Race Post-Mortem

Had a good day of rest the day before the race and got up feeling good.

For the first time ever I started right in front (with all the 18-24 year olds!) and went out solidly, and for the first time, didn't get beat up, probably because I was keeping a good pace. Was able to stay on someones feet until the turn back into the harbor and the glare screwed me up again:(, didn't draft much on the way back in and definitely veered on the course, someday I'll get it right. That said, very solid swim, and felt fine coming out of the water. In fact, ended up having one of my fastest T1's on the course, despite taking it very relaxed. HR was 160 right out of the water, but came down into the 150's before leaving transition. Really tried to start easy on the bike and get my HR down, which I did. When I looked at the data I could see that this was the difference in my bike time. I went out easier this year and never made up the time. I also went a little easier over the hills, lost some time there and picked some up at the end. I don't have continuous HR data, but my HR was between 140 and 150 the whole race except for the biggest hill, where I briefly pushed it up to 156. Obviously, "average" power is a little deceiving because of the downhills. I think I really did a good job of keeping my wattage close to 170 most of the race and my HR between 142 and 150. In fact my ave HR for the swim and bike was 145. I do wonder if I could have pushed my HR closer to 150 for more of the race and not had any impact on my run?
I did feel some tightness in my right inner quad when I was pushing for the last 10 miles, somewhat reminiscent of Halfax, but it never amounted to anything. Of note, CP30, 60 and 120 were all about the same, right around 160 watts. So, overall, my pacing was pretty steady.
Took in 6 gels within the first 2 hours and about 60 oz of fluid (gatorade endurance and water).
Went throught T2 fine and started out on the run trying to take it easy, HR was right around 148-150. Could never get out of going about 8:00 to 8:30 pace, however. Was tired and feeling a little negative for the first few miles, but this dissipated and I felt fine the second half of the run. Took two gels and drank gatorade and water during run. With 3 miles to go, someone in my age group passed me (the first person in my age group that I saw on the entire run). We kept playing cat and mouse at the aid stations, but I "snuck" by him at mile 12 and went as hard as I could to the finish and beat him by 22 seconds. I don't know what this means, I don't think I could have kept that pace for the entire run, maybe, only maybe could have pushed the last 3 miles instead of 1 miles as hard as I did.
My splits were as follows:
Swim 34:09 30th
T1 3:42
Bike 2:51:10 32nd
T2 1:41
Run 1:48:56 30th
I can't be much more consistent that this between the swim bike and run. I was 23rd/109 in my age group.

I was somewhat disappointed that I missed my goal by 20 minutes. I just haven't improved as much as I has thought (or hoped) on the bike and my legs just didn't have any "snap" to them on the run. The positive's were that I was consistent on the run and I passed a lot of people a lot younger than me who looked just as fit as I do!

I still think that I have a sub 5 hour half ironman in me. I'll work on the details of how to get there with my coach:)