High Cliff Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim went fine for me even with the wind and waves. I know my time is not good, but this is my first HIM and I had planned to simply swim slow and steady. Good sighting, although the waves sometimes caused me to lose the marker occasionally. Not to worry, as I had plenty of racers in front of me to follow. I tried drafting a few times, but picked the wrong fish - they just swam away. Got out of the water feeling fine.

My next HIM is in a month. I intend to practice setting an appropriate race pace and sighting.

I had my suit off to my waist by the time I ran to my bike. Again, though, I had trouble getting it off around my ankles. Once the suit was off, I put on socks as I have been having blister problems with longer runs lately. After these two time-consuming issues, T1 went smoothly and I ran out with my bike.

I had cut off some of the suit around the ankles, but I think I'll cut more so that my heels don't get caught. Practice taking off suit.

My race plan was to ride the course hard and count on my run. The course was not as fast as several weeks ago because of the stronger winds and much higher temps and humidity. I averaged 19.7 mph, which was 1 mph lower than what I was planning to ride. I think the wind affected me more than the heat at this part of the race. There were heavy headwinds at places (as we were biking towards the lake). My position on the bike was good until about mile 40, when my lower back started cramping. Thank God for hills because it game me an excuse to get out of aero, up out of the saddle, and stretch. All in all, I was happy with my bike split considering the conditions although I would later pay for pushing it.

Hydration felt OK with 28oz of water and Gatorade on the bike but nutrition was a little lacking with only 3 gels and some pretzels. I missed the hand off for another water bottle.

I will need to dial in my nutrition better on the bike to avoid bonking as I did on the run.

T2 came up faster than I expected so I only got my left foot out of my shoe by the time I needed to dismount. This meant no rolling dismount and I had to take off my other shoe by hand after dismounting the bike so I slowed a little here. Ran into T2 and promptly dropped the shoe I was carrying. I prayed that my wife, who raced the Sprint, was able to get it so I kept running, I didn't want any more wasted time in transition.

Plan more time for getting out of shoes on the bike.

This bites. My run is typically stronger for me and I bonked in a big way. I never found a smooth stride as can be seen by my cadence which averaged out to 156 when my normal race cadence would have been 176. I just shuffled my way through this race from the first mile to the last. I am proud that I didn't walk at all, except through water stations. Frankly, I wasn't sure I could get myself running again if I stopped for too long. Eventually, around miles 8 and 12, I felt sick and unfocused. It was surreal.

I could blame it on the heat, which I wasn't acclimated to, or the humidity (ditto) but really it was my poor decision to ride the bike hard and too little calories.

I possibly should have changed my game plan when I knew the day was going to be hot and bike 0.5 mph slower to give myself a better run. I have to think about that, though, because I the real problem was too little calories.

Is there a better way to take in nutrition without gels? I think I might vomit if I have to force myself to eat more than 4 in a race. Obviously, 4-5 gels is not enough for me, so what are my alternatives? I really wanted more solid foods during the race. I need to research this and ask around.

Sit around in a shaded area, try to (literally) cool down and drink water.


Nutrition - need more calories.
Lack of acclimation to heat and humidity.
Set faster race pace in the swim.
Did I leave it all out on the bike course with nothing leftover for the run?


The waves are mixed with different age-groupers and men and women. Makes it hard to estimate how you are doing in your age-group. I recommend setting up waves by sex and age. This race is big enough to do that.

I would like to see more solid food like sandwiches or BBQ at the end. They also ran out of cokes for the half-finishers.

I also would like to see security in transition for peace of mind. There are no bike checkers, which would make it simple to have a bike stolen.

This is my second year at High Cliff. Last year, I did the Sprint and this year was the HIM. Overall, this is a good race and course. Will do again.