Beach to Battleship HIM - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I really expected a fast swim. The tides was coming in and the current kept pushing forward as we were waiting for the horn. I had a great first half of the swim. I was straight on to the wavy guy on the boat which was our turn buoy for the hard left. After that, I got lost! I was all over the channel. First to the left then to the right. I kept trying to sight buoys but those buoys turned out to be other competitors with yellow caps! My wave wore purple, but the wave ahead of us was pink and yellow.

I would have loved to have seen the buoy layout for the second part of the swim. I had no idea where I was going.

This took forever! The wetsuit strippers were very close to the swim exit and I took advantage of their services. We had quite a run from the swim exit to T1 and I wanted to do it sans suit so I could see what kind of clothes I needed to put on in T1. I decided to go with arm warmers and calf socks because only my feet were frozen.

Dry my arms and calves better to make it easier to pull on the dang cloth! I did not thing I would ever get those arm warmers on!

Those of you who know me know I LOVE to bike. It is my favorite of the disciplines. And I felt really, really good when I got on my bike today. The last ride I'd had on my TT bike was miserable and I was relieved to feel like my old self on race day. When we got to the interstate portion, I put the hammer down and went! It was fabulous. I knew I'd had a bad swim by the amount of people I was passing. Usually I'm a bit further ahead in the pack. I felt a bit nervous because one lane of the interstate was open to traffic and some of the vehicles were too close for comfort. When we made the exit ramp off the freeway, we rode into a headwind. Oy. I just put it into an easy gear and spun the best I could. I could feel my left abductor really starting to hurt. I have never had trouble with my left leg before. It is always my right. So this was troubling to me, but I kept telling myself it was just the headwind and once I made the turn around, things would get better. I cat and moused a couple of women. That was fun. This was my only triathlon of 2010 so my race skills were a bit rusty. But it was fun to pass and be pass and pass again during this painful portion of the ride. When we made the turn around, my leg was still sore so I couldn't really push as hard as I wanted to. One of the ladies I was cat and mousing disappeared ahead of me. Oh well. You do what you can do. The other one was still within my sights. We made another turn and had a glorious tailwind. I dropped it into a big gear, hunkered down, and passed that chick for the last time:) I don't race with a computer or Garmin. I have my trusty Timex that I set a 30 minute repeating timer to remind me to eat. I knew I was having a good ride when the timer went off for 2.5 hours and I was less than 10 minutes from T2. This was a PR for me for this distance on the bike.

Wish I wouldn't have wasted so much time in T1.

This was weird because a volunteer took my bike and led me to a spot with all my runnung stuff in a plastic garbage bag. And there were large gravel stones in this area making it very painful on the tootsies! It was hard to get my stuff out and put on. I left the calf socks and arms warmers on, struggled with my shoes strapped on my fuel belt, grabbed my number belt and visor and took off.

I don't think I could have done anything differently because I wasn't able to visit T2 pre-race. Think I handled it pretty well.

~Sigh~ The good lord did not make me a runner. I have struggled and struggled with this discipline. I won't give up, but I have a lot of work to do. In training, I fueled at mile 2, 4, 7, and 10 and had great results. So that was my plan during the race. It went very well until mile 8. I was moving along at a decent pace for me. I felt calm and in control. I take walk breaks when I eat and drink. I am a clutz. I cannot eat and drink while running. I will fall, choke or do some other kind of uncoordinated mishap. So at mile 7 i took my 2 cliff blocks and chugged my cytomax from my fuel belt and started running. The turnaround point on the course was mile 7.5 so I passed an aid station at mile 8 on the return trip. They were offering flatted Pepsi. I couldn't resist. I love Pepsi. Caffeine would be good. Yum. So here comes the first of several unplanned walked breaks. I chug the pepsi and trot off. My tummy is starting to slosh. Ugh. I start belching. Double ugh. I feel like I'm going to puke. But I don't walk again until mile 10 for my fuel break. Well I don't know what to do now. My stomach feels bad, I should fuel but I took in calories when I didn't plan, and looking at my watch, I need to run a sub 30 minute 5K to get a PR for the 70.3 distance. And this is when the bargaining with myself took place. I walked to get my stomach to settle down. And tokd myself I would fuel at mile 11 just to give my GI system a break. Well, at mile 11 I walk, ate and drank. Then we were approaching the dreaded bridge back toward the battleship. I told myself I would walk up it and run like hell once I crested the top. Yeah. You can see where this is going. I did run after I crested the top of the bridge. But I couldn't run fast enough to get to the line under a 5:27. I crossed the finish line in 5:30. And I have no one to blame but myself.

Be mentally strong all the way through the run. Once I got off my race plan, it took a nose dive.

Got a massage, ahhhhh. Got a mylar blanket. Drank a pepsi. Ate a doughnut.


Having to put on extra clothing and the point ot point nature of the venue definitely slowed down my transitions. And me being a weenie on the run.


This is a fun race. Wilmington is a neat little town and I really found the point to point aspect very challenging. I did not like running on the cobblestones though. I was terrified Of twisting my ankle, but that is because I am a clutz. I am very pleased with my physical and mental effort on the bike. I was disappointed in my swim because of my poor navigation and I let myself down on the run. Even if I would have run the same pace and same amount of time, I would have felt like the run was a success if I had executed my pre race plan. Must work on staying strong mentally til the bitter end of an event! And when it was all said and done, I got to take home some hardware. I got 5th Place Masters Female. Nice! My other Malone Coaching teammates all took home hardware in the half. And my coach was the 3rd place overall female in the full iron distance. So it was a very successful day!