it. After awhile things started shake out, and I was able to pick up the pace when the cloud cover came over or we were in a shaded area. I tried to make it an effrt to run from aide station to aide station without stopping inbetween. I started passing people slowly but surely. I hit the turnaround, and tried to pick up my pace to my normal race pace. I was able to maintain this for about a mile before I kind of blew up. I slowed it back down, and luckily was able to recover. I knew by how I felt that I was going to finish. I still felt good except for the slow pace. Towards the end my left calf began to cramp a bit, but the achilles that I was concerned so much about in my right leg was a non-issue. I hit the finish line with a 1:45:XX split. A total time of 5:13:XX.

POST-RACE:
Thanks to all of the RATS that set up the tent and contributed to the food and beverages, that was a great thing to have at the end of a race like this, and to also be able to sit around with other fellow RATS and chit chat about the days events. I felt pretty good, legs felt great, engine felt great, and not overtaxed whatsoever just a little dehydrated. Congratulations to all of the RATS that participated it was a tough day out there.