Muncie Endurathon - Bike

When I finally came out of the water, I saw the dark gray clouds and the rain coming down hard, and thought to myself - "56 miles in the rain...nice."

My attitude for half-irons are completely different than olympics and sprints. In the latter, it is a rush rush mentality...I need to get through as fast as I can. In half irons or 70.3s, I relax and take my time because there is a long ride ahead of me. That day, I was even less of a rush because of the rain.

I am not a strong swimmer at all so when I reached the T1 (1st transition), half of the bikes were gone. Cycling is my strongest part, especially since I have been racing bikes since I was 12, so I wasn't too worried.

The course was nice and smooth until the last 10 miles or so. The beginning leg of the course went through what looked like former railroad tracks that were paved over and not used as a bike path. After that we made a left on to some a 4 lane road which was still smooth.

My strategy for these races is to warm up for at least for the first third or first half and spin on the small front ring and then shift to the larger ring on the second half of the course.

Although the rain was sometimes painful, it did provide relief from the heat.

I didn't get passed too much and the people who did pass me looked like pros...all decked out in their aero wheels.

I pretty much traded spots with a few people but then at the end picked up the pace until the end.

One of things I am always amazed about is the aid stations because trying to grab a water bottle at 15 mph is tough and with the rain, it made it funny. I saw many people grab the bottle but then drop it and volunteers running alongside the riders to hand them bottles.

This is a big difference from the sprints and olympic is distance is the presence of aid stations.

After being the saddle for 3 hours, I was glad to see the transition....