I should mention now, that I am not exactly sure why I decided to run the Ironman70.3, and my main motivation seemed to be because I wanted to eventually do an ironman. This was all swell for training and to get me in the pool a bit more often. It even sufficed for my 10 minute practice swim in the 13C Lake Zurich. It, however, fell short during the race or more exactly the run, where I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I had signed up in the first place, and how little I cared about being a half-ironman.
So my training was probably sub-optimal. I didn't do as many brick-workouts as I should have to get my muscles used to running directly after biking. I also did not really think enough about nutrition, and how sick my stomach would feel after eating energy bars and gels for 4 hours. Not to say it was completely deficient, I biked better during that race than I ever have before and my half-marathon split was only 4 minutes worse than Lausanne in October.
So before the race I was terrified of the swim. I was certain I was going to (a) drown, (b) get based by fat old women swimming doggy-paddle, (c) exceed the time limit and be kicked off of the course. Accordingly I went swimming a decent amount (2 times a week) and tried to motivate myself in the pool. I really hate swimming so twice a week is already impressive
As far as running and biking went, I just did or tried to do at least something everyday without really thinking about it too much. I did a few hill rides and some faster-paced running work but nothing special. I had run the Zurich marathon in April so I figured my basal training was probably sufficient.
So the race itself was pretty cool. The vibe at expo in Rapperswil was great.
So many people from all over the place who had been planning to do this race at least (probably much longer) than I had. Plus they play music the whole time which makes you feel really special and elite.
We did a test swim in the lake (I didn't I did mine 3 days earlier when it was muuuch colder)
It took almost the whole day before I started to get excited, but by the time the pasta dinner was over and I had eaten 2 bowls of jogurt ice cream-ish stuff, I was excited enough that I couldn't sleep
Race Day
So I woke up relatively late on race day (since I didnt sleep well and decided sleep was more important than waiting around the start for hours), ate some muesli, cake, and drank a coffee. I missed my first train, but I still managed to jump in the water and get to the starting line a few seconds before the start.
The swim itself was great, water temperature fine, lots of slow swimmers. I even passed someone from the womens heat that started 20 minutes earlier. Unfortunately at the very end as I was getting out I had a huge gulp of murky, oily, smelly water from the boat dock (where the exit is) and felt a bit sick from that point on.
The bike was also good, I didnt rush through the transition at all. I felt really good and it was quite fun passing all the hard-core guys with tri-bikes and horrible gear ratios on the hills. All things considered, I rode too quickly and definitely cooked a bit.
So by the time I got off the bike and started running, I was pretty beat. I took a pee-break in the transition area and my leg wouldn't stop shaking. The first kilometer went really well, but then everything sort of fell apart. My stomach didn't feel good at all, and my legs weren't so springy. The more I ran the more I thought about why I was doing this. I didn't really think about giving up, but I promised myself several times that I would never do something like this again. It was just uncomfortably without being a rush. Something was very different about running then (as compared with a marathon), but I can't exactly describe it.
Anyways it was really nice to finish, and I didn't actually feel all that beat up from the race. I think running is much harder on your body than anything else and it was just a half-marathon.
And now I am out looking for my next challenge
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