After six months of solid training, my "A-Race" had finally arrived. I began training for this half distance ironman event the first week in January. During the summer of 2009 I had competed in two local sprint triathlons so I knew this would be a big step up for me. Although I had many months to prepare, I did not take it for granted and religiously stuck to my training plan through rain, sleet and snow - literally! Most of my training was geared towards building an endurance base with my training volume topping out at 14 hours during the month of May. I was fortunate enough to slip in a practice "olympic distance" triathlon a couple weeks before this race which enabled me to get a better feel for what was to come. All the hours on the road, on the trails and in the pool paid off. With two weeks to go before race day - I knew I was ready. Kathy, Tyler and myself made the 4 hour drive to Muncie Indiana the day before the race and checked into our room at the Best Western Muncie. After unloading the car we made our way over to the Horizon Convention Center just a few miles away to pick up my race packet, get body marking and attend a mandatory pre-race meeting required for first-timers to the Muncie Endurathon. Additionally, they had a very large exposition featuring lots of retailers with tons of tri-goodies for sale - and I mean lots of goodies! It would have been nice to have some extra funds to do some shopping but I had to pass as my funds went for food, gas and hotel rooms. The mandatory pre-race meeting was short and sweet. My compliments to the speaker who was concise and to the point - getting us out of there within 15 minutes. I also bumped into a few other Evansville participants and wished them good luck in case I didn't see them on race morning.

After the meeting my crew loaded up and we drove over to Prairie Creek Reservoir, the site for the race just to check things out. Although this is a race day pic, you can kinda get an idea how big this lake is. It's really a beautiful place and pictures don't do it justice. You may also barely be able to make out the first swim buoy a little bit left of center in this pic. You may also see the various swim waves making their way in that direction. Yeah, I'm out there somewhere. Anyway, we saw just a few miles of the bike course and headed back into town for supper. Kathy and Tyler elected for Red Lobster so given they were willing to give up their weekend in support of my activities I conceded. After a light supper - speaking for myself - we returned to the hotel room and set every alarm at our disposal in addition to requesting a wake up call at 4:30 am (3:30 Evansville time). Although I wasn't really nervous, I was anxious and had a hard time getting to sleep. I tossed and turned much of the night and probably managed to get four and a half hours of sleep. Not really enough but I woke up at 4am and felt ok after a cup of early morning coffee.

We immediately got ready and loaded the car back up for the 1/2 hour drive to the reservoir. It was still dark when we arrived at 5:30am (remember - it's only 4:30 in Evansville). The temp was in the low 70's and the humidity was fairly low. Additionally, the winds were pretty calm and would actually remain that way most of the day. That meant a calm lake and fresher legs for the run. Here you can see the first signs of daybreak and the bags still under my eyes from the lack of sleep.

I immediately went over and set up my transition area while rejoicing that the race would not be wetsuit legal. That would make T1 much easier plus I didn't want to be burning up in the suit during a 1.2 mile swim. The water temp was posted at 80 degrees that morning. I was also happy that I had practiced transitions the preceding week and had formulated my plan on how to execute them. The benefits of taking the time to actually practice those transitions would surface later that day. After taking a few minutes to set up, I went over and lounged out with Kathy and Tyler for almost an hour. I took it easy until it was time - "not to take it easy".

I was in the 9th wave with a starting time of 7:30 (#434). Just a few minutes before I had made my way through the line at the lieu and headed down to the beach. They had muster areas for each wave so there was no confusion as to where we should be. As a side note - The only complaint I had the entire day was the lack of water closets at the start/finish of the race. After all, there were over 1000 competitors and probably only 30 crappers on site. The lines got huge right before the race and earlier wave participants had to be juggled to the front of the lines so they could make it to their wave start on time. Other than that, Muncie did a "phenomenal" job putting this race on. I made it to my wave start with no problems however. There were 12 waves in total which meant that 75% of the racers were already in the water by the time I started. That also meant shorter lines at the toilets.

Assuming I would probably come out of the water in the top 10% of my age group and that there was about 3 minutes of clear water in front of me, I found a position near the front of my wave start. The horn went off and it was finally time to reap the rewards of six months of dedicated training.

