Duke Liver Center Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I started out fine with the usual amount of bumping and punching going out around me. I actually like the contact as it usually invigorates me. For whatever reason, I could never get in a breathing groove one the crowd thinned out. I usually breathe every 3 strokes even in open water but when I tried that I felt as if I wasn't getting enough air. There wasn't much I could do about it so I just took what the race gave me and plodded along.

I don't really know. Maybe try to sprint off the front and get into a 3 strokes/breath groove away from all the choas. More open water swims wouldn't hurt either.

Took my time to make sure I didn't forget anything. I always have a hard time getting my bike off the rack. I'm a tall guy so when I hook my seat on the rail, the back tire never really comes off the ground. Hooking on the bars can't happen either with my race pack on there.

get shorter?

I love this route. Its a fair amount of rollers with one decent climb. It would have been smart to stay in the saddle and spin it out over the hills but I was feeling good and having fun. I decided to come out of the saddle and attack nearly every hill. I must have passed 10 people on the hill on NC42. I may have left a few minutes on the course because I was pacing off of a guy and a couple times I had the energy and legs to pass and drop him but I decided to play it conservative. All in all I couldn't be much happier with the bike leg.

Not much

Took my time and didn't care about how much time I was loosing by not rushing. Its a training day after all.

Put my Garmin on correctly.

I knew I wanted to take it easy and the first lap felt perfect. I finished the first lap in around 57 mins with a bathroom break and not exerting myself at all. Then the sun decided to wake up. The combination of the heat, humidity,and hills zapped all the energy I had. I consider myself a fairly good hill runner so my legs and heart rate were fine but I just could not get it going. I just do not run very well in the heat. I took in some HEED on the course to see if it would make any difference but I think I waited too long. By the end, I was just happy to be done.

Practice running distance in the middle of the day heat. My previous max was about 55 mins in mid summer heat and humidity.

I took my medal and drank some water under a tree for a few minutes with my family and friends to try to cool down. I'm still on the fence about the whole finishers medal thing. On one hand, it definitely feels good to have something more than a tshirt to show that I finished a very challenging distance race. But on the other hand, it kinda feels like one of the trophies they give you for just being on the tball team regardless of how you performed. If I finish IMFL, maybe that medal will feel different.


The sun during the run. The rest of the race was fine.


I loved this race. It's a challenge and next year it will be my A race. Maybe with a year of training and racing smart, I hope to have a chance at breaking 5.