Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started on outside and took it easy for the first few minutes to let everyone get settled in and not get run over, like the first tri I did. Swam fairly straight at a decent pace until about the last 5 min of swim then calfs started to cramp a bit, which was not expected since i was not kicking much. I slowed for a minute then picked up the pace again, then both calfs went into full cramp mode, I had to stop briefly at this point and work them out a bit. Started swimming again and started to kick more, the kicking seemed to help more than anything and never had a problem after that.

Kick a little more during swim? Felt good after swim portion, could have probably went a little harder.

Took some time to clean off fine sand from feet and put some socks on. Did not want to destroy feet for rest of day with all the sand.

Put socks on between bike and run when feet are dry.

Started out at an easy pace with all water bottles and nutrition intact. Since we were in a later wave there was a lot of riders on course already. Got into a comfortable pace after first 15 minutes and picked the speed up a bit. I started going back and forth a bit with another rider in AG. We stayed within a 1/4 mile of each other entire bike. Finished first water bottle as planned the first hour, reached back for a second but cage was empty. Must have lost it over some of the bumps. I had another so I started to use this one. Went for a drink of 2nd, and last, water bottle when a rough section of road came up. Then there goes 2nd bottle down the road and into the grass. About ~35 miles into ride now with only a bit of water left in aero bottle left. Next aid stations I was able to get a bottle Gatorade and water. Opened up Gatorade and put it into aero bottle, when i pulled bottle out, foam ring to aero bottle came with and flew off. Now I was riding with open top aero bottle on bumpy roads with Gatorade splashing me every chance it got. Hit last stretch of road and it had smoothed out and aero bottle was half gone at this point from drinking/splashing. I took some water at last aid station and cleaned myself off a bit from being completely sticky and it helped. Finished up the bike just below target time, so I was happy with that even with the water bottle fiasco.

Not loose water bottles on course?

Had a good dismount, gear was right at bike entrance so not much running to get shoes. Put shoes, visor, nutrition belt, sun glasses on. Sat down and tied shoes, which took way too long.

Get some elastic laces so I don't have to double knot and loose a bunch of time in transition.

Ran out of transition feeling OK, was about 3/4 of a mile out and quads/hamstrings started to want to cramp up. I knew if I stopped at this point it would not help, so I kept running. I took a gel and last electrolyte tablet I had with me just before 1st aid station. Legs did not get any better, but they did not get any worse. Miles 0-5 went OK, staying under my min/mile target. Legs started to get weaker starting from mile 6. At this point I started calculating how fast I needed to run to make the 5 hour mark. At mile 9/10 I had slowed to just under 9 min/mile pace and figured I was not going to make target at this pace but kept pushing. The AG competitor I had gone back and forth with on the bike caught me at this point and we talked for a minute, figuring out if we pushed for the last 3 miles we could still make the 5 hour mark. I pushed on as hard I run now falling to about 20 yards behind him with a couple miles to go. I stayed about the same distance from his the rest of the run. Coming into the last portion of the run I had about 2:30 minutes to make it to the finish line, and although I could see it was not sure how long it would take me to get to it, so I tried to pick it up, but was already running as fast as legs would take me. There was a good crowd around finish cheering everyone on, so this helped. Crossed finish 4:59:15, just under target time of 5 hours. Talked to other AG racer just after finish and congratulated and thanked him for being a good rabbit for the last 3 miles (he finished a few seconds ahead of me).

Train more for run.. Not expecting as many hills as there were on run, this was tough more mentally than anything.

Hobbled down to water for a short swim to cool off. Watched Coop cross finish line in a good bit of pain, but still moving well.


Need more run training...

Did I mention this was only my 2nd Triathalon I had ever done? First was an oly distance race in May.


Good race, could work on a better parking solution.