The swim started out just as planned and I managed to just swim a nice steady pace right from the start. Although I knew I was swimming fine I was surprised to see just how many of those dark blue caps came buzzing around me. I knew I wasn't swimming slow but I was kinda surprised at how fast these guys were going out. Regardless, I stayed my pace. I had opted out of doing a warm-up swim prior to the race as I knew I would be shivering for the half hour waiting for my wave to start. Anyway, the lack of a warm up swim showed up right on time about 400 yards in as I started going into O2 debt and struggling in the water. This always happens to me for some reason but falling back on my experience I focused on keeping it steady and focused on technique. And right on cue, a minute later I got my wind back and calmed myself back into a very comfortable steady rhythm. I had also just come through a lot of congestion in my wave but had no problems threading the needle through the mass of blue caps. I was very calm and really enjoyed the swim. I tried to stay focused on my technique and could hear Heather's (my Masters coach) voice reminding me rotate, relax on the recovery, and wait for the catch. No kidding, that's how calm I was. The buoys were a little hard to see without popping way up out of the water so I sighted more off the center mass of people in front of me. That worked well and brought me within yards of the buoys. I was consistently passing people while rarely getting passed.

The final leg of the swim was marked by two of those crazy blow-up men you see at the Verizon stores which made for pretty good sighting on the return leg to the beach. Muncie did this to help with the sighting as the sun is in your face at this point. Here is my water exit as I jogged the 300yds or so up to transition. I came out of the water feeling so good I could have jumped back in and swam another loop with no problem. I was once again reaping the benefits of my hard work. My swim time was 40:34 which included the run up to transition. Officially I was clocked at 2:06/100 which is way the !*!*!*!* off as I know I was swimming closer to the 1:45/100 mark. The course was probably long also based on my estimate. When it was all said and done, I came out of the water 6/54 in my wave. Like I said, top 10%. I guess I had passed up a lot of blue caps later into the swim. My T1 went like clockwork. My shoes were already clipped and banded to the bike so I put on my sunglasses and helmet and jogged to the street. I jumped on the bike, hit the start button on my Garmin and strapped into my Specialized Tri-Vent shoes. A few moments later I checked my six-o-clock to make sure it was clear and did the no-handed thing for a moment as I manipulated my Garmin 305 onto my wrist. I had it strapped to the top bar as I don't use the "bike quick-connect" for fear of it being ejected. I was in and out of T1 in 1:23. Kathy tried to get a pic but I was gone before she could get up there to see me. Now strapped in and with the clock running, I spent the first couple miles getting my legs warmed up and tackling a couple rollers before we turned onto the Cardinal Greenway (part of the Rails to Trails program). I could feel some tightness in my hams and glutes as I always do coming out of the water but I knew it would subside in a few minutes. About 3 miles into the bike they were fine and I was riding comfortably. The 6 miles or so of the Greenway was the best section of the bike course. It was like riding in a tunnel of trees and it felt fast. My plan on the bike was to put in a "moderate" effort and try to come in under 3 hours. Glancing at my Garmin I was cruising between 20 and 21mph in this section. I was also getting passed quite frequently during the first 10 miles. That included a couple blatant "pacelines" as the motorcycle couldn't patrol that section of course. As they rolled by I could only think to myself - "why would I race so many hours only to know my finish time was based on cheating?" Nonetheless, I gave it little thought and made sure I passed promptly and maintained the required 3 bike lengths separation. I was also enjoying checking out some of the fine rides that were buzzing by me. This race was a bonanza for awesome bikes and I saw many that were just "jaw-dropping" sharp. My favorite was a blue and white Look with matching Zipps that really caught my eye around the 35 mile marker. Of course the predominant bike out on the course was Cervelo. There were hundreds of them. I only saw a couple Specialized Transition Experts like the one I was riding - and none that were the same color as mine. Now about 8 miles into the bike we emerged from the Greenway and made the turn south on one of the state roads. The entire 56 miles (actually 54.5) was a closed course for the race. It was very nice. Once again, my compliments to Muncie for a well organized event. Although I had left the shade behind, it really didn't feel that hot out. With the first aid station approaching (mile 9) I was getting ready to attempt my first bottle snatch on the bike. The volunteers were in force and calling