Firmman Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had a pretty great swim. I figured I'd do this in 38 and I pretty much hammered the whole thing. I am going to assume I was going with some current because I never would have guessed I could have pulled a 32. I drafted well, my start was pretty good, and I really did swim hard so I felt great but tired coming out of the water.

nothing

I felt very slow in T1 because I was weezing from the swim. It wasn't anerobic breathing but I was just kind of tired and excited. I felt like I was taking my time and really, I should be under three minutes for this.

hurry up more

It was a pretty decent ride. I was faster than I thought I'd be, even though I wish I could have finished under three hours. For some reason I kind of had comfort issues on my new saddle, which was a surprise given that I'd mostly had good rides for 100 miles on it previous to the race. There was a mild headwind for a lot of the ride, but it never felt crushing and the way back in was pretty fun just knowing it was there. I'd say I could have ridden slightly faster, but not a ton. The sun was feeling hot by the end, and I was starting to dread the run.

I think I probably took 30 seconds too long here, too because I wanted to change my socks.

probably nothing except hurry up.

The run was hard. I threw down the first two miles in around 17 minutes, and then realized that it was going to be really hot so I started slowing down. It was indeed very hot with almost no wind and full sun. There was a fair amount of shade but there were also a few sections that were pretty brutal. The climb from mile 10 to mile 12 isn't all that steep, but it was the heat of the day and really wore me out. I started kicking it from mile 8 to mile 10 and felt great going but as soon as I hit that incline, I had to slow down. Also, I had to blow a couple of minutes because I had to pee very badly on the run, and that involved sneaking off into some woods and getting the job done. That whole agenda (deciding I had to pee, not being able to find a place, finally finding a place) took a lot out of me. The other thing is that while I loved having so many townies spraying water, I got huge blisters on four toes by mile five and it was major pain the whole way in. I'm pretty sure I could cut 7-10 minutes off my time if it would have been 15 degrees cooler and had no blisters. But I never stopped running, except to walk through a few water stations.

I wanted to throw down and kick out the last couple of miles but I'm kind of glad I didn't. The absolute worst part of this race is the insipid final 250 meters of the run, which takes place in the thick sand of the beach. It's a bad way to end a good race because it's so hard to run in that sand, let alone it fills your soaking shoes with the stuff and creates a huge mess. Also, a gigantic MIDDLE FINGER to the person who charged in front of me 6 feet from the finish line. I slowed down for literally one second so that this guy ahead of me would have a finish line picture to himself, and the guy behind me decided that he would have to be macho and charge by me. So guess what, Macho Man and I are almost certainly in the same finish line pictures. Why oh why do people pull that crap?

drank a liter of water. waited about forty minutes then went to Subway and force fed myself. Two hours later, replenished my nutritional demands with beer, grilled chicken, beer, chips, and a fine 14 year Scotch.


The heat.


There was a lot of drafting going on, and some riders appeared unaware of this. The race didn't seem that organized; I thought it was very average in that department. The pasta dinner was mediocre, the expo was a dud. I really enjoyed myself--the volunteers were great, I thought. The run course needs some work and really, for a coastal race there should be more course on the water (because there currently is basically none.)