William Lodi’s 2012 PumpkinMan Half Race Report
I’m sure I have plenty of spelling and grammar goofs 
– feel free to point them out…I don’t mind 
Here it is…it be long…War and Peace ain’t got nothing on me 
I’d like to start by saying when I first thought about competing in triathlons two years ago I could swim but not compressively. I grew up playing sports, have had asthma my whole life and my workouts generally involved strength training. When my shoulders started to get some aches and pains from the heavy lifting I decided to switch over to endurance and did a lot of running and still hit the weights a lot but less weight/more reps. So anyway my first time in the pool when I started swim training I swam one 25m length…stopped…swam back…done. That was my first swim workout. The first thought going thru my head after I exited the pool was why the hell did I tell everyone I was going to do this? I can’t even swim. My goal was when I started I would do Sprints my first year and do a half my second. So here I am two years later to the day about to race my first half iron. When I signed up for the race in May the anxiety hit the second I hit the submit button. I thought there goes my summer but I need to do this.
Training: I new I could do the swim at this point. My wife and I took swim lessons over the winter to improve our efficiency in the water. What a difference those lessons made. I also swam a lot in Maine where we vacation for a week on Great Pond in Belgrade. I’m still not the fastest swimmer but I do feel very comfortable in the water. I wasn’t too worried about the run but I knew I still had to train a lot for it…especially brick workouts. The bike…I felt like it was time to start group riding. This was going to be my first year group riding and I was very nervous about it. I had met Donna Weeks over the winter at the Snowstorm Classic race in Forrest Park and before that thanks to the social network being Facebook. If you aren’t my friend yet beware…I will find you 
so I was comfortable enough breaking into the group rides with her on Thursday nights. I remember I was nervous going and planned on staying in the back for the entire ride. When I saw everyone there with their AWESOME bikes I took a deep breath grabbed my Jamis road bike and got it ready for the ride. The pace line and drafting was not my thing yet. I remember a couple times trying to get close but backed right off. The overall experience for my first ride was great though. I remember going home and telling my wife where we rode…all excited like a little kid lol. And the rides just got better from there. I finally hit the MP rides and some comp edge rides on Monday nights and got very comfortable with drafting and pace lines and I felt my bike improved a lot over time. The closer the race date came the more relaxed I was.
The Race: After I got my transition ready and took an asthma pill I went for a jog, made a pit stop and then made my way to the water. Just as I walked in they announced to have all athletes exit the water. There were some that were still out pretty far so I could have went in for a quick dip but decided not to in case I missed an important announcement. I also forgot to study the entrance and exits at the transition so I quickly switched myself to adjust-as-you-go mode otherwise I’d go nuts thinking about it.
So anyway my wave was #3 7:03AM start…AWESOME!!! I was very happy about that. I was happy to be starting ahead of everyone and I knew they would all eventually catch me but I also knew I would see them all on the course whether they caught me on the bike or on the run and I was looking forward to seeing how solid everyone looked during a bigger race. Before the start Wayne Ball gave me a quick pep talk…thanks Wayne…he told me to just race my race and not get caught up in what’s happening around me. That helped me relax even more. Now I usually start my swim in the front because I like to get used to the knocking around. Today I decided to take my time getting in the water. We got the go ahead, I started my timer on the watch and went in the water. The swim to the first buoy wasn’t too bad. It was a little congested but I’ve been thru worse. Going around the first buoy I decided to stay a little wide and settle into a rhythm. Once I settled and setup my angle to the next turn buoy I started to catch and pass the swimmers in front of me. I followed this same pattern for every turn buoy. My target time was 40 minutes. I knew Maria Mik’s group was starting 20 minutes after me so if I was to hit my time I would be coming by as they started their swim. As I came to the start of the second loop I looked over and saw them getting ready to enter the water. WOW!!! What a cluster that was. Red caps, blue caps, pink caps, yellow caps all around me. I couldn’t kick my legs at one point. When I finally got to the turn buoy I was able to follow my first loop pattern and get a rhythm. I was exiting the water at 40:40 per my watch…I was very happy. Jogged up the hill to T1…took a gel and salt tablet and off I went.
