Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Actually had a strong swim, despite thinking that I was only swimming sub-par during the race. Immediately at the start, I got clocked a few times and had to come up for air. For some reason, I felt that this was one of the most physical swims I have been in (minus the IM). My wave had men 19-29 and women 19-29, so I don't know if that is why. Perhaps I was around mostly men and thrown around a bit. Regardless, the water was choppy for the first 300 meters or so, to the turn buoy. Then there was some side waves, but not as bad as the first part. Continued to get smacked around until we hit the channel. Then I had mostly open water and also found some feet to draft off of. The smell was rancid, but at least it was clear water. I saw the ramp for the exit and accelerated to reach it. Stood up at the last possible moment and started to run. Heard my parents scream for me, and I headed into T1 feeling really good.

Well, despite getting beat up a bit, I did swim really well. Maybe it does help to be in the thick of people instead of always searching for that open water. I'm not much for drafting usually.

Considering I had the 16th fastest T1 overall, I was really happy with my performance here. I ran while squirming my wet suit as far down as I could get it, right below my butt, and then I stopped to strip it off. Picked it up and sprinted to my TA. Helmet on, sunglasses on while wiping my feet on the towel. Then shoes quickly on and grabbed bike. I was super quick today! First T1 time in my AG, 3rd female.

Nada.

Mounted the bike and then took off. My HR was really high from the get-go; about 167-169. Tried to back off and let myself settle in, but the HR wouldn't go down. Decided to say screw it and rode at what felt like a pace I could manage for 56 miles. I think I know my body well enough for this distance that I can be pretty aggressive and still have some left for the run. Just went with it from there on out to mile 56 and hoped that my gut instincts would be right.

The first 45 minutes or so I felt pretty horrible. My inner quads were on fire. Luckily I think it was mostly from pushing through the headwind, because making a right turn onto different road relieved the pain, and all of a sudden I was on my game and flying. Passed a few horse 'n buggies, which was neat, and picked up a lot of speed on the tailwind section. Hammered as hard as I could here...why not, its free speed! Got back into a groove and kept pushing. My bike computer was going crazy pretty much the whole ride, so I had no clue really what kinds of speeds I was holding. At mile 40, I crunched the numbers and figured I was averaging slightly over 19 mph. Was happy with that.

Then we hit the park, where the road was bad (but not as bad as I had imagined). There was some wind through this section, and a lot of bumps/holes/etc that you had to navigate through. A lot of people slowed down back here, but I tried to maintain pace and pass whoever I could. Reached the end of the park around mile 48 and then knew I had 8 miles left. Picked it up and headed home.

Perhaps try to push the envelope a little more and go a bit harder. Not sure how this would have effected the run, though.

Ended up dismounting extremely early, so I had to run more than I really should have. No biggie. Took my helmet off as soon as I made the turn toward my rack. Then got thrown off at where my bike should be. When I had set up the TA earlier in the morning, and also when I left for the swim start, there was a huge empty space to the left of my bike. Looked like people had decided not to race. Well, I was looking for empty space when in reality people had set up their area after I had already left for the swim. Was totally confused and had to back track to find my rack space.

After I finally found my area, I was totally fast. Put on my shoes and socks, grabbed the visor, water bottle, and race belt, and took off running while getting all of that stuff situated.

Note: I put vaseline on the inside of my socks, and it was heavenly! No blisters!!!

Start my Garmin on the bike. I forgot to do this, and so I struggled to get the watch on and get a GPS signal. Missed the first mile on the run.

Saw my parents and Dan and Ally as I started the run. Good to see familiar faces! Started the run too fast, like usual. Let myself have the first mile fast before settling in. Then, found a comfortable pace and ran. Mile 2 was extremely long, and although my Timex read 9:10 for this lap, my Garmin showed a pace around 8:30 (yes, I wore two watches for the run, as I wanted to have the Garmin to see my pace). So I stayed at that pace and kept moving. Mile 3 was tough, as there was a grassy uphill, in someone's backyard, that was just too steep to run. Decided it would do me no benefit to run it, so I walked up it and then started running once I hit the road again. From mile 1 to mile 7 it was net uphill. Some small rollers, with one large climb in at mile 7. But I felt really strong during these miles and I had spectators yell, "You look great, girl." and "You look so strong," which mentally, totally helped to keep me on pace. I coaxed myself to run up the gravel road at mile 7. At one point, there was a guy walking and when I passed him, he started running. I was far left on the road, and as he ran, he kept drifting left and almost pushed me off of the road. I am hoping he was just bonking a bit and not being a hole.

I assumed the uphills would stop at mile 7, but I was wrong. After a downhill mile 8, you had to climb back up to the main street. Miles 10 to 13 were flat and I continued to feel good.

Around mile 9.5, I noticed the girl who was significantly in front of me had slowed down. I used her as my carrot and willed myself to catch her. Succeeded by mile 10.5 and then told myself I had to pick it up so that she didn't pass me back. She never passed me back, and I headed for the home stretch. Kept my eyes out for Kristin and Nate, but I was almost hoping I didn't see them because that meant they were both having a good race. I started crunching numbers at mile 11 and knew if I had two more sub-9 minute miles, I would break 5 hrs 20 minutes.

Took two colas, one at mile 7 and then one at mile 11, which I actually stopped to drink the last one. Also stopped around mile 8 to fill up my water bottle.

Not too much. I felt really good throughout the race. Only thing I would have done is grabbed some sponges to wipe my face off with.

Crossed the line and greeted by Tim. Signed up for a massage and walked over to say hello to my parents.


You cannot beat racing with our group of friends. Any race that we can all be at (sorry we missed Craig) is worth doing, no matter the venue or distance. Racing with these people is one of the best things about triathlons.

The only negatron things I have to comment on:
(1) they ran out of pizza
(2) the woman who checked me in at packet pick up was mean to me.