Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Two comments on my swim. 1) I did not sight well. I think I zig zagged the whole way. There were considerable waves coming straight at us for the first leg, but no excuse for my horrible sighting. 2) I seem to be unable to make myself swim harder. I think I am still worried about "making the distance" and tend to swim too easily. I think I'm fine with the second point for my IM, as I'll come out of the water relatively well rested. The first point I can practice and make myself sight more often. Knowing that I veer right when swimming I need to sight more frequently (target every six strokes). I'll give up some speed, but it'll pay off when I swim a shorter distance!

Also, opted to go without the wetsuit and glad I did. I could have been faster with it, but it was nice to be a strong enough swimmer now to not need it. Good progress!

Sight better.

Good transition. Simple is better! Easy swim, so jogged into transition, got all my stuff. Ran out with bike and off I went. Nothing complicated.

Nothing

What a ride. About 15 miles in the skies opened up. A big thunderstorm erupted right on top of us. It rained VERY hard. Difficult to see and the rain actually hurt your face. I was very impressed with all of the riders that were around me. Everyone slowed a bit and handled the very adverse conditions extremely well. We muscled through the big downhills turns at the height of the storm. Those brakes don't work as well when they're soaked. After about 40 minutes the heavy rain cleared out and we spent the rest of the day in occasional drizzle and sun.

Nutrition on bike. Took a gel every 20 minutes and that worked pretty well. Went through the entire aero bottle and four other 20 oz bottles, so I drank a lot, but I needed to.

Nothing. Had a blast.

Wear socks.

Good easy transition. Nothing complicated.

Nothing.

Wear socks

Had a decent run. Left quad cramped up in the first 1-2 miles, but I was able to run through it and get it to relax. I was able to run all the hills. I did walk through water stops. Had at least one water and one heed at each stop which seemed to work pretty well. Stops were every mile or so. I knew I was going to be close to my goal of six hours, so I just kept motoring at a pretty even pace for the entire run.

Nothing, except wear socks! The combination of rain and no socks on bike and run left me very chaffed. I won't make that mistake again. Socks for the bike. A dry pair for the run and maybe a dry pair in special needs back for IM.

Laid in the cool grass in a light rain. It was quite nice.


My fitness level. I was right where I wanted to be.


Great race. I had a good result and learned a ton for my upcoming IM. I'd like to come back and do this race again as the area is beautiful and it was very well run.