My First Half Ironman Attempt

 

Ironstar Half Ironman

 Montgomery Texas Lake Conroe

October 24, 2004

 ½ Ironman Distance 1.2-mile swim-56-mile bike-13.1-mile run

 

 

I was worried about the swim.  I was worried I would have to wear my too-tight wetsuit.  I surely hoped I would not have to.  I didn’t.  The swim took us down the boat canal, then out into the open lake.  There were some serious prayers before this swim.

  Once out in the open lake, I felt my timing chip strap on my ankle coming loose.   I stopped and reattached the strap, dog-paddling all the time.  When I looked up from all this, my crowd of swimmers was gone, and   I was alone in the middle of Lake Conroe. 

That was when I started talking to myself.  Peace be still! The verse of scripture came back to me.  My stroke lengthened as a firm calm settled in. I passed buoys on my right one after another.  I was on course.  A fisherman in a small aluminum boat puttered by without seeing me.  Now the strokes were feeling powerful, and after a couple more buoy passes, I overtook some swimmers.  Pulling through my group of swimmers, I began to catch some of the slower ones from the previous wave.  This was one great swim.  Getting out, though, was a deep landing in a very muddy area. Thank God I had help. 

I was pumped from the great swim and had a fast transition besides.  Out on the bike right away, I started passing folks, but I could only get one gear.  The shifters on my bike were not working.  The next few miles consisted of passing people and then stopping to try to fix my shifter. I could not shift from the small to the big front chainring.   Finally, I gave up and decided to just do the bike course in one gear, the big gear, my favorite. So, let’s go.  I was really into it; taking the hills, passing everyone I came to, I was on fire.   Soon, I had passed everyone I could see and found myself all alone on the course.  After a couple more miles, I still had not seen another rider.  Did I pass everybody?  I doubted it.  Am I lost?  Maybe.  Did I take a wrong turn?  Did I miss a turn?  Where am I? Then I fought my way up some hard hills, which I didn’t think were supposed to be on this part of the course.   My legs and my body were starting to feel the effects of “too much too soon.”  I was getting tired.

I climbed one last bad hill, then the road dead-ended into a major highway. Definitely, this was not on the course map.  I was done.  Down on the right, I could see a convenience store.  These were the days before the ubiquitous cell phones, so I would need to go to the convenience store, borrow a phone, and call my Pat.  

 It was Sunday morning and I created quite a stir when I entered the country store dressed in spandex, race number hanging from my waist, and numbers painted on my arms and legs: not your usual Sunday morning country store weirdo.  Once they realized I was harmless, the folks there were nice.  I guess they humored me some. 

 My zeal for the bike had obviously caused me to miss a turn somewhere, and I had gotten several miles off course.  The race was over for me, and my half Ironman attempt was aborted for that day.