MightyMan Montauk - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Good swim. Felt decent throughout. Concentrated on pacing myself and keeping good form. It seemed like I was swimming forever. During the off season I'll work on my sighting as I think I swam extra distance trying to stay on course. My goal was 40 minutes or so and I was pretty close so I am happy.

Not much. Maybe try to draft more. It seemed like every time I caught someone's wake they sped away and I couldn't keep up.

Good first transition. The transition area was a mud pit. Smartest thing I did was to bring a bucket. I flipped it over and sat on it like a stool. Dried my feet, put my socks and bike shoes on and kept everything nice and dry and comfortable. Grabbed my bike, slip-slided out of transition, mounted and was off.

Nothing. I was happy with my transition time.

Very happy with the bike. My goal was 3 hours and I nailed it. As we walked to transition, my friend commented on the fact that I had four bottles on my bike (aerodrink, bottle in the frame cage and two in the X-Lab wing in the back). I figured they were better to have and not need than to need and not have. Plus, weight is not my biggest concern (two pounds of extra fluid attached to my bike adds a very small percentage to the bike plus rider total). Even with all that fluid and an additional bottle at the turn around, I ran out of fluid for the last 10 miles. Luckily, I was able to finish before I really started to feel the effects. I ate a gel every 30 minutes and tried my best to keep up with my nutrition plan on the bike figuring that if I bonked on the bike, the run would be a nightmare.

Nothing during the race but during the offseason I'll be focusing on both sides of my power to weight ratio.

Good transition. Sat on my flipped over bucket again and changed my shoes. Then I remembered that I wanted to put my knee brace on. So, left shoe off, knee brace on, left shoe back on. Cost me about 15 seconds. Not a big deal and I was very happy that I had the brace on for the run.

At the end of the bike I need to review in my head exactly what I need to do during the next transition. I should have had the whole sequence worked out ahead of time so that I could do it in my sleep.

The course was hiller than I expected. Others had posted course profiles and commented that the course wasn't that hilly. I disagree. I felt good at the start of the run, kept taking fluids in, and made it through the first few miles problem free. Then I got to the hills. My heart rate jumped up and I decided to walk instead of risking a blowup and possibly not finishing. I think that was a good move. So, for the next 8 or 9 miles, I ran when my heart rate was in the aerobic zone, walked when it edged above that zone, and made my way through the course. A lot of suffering but the miles went by one by one until, finally, I made it to the finish and crossed the line with my son.

Went and had some of the post-race refreshments - watermelon, orange slices, bananas, bagels with peanut butter and jelly. Sat down for a few minutes on one of the surprisingly few chairs available in the post-race area. Got my stuff together and headed out to meet up with my family and head back to the hotel. Best idea of the day: went straight down to the beach and sat in the surf for an impromptu ice bath.


Body weight. If I can take some off I'll be better able to handle the hills.


Solid race. Good enough organization. Nice volunteers. But clearly a local race, not quite ready for prime time. I would have appreciated more fluid availability on the bike. The run course was marked strangely in some spots (arrows pointing in both directions over each other, running through rubble, cross-overs, etc.). The transition area was completely dark until five minutes before it closed (maybe they could rent a light or two). Even with all of those small inconveniences, it was still a fun race, a beautiful day and an awesome learning experience.