Done and dusted. This was my second half iron man, and I beat my previous time by a minute or so, at 5:18.
The prep was all good. Got there early, even though it was a 7 am start, so had time to set everything up just so. Funny rules abounded - no leaving the helmet on the bike (had to be in the bike bag), and you were not allowed to run with your biking shoes in your hand, either. Aaaanyway.
The swim was decidedly poor. The route was complicated, basically a star shaped route. The water was cool, at 15 degrees celcius. I had trouble with calming down, and finding my crawl mojo. I breast-stroked about half the 1st lap, then calmed down and crawled with just my arms on the 2nd lap. Swim time of 46.48 minutes (about 6 over what I'd set out for). Position: 1090 overall, out of 1500
T1 was a hassle. The run from the swim to the bike bags was about 400m. Then there was another 500m run after the change tent to the bikes. Not ideal. Anyway, due to the abovementioned rules, I had pre-mounted my shoes on my bike. That's the first time I've tried to get my shoes on while on the bike, and it was quite difficult. The shoes didn't really feel right until after 5k.
After I had properly established myself on the bike, I began overtaking. A lot. Biking is my strongest discipline, and it really showed. I had a good bike ride, except the fact that my fitter tilted my aerobars back about 10 degrees, meaning that the energy drink in my bottle was in the back of the bottle, and my straw is at the front. Needless to say, I had less energy drink available than I had imagined. I had four isogels though, and felt ok for energy on the bike. Managed a 2:27,52 split, for an average speed of 36,52 kph. Position: 394 of 1500 (yes, I moved up 600 spots overall on the bike
).
T2 was sort of ok, it took me a few tries to get the shoe laces done up properly, but I managed eventually.
The run was... challenging. It was about 16 degrees Celcius and partly cloudy, and not really windy, which was ok for the run. But, the lack of fluid, and the consequent concentration of sugar in my stomach began to show itself about 8 k in. Eventually, I had to... take a seat for a few minutes... to try to solve that issue, and it helped with the pain, but my energy level began to drop. I walked a total of three times, about 2-300 meters each time, but then my sister in law passed me (she started 45 min after me, and was on her first run loop), so I dug deep and ran behind her for a bit, began feeling a bit better, and ended up with a run time of 1.53. Final position: 510 out of 1500.
I learned a few things I need to do differently during the Copenhagen IM in August, but overall I'm fairly satisfied with my race.
Bonus info: When I got my bike back after the race, the rear wheel was flat. It didn't feel flat during the race, so it must've happened at the dismount line, or as they were transporting it back.