Rocketman 2014

I had an awesome PR at this race, but I'm not sure I would do it again.  Between lack of aid stations and bumpy roads, it really made for an interesting day.

Packet pickup, bike dropoff and checkin were Saturday, the day before the race.  The packet pickup was unorganized and the volunteers didn't seem too excited to be there.  There was no flow to the way it was setup and if you didn't know what to look for you would have missed your opportunity to pick up your ticket to return to the Kennedy Space Center and the hat they were giving away.  The bike racks were organized by number, but you had to get there early if you wanted an end spot.  I got there pretty late so I was not on the end.  I should have brought something to cover my bike with because it was all wet in the morning.

We ate dinner at Mamma Rosas, an Italian place in Titusville.  The food was pretty good, but the Tiramisu was not. I would go there again, but next time skip dessert.

I arrived at the race start at 5:30am (when transition opened) and didn't realize it was a pretty long walk from the parking to transition.  I recommend dropping someone off with all the things you will need, then going to park so you don't have to carry it all so far.  Also, don't forget a pair of shoes because there were a bunch of stickers in the grass that didn't feel good on the feet.  

The swim was one of the better swims I have done.  The water was calm and it was a good temperature (not wetsuit legal).  I came out of the water in second and was feeling really good.

The bike was rough (literally).  The roads sucked.  To start off, there were no signs coming out of transition and the volunteers were not pointing so I made two wrong turns right away.  Once I got on the main road, the signage was much better, but that didn't make up for the shitty roads.  At times I thought my water bottles were going to fly out of my holders and my bones were all going to break!  It was also a killer on the lower back.  If I end up doing another bumpy course I'll raise my aero bars a bit to make up for the back pain.  I also dropped my chain a few times so I need to remember to give my bike a nice tuneup the week of a race. There were also only two aid stations that only had Gatorade.  Plus the volunteers didn't help much getting us bottles so I missed the first one.  I ran out of water before the second time we hit the aid station, but it worked out since I managed to grab a bottle of Gatorade.  I came off the bike second, but I had lost a couple more minutes due to issues.

The run was marked well but again there were not enough aid stations.  It was getting hot so ice and cold water would have been nice, but the only thing they were handing out was warm water.  I plugged right along and held an ok pace till about mile 9 when I slowed to over 8 minutes/mile.  I still finished in second with a great PR for me: 4:27:31.

If I were to go back, I would try one of the shorter distances so I would not have to spend so much time on the bike with bad roads.  It was a good time and it's always nice to race with friends.