MightyMan Montauk - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This was a good swim for me. I believe the course is long and it is much different swimming in a fresh water lake when you train in the salty choppy current filled long island sound. Started off smooth, never pushing the pace, was to the left of most of the field and touched every buoy as i passed, passed a ton of people from the earlier waves, very little contact in the water. I came out of my wave in like 8th or so of the 50 guys, on the way up to trans i went to pull my wettie off and grabbed my necklace that holds my wedding ring, i hear clink on the stones, CRAP i dropped my wedding ring...AAARRRGGGHHH, so i stopped for a minute or so to try to find it, no luck, oh well, at least it is my work/beater ring and not my good one, carry on, get into T1 and tel one of my friends and he says he will go find it. Swim time includes looking for ring and a pretty decent uphill run to trans.

not lose my wedding ring and maybe push a little harder in the water, i was sooooper comfy the whole way, i also did not want to experience the cramps i had in Cranberry so that was always in the back of my mind, so i never really pushed.

So after the ring debacle i get into T1, suit off, shoes on, helmet and sunglasses on, and i am kinda like....hmmmm this is too easy...what am i forgetting....nothing get your ass moving!!!!!! wasted like 10 seconds pondering why this was too easy, this is a half ironman, Trans should be harder???? NOT!!!!

Not ponder the meaning of life.

I LOVE MY BIKE. that being said, i run outa trans and hop on, i pass 10 people while they are trying to get on, i start out and cant clip in, after a few tries i get them in and way i go. left inside of my legs are a little crampy, i think from the cold swim, so i try to ignore it and get my legs warm so i drop it to an easier gear and spin, after about 5-6 mins they subside and i start putting it down. At about mile 3 or 4 i see the first guy on the side of the road, i ask if he needs help and he says "you gotta spare CO2??" i stop my bike turn around and give him my spare CO2 and air chuck. I figure, this guy just started and i could use a little good kharma, so f-it, i will give up a minute or two. 5 or 6 people pass me as i stopped, but i caught them and passed them soon enough. One guy... #177... i passed and he re passed me 5 seconds later, so a mile goes by and i pass him again....he passes right back....ok....whatever, you don't like getting passed....fair enough, you are now my rabbit, so i basically let him pace me the entire first lap, very comfy, averaging 22.4 mph, passing people all ride long, no problems. he would pull away on the uphills and i would reel him back in on the straights and downs. We get to the turnaround at 1:15 and my speedo says 28.5 miles??? hmmmm this is a little long, oh well, no worries...so we go and after about a half mile i pull up along side of him and say are we gonna hammer this lap?? Lets go!!!, hehehe, he puts it down and away we go but now and we continue to pass peeps but they are fewer and farther between, he loses me on the first big climb and i am reeling him in again and i see his bike shudder and as i go passed ask if he is ok, he is looking at his chain like something went wrong, i would never see him again. So i continue on at my pace, drinking every 5 mins or so, sips and slurps, feeling good, little crampy here and there, i figure i might be going a little too hard, so i ease up on it, we get to the lighthouse and i am flying down the road and make the turnaround and start heading back up, legs start to cramp a little more....hmmmm, back off a little more, we come to the double hill, short steep climb, followed by a small downhill and then another steep climb, i am at about 1h 45m and my left hammy locks....i can't pedal!!! DAMN!!!! i pull over and stretch for a minute and it is getting a little better, so i grab my bike and start walking up the hill, 8 or 9 peeps go by including #177, with a few snickers and sneers, like hey fast carrot boy blew up...hehe...NOT... 30 seconds or a minute of walking later the legs feel fine, i hope back on my bike and VIOLA...no pain??? that was weird... withing the next two miles i had re-passed all but #177 who was still going strong, and i made it a point ot say hi and looking good to all of them as i went by like the were going backward. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, at about mile 50 i came up on a girl who was 4th female overall, i know this because i said to her, wow, there must not be very many woman ahead of you, her reply was, only 3.....3 too many....I said, well you look great, and you can run them down next, i went by her and the next large hill she went back by me, and i passed her finally on the next downhill and would not see her again till mile 2 of the run. So that pretty much sums up the ride, one nice big descent down to the final stretch, Try getting out of my shoes and legs are a little crampy, finally get out, so a perfect flying dismount, pick up my bike cause it wont roll in the mud and into T2

i dunno...maybe figure out why i cramped and then they went away??

so i get into T2 and rack my bike, helmet off, plop my ass on the ground and put socks on, shoes on, get on my knees and load up my GU bottles and gummi bears and other stuff, hence the not so spectacular T2 time, but i was like hey...i need this stuff, and the run will be long and hard anyway so what is an extra 30 secs in the grand scheme of things??

nothing

Well, we all know i struggle with the run, it is no surprise or mystery. I do not run enough and getting a calf strain 2 weeks before the race helped NOT. So i start off and feel really good, take a gu and go about a mile and a half till the first hill and start a little walk, no worries, get over the hill and start jogging again, the road flats out, so i run 5 or so and walk 1, if i feel a cramp coming on in my hammy, i walk for a minute. I do this all race and i am ok with it. At about mile 1 the calf tweaks again, and i say, tough, keep going it will hurt all day, deal with it, a total HTFU moment. I keep trying to compartmentalize the pains, sectioning them off to small spaces in my mind, putting them in the back of my head, away from the immediate thoughts. Usually i am chatty kathy on the course, talking to all the peeps that go by me, not today, it was concentrate and put one foot in front of the other, keep moving forward and counting down the miles. the whole run was pretty uneventful, it was get passed again and again, some peeps recognized the Turbo Donkai jersey and made a positive comment about the ride, that was nice to hear. the course was very very hilly and much tougher than NYC, i walked all the ups and ran all the downs and flats to the best of my ability. This was my first half mary and my longest previous run was 9 miles..which i did once. 29 miles a month is not good enough to run a half mary, and i knew this, and dealt with it to the best of what i had. On the start of the second loop a guy comes up next to me and we chat, he asks my name and i tell him and hahaha it is MSCOTTHALL from BT, we walk for a bit together then jog and he is having a bad day and cramps, and i know if i stop i will not go again, so i am forced to leave him. I see Bobby (Dreamchaser) on the final stretch and we high five, he looks good and was well on the way to a Sub 5:30. I am really starting to hurt, the right leg is going numb and the left Achilles is starting to tighten up and i am loping along with very very stiff legs, and probably looking pretty funny and in pain. The sun had also come out and now it is getting hot. I get through the hills and back on to the flats and i keep looking at my watch, adding the numbers, trying to make sure i have enough left to get sub 6 hours, once i get passed the trains i know i have it, i see the cones and start getting choked up, this has been a long hard year and all the work i put in comes down to this last half mile, i hear my name called and raise my arms to flex them, and the announcer goes and here is #225 Rudy Bleakley Jr from Norwalk, CT and he is showing his Guns!!! I am about ready to explode, i am wiped and done, my buddy El Guapo went and got a beer for me and had it in a water bottle, he is the MAN!!!!!!! Walked around in a daze and went to get my stuff.

OHHHHH i dunno....RUN MORE

waked around, saw my friends that had come to watch, they had done the sprint in the pouring rain the day before. Found my wife, kissed her, hugs and high fives all around.


weight, injury, lack of desire to run


This RD has a lot of improving to do, this is not a cheap race and is tough logistically, but should be run a lot better. weather did not help, but it seemed like there was a lack of a plan "b". I will not nitpick details, it is not worth it.