Soma Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I stayed in the middle of everybody that was in my wave. All the men 29 and younger went in wave 8 so there were a lot of us. I didn't want to go out too fast like I typically do so I stayed in the middle. Things were rough from the start. This was the first swim where I experienced the full contact aspect of a triathlon swim start. People were kicking and climbing over each other like mad men. I just tried to keep up with the flow and keep my face out of the water for the first 100M or so.

I felt like I did good at swimming a comfortable pace. I've realized that while I breath bilaterally and at every third stroke in training, this just doesn't work for me in a race. I don't feel like I get enough air and it makes it a little harder to site where I'm going. As in most races, I was breathing every other stroke and to my right only. I felt pretty comfortable the entire swim and started catching the slower swimmers from the wave that left 4 minutes before us. I even noticed a few swimmers from the wave that started 4 minutes behind us catching me. I maintained my pace and tried to draft off some of the faster swimmers that had caught me while trying to get around the slower swimmers in front of me.

Got to the steps and made sure that I swam into them. I've stopped just short of the steps leading out of the water before and I've had a hard time finding that first step. I popped right out of the water and got my wetsuit down around my elbows before asking a stripper for assistance. I went to the first stripper that I could find and unfortunately it was a teenage girl that probably weighted 100 lbs. She struggled a little with getting my wetsuit off but I was happy for the help. I jogged into transition ready for the bike.

I need to work on my swim! I can put up nice splits in the pool while training. I've swam 100M in as fast as 1:20 and I can consistently swim in the high 1:20 to low 1:30 per 100M in the pool. I know that open water swimming is completely different then swimming laps in a pool but my swim training doesn't seem to be translating into an acceptable race performance. I'd be happy with a swim split anywhere in the 1:30's to low 1:40's per 100M. I'm going to have to work on this. I feel like for the amount of time and effort that it would take to improve my OWS time that I'd get better gains by working on my cycling and running. While that may be true, I'd like to not feel like I'm muscling my way through the swim and I'd like to be more efficient in the water.

Could have been much faster. I took a little extra time getting my gel flasks into the pockets of my tri suit. I guess I should have put the gel flasks in my bento box and then I could have put them in the pockets of my tri suit as I rode.

Maybe practice transitioning to get a little faster. I did move up three spots in my age group after transition but I could have taken much less time. I could also place my gear in a way the increases my efficiency in getting helmet and shoes on so I can take off faster. Other things that I did in transition could have easily been done while on the bike (gel flasks).

My goal for the bike was to at least average 20MPH. For the most part the course is pretty flat with the exception of some minor climbing so this wasn't hard to accomplish. I thought that if I rode any harder I might sabotage myself for the run. I wanted to have a strong run so I held back a little on the bike to stay within a 20MPH average. I think at one point I had gotten up to 20.8 MPH but due to the sharp turns, climbs and intentionally holding back it fell but I'm fine with that. It took my legs a while to get warmed up. For about the first half hour my quads felt tired and burned anytime I got out of the saddle or tried to push the pace. Once I warmed up I felt pretty good.

Nutrition wise I felt great. It was overcast and the temperatures were pretty mild for the entire ride. The plan was to consume 3 gu's an hour. I had two gel flasks that held 5 gu's each. Every 15 minutes I took a hit off the flask. Once an hour I took a salt stick pill. I drank a complete aero bottle of fluid every hour. The first two hours I drank water and after I finished my second aero bottle I filled it with a Gatorade that I had grabbed at an aid station. I only drank about half to three quarters of the aero bottle of Gatorade. I came up a little short on my Gu consumption but this was a fairly easy bike course and I felt good about my effort and my nutrition.

Coming out of the swim I really had to pee. I didn't have a chance to go while swimming and I wasn't about to stop and tread water so I could go. As I rode the urge to pee became stronger and stronger. I tried to do it while riding but mentally I just couldn't do it. I saw several riders pull over and use the porta-potties or just pee in the bushes. I told myself there was no way I was going to stop riding to pee. It would kill my average and I'd probably burn myself out making up for the lost time. Every time I would try to go on the bike my average would drop and since I wasn't allowing myself to go I'd abandon my attempt and speed up. Finally I just told myself that I'd stay on the nutrition plan and I'd eventually just piss myself. No such luck, I completed the entire ride with an uncontrollable urge to piss.

