Spirit of Racine

I completed the Spirit of Racine 1/2 IM on the 24th of July, 2005.

My dad came into town for the weekend to watch me race, so that was cool. He tried to volunteer but they actually had more volunteers than they needed, so he just spectated.

Got to the race site day before the race, went out for a 30 min open water swim on the course, to practice sighting. Pretty uneventful, but there were some waves to deal with, being out in Lake Michigan. As I was finishing up, I heard this loud siren going off. Living in the midwest, I recognized it as a tornado siren. Not good! So I got out of the water pretty fast at that point, and the lifeguards were making everyone leave the beach. A tornado had been sighted and was
heading towards Racine. Doh! It never arrived, but came within about 20 miles. Yoiks!

Met up with some other friends for pre-race pasta dinner, checked bike into transition, and went back to the hotel for sleep.

Woke up early on race morning, and it was already hot and humid at 4:30! Weather forcast was for temps around 100, and a heat index over
110 ( more on this later ). It was in the 80's and the sun wasn't even up. Got to transition, I setup my bike, filled my water bottles, and did my normal pre-race shake off the nerves thing.







About 45 min before the start, I headed down the beach to the swim start ( 3/4 mile down the beach ) for the point to point swim. Got in the wetsuit, and went out for about 10' of warmup swim, to get blood moving and into my arms. I was in the first a.g. wave, about 9 min
back from the pro waves. Kinda nerve wracking, but I got lined up right at the front of the pack, just inside the buoy line. Horn went off and we went. I held my line pretty good, kept a few encroachers at bay, and rounded the first buoy near the front of the pack, hanging on some fast feet.

Swim was pretty uneventful after that. I had some good feet to hang on for about 1/2 the swim, but lost them at one point and never found 'em again. The real fish pulled away, and I couldn't follow, so I just settled into a nice pace and swam on my own for the rest of the
swim.

Final swim time: 32:50 ( which included a *long* run across the beach to T1, my watch said around 31:00 out of the water ).

T1 was pretty fast, we had a hill right out of T1, so I put shoes on before mounting the bike. It was already warm by this point. Sign of things to come. The bike rack was mostly full for my wave, so I felt good about that.

T1 time: 1:30

Bike started out heading straight into a 20+ mph headwind. Major suckage. I tried to keep HR/effort down as best I could, but just felt like I was standing still. At about mile 15, we finally turned and then got a crosswind instead. :) I went through tons of water on the bike, as it was just getting hotter and hotter. I think final tally was 5 24 oz bottles of water, plus 1 24 oz bottle of feed (perpetuem ). I started with 2 endurolytes every hour, but bumped that up to 3 as it got hotter. Some good rollers on the course to keep us honest. I passed a few people, but more people passed me. Passed one of the women pros who did not look like she was off to having a good day.

Bike time: 2:51

T2 took 1:47. Put on my socks, running shoes, fuel belt, hat, and dumped the rest of my water bottle from the bike over my head.

The run was just brutal. It was 100F and the heat index was near 115. Not the greatest conditions to try to run a 1/2 marathon. :) I spent the first mile trying to cool down. There was plenty of aid stations, fortunately. I poured several cups of ice down my jersey and shorts. Stuffed ice in my hat. Doused myself several time with ice water. Finally got body temp under control and was able to start running. Was doing about 9 min miles, which I was plently happy with considering the conditions. Kept that up for most of the first loop, only stopping to walk to the aid stations to refill on ice, and take in water. I finished the first loop in a little over an hour, so I was right on target for where I thought I'd be at that point.

The heat was really taking it's toll though. I was only able to drink so much before I'd start to slosh, so then I'd wait until it processed, and drink some more. Taking endurolytes like candy now. On the second run loop, I crashed. Stomach wouldn't take any food, so I could only take in water. Tried some gel, no good, felt like a rock. Tried sports drink from the aid stations, and barely kept it down. Ice wasn't able to keep my cool anymore, and it would all melt in the 10 min or so between each aid station. At this point, I decided I just needed to survive, as there were several ambulances taking people off the course due to heat related problems.

Because I couldn't get any food down, I had nothing left for the rest of the run, so I was reducecd to slow shuffle alternating with walking. I had plenty of company though, as most everyone on the course at that point was in the same condition.

The second loop took me about an hour and 35 minutes.

Total run time: 2:47.

Final race time: 6:15:34. Overall place 464 out of 1073 finishers. 1500 peple registered. Many didn't start, and some more didn't finish due to that heat.

I was in not too good shape when I crossed the line. I tried to drink some water, but couldn't really stomach it. Was utterly unable to cool down because the ambient air temp was hotter than I was! This was not good. I stumbled over to the med tent, with some help from my Dad, promptly got rid of everything in my stomach, and they decided I needed treating. I got laid out on a table, and packed with ice to bring my temp under control. No idea what it was, but guessing it was not good. :)

After an hour of ice and cold towels draped over me, I finally felt better. I was able to situp and drink water, so they decided I didn't need an IV, and let me go. Ate tons of food before heading back home. Thankfully my dad was there, so he drove, while I snoozed.

When I weighed myself when I got home, I was 168 lbs. Pre-race weight was 173. And that 168 was *after* rehydrating a lot and taking in a lot of food. I was probably 165 or so when I finished, which means that even with all that I managed to drink during the race, I just wasn't able to keep pace with the sweat loss. Not really sure what to do about that, other than just don't race in 115 heat index. :)

So that was my 1/2 IM cherry. What a way to go. Got another one in september, which hopefully will have nicer weather, so that I won't get nuked during it, and will actually be able to finish it as a race, not as a survival test. :)

Pictures are posted here:

http://dump.segv.org/SOR-2005/SOR-2005.html