Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon - TriathlonFull Ironman

I wasn't expecting them to start the race with us all in the chute. I figured we'd walk across a timing mat, and then all start from the beach. I was pretty far back in the chute, and took a while to even get to the water. Then it was hard getting around a bunch of slower swimmers when we started.

I just took it easy on the actual swim, to save up energy for the race.

Get closer to the start.

I'm not sure what took so long on this transition. It did take a while to get on my arm warmers, but I didn't think it was that long. I didn't start with my shoes on the bike like I do in shorter races, and I didn't run as quickly through the TA, but I wouldn't think that was enough to account for this much time.

I decided to leave my gloves in T1, and at first that was fine. But, then there was a light mist/rain. The wet hands combined with the wind was miserably cold. I stopped to pee at the first rest stop, and I had gotten a knot in my tri shorts drawstring. My hands were so cold, I couldn't get the knot out. Eventually, I finally got it out, but according to my Garmin, I lost 8 minutes.

Make sure the tri shorts are tied better.

I wasn't thinking at the end of the race, and I only got one foot out of my shoe, approaching the dismount line. I got off the bike, and took off the other shoe, and handed it to the volunteer who was taking my bike. I was a little wobbly at the end of the bike, so I had a hard time unclipping that shoe.

I stopped to pee during this transition, so that added a little time.

Remember earlier to take my feet out of the shoes.

At the beginning of this run, my right foot scraped against my ankle a couple times, and hit the timing chip strap. I looked down, and noticed the velcro was mostly undone, so I stopped and strapped it back together. When I got to the turnaround point, the timing mat didn't beep. The volunteers had me run over it a couple times, and when it still didn't beep, they said they'd call in my number and time. It dawned on me a little later, that the timing chip had probably come off when the strap came loose, so I stopped and checked, and sure enough, it was gone. I kept an eye out for it when I passed the stretch of road where I had fixed the strap, but didn't see it. Every time I crossed one of the timing mats, I kept telling the volunteers my number, to make sure they knew I was had done the whole thing.

Early in the run, my achilles was hurting a little bit again, but praise to God, it loosened up after a mile or two. The last few miles, my body was really aching.

Make sure my timing chip is on nice and tight.

Just walked around a little bit.


This was a good race. The venue was great. As always, SetupEvents did a great job with organization. There were tons of friendly volunteers. I'd recommend this race.