The Bike: I went into the bike wanting to avg 20mph. I figured that would get me back to T2 with a total race time of 3hr30min +/-. That was my goal before the race started. The bike was feeling great. I was enjoying the ride following some riders then passing, getting passed, sipping on the Heed, watching my cadence and then I saw the 10 mile marker. ONLY 10 MILES!!!! UGH…this is going to be a long ride!!! Playing sports growing up I never wanted to know the score during the game or what inning it was. I liked playing the entire game like every pitch meant the ball game. Like this race. I wanted to feel like every pedal stroke counted…so when I saw mile 10 my head dropped for a second. Then I thought ADJUST and just keep to your plan…don’t let that get in your head. A lot of people might like seeing the mile markers…I do not. So I adjusted and decided to put those mile markers into my game plan instead of time. I decided to use mile marker 20 and 40 as my nutrition markers and take my gel blocks then. After the second gel block consumption I had a slight vurp…then another. Hmmmmm….I thought this might not be good for the run. I decided not to take another gel until I felt hungry…stick to water, coke and Gatorade. I hit the last 10 miles on the bike and thought yeah…home stretch baby. About 7 miles into the last 10 I thought hmmmm…this is a long way to run lol. ADJUST…I got my head ready to rise to the challenge. Think start at a slow pace and just keep going. I pulled into transition at 3hr34min into the race, took a salt tablet and I was off on the run.
The run: My legs were heavy like anchors but I thought I could manage a 1hr50min run. They were bad but not horrible. I still took it slow just in case and just kept myself moving forward. At 1 mile in I got a blister on the back of my foot. I realized I forgot to tighten my quick laces. Stopped for a second to tighten them and started off again. Blister didn’t bother me at all the rest of the run…phew. I had to visit the woods at mile 1.5 to 2 just before the first aid-station and that was my last stop except to consume liquids. I allowed myself 5 seconds to consume liquids when I had to but would keep walking as I did so I didn’t really lose much time at all since I was running pretty slowly anyway. It was great seeing everyone on the loops and their encouragement really kept me going. I’d like to thank everyone for that…Thanks Everyone!!! I’ll never forget coming down the stretch at the end of the second loop and hearing the announcer through the trees realizing I was so close to the finish. At that point both calves got a little loose feeling in them. It lasted for two strides each. I settled back a bit for a couple more strides. I then kicked in a little extra coming up to the last aid station, turned and hit the hill, kept it going up the hill came around and down to the finish. Missed my goal my 8 minutes but I was still very happy. The only mark I missed was my run but that’s ok.
For the last 8 miles of the run I had a running partner. I was keeping him up to date on his time…he started in wave #7 and his foot was bothering him. I told him if he kept going what time he would approx. finish at. He said he’s done 6 half irons and if I was right he would break his PR by almost 30 minutes. We stayed together for those last 8 miles and I kept his mind off his foot by talking to him about the cyclonaut club and other things. When we got to the last mile just before the turn he was so pumped up he kicked it up and I told him to go nail it…you got it. After he got a few yards ahead of me I kicked up my gear to the finish. He was so psyched at the end and told me he wouldn’t have done it without my encouragement. That made me feel good. Goals next year: Shave 1-2 minutes off the swim, 5-10 minutes off the bike, 10-15 minutes off the run. Total race time between 5:11-5:22. Also until I know for sure I’m as fast as I can get on my current road bike will I then upgrade to a tribike…lol…who am I kidding? I want a tribike!!!
I couldn’t have done it without the encouragement from you guys. Wayne Ball, Donna Weeks, Kevin Moloney, Sarah Kelly, Bob Goodrow, Ryan Zygarowski, Maria Mik, Paul Mik, Paulito, Jim and Kelly Sullivan, Mary and Doug Guertin, Derek Bushey, Kristin Su, Lauren Mendoza, Adam Long, Bill Terry, Jackie Evans, Sarah Hope, Allison Burnham, Lisa Totz, Laura Paul, Peter and Julia Plourde, Ben Fish, Chris Sullivan, Russ Lepage, James Gebo, Amy Parent, Fran Feeney, Elena and Matt Musiak, Ian and Kirstin Lane, Martha Berrouard, Stephen Brault, Mike Cousins, Andy and Amy Brower, Richard Keating, Julie Kadamus, Joe Giannetti, Bill Wheeler, Dan Muldoon, Stephanie Woods, Seth James, Jon Adams to name a few have all helped and/or inspired me directly and/or indirectly in one way or another. Something I saw as impossible two years ago was possible today thanks to you.