LongHorn Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Festival - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My age group was split into 2 waves. Even so, there were about 160+ swimmers in each. Tough to find clear water and seemed even harder to find someone to draft.

Start closer to the front of the wave. Maybe go out a bit harder as well.

My first event with people helping strip off wetsuits. That ROCKS! Huge transition area and clean transition so everything had to go into a bag before we left on the bike. Those 2 things probably accounted for most of the time spent in transition. I also took a bit of extra time to put on my HR monitor.

Practice jumping on my bike. I do fine getting my feet in shoes attached to my bike but I usually stop and swing a leg over to mount. Might try my next half or anything shorter without my HR monitor. I find that I go off of RPE more and just use my garmin for pace.

Pretty happy with how I did on the bike. I don't get a lot of time to ride because of traveling for work, so to average 20.9 mph is a lot better than what I thought I would do. I think that I would have done a bit better if the flat part of the course had been rolling hills like the rest. When I say rolling I mean that I only had to get out of my aerobars 3 or 4 times and only stood up once. Took in about 290 calories per hour and 2 Hammer Endurolytes every 40 minutes and didn't have any of the leg cramps I had at my last half.

Ride more when I am home, and find some bigger hills to train on.

I didn't pay enough attention to the transition entrance and missed getting my feet out of my shoes and jumping off bike. Another clean transition so everything was in a bag. I also mixed up a bottle of drink during the transition because I didn't want it to sit out for 6 hours.

Check out the transition entrance a bit better and reference where the dismount line is in relation to the bike course.

Tons of support stations with everything from PowerBars and gel, water, Gatorade, sponges, wet towels, bananas, candy, cola, etc. One stretch along the road between the arena and the park that didn't have any aid stations (maybe a mile), but everywhere else there was something every 1/2 mile or so. Started out a bit too quick for my run ability and started to pay for it on the 2nd lap. Had to walk through a few of the aid stations, but for no more that 30 seconds each time. Still just 54 seconds off my 1/2 marathon PR.

Watch pace at the beginning of the run and slow down according to my race plan, with the intent to speed up later in the race if I have anything left. Also, train on hills a bit more.

Not pushing harder on the swim, and not adjusting pace early in the run.


This race was a 24 minute PR over my first half IM distance that I did a month ago. I knew it would be great reading all the past reviews, but all the activities, seminars, entertainment, volunteers, and course were among the best I've ever seen.