out if they had water or Gatorade. As I approached, I slowed up to about 10mph and pointed to the lady I would take the bottle from. Moments later I had my aero-bottle topped off with water and discarded the mostly empty water bottle in the drop zone. All of my hand-offs would go perfectly that day. I just made sure to slow down enough as not to risk a miss. My Podium Quest bottle has two chambers holding about 56oz. combined. One being used for water and the other for nutrition. My choice was a very concentrated mix of Hammer Perpetuem and Heed to get me through a 3 hour bike. It was almost the consistency of pancake batter. An occasional sip of the batter with a drink of water would work perfectly throughout the bike. By the time I finished the bike, I should be out of the batter if I did my nutrition correctly. All I had to do was keep my water topped off and keep drinking! Now if you talk to anybody, that has raced Muncie they will tell you that the bike course is flat and fast. What they won't tell you is that the bike course is always ascending or descending via very long shallow grades. Yes I will have to concede that the course is fast and "relatively" flat but some of those long shallow climbs were over a mile long. The lactic acid in my legs was there to prove it. Now I'm not really complaining here but if you were to ask me what the bike course was like, I would tell you it was fast and "relatively" flat; unless you live in Florida of course - then I would tell you it has some mild climbs and descents. I may also tell you that the roads are in very good condition and navigation of the course was very easy as volunteers were abundant. To interject a quick tidbit here; during the pre-race meeting the speaker noted that there was one volunteer for every 2 participants. That translated to over 500 volunteers! All I can say is WOW! It was evident throughout my race experience that day. I continued in my pursuit of the bike turn-around and got to see the pro's coming by me on their return leg. That was kinda cool seeing them cruising along at 24 to 25 mph for a 56 mile bike ride. I was settled into my bike pace fairly well and I was fairly certain I was ahead of pace. My hunch would prove correct as I reached the turn in 1:25:39 - over 4 minutes ahead of schedule. I guess the bike show was over too as I wasn't seeing any of those fine machines rolling past me any longer - at least not very often. In fact, after making the turn for home, I began to put on my own bike show as I was passing people regularly all the way back to transition. I'm sure no one was impressed however as I didn't have any of those cool sounding carbon wheels to announce my arrival. The only hint they would have of my approach would be the sound of my huffin' and puffin' as I closed in from their six-o-clock. Heck, my helmet didn't even match! I didn't care, My trusty ole steed would get me back to transition in record time. I negative split the return leg with a total bike time of 2:48:19. Officially this would go down in the books as a 20mpg average but in truth, it was 19.5 as the course is 1.5 miles short of advertised. Either way, I was ecstatic as my best effort on a ride of this duration was at best an 18.25mph avg. I had just smoked that and still had my legs under me for the run. I was glad to get off the bike as my back and hamstrings were getting a little tight from the continuous effort.

About 100 yards from the dismount line I started getting out of my shoes and just as practiced, I did a flying dismount with no problems. I was also grateful that my son was there to greet me and cheer me on - as was Kathy - digitally recording the moment - and a moment it was. Now there are 3 things I'd like to point out in this picture. The first one is me rolling my bike back into transition (under the sign with the mismatched bike helmet), my son Tyler jogging toward the tent shelter, and the volunteer standing under the tent with a huge grin on her face while looking at Tyler. Now to the untrained eye you would never figure out why the volunteer is grinning ear to ear. But don't worry, I'm going to share that with you now. As I had just flew off the bike in record time, Tyler greeted me with the words "Hey Dad - Guess What? - You Only Got 13 miles to Go!" After further analysis I have determined that just by altering, or even eliminating the "Guess What" portion of that statement, I may have taken it as a sign of encouragement, such as "Hey Dad - Great Job - You Only Got 13 Miles to Go" or even "Hey Dad - You Only Got 13 Miles to Go!" See how much better that rolls of the tongue? Anyway, I'm sure the volunteer got quite a chuckle out of this and truthfully, I knew Tyler was actually cheering me on in his own way. It was kinda funny and I actually cracked a smile at him after his statement. Having received my words of encouragement, I jogged to my designated rack space and equipped myself for the run. As today's run was on asphalt, I would use my Speedo-Surfwalkers water shoes and my thin wool socks for the run. I also opted to wear my Halo bandanna to keep the sweat out of my eyes.

