Timberman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I knew this would be a struggle. I was hoping to beat at least someone in my age group, but.. oh well. I beat the cutoff and would've been the cutoff in a non-wave group by a minute. ha.. I am just a slow swimmer and this gives me the confidence to try to improve my swimming. I felt good the whole way, but needed the canoes to help steer me in the right path. My goggles were horrible and I was not able to site very well. I'm happy enough with the swim though. This was my very first HIM, and I was happy to make it out of the lake alive. :) I was surprised how shallow the water was, even out in the somewhat deep end. Also, it was surprisingly choppy out near the turns.

Nothing.. Next time I will concentrate on speed, but this time, I really wanted to complete it without too much struggling.

Was a slow transition, even with the wetsuit strippers. Think I spent too much time putting on the bike jersey, and filling the pockets with the gels and beans. Also took too long to get the socks on.

Train with biking/running without socks I think.. Maybe.. I definitely spent too much time trying to get socks on my wet feet.

Lots of hills. I think maybe I took the first couple too hard but.. not sure really. The legs felt fairly good for the most part. It did rain from my mile 20 - 23 (something like that), and when I came back from the out and back course, I did have to take some of the corners slower than I wanted to.

Not sure. I did have some decent hill practice before this. I need to stay in my aerobars longer than I did though, and need more practice doing that.

Not really sure why I took so long. Well, by the time I got back from biking the rack was really filled up, and it was hard to move the bike down the lane in the transition area.

Try running without socks.

I believe I started too quickly though, and my left calf was tight, so I stopped to stretch it at about the 0.75 mile mark.

Run without socks possibly. Practice more bricks in training.

I immediately headed to get my free beer. I probably should've stretched first and walked some. :)


Previous exprience/training. :)

This was my first HIM, and I wanted to 1) finish and 2) not finish last. So I'm extremely happy. But I just need to train for speed for my next race.


There were so many great volunteers. It was amazing, and the course was amazing as well. Very scenic, and very challenging. I loved my first HIM experience!