Iron Star Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This was a fun swim. The first half of the course was covered in fog so that made navigation very interesting. The group I was in couldn't find the next buoy after the first turn buoy. The lifeguard was trying his best to point it out, but it was hard to see in the fog.

My time was two minutes faster than what I was predicting. So, I think I did a good job of staying within myself and not burning a more energy than necessary.

I knew this was going to be slow. I tried to dry myself off as much as I could. I also decided to not wear my arm warmers, and I'm glad I made that choice.

Based on my avg HR, and how I felt on the run, I paced this perfectly. Not used to seeing my average pace this low, but for my third time on a hilly course I'm happy.

I had to make a pit-stop at mile 28, and the headwind with hills on the last portion of the course was brutal.

Ride hills more often.

Decent T2 for me. Felt a little awkward getting off the bike, but was able to run the entire way.

I probably could have done a flying dismount, but I wasn't sure how my legs would feel. I was a little wobbly getting off the bike, so I'm glad I didn't. Not worth the risk for me.

I did not expect my average pace to be below ten minutes. At around 1.5 miles, a guy caught up to me and we ran together until mile 9. We did the run/walk method, every mile marker we would walk for 30 seconds. This strategy is awesome and I'm going to start practicing it on my longer runs.

The last two miles were brutal. My muscles were screaming at me, that was such an amazing experience.

I really enjoyed the course. The multi loop was awesome because I was able to see my family twice each loop. The off road section was fun. It made me focus on the course instead of zoning out like I normally do. I'm going to try and do trail runs more often.

Not much I could do differently. This run was way better than I ever thought it would be.

This race was awesome, I had so much fun. Depending how I feel after IMTX, I might do this race next year, with a goal of sub 6hrs.