steelhead 70.3 recap

I finally got my bike packed and in bed around 0130 Friday Morning, so the 0530 wake up call from driver Trent Stephens was a tough one. After picking up Andrew Strong, we got to Houston's Hobby Airport at 0700 for our 0905 flight to Chicago's Midway Airport. I ended up sitting and passing out next to a very nice midwestern couple, and Lisa McC arthy(Houston Area Super-Triathlete) was also on our flight, not to race at Steelhead, but a business meeting in Chicago. How Ironic.


We arrive in Chicago, get our rental car, and drove 45 minutes in traffic in the wrong way. FU*K! After that, we finally got into Benton Harbor, MI around 1730, a long day...We roll into transition, and it is packed. I really thought I was in southern california, because the beach did not look like a beach on a lake! the transition was packed, 2700 people registered!

We get our bikes in transition, set them up safely, and hit the pasta dinner. I felt pretty good, maybe a little tired. I took thursday off, but other than that i trained through steelhead. We ran around for hours, purchasing too much gatorade, and finally getting into bed around 11.

0445 and we are up, i did not want to get out of bed! we got outside, and holy crap it was freezing. i couldn't find my pants in my bag either, so i was cold. i set up transition rather quickly, because i wanted to find a port o'potty line. i never did, the lines were crazy, and i had a 1.2 mile beach venture to take in order to get to the swim start. never found the john(read between the lines)!

I literally had to jog down the beach to get to the start, by the time i got there, i got to watch the first wave shove off, and stretch out for my wave 3 departure 5 minutes later. i felt like the swim went well, it actually felt long, but i was okay, i got out of the water a hair over 29min. the worst part was the quarter mile soft sand jaunt to get to transition from the swim finish.

after t2, i realized that i was no longer in texas. i was freezing, and begging for the sun to come out. I could not get warm. I am not sure what was wrong with my legs, but i had nothing until mile30. i finally started to warm up and feel my legs pushing, and then it happened at about mile50, my sciatic nerve acted up. i had to stand on my bike and stretch out my lower back, and glutes. Those last 6 miles were hell, and i had already decided that if it was going to borrow me on the run, that i was done. it hurt that bad.

i fired out of t2, and i was pissed. i was pissed that my 2:41 bike split was a 2:41. racing the clock against my goal now, i was pissed. i needed to run the hell out of this course just to give myself a respectable time. i was out of my age group goals and overall goals, because of the damn bike, now it was time to hunt anybody and everybody down just for a little vindication and try to finish with a decent time.

i hit it hard, and averaged 6:15 for the first 9 miles, then we looped back in and the course was full, and i had noone to chase, i slowed down a bit, finished the run with a 1:22, good enough for the 5th fastest run, all within a minute. i m happy about that. overall time 4:39. a faster bike time, and i'd be where i need to be. i will eventually get there, i will.