Auburn "World's Toughest Half" Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Lesson learned #1, I should avoid starting in middle of the group, 2 or 3 rows back! Gun went off and the madness for me started. (Good learning experience for me as this was my first deep water start in a "larger" group start.) I was swum over, kicked, hit etc! Had to stop every 6-10 strokes due to the contact and sometimes being swum over. After the first 200 I started catching some of those people but often I'd come up on 2-3 swimmers all tightly bunched, so I'd have to try to go between, didn't work so well, or swim around. Took me a solid 800-1000 to get into a decent grove and feel good. Water was nice, good temp but not very clear. Navigation was marginal as I did have to correct my direction at least 5-7 times per lap. Garmin showed a 1.4 mile distance...likely my weak navigation to blame. Final 500 was good. I felt strong, worked on keeping my form while increasing my stroke rate and distance per pull as best I could.

Very disappointed in my swim...based upon my pool swim times and my last event, an Oly, I was expecting a time of around 35-36 minutes....I was well off of that.

Start swim at far side to get clean water from the start. I may swim a little further, but I'll find my rhythm faster and likely get comfortable much faster.

Do need to get my form and stroke analyzed as I know there is LOTS of room for improvement!

150 to 200 yard run from swim exit to T1. I was able to rack my bike in the rack closest to the bike exit and mount so I did not clip my shoes in ahead of time. After unzipping the back of my wetsuit immediately upon exiting the water I removed cap and googles while running. I pulled my suit off of my left arm while holding my cap and googles, releasing them as I pulled my arm out thus securing them inside the arm sleeve. (I just learned of this trick last week!)

This event has different locations for T1 and T2 so we had to put anything left at T1 into a large trashbag that was labeled with our name and number. I also took a moment to spray sunscreen on my arms, legs, back of neck and then rub it into my face and ears.

Overall a decent T1.

Perhaps run a little faster to bike

I did a good job of not pushing too hard over the first 10-15 miles. I was passed by just a couple people during these first few miles but I passed nearly, if not all of them and many more during the rest of the bike leg. I pushed the hills a little on the uphills and pushed hard on the downhills until I was at about 40mph, then I'd coast. My Garmin had my top speed at about 48mph on one steep hill!

On a fairly flat to mild roller course, I'd do 56 miles about 30-35 minutes faster....at least that's what I see on my hard training rides.

Not knowing the course is a big disadvantage as many of the descents had somewhat blind turns forcing me to hit the brakes, sometimes hard until I knew what was ahead of me.

Now the CRAP that I was dealt!!

After the lollipop loop, around mile 40, the volunteers at one intersection let me make a wrong turn! It added about .5 to .8 miles to my ride....call it 3 minutes as I slowed down when things
didn't seem right, slowed to about 3-4 mph, turned around and then saw one of the volunteers running after me! CRAP! I hit the pedals hard as I knew I'd just lost 2-3 places on the bike...guys I'd passed a few miles back and had been slowly putting a little distance on them.

I caught and passed them around mile 46 to 48 after riding hard.

About 3/4 mile from the bike finish I drop my chain! It gets wedged tightly between the frame and my front chain rigs, I can no longer pedal!!! I dismount to try to get it fixed but it is stuck fast! I have a couple small rollers to get to the finish so I proceed to run my bike up the hills and on the flats while still wearing my bike shoes and the jumping on the saddle for a slow coast down the little hills...so instead of doing a solid 23-25 over the final 3/4 mile, I think I averaged about 6! Must have cost me another 3-5 minutes! Of course I was re-passed by those guys from before along with a few others.

Holy crap what bad luck!!!

Anyone that says don't worry about a few seconds here or a minute there in Long Course events should know that I ended this race 4th in my Age Group....2nd place was JUST 42 SECONDS AHEAD OF ME! I took 11th overall with the guy who was 3rd in my AG and 10th overall just 26 seconds ahead of me and the 9th place overall was the guy 2nd in my AG just 42 seconds up on me! CRAP, CRAP, DOUBLE CRAP!

Oh well, I guess that happens sometimes.

Try to learn the course better....I drove part of it the afternoon before, but that was not enough. Not sure about the dropped chain getting stuck. I did just read that I should have immediately tried to GENTLY pedal backwards.

I was so pissed off and fired up that I charged through T2 to my rack at something just short of a full sprint! I had decided ahead of time to put socks on for the run as I will get some hot spots and blisters at times when sockless. So I likely added 15 to 20 sec in T2 for the damn socks.

No socks, body glide is faster and works 95% of the time for me.

Wow, this was a tough run...I train on hills regularly and I was struggling up a few sections. I hit all the aid stations on every loop, ice water and cold sponges. I'd put one sponge down ny back and one each inside the left and right side of the front of my tri top. This worked really well in keeping me cool. The temp was about 92 or 93 when I finished...it felt hotter than that out on the hot pavement without shade!

I was passed by just one guy at the start of my 2nd loop. I didn't think I could stick with him so I just let him go. In hindsight, I wimped out....I should have, and I believe could have, stayed with him. (He ended up being the #2 guy in my AG!)

I walked through a few of the aid stations to be sure I got the water I needed and to apply more sunscreen at one point.

Overall, I'm happy with my run time. I can do a 1:20 1/2 marathon, perhaps a bit faster. Given the heat and the hills, I'm not surprised by the additional 20 on my run.

Had the guts to stay with the AG competitor who passed me....at least keep him in sight!

Mild stretching and got a massage from the people who had there tent set up in the finish area. Walked a bit.


Wrong way on bike, mechanical issue on bike and "giving up" on staying with a competitor on the run.


I used this race as a "prep" for the Full Vineman in July....this course was much more difficult than the Vineman course, so mentally I feel good about Vineman....physically, I'm now very confident that I can have a strong performance at Vineman.

The race was well organized and the volenteers were great....dispite my tough luck of them allowing my wrong turn.

The race organizer, Brad, was excellent. I emailed him a few times prior to the race and always got a personal response.

If you are looking to challenge yourself at a very pretty venue then this is your race!