The Official Digg on the Big Pig Gig

Pigman Splits: (19 out of 60 in age group)

Overall time -- 5:41:44

Swim -- 36:20

Bike -- 3:10:40

Run -- 1:49:04

Oink! Most things that start with the word half are lame by design. They denote something not even close to complete. Half done. Half Hearted. Half Eaten. Half Assed. All are less than complimentary terms for something that could have been so much more. So you would figure a half-ironman would be an easy event for a me to do on a whim. I mean, it's not like doing a whole one. You really don't even need to seriously train right? I figured maybe I'd just get lucky. Well, here's what I noticed about the whole "luck" concept. Luck played a much bigger part before and very early into the race. Luck, meant I got a great place in transition area. Luck got me cloud cover. Luck put me in the last wave. But as the day wore on, luck almost didn't exist at all, at least in the "good" form. A crash, a flat, a broken bone or a stroke were still un-lucky possibilities as the day wore on. Luckily, that didn't happen.

The big Pig Dig this year was marked by driving rain and winds at the start. This made the bike portion challenging for all. By about 11 am the weather improved and the rest of the afternoon was pretty good for racing.

Team Faster Than Schroff pulled off a big upset and destroyed Team Way Faster than Schroff. Shev came down from Wisconson having ridden 96 miles of the Ironman Wisconsin course to swim for team Way Faster Than Schroff. Being the good parents we are, we left the kids in the car during this part of the race (hey it was raining). They paid us back by completely de-pantsing our vehicle (all in a matter of about 30 minutes). A water bottle was filled with Germex. All the band-aids were used up. Crayons were smeared into the upolstery. Food wrappers were used to polish the dashboard and my phone battery was completely used up by my daughter calling her best freind who recently moved back to Britian. I can't wait to see the roaming charge for that call.

Back on the course, I was still in transition, shivering uncontrollably and waiting to get started when shev came up to wish me good luck. She had started and was out of the water so fast I think she must have cut the course. "Honey, you better get going your missing this!" was my first thought when I saw her. My official start was supposed to be 7:50, but at 8:15, I was still on the beach waiting. Being one of the few without a wet suit standing in the pelting rain and wind, I wasn't so much concerned about how much faster all the rubber guys in my age group might swim than I as I was envious of how warm they seemed. Purple lipped, I tried not to look too cold. As it turns out, Shev had already beaten me by plenty on the swim. Still, the whole race was really fun and cool. Once I got going, I was not cold again. The highlight of the day for me was actually spotting both teams on the run after a whole morning of racing. Helgeson and Krause were on thier way back home when I saw them. I was still going out to the turn around on the run. I was too tired and to high five em. I believe I saw Mike H at about mile 4 for me (8 for him) and Krause about a two miles later. The upset came in spite of Schroff's flat tire on his debut bike race. Which lead one to wonder; Can Shroff be Faster Than Schroff? The concept sounds zen.

Emily Dewalt, a local girl turned bad ass super hero tri-chick mananaged an impressive 2nd overall for the women beating me by almost an hour. Thoughts of me racing her in the Firecracker 5k two years ago come to mind. That was the first time I ever heard her name. She was having a terrible race, and I was having a pretty good one. Back then, I was able to stay in at least same solar system as her. Yesterday was an entirely different matter. Shev thought about putting her picture in her cubicle at work after she gouged out the eyes and wrote bad thoughts on it but then reconsidered. She's not convinced that even voodo hexing will do any good. She's WAY to fast for even the witches to fix this.

Reid Hansen had a great day as well taking 3rd in his age group. I tried to bow down before him in the parking lot after the race but was afraid I might not be able to get up. Anothere notable local was Anna Breaux who placed 4th in her age group. Mike Gudat thumped me soundly by about 20 minutes. He had an epic swim and bike. Way to go Mike! Larry Grenvik had a great race placing in the top 20 of his bracket. Other locals of note, Beth Haynes placed 6th in her age group and Carlton Admas placed 10th. Way to represent Peoria. Go Tri-P! I was pleased with my debut at the half ironman distance. I know now, that I can do this distance and I have a relative feeling of how much it hurts. Another first for me was doing a half marathon run barefoot. I have much more confidence about being able to hoof the longer distances and my ability to run pre-barefoot paces is getting a lot better. My feet were sore but not too beat up. The worst injury came 1/2 mile from the finish. I was running in the grass and mud. I nicked my foot pad on something sharp embedded in the mud. It really isn't too bad. It just hurt at the time. I managed an 8:20 something pace and finished with a decent 1:49. Now, that's much slower than my best 1/2 marathon but given the 4 hours of racing prior to the run, I don't know that I'd have been much faster had I worn shoes. My feet didn't hold me back nearly as much as my legs.

Overall, a great day and I can't wait till next year!