This was my first beach start swim. All males went first - about 150. It was pretty rough swimming and I got out of sorts a bit early on. But after about 500m I was able to settle into a steady pace.

Need to be more confident in my swimming so that getting hit or knocked around doesn't stop my swimming pace. Need to improve my swimming technique in order to pick up speed.
This was actually a pretty good swim for me overall.

Transition went fine. We had to walk from beach to transition because of slippery sidewalks.
Main issue in transition was my sunscreen not spraying. Just gave up on it and left.

Nothing. Just maybe a bit faster at everything...but went very well.

When I left transition neither my HR monitor nor cateye was working. What a fiasco! I had been training for 2 months on HR w/ cadence. So when I left T1 I was feeling great. It wasn't until about 22-25 miles that I realized I was going to hard.
I had to slow down, especially after the second set of hills. I started getting leg cramps at mile 43.
Note: this was my first 1/2 so I learned a bit about proper pacing.

Dial in my pacing better.
Build climbing and endurance leg strength even more on the bike.

Nailed this transition. Everything went fine. My goal was to be under 2 min. Excited I did it with my legs on fire!

Just get faster.

My legs felt like lead before while I was leaving transition. My pace for the first 6 miles was about 10:20, but I knew I was getting into trouble. I had to slow it down to ensure I could finish.
Hamstrings and quads didn't want to work anymore the last 4 miles. Had to walk aid stations to recover enough to run another mile.
Stomach didn't want anymore, felt full and heavy. I ate bananas and water on the run course only. I don't think my stomach really negatively impacted my run.
My HR was working for the run and I was in zone 2 the whole time.
Really my legs did me in.

Need to run more and build bike leg strength to complete a tri of this distance.

Food, water, walking.


Proper pacing on the bike and poor leg strength in the run.


Well this was my first half. My goal was to do it in 7 hours and my time was 6:59:37. Although I have disappointments with my run, I'm glad I finished and met the goal.

Also HITS did an awesome job. I've never been in an Ironman event, but I felt like HITS provided anything I would want for a triathlon. Well done and a great enthusiasm throughout. I'll be doing it next year for sure.