Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

with only 4mins btwn waves and them not allowing the next wave in the water until the previous start, K and I barely made it to the line for the start. we same within 5 ft of each other on the right side of the line until the first turn buoy. some chop on the way out as the wind was from the south. Then turned east and we still had a bit of chop for the first 200-300 yards. k took an inside line while I stayed right since we were starting to swim into the wave infront of us. focused on the long smooth strokes and noticed I was starting to move foward and pass a fair amount of people. rounded next buoy into channel and finally able to find some feet for a couple of minutes. but then started to swim into the first wave (think I saw nate) so lost my feet and just went for the straight buoy line.

not neglect swim training. I really have not put effort into swimming this year, so I can not complain with the result.

good exit of water and jog to transition. got suit below hips by time at bike, but then could not get off ankles and got caught on chip. so sat to take it off.

practice suit removal more. this is the second race this year and both times had same issue.

First half of bike was fabulous and second half was ok. wind picked up and was throwing me around a bit. also the 2.5 miles on the pee gravel was not fun. obviously I slowed down second half as at 28miles I was averaging 19.47mph and then the second half only 17.93. some due to hills, some due to the pee gravel and some to me.

missed a bottle at the second bottle exchange so went a without one water. then noticed when cleaning up bike that I must have skipped a gu since I had one left.

lots more training and bike time. keep training with power and learning what my magic numbers are that make me go fast and yet not drain me.

be on top of nutrition and take time to at bottle exchanges

overall a good transition. I had tried a on shoe dismount the week before but had some issues so decided not to risk it at the transition. maybe on a sprint I will try it. overall felt good and took time to get all I needed.

run with visor and number belt instead of putting on at rack.

felt good and started out a bit fast so slowed and made sure to take the first grass climb slow and even walked some of it. then made it through town and the college. started to feel not so hot at around the 5.5 miler hill. but kept talking my way through the run that I only had to make it to the big climb after 7 and it would be all down hill home. finally got to the gravel road and started the climb at a slowwww pace. then a 56 year old calf went by me walking so I walked for 200 yards and then finished up the hill running. just then a 26 year old female came up along side at a good pace and I latched on. we stayed together until mile 10 working together and getting back to a good pace in mid to lower 8s. then she dropped off right as we turned back to main st. I was not happy, she was a perfect pacer. so continued on and tried to push a bit more. the last 2 miles were a push and I was starting to cramp a little bit. nate's dad appeared at 1 mile to go and cheered me on. I was running down a woman in front of me, I knew she was not in my age group but really wanted to catch her. but ran out of room and she was about 10 feet in front of me at the finish.

I ran out of transition with the fuel belt in hand and put on as I got out of transition. but realized as I got to mile one that I must have lost my gu flask off fuel belt. but fortunately I had shoved 1 pack powerbar cola chew in my sports bra for the bike and as back up food and forgot about them until the run. so too a chew every mile and drank small sip of gu2o every mile. Drank water when ever I wanted. Started the coke after the gravel road and it was heavenly.

mentally was a really good job controlling my normal race demons.

still need to work on pacing, I had done 2 long runs recently that I paced perfectly, now I just need to do this in a race. Although I did ok I have a lot of room for improvement.

also think I need to train on different road and trail surfaces.

immediate sat in cool water pool and drank hammer recovery drink they provided in water bottles at the finish. massage and packed up after reviewing the day with our great group of friends. Tim (4:54) and Brad (4.51) destroyed the course on the men's side, and Laura (5:19) on the women's side. Doug in his second ever tri did awesome with a 5:28. Kristin (6:20) crushed her previous PR by over an hour. Nate (6:51) of course amazingly finishes respectively with only 200miles of running/100miles biking/800yards swimming under his belt for the year. Love these races and training, but really would take being able to do it with all my friends over a faster time any day :)


training and practice


overall this is a great race and they put on an excellent race. great volunteers, challenging course and a beautiful venue. Funny athletes meeting, good athlete dinner and creative housing options (dorms).

only complaints I had were the lack of approved swimming on saturday.

The rough pee gravel section of the bike course and off road sections of the run course make the course fun and challenging - so being the masocist I am, I would not change those.