This past weekend I raced the 30th anniversary of the Muncie Endurathon half-ironman. I had heard a lot of good things about the race and was looking forward to it. The race takes place about 75 miles outside of Indianapolis. It is your typical Midwestern town with long straight flat roads. The nice thing about this race is that most of the roads are closed to traffic. The main road they closed was a fairly major road and they closed both sides of it.
On race morning we were told that wetsuits would be allowed which was pretty surprising since the water seemed very warm. The official water temp was 77 with the cut of being 78, (age group rules.) I started in the first wave with about 30 other guys. About 500 yards into the swim I was at the tail end of the lead group. I could see that two guys were starting to pull away from the front but I was content just sitting in the group. Not sure if I could have gone with them since I was so hot. The pace seemed to slow a bit after the half way point and other swimmers were starting to catch our group. When we exited the water there were about 10 or so swimmers in the group with 2 people out front.
I got on my Jamis Xenith T2 in about 4-5 place, right with my US PRO TRI teammate Ryan Bates. About 5 miles into the bike the race goes down a bike path which is about as wide as a one lane road. It was flat and as straight can be. My legs felt a bit tired but I was still able to keep my power near my goal. The roads were very well marked with painted arrows on the road ahead of the few turns that were on the bike. Like I mentioned before the roads were closed to traffic and there were cops at nearly every intersection. There was tailwind for the second section of the race which helped keep my speed up. My time was 2:09:xx on a course that was a bit short.
I rolled into T2 and jumped off of my bike. About 2 miles into the run the skies opened up and it started pouring on me. It was actually nice because it was starting to get a bit hot and humid. It rained off and on during most of the run. The course was a simple out and back course on a side street that went around the lake. There were some small rolling hills so it made the course fly by. Also there were mile markers clearly marked every mile on the run and were very accurate. I spent most of the run trying to hold back since I am racing Lake Placid in two weeks. I ran 1:19:xx, finishing in a time of 4:01:22.
Overall this was a very well organized race and rates right up there with some of the best 70.3 races in the country. One of the exceptionally nice things were the pre race expo was very extensive. Also the food buffet had tons of stuff. Each athlete was given a ticket to get Baskin Robbins sundae cup which was amazing.(Although not sure if it compares to Jordan’s Ice Cream.). The other nice thing that you can’t find at a WTC 70.3 is that small race feel and the comradery that you find at a race like this. Anyone looking for a great half-ironman or sprint race a bit off the beaten track should really consider this race.
Here is a link to the local news paper article and video clip of me finishing:
http://www.thestarpress.com/section/SPORTS
Here is a link to the results:
http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=11328#racetop
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