New Jersey Devilman Half Lite Race Report 2013

Piranha Sports' Devilman Half Lite was a cheap local race on Sunday May 5 to open my 2013 triathlon season. Its distances were exactly 1/3 of a full Ironman length: 

Half Lite 50™: 0.80 Mile Swim~40.3 Mile Bike~8.8 Mile Run

Race Plan
I trained hard in the off season, and I was ready to race. I wrote a race plan for myself:

Swim: 0.8 miles = 1408 yards. I plan to swim at my base interval of 1:45 minutes per 100 yards. 1408 yards will take me just under 25 minutes. Be aggressive.

Swim/Bike transition
Getting out of lake, taking off wetsuit, putting on socks & cycling cleats. Sunglasses. Helmet. Gloves. 3 minutes.

Bike 40.2 miles.
I will target 180-185 watts. This is my low zone 3 power.
Nutrition plan:
Gu at mile 0, 12, 24, 36.
Salt pills after first loop
Cycling plan: stay in aero position as often as possible. Be aggressive.
Target: 21 mph or 1 hour 55 minutes.

Bike/Run transition
Rack bike. Take off helmet & gloves. 1 minute.

Run (Wheee!)
Salt pills at start of run
Gu at half way
Strategy: run like hell
Target: 7 minutes per mile or 62 minutes total


What really happened:

Swim (0.8 mile) - Time = 0:28:06 (Goal = 25 minutes)

Cold and dirty lake water. I had a panic attack in the water at the start. I couldn't breathe. My body couldn't move the way my brain wanted to move. I had to take a few seconds in streamline position and a few breaststrokes to calm myself down. Slowly I gained composure and started swimming


T1 - Time = 0:04:22 (Goal = 2 minutes)
I was so happy getting out of the lake. I saw plenty of bikes still racked, so I was still in middle of the pac. My hands were frozen. I had a hard time taking off my wetsuit and putting on my bike gear. It was a quite a wreck and my heart rate spiked again.

Bike (40.3 miles) - Time = 02:07:29 (Goal = 1 hour 55 minutes)
Course was flat with few turns but there was some nasty wind. I did well keeping my cadence high but should have pushed a little harder. The 2-loop out-n-back bike course allowed me to see many of my teammates.






T2 - Time = 1:42 (Goal = 1 minute)
Not sure what happened as I needed almost a minute more than I expected.

Run (8.8 miles) - Time = 1:01:13 (Goal = 62 minutes)

The run was the only part that I met my goal time. By the time I started running, I realized that my Garmin 910xt GPS was not functioning. I should have turned it off / on to reset, but I didn't. I just ran like hell. The out-n-back course was flat. I passed a few people but not that many. The turnaround point came faster than I expected. On the way back, I sped up and passed a few more people on my way to a sprint finish.

Overall finish time = 3:42:54

Overall placement = 59 / 227

Age group placement = 12/29

I thought I could finish under 3:30 hours but apparently I was too optimistic. The race was a good reality check for me so I could re-calibrate my expectation for future races.