Meltdown in Morgantown

June 29th was not a good day to race. I did the Morgantown HIM last year as my second every 1/2 and went 5:17 and change. I had been looking forward to and training for this race as one of my A races this summer and was shooting for sub 5 hours, hopefully close to 4:50 as I was in much better shape and had more training than I did at this point last year.

Two weeks before the race I came down with a cold/sinus infection and sore throat which screwed up my last week of training before the taper. I took things easy, felt better, had a good taper and felt great the day before the race.

The swim was uneventful. 29:36, about 40 seconds slower than last year but I felt like I went a lot easier. I was 3rd in my age group, 27th overall whereas last year I was 41st overall so I was happy with the improvement. Also, last year's swim may have been short. As a side note I again felt great in my Xterra wetsuit.

The bike started out great. Felt good, went steady on the flats and spun up the two hills. I only got passed by a couple of riders and only one in my age group I think through the first lap. Rode it in 1:17 which was my goal, and was 3 minutes ahead of last year. There was some rain and more wind than last year also, so I was definitely having a better ride. But then about mile 35 I hit a pothole, hard, and flatted my front. I lost about 8 or more minutes changing the flat and got passed by a ton of people. I then rode too hard for the next 10-15 miles trying to reel back spots and could feel a dreaded blow up coming so I tried to soft pedal and really take the last 6-8 miles or so easy but the damage was done. I coasted in to a 2:47 bike, about 10-12 minutes slower thand I wanted.

On the run I knew instantly it was going to be a bad day. Fought through two massive quad cramps, the first time ever, the first mile then things started to just shut down. Worst half marathon ever and if there was ever a picture to tell a thousand words of disappointment the following does so:
Yep, that's me finishing about an hour behind the time I wanted and about 35 minutes slower than last year! (The clock shows race time and my heat was about 15 minutes after the clock started, but still a bad day).

Later I learned my coach, John who was racing the pro division, had a bad day also and had to DNF after the first lap of the run.

Got home and felt lousy for the bad performance and felt like an idiot for taking the bike out too hard after flatting. Still couldn't stop coughing for the next day or two so I finally got to the doctor on Wednesday. Turns out I have a double ear infection, sinus infection and walking pneumonia, whatever that means, and have probably had it the last few weeks. So I'm now sure that had a lot to do with the blow up and lack of energy at the finish. I'm now on lots of antibiotics and medication and should be ready to go again in a week or less.