HowlinHalf - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This swim was way short. You could tell by the bouys before we even started. I would say it was around 3/4 of a mile instead of 1.2.
I can't seem to swim a straight line with a wetsuit on. I need to work on this.

swim a better line.

Frustratin transition. It was a long run from the swim to transition uphill, barefoot, numb feet. Probably a two hundred yard run.
Hands and feet were so cold. I took time to dry off and put on arm warmers and gloves which took way too much time.
Tried to put socks on but couldn't because of the cold.

Forget the arm warmers

Kept a nice pace so I'd be ok for the run. My feet never warmed up.
Hit a bump early on and lost one of my bottle cages and bottle on my rear hydration system, plus all my repair equipment.
There was supposed to be a box to discard clothes in at the end of loop 1 which I never saw, so I put my arm warmers and gloves in my tri top back pockets.
There was a big climb near the end of both loops called the BEAST! I slowed some near the end of the ride.
My feet were still numb as I dismounted my bike.

Not much.

Good transition even with numb feet.

Ditched the gloves and arm warmers from my tri top.
Had to stop and pee right out of t2. I tried to hold it off but just couldn't.
Finally got the feeling back in my toes around mile 3. One guy passed me there, and we began passing people up until the finish. I started rubbing a blister around mile 8 and battled it the rest of the run.
Stopped to mess with the blister, the my quad wanted to start cramping. I decided I'd rather have a blister than cramps, so I kept going.
My quads tried to cramp a couple more times, but I took some hammer gel from my flask and this seemed to stave them off.
Wound up with the 2nd fastest run split overall even with the pee, blister and near cramps.

Straight to meal tent for water, spaghetti, and pepsi.


COLD


Would have been a 5 but the swim was way too short.
I really want to know what I could have done given the full swim distance.