SOMA Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Overall the swim went well. The new wetsuit worked great no chafing on the neck and it was very comfortable (however, I do have some chafing on the underside of my arms where they rubbed against the seam of the wetsuit). Good solid smooth swim. Main goal was to just take it smooth and to not expend too much energy.

Now that I know what to expect for the rest of the race I would perhaps go a little bit faster but maybe not.

Good fast transition (but not too fast).

I would perhaps take advantage of the wetsuit strippers but then again maybe not.

I am happy with my time but I HATED the bike course. The course required one to do 3 hairpin turn arounds per lap for a total of nine and had far too many sharp turns. I may have liked the bike course more except on the first lap I was almost t-boned by a cyclist going the opposite direction who proceeded to blow through the corner and just miss hitting me going the opposite direction while he proceeded to swerve into traffic. There must be a safer way to set up a course.

I'm happy with the bike time. It would be nice if I could manage to use the aerobars one of these days but the legs just were not having any of it. The bike is improving just need to keep working on it.

Little wobbly when I got off the bike but the transition was fast.

Nothing.

My longest run ever which gives you a pretty good indication of what I should have done differently. I went out a little too fast (and/or I should have continued ingesting gels on the run). Given I have had limited practice with fueling on the run I was very conservative since the goal of today was to finish.

I would train more for the run and practice fueling while I train so that I can have confidence in my fueling strategy and stick to it. I would also train wearing a visor or something because the sun really was starting to wear on me.

None. Waiting for Mike and Steve to cross the line. If either one of these two guys ever learns to swim they are going to be waiting a very long time for me to cross the line.


Things I would do differently:
1) The heat wore me down on the run, I really need to try to protect myself more from the sun.
2) I need to continue training for the run and practice fueling during the run.
3) Not being able to use the aerobars on the bike and being unsure how hard I could push on the bike and still finish the run since I have done very few runs off the bike this year.


I'm happy with my performance the time is a starting point to work from. I need to pay more attention to bike speed and to training for the run. The new nutrition strategy on the bike seemed to work well although I might have benefited from a 4th bottle on the bike.

Overall the race was good but they had too major problems this year that were not present last year. First, bike registration took way too long (2+ hours stuck in the sun the day before the race). I ended up getting a sunburn just trying to register. Second, the bike course was dangerous. After the first loop it was considerably safer since everyone knew what to expect but I was almost taken out by someone going the other direction which is just plain wrong.