Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had wished the swim went better, but my cap kept falling off throughout the swim. Even though I put my goggles on under my cap, 2 of the times my cap popped off, my goggles went with it. I spent too much time and energy having to fix my cap and goggles.

Bring my own matching color cap that won't come off during the swim.

I spent more time than planned in T1, but I figured an extra 30-45 seconds is worth it to go out on a 56 mile bike to make sure I didn't drop anything I needed during the transition.

Not much, except maybe not worry as much about things I may have dropped that are in a closed bento box.

I tried to go easy on the bike knowing that I had to hold back for a decent run. My nutrition, sodium intake and drinking amount seemed to be on par for what I needed. I probably could have pushed it more and averaged over 18mph, but didn't want to burn myself out.

Not much, it's easy to get frustrated when people are passing you early in the bike, but I ended up seeing quite a few of them later on when they were struggling up the hill coming back from Cayuga Lake.

I spent way too much time in T2, but I had dropped my aquaphor during the bike and had to search through my bad for the second tube. I had gotten a pretty bad rub during the swim from my wetsuit on my underarms, and didn't want to have to run 13.1 with my arms on complete fire. I wasted a good 2.5+ minutes easy digging through my bag.

Stash some extra aquaphor on or near my run stuff.

I felt good with a nice easy pace for almost 3 miles, and then it seemed as though the heat got the best of me. I state that I had enough to drink on the bike, but I may have not have in the long run. I started to have extreme chest and back cramps that anytime I would try to run would make it tough to breathe even a little bit. I decided at that point that my run was now going to be a walk. This seems extremely daunting when you know you have over 10 miles to go and some decent hills to climb still. I tried to cool myself down with a lot of ice and water. I was also taking salt tabs around every 45mins-1hr to try to help with the cramping. This seemed to help as there were very short instances where I did try to do a little running later on in the run course.

I did gain quite a bit of mental strength on the course though. Some people may have just dropped out at the thought of having to walk 10+ miles having bad cramps.

Not forget my own nutrition back in transition and not rely on the course as had hoped. I was happy to hear they would have shot blocks on the course because that seemed to work for me. Unfortunately I only came across 2 aid stations that had them readily available at the time I came through. I will also use a fuel belt for any half-iron + distance race due to being effected by the heat very easily.

As much cold drinks I could get into me


Heat issues and potential dehydration on the run, even though I was drinking as much as I could after the cramping started.


Jeff Henderson and his crew always do a good job.