Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Water temp was announced at 78.8 degrees, so the race was not wetsuit legal (meaning wetsuits could be worn, but if they were you couldn't get an award). I decided to go without the wetsuit given the high temp (not planning on an award) to hopefully help with any overheating later. Water was shallow for awhile so people were walking for awhile. Once started swimming, felt decent for a short while until getting the larger waves from the other swimmers. Need to practice more with the higher chop. Once I got used to it I started swimming consistently pretty much from part way to the far buoy until the end. Swim felt like it took forever, and it clearly did based on my terrible time.

Much more practice in the open water, especially with choppy conditions. Maybe wear the wetsuit as well.

So without the wetsuit this should've been much faster, but I had decided to swim without my jersey on, and getting it on once wet in transition proved to be a huge task. Took me at least a minute if not more to finally get the shirt with at least the 3rd attempt. Also, I didn't, but should've had my bike shoes already unstrapped.

Either wear the jersey for the swim, or practice putting it on when wet.

What to say here. Legs didn't feel very good from the start, and my left (I think) calf felt pretty tight. Tried to keep it pretty slow early for fear of making it a really long day. Moving a long at that pace for awhile until mile 25 or so, when mother nature was kind enough to send us a thunderstorm, complete with lightning/thunder and a stinging, downpour of rain. Although it sounds really negative, I think the craziness of it actually help to distract from the poor legs, and made the ride a little more enjoyable. Picked up the pace a bit on the last 1/3 or so of the ride. Definitely a few rough sections around the park at mile 45 or so, and saw a number of flats (and I lost a bottle there)

I think my approach, including slowing down at the start, was a good idea. Overall, I think the 2 week off of the bike during the trip to Yellowstone was the biggest reason for the poor legs here.

First of all, knowing rain was a potential, I should've utilized the trash bags that I had with me to cover my things in transition (bad oversight on my part). Putting on the soggy shoes is definitely not the best way to start a run. Also used the bathroom here as the fluid I took in on the bike wanted out (and it seemed like a better idea to do it then to deal with that pain the whole run). Also stretched my legs as usual. Overall though, this time is very poor, so I need to figure out a way to speed things up a bit while also making sure I'm ready for the run.

All of my reports read the same here, but again the run saves my overall time/place. Legs felt alright I guess, but the very high humidity just made it feel like a long day out there. Took sponges at every water stop. Also drank heed at every stop and took Endurolytes at 2 stops. The climb at 7ish on the rocky uphill was especially painful, but the it was nice to have mostly downhill after 9ish until the finish. Slow time, but I think that was pretty much the standard for the day.

Nothing, pretty much did what I could.

Got my food and ate it at one of the picnic tables. Got my stuff out of transition, through everything in the car, changed, stretched a bit, and off I was for the 6.5 hour drive back to MA.


2 week off of training 2 weeks before the race. Poor swim performance in choppy conditions.


The race organization and volunteers were top notch from beginning to end. Everything seemed to move very smoothly and the volunteers out on the course were great. Lots of support to go around and the community out with their hoses and sprinklers provided an additional lift. Great race.