Beach2Battleship Half Iron Distance Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Pre-race swim on Friday was a great idea and I'm glad I did it. For the race, I lined up in front; completely submerged myself several times (I despise cold water) - this worked flawlessly. Went out hard and was going strong until my right goggle partially leaked. Now, I didn't swim much this year, but when I did, I never had a problem with leaky goggles. I was in a large group and the current at this point and decided not to stop, which was a mistake. My sighting for the rest of the swim was horrible. Contact was minimal, but had swimmers around me until the last third of the swim.

The hot water shower area that we had to run though on the way to T1 was awesome.

Stop and empty goggles.

Kissed my cheering wife and daughters on the way out, to which they responded, "It's a race! Go!!"

I'm not a great swimmer and the bike is usually where my race starts. Today was not that day. Felt great coming out of the water and hopped on the bike shooting for a 2:30 as a worse case scenario. From the very first pedal stroke, I knew that I did not have "it." My legs just would not respond. I remember seeing the Mile 20 marker and thinking "you have got to be kidding me." My legs felt as though I had biked half the course by then. At this point, I simply had to readjust my goals for what the day was giving me and press on. My brother summed it up nicely via text message wondering, "What happened to your run?!? You obviously didn't blow it out on the bike."

Nutrition: 400 cals Heed Perpetuem; 200 cals Powerbar jellies.

Re-evaluate taper period; try discover why the usual zip was not in my legs.

EDIT: Went back and looked at my avg cadence. Very low and confirms the uncooperative dialogue I was having with my legs.

Hand your bike to a volunteer and they rack it for you - AWESOME.

High-fived my wife and daughters - no kisses; it's a race ;)

Having changed my outlook for the day, I simply focused on a smooth effort to the turnaround so that I could pick up the pace for the final 10K. Before the race started, I was shooting for 1:35 - 1:40. However, the leg drama continued as I just could not get the turnover I was used to. I spent the first four miles looking for a rhythm. I felt good for the next 6 miles, but at mile 10, I was in a dark place. Stopped to walk for a couple of minutes. Picked it up again to the next aid station, grabbed some water and walked a few more minutes. At this point, another racer encouraged me by saying "we've come too far to walk now." He was right. I put one foot in front of the other until I reached the finish.

Nutrition: Water only. One to drink, one on the head.

Nothing; the run is usually where I make up time on the swimmers ;)

Even though I was out of sorts for the day, I climbed into 10th in my AG during the run.

Walked a few minutes; sat down and rested against one of the buildings downtown until my wife and daughters found me.

Then - pizza!


Not sure; it just wasn't my day. However, it gave me a chance to reflect on what's truly important, how blessed we are just to be able to do this sport, and to have fun. My goals were tossed out of the window from the bike start and I simply made the best of the rest of the day.


GREAT RACE - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I will be back.