Outer Banks Half Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had looked at the swim course while picking up my race packet the day before and it was calm. I thought it was pretty choppy looking on race morning. I freakin LOVED IT!! The swim was very challenging and a little spooky whenever i would hit unidentified objects under the water but i really enjoyed the vastness of the sound.

Still working on improving my swim, Quit masters class due to the frustrations of trying too hard to change my mechanics, getting back to good ol swimmin

Pretty good distance from exiting the swim to transition area, Noted that I felt strong coming out of a hard swim which was refreshing.

Went smooth

Believe it or not i only missed my projected bike goal by 26 seconds. I was very happy with this time and can truly say that equipment upgrades make all the difference in the world. Near the turnaround there were 14 in front of me on the first lap, some were relay teams but I knew If i dropped the hammer I could be in the mix. After the first lap I was avg 22mph so I knew to make my goal I only needed 21 the next lap. I tried to stay 22 because I was expecting to bonk on the run due to drinking and surfing in the OBX all week instead of training so I was trying to keep hammer down. Still happy with making my goal time

During the bike leg, my garmin 305 started giving me the data almost full warning. I was hoping to make it to the run before having to mess with it for obvious reasons. At about mile 42 data was full. I need my garmin during a long race so I had to come out of aero, and delete some old data to get my garmin acting right. The problem was it says "Data full press enter" well everytime you press enter, you have about a second before the same message pops up, so trying to ride, press enter, and navigate to the menu to delete old data was very challenging. I have to believe that this cost me a minute or two in general, and we all know how adversity on the course affects your overall race with heartrate spikes and such. Anyway lesson learned, what would I do differently? Delete my effin old data from the garmin yesterday!

Not bad T2! Powder in running shoes helps!

Keep up the good work!

Goal in my head was a 7:30 pace but I knew my body didnt agree. Felt pretty good first mile through an open field, Miles 2 and 3 were a little harder on the black top through the ruff side of town, Did my best to keep under 8 pace, at the olympic turnaround, I swallowed a gel, put a cold towel on my head and settled in. Took water or heed at every station slowing down very little to drink but making sure I was taking in fluids. At about mile 5 got on the greenway beside the hwy with shade and was able to hold a good pace, I had already picked off the only two guys that passed me on the bike and near the turnaround noticed there were only 6 in front of me. One of those was relay. Made the turn, looked at my garmin on the left arm, stopwatch on the right and I said to myself "self, if you think you the man, then you can break 5 hrs"! I dropped my head bit my lip and focused with PMA.The run back was virtually the same as the run out, greenway was cool and fast, neighborhood was steady, 11 and 12 were tough and hot, when I got back out on the field the guy in fourth was about 150 yds ahead of me, I knew 5 was going to be close so I kept looking at my watch and recalculating in my head to see what kind of buffer I had, Next time I looked up ol guy was alot closer ahead of me, I thought dang I can take this guy!I moved off of the gravel into the grass so he wouldnt hear me coming and broke into a dead sprint using a part of me that only shows up on race day, I passed him with about a quarter mile to go, by my garmin data I was at a sub 6 min pace when I passed him, I never looked back and brought it home sub 5 hrs with time to spare

Get more long runs in

hydrate, bananas, fist bump my son who was there at the finish line, choke up over the fact that i broke 5 hrs


My training has been poor for the last month and a half, swimming, drinking, and surfing in OBX all week.


Not complaining or dogging anyone because all of the volunteers were great, however at the mile 4/9 water station I think the young girls there should have had a briefing or an experienced person helping them with decision making as runners passed. My explanation is at mile 4 I was starting to experience some cramping so I started yelling heed! before i got to the station, the 2 girls both had a cup of water in each hand which was very good but I wanted heed. Coming back, there was one guy at mile 4, while I was going back at mile 9, the same 2 were trying to hand the one guy 4 cups of water while I basically had to get my own. Again, I appreciate theyre volunteering and know that it was not on purpose, but a race of that length, and the outside temp getting that hot, those volunteers need to be more aware. Other than that Great RAce!