Sunday... it was so frigging HOT!! About 80F at the start and 90 at the finish all sun no.
Swam well enough (no HR data though). Found a good pair of feet for once in my life and sat in on them, but it felt like right pace as I couldn’t pass himtoward the end.
Bike - half was in my head and the other half my body. Looking at overall times, on a blazing hot sunny day and a challenging course, I did fairly well I guess... didn’t feel like it. My HR wouldn’t come up to 159-160 at steady state although it felt like I was working hard. I was worried about blowing up due to lack of fitness and the heat, so I stayed with what felt right. I didn’t take in as much nutrition as I planned.
I had no optimism for the run... knowing my fitness wasn’t where it should be and the heat... but my first mile was about 7:45 and felt pretty good... that quickly was replaced by the heat and some fatigue. I decided to walk each and station and make sure I kept hydrated and get nutrition with out slosh belly.
The heat and fatigue caught up to me around mile 4 or so... started walking the little bit of shade there was and the aid stations.
Significant hill at mile 7 with loose gravel road and no shade... that was rad...
Death march until mile 11 or so when I knew the end was near and was net downhill.
It was one of the tougher mental challenges o have gone through...
Bike course was also in terrible shape. Lots of bad road, gravel and unprotected sections on highway. Felt pretty unsafe... made it hard to go all out too... but beautiful and challenging.
Run course was also challenging.
I also got hit with my first drafting penalty (4:00) which really upset me since I only got into draft zone of slower racers when road conditions were unsafe for an immediate pass. Lesson learned... but the bike course was in terrible shape.
68/700 overall after penalty. Would have been 58th without it... and I gave up 20-30 spots on the run...
Too bad my fitness wasn’t where I am used to .... I could have done much better.
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