Richmond Rox Endurance Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I think my wetsuit might be a little small. I had trouble breathing early on in the race. I had the same problem in my last wetsuit race. I wanted to get our of the water and out of the wetsuit, but I didn't come this far to quit. Got myself to relax and get into a slow rhythm and was able to pick it up from there and salvage a decent swim (for me, anyway).

Lose weight or get a larger wetsuit. Or just practice more in the wetsuit. All my OWS practice was in warmer water - the river was around 80 degrees just 3 weeks ago.

This is a long transition. Many steps to climb and probably 1/4 mile from dock to bike rack. Wetsuit got stuck on my heels, as it always does. Took my time to make sure I had everything.

I put bodyglide on my legs, but I should probably use something slipperier.

I intentionally rode the bike about 1 mile/hr slower than I'm capable of for that distance, as this was my first half-iron and I didn't want to blow up the run.

I had formed my hydration/nutrition plan (1 sip of Powerade/Gatorade per mile, working out to 1 bike bottle per 14 miles + 1 stinger waffle per 14 miles) based on my training, which was mostly in 70s/80s. It was only in the low 60s that morning, so I drank too much. Had to stop to pee twice on the bike and again at the beginning of the run. I dailed my hydration back to 1 sip per 2.5 miles after the 2nd pee stop at 32 miles.

Drink less, though I still would rather waste a minute or two than lose 30 minutes on the run suffering from dehydration.

No complaints.

The weather worked out great - it was probably in the high 60s/low 70s at this point, though it was sunny, so it got a little hot. The drink cups were small, so I had a Gatorade at each mile, except at the beginning, mile 4 and mile 8, where I had gels with water.
I kept expecting to blow up, but I continued to feel good and slowly edged my pace upward. I targeted a 2:15 run, but after the first loop I picked up the pace and ended up with 2:08. Best guess would be 1:07 for the first loop and 1:01 for the second.

Maybe I could have picked up the pace earlier, but really no complaints. It's nice to finish strong.

Sat down and put a cold towel on my head, then walked down to visit some friends. Followed that with a beer and a cheeseburger.


My own fear of going too hard, too early.


Neat race. Great setting. You could get a faster time on a course with a lake swim, flat bike and flat run (with no stairs), but it was interesting and fun.