Liberty Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Not a bad swim. The water temp was fine for me. I swam way too far to the side on the way out. I fixed that towards the end of the first part. I didn't do a great job of drafting because I couldn't really find anyone going my speed. I did get run over by a couple of waves coming from behind me. That was a bit crazy. My calf cramped/maybe pulled it about 100 yards from the beach. I could barely walk once I could touch the bottom.

Strech my legs before hand, sight better, and train more.

T1 went fine. I loaded up my back pocket with my nutrition for the rest of the race. I knew I wasn't racing so I took my time in both transitions.

Maybe stop to strech my sore calf before jumping on the bike

By around mile 18, the pain in my calf went away. I felt like I was pushing myself harder in the early part of the course then I started to back off around my 30ish. It was pretty tough mentally to just watch the miles tick by knowing I still had a half marathon after the long ride.

Attack the hills a little harder and remember my freaking aero bottle! And no Heed on the bike until I can train with it.

I again took my time in transition. I sat down and put socks on with my shoes. I put my garmin wrist thingy, race belt, and bandana on all in transition, normally I'd just grab stuff and go. It was nice not to be in a hurry and weird to see the Oly people just milling around in transition.

Not much for such a long race.

The first few miles were pure hell. Both legs had issues so every step was painful and I thought real hard about walking but knew it would be even harder to start running again. I took a gel with water every 3 miles and walked through those aid stations. Otherwise I just took some water and drank a little at each station. The middle of the run felt awesome and I started to pick up the pace a little early. The last two miles were more hell. I just couldn't will my body to go faster. During the last mile someone caught up to me. We ran together for a bit but once I could see the finish line, I picked up the pace and did some long strides and lost him. It felt great to finish.

Not much, my nutrition on the bike and run appeared to do me just fine.

I went and swam in the lake to cool off my tired muscles. It felt great. I found some Du Tri peeps and we ate some food and heard a little of the awards. I missed all the door prizes. I rode my bike back to my car and went home.


My lack of consistent training.


Aside from the rough bike course, it was a great race. The bike course was well marked with lots of volunteers and there was lots more on the run course. There was still lots of food when I got to the post-race stuff and it was all great.

It was great for me to do this distance, my longest ever, at this point in my trianing program. It really helped my mental toughness moving my body for that long of time. I think that will really help me out at Madison.