Gulfman Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Man, this was hard. For info, this was not only my first 1/2-Ironman, this was my first triathlon of any distance, ever. I was really thrown off at the start and all that. The course was very poorly marked and I continually got way way off course - my very poor vision doesn't help this. But I finished, that's what counts.

Learn how to swiim better! I'm terrible, seriously.

Just need to do this a few times and get used to it.

Practice, practice, practice!

Dude, for my first tri ever, I rock on da bike. If I keep this up and get better, I gonna be scary good ridin' yo.

Took extra time here to ingest some more Accelerade and goo, and let my muscles rest.

When I get better, I'd try and move quicker.

OK. This was horrible. My half-marathon PR is an hour faster than this. Yeah, it's not really comparable, but still. I just didn't have it. Maybe I was too aggressive on the bike but I figure you learn that over time, and plus, I say go for it, since you never get the time back. But pacing is important and I just don't know that yet. The real problem was I wore one of the those one-piece tri suits, and it was a disaster. Tight, and it made my sore lower back really bad. I mean, super painful. I had to devise all these ways to remedy that.

First, I tried unzipping the front, which also required taking off my front number and pinning it on my side, costing me about 6-7 minutes. Also, I had to stop and beg for sunblock. If you know me or my brother, we are so white, we sunburn at night. Then, even that was painful, so I tried taking it off my shoulders and tying it around my waist. That didn't work, so I got the idea to take on the pins and pin it round my waist. This eventually worked, except for pricking myself 3 times, and costing me another 5-6 minutes.

I would train harder so I'm actually in shape for this. And get a 2-piece tri outfit. And put on sunblock EVERYWHERE, just in case. And avoid pins. And run faster, slowman.

I am not a very good triathlete at the moment. And I'm not in shape.


OK, this was a poorly organized race. The swim course changed at the last minute, they didn't have enough markers, the run was on the beach, etc. And they didn't have enough finisher's medals! However, I understand whomever originally was going to put the race on backed out or something, leaving it hanging, and this other group to their credit stepped in and made it happen, so that probably contributed to this.