What Went wrong:
Even though I didn’t have any problems with my wetsuit, I could have used it a couple of times for training just to get used to it. Several people told me that I should use it for training just to get used to the feel and also get the feel of how much more buoyant you are on the water. Well I didn't listen mostly because of the lack of time with my work schedule. I could have used it in the pool but I didn't think this would really give the same effect as swimming open water. My swim during the event was more of a zig-zag pattern the whole way. I really need to practice on swimming straight and lifting my head out of the water every now and then to get my sights in. Seems like my sense of direction is not very good without doing this. When I did get lift my head to get my sight of the buoy, I put my head down in the water and swim, when I lift my head up again to get my sight, I’d over compensate and have to swim back. Definitely need to work on swimming straight. By the time I finish my swim, I probably swam 10-20% more than the other swimmers. At one point during the swim I tried to swim along a female swimmer for direction. I was able to stay at the same pace with this swimmer but I would soon bump into someone in front of me and have to slowdown.
My first transition was kind of slow because I had trouble standing on one leg to get my bike shoes on. I was trembling coming out of the water and started cramping on my calves. I think this may have been due to lack of energy and hydration. I sincerely believe that I just didn't eat a big enough breakfast before the race. The morning of the race I had two toaster waffles and some coffee. I almost treated this event like a marathon - I don't eat big before a marathon. I think I needed more fuel. I will definitely get plenty of advice on this before my full ironman. I saw lots of triathletes eating fruit and other stuff just prior to the race start during their transition area setup.
During my first transition, I also had a lot of trouble getting my top on. It just didn’t want go down in the back. I used up some valuable time trying to get my top on. Next time I will probably wear my top under my wetsuit and save the time of having to put this on after the swim. This is something I will get more advice from people on before my ironman next year (June,2007)
On the bike course, there was a point where I got caught up with a group of bikers in the hills that were all going the same speed. One biker would pass me on the down hill and I would pass him on the up hill. We did this for a couple of hills until an official on a motorcycle came by and caught us at the wrong time. Once he started writing numbers down, I knew I had been busted for drafting. Drafting was the last thing on my mind. After I saw this, it really pissed me off so I dug down deep and hit it hard on the bike until I knew I had left this group way back. This really upset me a lot because I was always trying pretty hard to drop 3 bike lengths back after being passed to avoid a penalty. I knew that these same bikers I would pass again did not drop back three bike lengths behing me after I passed them. I felt like this dropping back affected my overall bike average. I will not let this happen again in the future. I felt like I still some biking left in me. I probably could have gone a little harder on the bike, but since this was my first half ironman, I didn't want to risk the run suffering from going to hard on the bike. After, the race I felt like arguing my race penalty with an official, but I figured it really wouldn't do any good. I was no where close to placing in my age group and this whole race was more of a learning experience for me. Being penalized for drafting in this event is more of a thing of luck or bad luck. I see so much abuse of the dropping of the three bike lengths back after being overtaken that almost half of the field can be penalized on this if caught at the right time (or should I say wrong time for the biker). Drafting is not the intention, but the rule is hard to follow when being passed.
The 2006 season is winding down. I skipped on quite a bit of triathlons this year especially the newer ones in the Houston area (Eastside Triathon, San Jacinton Triathlon, and Silverlake). I started working rotating shift work and had to work nights, weekends during some of the events. Working shift has definitely proved challenging in trying to get the training in. I did manage to do 3 triathlons this year to get ranked. As of August I am ranked at 28 in my age group. I think I could have done better. I think my biking started off kind of slow this year.
