Port Macquarie Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

First salt water race. Definitely the straightest Ive ever swam in open water so very happy with that.

Some chafing after halfway, caused some discomfort.

Apply vaseline before the swim :)

Still a slow T2 but coming down drastically from my 1st two races.

Nothing

Wow there was some hills. Took a drive on the course the night before which definitely helped with mental preparation.

Walked matthew flinders drive, just ran out of gears.

Took a bathroom break on lap 2.

Wind picked up for the 2nd lap making the retuen to port a lot slower. Started cramping with about 8k left, had to slow down and stretch it out. Cramped again in one leg with 1k to go but it was all downhill so pedalled one-legged back into town. Got off the bike and was very happy to find the cramp was not in a running muscle.

More hill training.

Ran out of fluid for the last few k's so need to plan ahead more for that.

Again took a good chunk of time off my first races.

Changed from tri shorts to underwear/running shorts as I was worried about chafing.

Knew the whole time that if I ran at my training pace I would equal my PR, so that definitely helped my motivation.

When the clouds were not covering it was hot. Hotter than my training runs which meant I was taking in more water than planned at aid stations. I felt that slowed me down. Had to keep my pace lower than I would have wanted for the first half due to holding off stomach cramps.

Work on running through the aid stations, or at least go right back to running after re-hydrating.

Walk around. Free post-race massage in the finishers area.


Low training volume. Also the most unstructered ive had my training for a race.

Weight aswell. Im nearly 10 pounds heavier than my previous race weight. Training & diet just wasnt what it should have been.


Overall I PR'd at this distance, by 4 minutes. But my previous PR was at IM 70.3 florida and this course was a lot harder so Im happy with that.