Muncie Race Report
Now for the report about the half we did in Muncie. Because
of the severe heat the race was shortened to a 1mile swim / 30mile bike /
6.2mile run. At first there were a couple of us cursing the race director for
completely destroying our plans for the race, after all this would be my first
70.3 of the season (the half in Taylorsville was shortened as well). Another
disappointed member of our crew was Vickie, this was going to be her first
70.3, but she took it all in stride and ended up having a great race! Once the
news was made official (they posted it on facebook) we evaluated our game plan
for the race and I removed some bottle cages from the bike and got rid of the
nutrition box. I decided to go with 1 bottle of E-fuel and the bladder in the Shiv
filled with water. For other calories I went with a couple packs of GU and
ended up traveling rather light.
The swim start was extremely crowded and we took advantage
of an area near the start roped off that allowed the racers to get a swim
warm-up before the gun. Once my age group was called into the starting it felt
like just a couple of seconds before we were in the middle of the lake headed
back to T1. The beginning of the swim was uneventful and I settled into a
comfortable pace quickly. I was fortunate enough to get through the course
without any major detours and exited the water in 12th place in my
division. At the time I had no idea where I was in relation to the other races
however I saw another racer just ahead of me coming out of transition with my
age group on his leg. T1 was quick and I was on my way for the 30 mile ride.
The ride was much more flat than I had anticipated and I immediately started to
hammer the ride. The course ended up being a 2loop course, 30miles long with
about 1500 athletes, this means that the 2 lane road was extremely crowded. Luckily
I didn’t hit too much traffic, so I was able to focus putting as much time into
the guys in front of me as possible, ended up coming off the bike in 3rd
place. I tried to take in as much water as possible without getting bloated so
I never felt too dehydrated despite the heat.
Once out on the run my motto was to maintain a decent pace
and not loose the time I made up on the bike. About 2 miles into the run I
finally started to feel the heat, the oppressive 95+ heat… With only about 4
miles left my spirits were high as I ran through the aid stations only picking
up water to throw on my head, it worked to cool me off but I should have been
taking in calories. This proved to be my demise as I slowly came to a walk with
only 2 miles left. I had to dig deep to run the last few miles and ended up
with a disappointing 7th in the age group and 93rd
overall. I say disappointing because of the work I put in on the bike just to
let that time slip through my fingers on the run because I didn’t fuel
properly.
Some of the other members of our crew fared a bit better.
Jay McCurdy ended up having a great race and winning the overall amateur
division! Vicky and Kathryn also had a great race finishing strong. By the end
of the day those of us who were upset about the change in distance were very
thankful for the adjustment, we were exhausted and pretty dehydrated by the end
of it all.
Good luck with everyone and their racing endeavors and keep
training hard!
-T
