Square Lake Half Ironman Race Report

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Race Report

Short version - 6:01:16 fast swim, reasonable bike, 1/2 of a good run, rain, vertical, pain, ice.

Longer version

Weather considerations. The forecast called for 50s with possible showers throughout the race. That’s a tricky forecast - 50 degrees with the sun shining is pleasant on a bike, 50 and cloudy is chilly and 50 and raining is downright cold. Checking the radar before leaving in the morning it looked like there was a small band of showers in western Minnesota. I didn’t think it would rain until late in the bike or maybe the run. I decided to wear a long sleeve compression shirt with a short sleeve shirt with a rear pocket over it. I had a self storing coat with a waist belt but I decided not to take it on the bike.

THE SWIM

Square Lake is a real gem. Crystal clear water - think Lake Geneva. The wind was calm so it was like swimming in a pool with 50 of your best friends. The water temp was slightly warmer than the air so no problems there either. The first swim in a while I haven’t started to heat up in my wetsuit. It was a 2 lap swim counterclockwise. I was happy to hear that we didn’t have to come out of the water in between laps (some races do this so you cross a timing mat and they can make sure you swim both laps).

I was in the first wave with the elites, men 29 and under and the clydesdales. In which category do you think I was? Ordinarily (when I’m not in with the elites and young bucks) I try and go out hard in the swim to get some open water and then settle in to a rythm I can maintain for the distance. With these guys though, I just needed to focus on getting into a rythm, maybe finding some feet to follow and letting the open water come to me. Why follow feet? Drafting (swimming closely behind someone) reduces the effort required to maintain the pace by up to 10%. In other words, I could theoretically take 3 minutes off my time just by following someone who swims a little faster than me or I could save that energy and use it later in the day.

I did find someone to follow for quite a ways on the return during the first lap. He tired so I went around. For most of the second lap I was by myself. There was a group in front of my but it turned out they were from a later wave, on their first lap, and considerably slower.

I left the water in 32:54 (1:34/100 pace). That compares to 36:20 for my Rockman swim. In order to get to the transition area you have to go up about 40 steps. I thought I’d take my wetsuit off before going up the steps. Unfortunately, after about 30 seconds of fumbling for the pull cord I finally just started up the steps. Eventually I found the cord as I got to the top of the steps.

T1

Now the weather was going to impact my transition time. I didn’t want to swim with the long sleeve compression shirt on (too restrictive) so I had to put on both shirts while wet and then do my regular routine. Socks, shoes, helmet, glasses, on the road. Between the fumbling for the wetsuit cord and the extra dressing - 4:07. (This easily cost me the 1:16 I was over 6hrs - or a good chunck of it)

Bike

The bike was good preparation for Coeur D’Alene in a couple of ways. 1) vertical profile - Square Lake has around 2400 feet of elevation gain in 54 miles, CDA has, ugh, around 6000 in 112 miles. Ok, so this bike isn’t quite as tough as CDA. It’s still the most climbing I’ve done in a half ironman and required me to hold back the whole time. 2) getting passed - the first lap (the bike was also 2 laps) I spent getting passed at regular intervals by cyclists of all shapes and sizes on all kinds of rides. At least no one passed me on a hybrid but there were a few aluminum road bikes with or without aerobars streaming past me. I was trying to keep my heart rate at 130 when cruising and limit the increase on the hills. For the most part I was successful and felt decent getting off the bike for the run.

Time 3:00:26. Note, this is course is just over 54 miles instead of the full 56 so this time is slight misleading. Even with the short distance it’s my slowest bike split in a half IM. It was supposed to be, I was hoping to save my legs to have a good run.

The long sleeve/short sleeve combo was perfect for the bike. At one point I thought I was going to be too warm but then it clouded up and started to sprinkle.

T2

I knew I didn’t want to run in the long sleeve shirt. This meant I needed to take off both shirts in transition, carefully so I could easily put the short sleeve shirt back on. I probably should have had a 3rd shirt so I didn’t have to worry about seperating the 2 shirts I was wearing.

Time 1:32

Run

All in all my legs felt pretty good at the start of the run. My left foot was pretty numb and every now and then I’d get a little shock as it came back to life. My quads and calves were sore but it was at a manageable level. A couple of miles into the run it started to rain pretty steadily. Fine with me, I don’t mind a little rain - helps keep my large mass cool. The run is also very hilly - around 2500 feet of climbing. I made it to the turn around in 1 hour 4 minutes. The turn around is at the top of huge hill. It was on that hill that my quads and calves completely revolted. At this precise point, halfway through the run it became a real battle to keep moving. The second half took me 1:18. That’s over 2 minutes per mile slower. On the last hill it came down to running to the next “no parking” sign and then walking to the next. I knew I was close to breaking 6 hours but also knew I wasn’t going to do it. My heart rate wasn’t coming down when I was walking, I was sweating more profusely than I should have been when walking, and it felt really good to close my eyes both while walking and running. I didn’t have any energy to reply in kind to the encouragement from other racers.

Time 2:22:19. That compares favorably with Rockman at 2:36:56 especially given the difficulty of the course.

Total Time 6:01:16. You might think I’d be disappointed with not breaking 6 hours. I’m not. I feel like I raced a smart race and didn’t leave anything in reserve. I’ve got the ice on my knee right now to prove it. I’m more sore than I was after my marathon.

I’m still not sure how I’m going to double all of those distances. At least the run at CDA isn’t quite as vertical. (I hope)

Tri season’s over. Now it’s time to recover and focus on the San Antonio Half Marathon. NS Rob’s time is going down!