Harvest Moon Long Course Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was expecting a swim around 40:00 so this was fantastic! I suspect the course was measured a little short, but even so I swam really well. I stayed pretty straight and drafted when I could. I was very comfortable which was my main goal.

Not much this was a solid swim, maybe I could've drafted a little more.

I got up the beach and into T1 pretty quickly, but I wasn't in a real rush when I got there. Once the wetsuit came off I realized just how cold I was going to be from now on. My hands were pretty cold so putting my socks and shoes on was kinda difficult.

I could've moved faster in transition, but given the circumstance I'm not too worried about it.

This was the hardest part of the race for me. Beyond the physical demands, it was also mentally and emotionally challenging. I've never suffered so much on the bike in my life. It was so cold I thought I was getting frost bite on my toes, and my fingers were so cold I couldn't operate them well enough to open a gel packet. There were times when I just wanted to get off the bike and start crying. It was a constant internal struggle to keep going.

Then there was the issue of urinating. Around mile 20 I started feeling like I really had to go. At mile 30 it was becoming extremely urgent and I realized there was no way I would make it to transition, so I decided I would try to go on myself. This was not working. Even though I had to go so bad it hurt, I just couldn't get myself to go. I saw several guys pulled over doing the tripod thing while still on their bikes, something I couldn't do because of wearing a one piece tri suit. I kept trying, hoping the next painful bump would finally just sqeeze it out. Finally I just pulled over and ran into a bush, and it STILL wouldn't go! For 15 seconds I was just standing there thinking "do I even have to go, or is something else wrong?" It finally started pretty slow, then got up to speed.. I think everything was just frozen down there!

By the end of the ride I was just looking forward to the run, hoping that it would warm me up.

I can't really blame myself for not being prepared for the conditions because I just don't have all my stuff in the new apartment yet. I should probably try to learn how to pee on the bike, because that really took my focus away from racing.

Much faster transition here. As sick as it sounds, I was just excited to start running!

I didn't get my feet out of the shoes early enough and had to stop at the dismount line, otherwise this was a solid T2.

When I left tranistion I checked my watch and it was at 3:28:XX and I thought to myself "Oh wow, I just need a 1:31:00 Half Marathon to break 5 hours"! In my competitive haze I actually thought this was possible. So I started out running 7:00-7:10 miles. That didn't last. I didn't completely blow up, but my pace definitely suffered. I still broke 1:45:00, which was an early season goal for a stand alone, so I'm really happy with this run.

I'm sure I would've had a faster time if I had paced myself better, but I don't regret it. I'll always be happy knowing I went for it, rather than coming in a few minutes faster and wondering what could have been.

I paced around by the finish line to congratulate some of the people coming in behind me. My legs started locking up really bad, and the walk to transition was slow and painful. I was able to pack up and head down to grab some food, which was TERRIFIC. It was kind of a mexican buffet, where you got to make your own taco. It was just great. Even though I was back in sweats, I was getting really cold and it started raining so I skipped the awards and just headed home.


I'm extremely happy with my time (5:30:00 was my goal going in) so I can't really criticize myself in terms of how fast I went.


This was a really fun race. The volunteers were fantastic, I can't thank them enough, and there was lots of support out there. The conditions didn't cooperate but thats just bad luck. I've never been challenged on so many levels, and am extremely proud of how I came through it all.