After a slight struggle getting my socks on, I made my way onto the pavement. Time in T2 was a respectable 2:01. I switched the Garmin over to run mode and started calculating my time in the race so far. I had no idea what my swim split was but I knew combined with my transitions it couldn't have been over 45 minutes. Add in a 2:48ish bike and I determined I was well on pace for my goal of a sub-6 hour half ironman. In fact, if I could simply hold a 2 hour run pace I would be closer to 5:35. Well, "simply" was the key operator in this little computation. A few other observations I made right out of the gate were - number one, my legs were feeling ok considering I just mustered a PR on the bike - number two, it felt really hot out there on the pavement - and number three, this course was hilly right from the start. The hills didn't concern me at all and I knew my legs would carry me through the run. But, I felt like I was toasting right from the start. The temps were only in the mid 80's but the sun felt very intense as there was little shade to be found. Based on this, I went out on the run very easily and my goal was to just maintain a pace which would bring me in close to 2 hours. The run course was also an "out and back" so once again I got to see the pros come by me. Honestly, they didn't look like they were going too fast and they all appeared to be hurting. Of course, this is all relative. I also saw Matt B and Andrea K come by me. I yelled to each of them as they came by me. Matt was definitely way up there and I guessed he was easily in the top ten. I continued on towards the run turn-around and took advantage of the water stations at every mile. The aid stations had Hammer Gels, Hammer Endurolytes, water, and Gatorade. But the favorite seemed to be the iced towels! I heard many a runner rejoicing over these pieces of sub-ambient cloth. I wasn't hungry at all so I passed on the gels. My choice was just a cup of water - a few gulps with the remaining being dumped over my head - and boy did that feel good. I was cooking out there and I figured it was just a matter of time before I was going to begin a meltdown. I just wanted to hold it off as long as I could so I kept drinking. Within a mile or so of the run turn-around I must have been getting tired and irritable. I would hear people coming up behind me that ran very flat-footed and sounded like they were dying. They would just hang right there behind me and I just wanted to turn around and tell them to get by me or go suffer at someone else's six-o-clock. They would eventually make the pass and as one of them did he made some remark about me passing him on the swim. He was in my age group and kidding with me of course but I didn't even answer him as he was one of those guys I distinctly remembered riding in a very large pace line. Mostly though, I knew I was just getting really tired and grumpy. Just minutes later I finally made the turn for home. A quick glance of my Garmin put me at 1:03 for the first half of the run. I was pretty close to where I wanted to be and picked up my pace ever so slightly. Not even a mile later that was "all she wrote" as I just couldn't sustain the faster tempo. I settled back into a comfortable pace which was pretty slow (10 minute miles) and did the math in my head. If I could just maintain this I'll still be well under 6 hours - unfortunately though, I was going to give back much of the time I gained on the bike. Regardless, I was now in survival mode and just wanted to keep what momentum I had to the finish. As each mile "very slowly" ticked away I kept drinking and started taking advantage of the iced down towels. Every time I dumped the remaining ice water over my head it almost put me into shock it was so cold. It felt great however but the effects wore off very quickly. At 9.5 miles in, I was done. I finally had to walk and try to regain some composure. There was no shade to be found and the heat was just killing me. There were just a couple spots of shade that I came through and the temperature difference was huge. It felt like a breath of cold air in the shade. The racers were dodging to the other side of the road to take advantage of what would total less than a half mile of shaded asphalt. I walked for about 300 yards and started out again. With just over 3 miles to go it was just one foot in front of the other. Now probably barely mustering a 12 minute pace. I squeaked out another 3/4 of a mile or so and walked the next aid station. A mile or so later I would walk up a hill and pick back up again. With about 1.25 miles to go, I came around a gent that was somewhat in the same predicament as me. As I pulled up next to him I said "great job buddy, we're almost there". He immediately picked up a bit and jumped in right next to me. We had a short conversation about the bleepin' heat and stuck together pretty close to the finish line. During the last 300 yards or so there is a pretty good hill and I lost him on that but I was glad to have a running partner for that mile or so.

