Beach to Battleship HIM - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This is the event I was dreading. I'm a fairly decent swimmer but me and salt water just don't get along! I swam about 100m but got too much salt water in my mouth and had to switch to the side stroke. I did this for nearly 400m and then I was getting tired. Got to thinking (about everything, really) and realized nearly everything I do is 'all or nothing.' I needed to quit making excuses and just get it done. I took a few more deep breaths and stuck my head back in the water. I swam strong the last 1400m and was feeling great. I found my rhythm, didn't know what I worried about, and even started passing some people.
I did get a pretty bad rash on the back of my neck from the wetsuit rubbing. I put body glide on but don't think I got that high on the neck.

Get my mind right sooner. HTFU!

I was still freezing so I left the wetsuit on until I got to T1. Ran through the showers but didn't stop. The .25mile run to T1 HURT. Your feet and freezing and still barefoot, we're made to run across bumpty asphalt and concrete which might as well have been shards of glass. Got my bike and the grass never felt so good. Wiped my feet on the towel while putting on sunglasses and helmet. Put my socks on and ran out with my bike. Jumped on my bike pretty smoothly and slid into my shoes and put arm warmers on while riding.

Nothing really, thought this was pretty good.

This was the event I was waiting for. The first segment was kinda crazy going through downtown wrightsville. We also switched from the right lane to the left several times which made for a traffic nightmare. What was really remarkable was all the people in their cars: they weren't honking and screaming at us... they were clapping and cheering for us. That was really something.
There was a pretty strong wind on the first segment but I was still on track for my 3hr goal. We turned around about 35miles and had a tail wind the rest of the way. It was great and I averaged almost 21mph on the last segment.
There were alot of people changing tires on the side of the road. I can't believe I've still never had to replace my rear tire since I bought it. Pure dumb luck I suppose. I heard there was one cyclist hit by a car but can't find out any info about this. I did see the father and blind son riding their tandem bike. Pretty remarkable.


I didn't drink enough. I emptied my aero bottle and filled it with infinit. I don't like infinit so didn't drink much. I drank some water from the other bottle I had but not nearly enough.

Jumped off and handed my bike to the volunteers. Ran down the isles but couldn't find my rack. I found 1215-1220 (I was 1221) so went to the next row and it wasn't there. It was actually across the isle (which makes since but not at the time). Threw my shoes on and grabbed my hat and fuel belt while running out.

I went to see the transition area friday night but was turned away. I should've just ignored their warning and just run past people to see my numbered rack was.

I'm still pretty new to running this kind of distance so wasn't sure what my splits would be. I started out running at what I thought was around 10min/mile. Looked at my watch and it said 8:20m/m. Time to slow down. Didn't have a problem with that because the steep drawbridge was coming up. (FYI: drawbridges have metal grates where they separate. These grates have metal spikes which are not fun to run on). The best part of the run was along water/front street. I felt like I was in a parade with everybody lined up and calling your name (it was on bib #). I was feeling ok until about 4-5miles in. My legs started cramping up. It would fade after a while but come back a few miles later. I don't think I drank enough on this segment either. I drank the 3bottles of water and about 4oz of infinit before just dumping it out. Took water from aid stations and had another pack of chomps but it was tough because my HR was averaging 175. I walked 6 times and used the port-o-john once. I still managed a sub 10m/m average but know I can do better.

Better nutrition. Don't bring stuff you're not going to use. Switch to gels and drinks you can stomach.

My legs were hurting pretty bad so I had to sit down for a minute and stretch. Found my family and just hung out for a while. Found Pete and watched Maria finish. Hanging out at my dad's truck we saw David finishing his first run loop of the Full.

A side note about my parents:
I told them they could just sleep in a little and come straight to the Battleship race morning. So they get there at 9:30 or so and drive into the parking lot (which you can't do). A lady stops them and my dad tells her he needs to park right there. She asks if someone told him it was ok to drive down there. "uh, sure" So not only does she let him park there, she gives him and mom media/volunteer wristbands so noone else stops them and they get free tickets into the Battleship. We also didn't have to wait in line for the shuttles and took Pete and Maria back to their truck.


I did extraordinarily well and met my goal of 6hrs but I could have trained longer and harder and planed nutrition better.


Unbelievable race. It's my first season but this is definitely my favorite race. I can't get over how many volunteers and supporters there were. Having three different transitions is confusing and having them 8miles apart sucks but they were pretty well organized and except for the transportation leaving the Battleship (which didn't effect me), they did a good job getting people and their bags where they needed to be. I'm definitely going to come back next year!