Mountain Man Triathlon - Half Iron Distance - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was happy with my swim. As normal, I started on the outside to avoid as much of the chaos as I could. It did not seem to help too much, as I was in the thick of the positioning and had to pull up a few times in the first 200m to stop and re-navigate around the mess of bodies.

After that, on the long straight portion, I kicked into gear and sighted fairly well. No stopping on this portion, I just pushed through to the buoy.

The last 500m was fine, but I got a bit off course with my sighting and probably added some meters to my swim distance, staying too far to the inside of the lake and not going straight for the dock.

All in all, I was happy with my swim results.

Re-sight that last portion and be more towards shore for a better angle.

I need serious work on my transition. My bike with its bottle cages behind the saddle and aero bottle make it difficult to stay on one side of the rack and do all my work. So I was back and forth and that definitely added time to my transition. My wetsuit stuck a bit on my heels but it was not bad. I had planned to drink some Infinit and take a Clif Bar on the start with me, but the back and forth put me in a position to not bother with those and I just went out on the bike.

I just switched over to Ultegra pedals and cleats, and although I have ridden on them and tweeked the tension, I had problems getting one of my shoes clipped in, which was a bit frustrating going uphill to get out on the course. Got it eventually, but took longer than planned.

Find a better way to rack my bike and get everything situated for a quicker T1.

I am not sure how to rate my bike effort. My time was acceptable, although I was hoping for sub-3hrs. But I had quad cramps late and on the run, so I think I pushed too hard on the bike. This was my first race with my new S80 wheels, and they felt good, but I could really feel the cross winds more with them, which was expected. Hit a top speed of 45mph on one of the downhill portions, an all-time high speed for me, and it was stable with my new wheels so I felt good. Hills were challenging, and was at 8mph a few times climbing.

Not sure how to react to my effort - I like the time, but I have to wonder if adding 5-10 minutes on the bike and easing up a bit would have produced a much better run time for me.

Like with T1, racking my bike is a challenge with my aero bottle and saddle bottle cages, so this was not great. But my overall time was good, meaning I got into my running shoes and hat quickly and was on my way. A good T2 I suppose, would just like a better rack process.

I got out of my right bike shoe too early, so that would be the only thing to change.

A poor run by my assessment, but I did all that I could with my body status. My quads were cramping from the start, so at every aid station I poured cold water on them and rubbed them out a bit. Run/walk strategy was pretty good early on, as it kept my run pace at 9:00 miles for the first half of the run. But in the end I was worn out, so my time dipped quite a bit late. Rain started coming down the last .25mi of my run, which did not bother me at all.

Work on being stronger off the bike and onto the run to keep my muscles tuned well and my pace consistent.

It started raining hard so I had to rush through to transition and gather my gear to get it under cover. Wanted a massage but that was not to be with the rain and chaos.

Relaxed a bit until the rain slowed, then loaded up my bike and headed out.


A slower run than I an accustomed to, but that seems to be a recurring theme for me lately, so I have to wonder if I am not training it well enough and I have lost some of my run strength.


Great venue, and great organizers.