Pumpkinman Triathlon - Long Course - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Got in the water right as they started and in the rush had not zipped up yet. Had one of the women that was waiting in water for their wave 5 minutes later zip me and I was off. My swim is pretty slow compared to the field (southwest region long course championship). I was the only person I saw not swimming freestyle. My goal of the swim is to just get through it and try not to burn myself out.

Would have been nice to have a short warm up and not have to be the only one with a "running beach start" a few seconds behind everyone. I really need to learn to swim freestyle so I don't lose so much time and energy on the swim. Also in my haste to just get in the water I didn't change the settings on my Garmin that was set to auto pause below 5mph so it was on pause the whole swim.

Transition was not really set like I would have liked it since I didn't have time. Also for some reason today I had an issue getting my wetsuit off even though I have gotten in and out of it fairly easy many times previously.
Before I took off I had a chocolaty breakfast that was packed with potassium and had some protein in it for my long day.

Have time to setup transition, and idk what to say about wetsuit.

This bike course is no a no joke course. It seems like I never saw my garmin read a grade between -2 to 2% it was always a mild/steep uphill or down the back of one. Right out of the start I am PUMPED to be on the bike and the adrenaline is flowing. At this point there are lots of people on the bike course doing the sprint distance and the roads are packed. In the excitement of the moment and to get past all the mountain bikes I was sitting in the car lane and HAMMERING it. I passed by the sprint turnaround and looked at my HR monitor and saw 194. I couldn't believe I got caught up in the race so much that I was pushing it way too hard way too early in the day. The rest of the ride I forced myself to try and stay below 171 HR. For the most part I was able to do that but I could tell my legs were hurting after the adrenaline started wearing off only 5 miles into my ride from that initial over exertion. On the way the RMT I was right behind a rider that took a turn too fast and BAM Déjà vu. I stopped to make sure he wasnt seriously hurt. Spent 20 seconds looking at his injuries and pretty sure he broke his collar bone told him to make a sling and that I would send help. Lost probably around 1 minute to provide aid, and I continued up the RMT to find someone at the turnoff to Nevada St. to report the crash too and what do you know... there was someone else already there waiting for medics from a presumed colar bone fracture as well. Nevada st 55 miles into the bike course was pretty rough as it picks upto 7-8% for 1 mile, and it was very hot at this point.

I probably should have tried to force a little more water down during the ride because I finished this part abit dehydrated but my electrolytes were running well at this point

I was pretty beat at this point and would be lying if I said I didn't consider just calling it a day at this point. My family was there waiting for me at this point to cheer me on so I had to keep going. Talked to them a minute since I kinda needed the mental boost at this point

Wasn't in and out quick but I spent the time I needed in transition

Started beat and not sure how I was going to do a 1/2 marathon at this point. I was hot/overheating and dehydrated. Luckily the first 3+ miles were downhill so I figured all I really had to do was pick up my feet and let gravity do the work. I was grabbing fluid at the aid stations but after I hit aid station 3 I stopped at the porta potty and saw how dehydrated I was. I started grabbing MUCH more water at the aid stations to try and catch up. Ended up walking some of the steep uphill sections on the way back, and I started to cramp a little too. Increased nutrition amount some and swapped to drinking Gatorade at the aid stations. By time I made it to the end of my first lap I was miserable, and nauseous but this far in I wasn't going to stop. I decided I would just walk if that's all I could do to finish. I ended up walking about the next 3/4 mile until I started feeling good again. At this point I had seen a couple people pass me a while ago in my age division and I was going to see if I could catch them. My last 6 miles I somehow found the strength to pick back up the pace and set a slow jog pace and held that the entire rest of the way. I believe my second lap was faster than the 1st. Post race natural break showed that I had actually caught up on my hydration levels somehow which is really hard to do once you get behind.

I just sweat too much for hot long races. Balancing hydration and electrolytes is a mess for me on these long hot days but overall I think the run went about as good as I could have asked for considering my training and the conditions. My running training had been very minimal since I have just been getting over an IT band injury.

Relaxed in the shade with family. Had bagels with honey butter that were probably stale but they tasted great! Then went and had pasta and they were just starting the awards ceremony. Last half I did (RAGE) pretty much everyone was gone when I finished so it was nice to see I made it in time to see the winners presented with their awards. I also got a $45 gift card to trisports. They gave gift certificates to pretty much every Half distance athlete that wanted to spend the effort to walk upto the presenter and get one.


My swim and running training hasnt even been close to where it should be if I cared about my overall time. Biking I would have liked to get 40-50 mile rides in more often but time has limited long rides to Saturdays only.


This is my 6th BBSC event and was great although check-in took too long and they were a little slow to post the official results/splits this time. As far as on course everything was good. They were out of gatorade at one run aid station but they were getting refills and had gatorade the next time I passed them.

I really just love the venue and course of this race. Lake mead is nice and the bike course is world class. I will be putting this one on the calender for next year again.