Henry's Notes

This past Sunday, I completed the Soma Half-Ironman event. I was aiming for 6hrs, but I finished in 6:26 (close enough for now). The bike portion turned out to be the hardest for me because my lower back was hurting. I could have bike a bit faster if it wasn't because my back was killing me. I'll need to do some back exercises before any more races. I averaged 16-17mph including the 3 stops I took to stretch out. As for the run, I was averaging 10min/mile. I felt much better than I did last year when I did the quarter on the same course. Although I was extremely tired, I had fun at the event. Here is the official result:

Swim(1.2miles)= 0:45:28 (2.15/100yrd)
T1            = 0:04:45 (yeah, slow)
Bike(56miles) = 3:19:13 (16.8mph)
T2            = 0:02:51 (I did some stretching)
Run(13.1miles)= 2:13:24 (10.18min/mile)
==========
TOTAL         = 6:25:41

On another note, thanks goes out to all the Tricats volunteers. It was a great feeling to pull up to the bike station and have everyone cheering for me. It was even better when I can pull up and have a "pit" service, as you'll see in the pictures here (to see more, click here).







My lessons learned from the race are:

• with proper training, you can do a half semi-comfortably
• don't forget to strengthen your core... I paid for it on the bike because my lower back was killing me.
• racers should call out what they want to the bike/run volunteers
• if you are hot on the run, pop some ice in your mouth
• if they are running out of cups on the run course, keep on in your back pocket
  
• I think I will do another half :)