I felt really prepared for this ride and the race in general. I used the intermediate BT plan and it was amazing. I'll definitely use it again in the future to prepare for a HIM. In preperation for this race I did 4 or 5 rides of 90 miles and several that ranged from 70 to 80 miles. I knew that I would have no problem on the bike course. Doing those high millage rides put me in a position to average 20 MPH on the bike in my last race and in this one. If I had to do anything different in preperation for the bike portion of a HIM would be to focus a little more on intervals and higher intensity rides. I would not have sacrificed those big bike days of 90 miles but I would have added higher intensity rides during the week to complement the benefit gained by riding higher mileage then what will be required during the race.

Way too slow! There was a backpack where my bike was supposed to be racked. I had to kick it to the side in order to rack my bike. I got my shoes off, socks and running shoes on. I had to unstrap my Garmin and get it on my wrist. I then had to reset it for the run since I didn't have it in multi-sport mode. I took off running and realized that while I had my run gel flask in my hand, I also had both the gel flasks in the pockets of my tri suit. I turned around and ran half way down my row and threw the two flasks in the direction of my bike. I then made my way out of transition.

I wasted way too much time with my Garmin. I probably should have just strapped it to my wrist for the bike so I didn't have to mess with it for the run. I need to be more focused on what I'm doing and what I need to do to get out of transition faster.

Coming out of transition I had to stop at the porta-potty to take that pee I had been holding in for almost three hours. I relieved myself which gave me a feeling of indescribable joy! I set out on the run with the intent of holding a 9min/mile pace for the first two miles and then picking up my pace from there. My overall goal for the run was an 8:30/mile average. I don't know if it was my bathroom break or my usual inclination to go out too fast but I started running sub 8min/mile. I made a conscious effort after the first half mile to slow down. I wanted to have a strong run and maintaining that fast of a pace was a recipe for disaster. During the first lap I found myself running between 8-8.5 minutes per mile. I felt really comfortable and for the most part I hovered around 8:15/mile. At each aid station I took in water and dumped water over my head. When ice was available I put it in my tri suit. I had a gel flask with three Gu's in it and I took a little sip off of it at just about every aid station for the first 9 miles. By the time I had started the run the sun had came out and it started to get hot out. I don't recall the exact temperature but it was getting into the high 80's I believe. I felt pretty good after the first lap but at my pace I knew the second lap was going to be hard. My overall goal was to average 8:30 a mile and I had exceeded that by a good amount on the first lap. I kept up my pace until about mile 9. I started to get a slight cramp in my quads. It was more of an annoyance then anything. It didn't bother me to the point of walking but it did slow my pace down a little. I wasn't too worried because I was already ahead of where I wanted to be. I just kept pushing along taking in water, gel and keeping cool at every aid station. By mile 11 I was pretty tired. My pace started to slow down above 8:30 a mile. I didn't panic because I had already exceeded my run goal pace and I only had two miles left. I knew that there would be a point in this race where my ability to hit my overall goal would become more mental then physical. This was that moment. I told myself that no matter what my pace was that I was going to give it everything that I had and just keep pushing towards the finish line. My pace over the last mile was between 9-9:30/mile but I didn't care because I could hear the crowd at the finish line. I got some great cheers from some BT friends that were under the Mill Ave bridge as I tuned left and made my way towards the finish.

Nothing. This was a half marathon PR for me and it came after a 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike. I felt pretty good the entire run with the exception of the last two miles. I think that after nearly 70.3 miles you're not supposed to feel fantastic by any means and fatigue is to be expected.

Poured a bottle of ice cold water over my head and ate some oranges and animal crackers. Hung out with my family that came to support me and some friends that had finished ahead of me. Then I spent some time walking around and exchanging race stories with friends and training partners.


I'm not sure what to write here. This was my first Half Ironman. When I signed up for this race my goal was to finish under six hours. After my performance at the Nathans OLY I knew the goal of six hours was going to be too easy for where my fitness was at. I told myself that I didn't want to finish any slower then 5:30:00 but realistically I wanted to push myself and finish under 5:20:00. I just so happens that is exactly here I finished without much of a cushion.

There are a lot of things that I need to work on. Training for this race has tough me a lot about the importance of consistency. If I want to keep progressing I've got to be able to find the balance between training and life outside of triathlon. I was able to find that balance during the past 20 weeks. I've got to do the same thing next year. My bike and running performance have really improved and I hope to be even better next year in all three disciplines. I want to race a couple OLY's next year and possibly two HIM's. I will do the SOMA HIM again. I like those distances and I hope to be able to improve in my abilities.


I've always said that as I move up in distance I gain more and more respect for the sport of triathlon and what it take to be an Ironman. I started in triathlon with that goal in mind but this race humbled me in a way. I had a great performance but I gained so much respect for what it takes to go long. I'm excited for another year of training and racing and I think I'll assess my Ironman readiness after next season.