Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

While I was looking forward to this swim to help me prepare for IMFL, I was expecting to do better. I have been improving my swim times in the pool and with the wetsuit, I figured I would have a decent swim time. I did not expect the wind and waves to beat me up as much as they did.

Starting in the last swim wave was mentally challenging as well. When our wave started and I saw lots of white caps pass me, I started thinking I was going to be one of the last swimmers out of the water. I didn't want to push too hard on the swim, so I just kept swimming my swim and dealt with it. It made me feel better when I passed a yellow swim cap by the third buoy. That meant I passed a swimmer from the wave in front of me.

After turning the corner to go across the bay, the swim seemed to get tougher. It seemed the wind and waves were heading me head on now and I felt at times I was crawling my way through the water. My form seemed to disappear and I had to keep focusing. I did eventually pass a few more yellow and a couple of red caps. I was glad to hit the ramp and stand up at the end.

Knowing that wetsuit strippers will be at IMFL, I decided to use them here and see how it worked. It worked great!



Try to swim a little stronger from the beginning. I need to get in a lot more open water swims as well as more wetsuit swims before IMFL.

Considering the distance from the swim exit to transition and from my bike rack to the bike exit, I was happy with this time. I was fairly quick and was able to run the bike to the exit.

Being in my age group meant being racked closest to the run exit and having to run really far in bike shoes. Since I can't change that, I wouldn't change a thing.

I had driven the course on Friday so I knew what to expect. I took it fairly easy getting out of the Moody Gardens area onto Seawall. Once on Seawall, I found a comfortable gear and took off. I didn't want to push too hard on the way out and blow up, so I was comfortable with 15/16 mph. I tried to drink my Infinit fairly often. I had all my nutrition with me so I was able to skip the aid station hand ups. And, I successfully changed my bottle from the downtube when empty to the rear cage and replace the downtube with a full bottle.

Once I made the turnaround, it seemed we had a tiny bit of a tail wind, although still mainly a crosswind. I was able to pick up my speed a little and continued to pass people when I could. As I got closer to the end, I continued to pick up the pace. Turning back into the Moody Garden grounds was right into a headwind, but I finished strong.

I missed a couple of planned long rides due to weather. I would have liked to have more long rides before the race.

I was happy with the way I executed the bike, but do hope that my training this summer will help me increase my average pace for IMFL.

Legs did not really want to move fast when I got off the bike, but I continued to run/jog to the bike rack. Quickly got rid of the bike gear and put on my run shoes. Thought about stopping at the port a potty but decided to see if I could make the run without it, so I headed on out.

Practice more bricks.

I think it helped that I was finally on the course with men and was finally not at the back of the pack from the late wave start.

I was able to run the first two laps without walking at all. Starting the third lap I started feeling a blister on my second toe on my left foot. I also started walking through the aid stations while drinking water or gatorade. I basically lived off the course. I did take two cliff shot blocks at mile 3, but my stomach felt a little weird after that so I didn't take any more. Gatorade and water and that was it. I also grabbed wet sponges at every aid station the last two laps.

Felt strong on the run and came in only about 16 minutes slower than my stand alone half mary PR. Was very happy with this run.

Try to run longer before walking through the aid stations. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing.

As soon as I was done, I headed back to transition to get out of my running shoes and into flip flops so I wouldn't aggravate the blister anymore. I grabbed my camera and phone and headed back to the finish to wait for my friend to cross the finish. Drank two waters and stretched as I waited.

After he crossed, we headed to get a coke and some food and sit down for a bit.


Probably not knowing exactly how hard I could push without crossing that line and blowing up.


This was a great race and I was pleased overall. I wanted to get a massage at the end, but when I went over there, they said there was an hour wait. More massage therapists would have been nice.

The 3 HIMs I've done have all been put on by Endorfun and I have been impressed with all of them. Very well done.