Steelhead Race Report: Pre-race

We left our home on Thursday looking forward to a nice drive to Benton Harbor for the Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Half Ironman Race. We got a later then expected start (I didn’t get out of work when I should have). When we got to Benton Harbor my first impression was that there were a lot of athletes at this thing considering that it was still early in the evening. As we pulled into the Jean Klock Park area, an athlete suggested that we park our vehicle at the transition area, as there was still plenty of parking there. I thanked her for the info as I needed to rack my bike in the transition area and I still needed to pick up my race packet.

We pulled into the transition area and looking at all the tri bikes lined up in the racks was awe-inspiring. I have never been in a triathlon race that had this many participants. There were going to be 1900 participants racing in the morning. I walked around at the Expo and I was not too impressed. There were a few race equipment manufactures there, but they did not have any special deals. From my limited experience, I’ve always been able to pick up a few items at these things that I wanted. I got my body marked up with my age and race number and peered over at the swimming course. Lake Michigan looked great. I could just make out the pier from where we stood. I will talk about the pier more a little later.

After race registration was completed, I gave Christine a quick once over just to make sure nothing happened to her during the drive. She looked and drove great, so I racked her on the bike rack with all of the other bikes. I’m sure none of the other bikes had a name. A funny thing happened while racking the bike. The only way in and out of the transition area is to have a wristband (kind of like the ones they give at the hospitals to patients) with your bib number on it. My buddy’s wife put on the wristband and locked it on by mistake. She didn’t know that once you put one of these wristbands on you can’t get it off without cutting it off. Anyway, it was hilarious as he and she were trying to explain to the race officials what had happened. They eventually gave him a different race wristband so that he could rack his bike.

We decided to get some food and looked at the GPS to find a place to eat. We finally decided on a place in downtown Benton Harbor. It was a big place and it still had a 30-minute wait, so we figured the food would be good. I split the BBQ plate (chicken and ribs) with my youngest. The food was good, but I ate too much... at least the triathlon would give me a chance to burn off a few extra calories.

After dinner, we walked around the downtown area for a while and made our way to the hotel. The hotel that my friend found was not the fanciest place around. In fact, the name said it all. We booked two days at the Best Value Hotel. At least it was close to the race. The staff at the hotel tried to look like they were big time, but you could tell that they didn’t. I asked for a wake up call the next morning and asked what time the complementary breakfast was going to be served. The reply was that since they had so many athletes at the hotel that breakfast was going to be served starting at 5 am. Great! Just the time I wanted to get up. That night I had unpacked all of transition equipment and made sure that I didn’t forget anything. I don’t know what I would have done if I did forget something, but at least it calmed down the nerves a bit. We didn’t bring an alarm clock with us but the combination of a cell phone, wristwatch and the front desk alarms would hopefully allow me to wake up. As 1 am approached, I finally was able to fall asleep.

It is amazing how early 5 am is. The worst thing is that I woke up at 4:53 am with at least a few more minutes of sleep to spare before all of the alarms would go off. As the alarms all went off it seemed like I didn’t get any sleep at all and I was nervous. I rolled out of bed with that seasick feeling in my stomach and my head spinning and went to the bathroom for my first of many trips to the bathroom. Pre-race jitters always force me to use the bathroom at least 4 to 5 times. My wife woke up and made coffee for me as I packed my equipment. I got dressed and went to the dinning area hopping to see some fellow athletes and get some food in me. As I walked up the overnight manager was putting on the finishing touches on the breakfast buffet. It consisted of coffee, Tang (not orange juice), bananas, and some frozen (yes frozen) donuts. Ok so the food was not the greatest but at least I ate a banana. I went to the car and grabbed the peanut butter and a Powerbar so that I could get some protein in me as well.

I check in with my friend to see if he was awake and find out what time he wanted to leave. The transition area was going to close at 6:30 and our wave was not starting until after 7:15. We got our things packed and he drove to the race as our wives and kids slept in. As we arrived, we were diverted from the transition area to the alternate athlete parking. This was about a mile from the transition area and we had a lot of equipment to move. Thankfully, there were plenty of busses that were moving athletes to the transition area.

As we walked into the transition area, there was a line of at least 200 athletes that were waiting for the busses to take them to the starting line. I was worried that we didn’t have enough time, but we found our spots and laid out our equipment. I pumped air into my bike tires and filled up the bento box with food for the bike ride. I grabbed my wetsuit and goggles and headed for the buses. As we approached, the lines were gone and we walked right up to the next bus and headed out.

The ride to the start line was pleasant as the whole bus was about the same age and made small talk and joked about the day events to follow.

That’s the first installment of the series.