South Carolina Half Ironman 2010
By: Jack Shannon
The SC Half is a good tune-up race for the Florida Ironman in November. It gives you a chance to get an idea of how your training is shaping up. It’s a chance to say, “Enough of this training already, let’s see if the body can cash the check my mind wrote.”
This is the first time I’ve done the SC Half. The race cap is 700, there were just over 200 participants. I hear the Ironman Half in Augusta siphoned many participants from this race. Their loss was our gain. It was a pleasure participating in such a small event. There were only four waves for the swim: Open, young men, old men, women. Pretty simple.
The swim was flat – and warm. The water temperature was 88 degrees. (As a point of reference, the pool at the Y is warm. It’s usually 86/87 degrees.) Due to the temperature, the race was not wetsuit legal. First time I swam a half without a wetsuit. None the less, it went fine. I was out of the water in 40 minutes, 1st in my age group.
The ride had a lot of rolling hills and “false flats”. At times, I was rolling along a “flat” stretch going 24 MPH feeling like a stud. It was actually a slight downhill. Other times I was working my butt off on a “flat” stretch but only going 17 MPH. This was actually a slight uphill. That’s how the whole ride felt. You were never on a flat stretch, you were either going uphill or downhill. I had a good ride, finishing in 2:56:15 (19.06 MPH average, my best time for 56 miles), 3rd in my age group. At this point, believe it or not, I was still in first place overall. Too bad I wasn’t competing in an AquaBikelon.
The run was an out and back, done twice, with a little bit added on at the end. The course had rolling hills, but nothing that was awful. It was sunny and hot by now, but I started off feeling fine. For the first time ever, I put my Garmin on to pace myself on the run. I started out feeling good. I actually slowed myself from a low 8:00’s pace to a bit under a 9:00 pace. That plan worked until mile three. My heart rate shot up, I had nothing left to give. My dream of a sub 2:00 run vaporized with each walk break. After 2:18:12, my death march was over. My run time was 5th in my age group; my overall time of 6:00:00 (try doing that!) was good for 5th overall in my age group.
There are a myriad of reasons that could have been the cause of my downward spiral. I really believe I’m still be affected by my recently diagnosed underactive thyroid. My last tri was an international distance, and I beat my PR by over seven minutes. My training has been going well until the thyroid setback. Here’s hoping that’s the real reason, and it’s regulated by November 6th…