As I suffered my way up that last hill, I could hear the cheers in the distance. I knew I was close and the sound of those cheers and clapping helped get me up that hill. As soon as I topped the it, the finish line came into view. I held my pace all the way across the mat. I also heard the barker call out my name as I crossed the line. How cool was that! Kathy and Tyler were right there to greet me at the end of the chute. I had done it! Yeah I had to walk a few minutes of the run but I had successfully completed my first half-distance triathlon and met my time goal - barely! Finishing in 5:58 flat. Note that my wave started 30 minutes after the start of the race hence the clock time at the chute. I had no idea I was that close to 6 hours. I really had eaten up some time on those last 6 miles but either way, I was happy.

As I walked away from the finish, I was kinda "out-of-it" for a minute or so. Tyler said he came over to give me a "high-five" and I don't even remember it. All I wanted to do was get off my feet for a few minutes.

And I did. I immediately went over to our little area in the shade and parked it for about 10 minutes or so. I told Kathy and Tyler about some of the race and after feeling a bit recovered, I went to grab some food. The Hammer Perpetuem must have done it's job well during the race as I wasn't hungry all morning. Actually, I still wasn't that hungry but I knew it would be a good idea to get some solid food in me. After filling up my plate I returned to the chair and started eating and drinking. Both the food and the soda burned the roof of my mouth - I'm not sure what caused this but obviously something to do with 6 hours of continuous effort. I peeled off my Speedo Surfwalker shoes to reveal some pretty good blisters I had ascertained on the run. I normally don't blister but I think the heat of the pavement just radiated through the soles of these shoes causing them. As I finished up my complimentary post-race meal Kathy, Tyler and I talked more about the race both from a racer and spectator standpoint. It was nice to hear that Kathy and Tyler had enjoyed watching the race and that the race was spectator friendly - with food and refreshments available. A few minutes later we began packing up our stuff to get ready for the 4 hour drive home. I limped over to an outdoor shower and rinsed off under the icy-cold stream. That water was freezing! I headed over to the Baskin Robbins stand and exchanged my ticket for 2 ice cream sandwiches. Man they tasted absolutely great! I could have ate about a dozen of those. I packed up my transition area and headed back to the car a few hundred yards away. I was pleased that there was a security check point at the transition exit where you had to show your bib to get your bike out. With a race this large, I can see where this could be a problem. I once again dis-assembled my bike to pack it into the trunk of the car. One of these days I gotta get me a bike rack. I did the towel thing and changed into some dry clothes and we were on our way. Kathy was gracious enough to make the drive home which enabled me to take it easy. Fortunately I was able to keep the cramps at bay while in the car also.

Kathy, Tyler and I decided to grab supper at the Denny's in Vincennes on the way home. Kathy has been extremely supportive of my efforts. This race was the culmination of countless hours of training day in and day out. Grumpiness due to fatigue and juggling of family activities to accommodate my long training weekends. I would like to take this opportunity to "Thank" her and let her know how grateful I am. "Thank You" Hon. I would also like to let Tyler know I treasure the time we spend together running - probably more than you know. I sincerely hope we continue to run together and share the experience for years to come. In closing, I would like to once again tip my hat to Muncie for putting on such a well organized event. I'll definitely be back next year as this will be my tune-up race for Ironman Louisville. I came away from this event feeling great about what I had accomplished and how far I have come over the past year from a fitness standpoint. I had countless great experiences while training for this event. I have met a lot of great people and learned much about triathlon and much about myself. If you were to ask me why I do this. The answer would be simple. "It makes me feel good about me!" Nothing more - nothing less. As long as this body allows me, I'll continue on this journey.