My Half Marathon PR at Half Ironman Pigman Race Report

The catch is. . . even though I have run 10 marathons I had never run a half marathon.  Sorry that I made you believe that I was awesome. This is a much delayed race report and I finally decided to write it today.  That’s an advantage for you as a reader since I didn’t remember as much of the details, so it will likely be short (I hope).

Race: Pigman Triathlon Swim 1.2M, Bike 56M, Run13.1M. Palo, Iowa August 16, 2009

Since I was having ITB issues this year after Boston, I pretty much swam in between the Andy Payne (5/23) Marathon and Mayville Marathon (6/13).  This made me think I would want to do an Olympic triathlon (my second tri ever) in mid July. Madness struck a couple of days after my Oly when I found out that the Pigman Triathlon was going to happen the following month and it was a cheap race (compared to IM branded tris).  With great risk of getting a divorce I signed up for the race.

With poor training on the bike for Pigman (I just added some bike rides and a few bricks where I would bike 15-20 miles and run 2) the advice I got from knowledgeable triathlets was to “conserve energy” and that was my race strategy. There were 4 weeks in between the Oly and the Half IM and the first three looked like this: (week 4 was basically rest).  

• Week 1:  7000 m swim,  69 M bike, 10 M run
• Week 2:  7200 m swim, 30 M bike, 27.2 M run
• Week 3:  2000 m swim, 80 M bike, 9.2 M run

The weather turned out to be rainy and extremely windy. I actually feared that they would cancel the swim portion or cut the race short.  Fortunately neither happened. The race started at 7:30 am. At 9 am Wunderground reports 20.7 mph sustained winds and gusts of 31.1 mph at 10 am.

Swim: I feared the time trial start. Being a slow swimmer I stayed to the back of my wave in the July Oly.  However, my fear at Pigman was that since I was going to be passed by a lot of people, someone would hit the chip attached to my ankle. I jinxed myself. That was what happened towards the middle of the swim. The chip got somehow loose and I had to stop to reattach it and it never got to the original position so I had to stop a couple of more times to check on it.

The temperature of the water was just under the minimum allowed for wearing wetsuits so I was one of the few not wearing one (see pic).  I had a comfortable swim other than the chip issue. I actually managed to swim at the same pace than I did in my Oly.

Swim 51:56 Pace 2:26/100m AG 38/44

T1: With the more complex logistics of a half IM compared to an Oly plus the rainy morning (I had to put my stuff in bags) my T1 was way slower than in my Oly. In my Oly T1 was 1:43 whereas at Pigman it was 5:46.  One of the most difficult things was to put on my bike jersey! Then I had to load its pockets with 3 Powerbars and blocks. I already had 4 gels attached to the bike.

Bike:
I own a $200 Walmart road bike that I bought about 3 years ago at a Goodwill store brand new for $50. I used it for this race.  The challenge (in addition to my bike) was of course the rain and the wind.  I had a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water. They provide Heed on the course, which I tried to avoid since I had never tried it before.  Due to a mistake I got a bottle of Heed instead of water. I had to drink it because I did not have any more water. It tasted like medicine. And it actually acted as a medicine because it stopped the side stitch I was having… As indicated above I had 4 gels attached on my bike, which I consumed in equally spaced intervals. I also ate a Powerbar but could not stomach the other two. I had half a bag of blocks. I also had 2 out of 4 electrolite caps that they gave me the day before at the package pick up. I had never tried those but I went ahead and took them. I saved the other 2 for later but it looks like I dropped the package.  

For my Oly my bike speed was 18.1 mph.  At Pigman it fell to 16.5. I remember passing a guy in my age group after the turnaround and another guy in my age group in the last two miles.  The chart below gives an idea of the elevation change of the course.

Bike: 3:23:42 “Speed” 16.5 mph  AG 38/44

T2: 3:05 I decided to run with my bike jersey. I had my bib already attached to it so changed shoes, loaded a few more gels and took off.  

Run
I was not sure what pace I was going to run. I just tried to find something comfortable. My legs actually felt good at the beginning of the run. The chart below gives an idea of the elevation change.

I won’t post my splits but I ran a pretty even pace. Even on the hills. I never walked. The last 3 miles were really hard. With 3 miles to go I passed 2 guys in my AG and I tried to look like I was going strong but the truth was I was dying. Fortunately they did not respond. I passed many people during the run and even in the last 3 miles but I wished they were not in my AG group because I did not want to fight anyone. Be careful what you wish. At the finish there was a guy in my AG 15 secs ahead of me and his pace was 11:12 which I would have easily beaten.

Run: 2:08:42 Pace 9:50  AG 21/44

Overall  6:32:28     243/338

The Good: I finished my first HIM. It was slow, but at least I did not bonk which I was in high risk of due to my poor training.

The Bad: the wind and rain.

The Ugly: My belly. I would benefit from losing those 15 pounds that I have gained since running Boston.

Thanks for reading.

Jorge Carvajal