Steelhead 70.3

After I vowed off marathons, Randy convinced me to try a half-ironman because it only consists of a half-marathon. Since it technically wasn't a marathon, I had to oblige. We signed up for the Steelhead 70.3 - 70.3 miles of endurance in St. Joseph, Michigan.



The swim is 1.25 miles in Lake Michigan, the bike is 56 miles through the scenic St. Joseph countryside, and the run is a half-marathon (13.1 miles) around the Whirlpool appliance corporate headquarter campus.



We arrived in St. Joseph the night before and stayed in a hotel with Melissa and her mom. This was the first event that I stayed in a hotel for, and it made the experience even more exciting. The town was over-run with elite triathletes because this event is a qualifing event for the championship 70.3 in Clearwater, Florida. A total of 1890 individuals completed the Steelhead, which doesn't include the relay teams. We woke up at 5am to arrive at the beach and meet Randy and his friend Rob before the event.



At the start of the race, the waves in Lake Michigan looked to be 2-4 feet. The boats had trouble setting up the buoys to swim around. So after some deliberation, the cancelled the swim, and replaced it with a 2.5 mile run. This upset most people, but I was relieved because I questioned my ability to complete all three legs.



The event started in reverse demographic order, meaning that after the pros started, they started people in waves beginning with the demographic groups that tend to be slowest and ending with the fastest. I started in the last group over an hour after the start of the race.



The initial run was a breeze, and I ran it in 16:38. This was followed by transition 1 (1:13) and the bike. I didn't push myself too hard on the bike. I tried to use it to fuel myself for the run with Power Bars. Melissa and her mom were a great support during the bike, and stationed themselves at several places to cheer me on. I finished the bike in 3:11:02. Transition 2 took me 2:18 because I used the portable. The run was grueling. The hot summer sun was beating down miserably, and the final 150 yards of the run was on the beach. But I ran the whole way without walking, which was a goal of mine, and finished respectably with a time of 2:01:32. Overall my time was 5:32:41, and I achieved 1306th place. Randy had a time of 5:21:53, and Rob won our 3-man competition with a time of 5:08:13.
The winner, Justin Henkel, was a former winner of the Full-Ironman world championship in Kona, Hawaii. He has been featured in Gatorade commercials, but has down-graded himself to Half-Ironmans due to heart problems.



Now that its all done, I can proudly call myself an Iron Half-man.