Soma Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had planned for a 33' swim, and I came out a little bit ahead of that, so I was pretty happy. I looked at my Garmin 910xt at the turn of the second buoy before the leg back and I saw 15 minutes, so I knew that I was ahead of my time and just tried to keep up the momentum till the end. This was the best swim that I've ever had, good navigation, some drafting, and kept my stroke rate tight at about 55.

Nothing more that I can do. I don't have a local pool, so I haven't swum since Nathan Tempe Olympic 4 weeks ago, and it's been a total of 6 weeks since any cooridinated pool session. The good news is that IF I had a pool, I could work off about 2 minutes, I'm still trying to convince the family to get an endless pool.

Good transition, the best that I've done so far.

Just sprint through the T area, but that wouldn't be effective and only keep the HR too high.

I planned at least a 23 mph avg. speed, but missed the mark a smidge. The turns really kills any momentum that builds up. I made sure that I did slower speed build out of the turns and kept a strong power up the hill, but kept my HR below the LTHR on them, I didn't want any lactate build up during the course. There was some wind and wind gusts, I'd estimate an avg. of 5 to 10 mph, increased from the first lap to the last lap.

I stay on my planned power average of 220 to 230, so I can't complain, it was just those turns. But, everyone else had to deal with them too.

Early on the bike, I started my nutrition plan... I carried two 25oz bottles of Gatorade, 1 cliff bar and a 400 calorie flask of EFS. So, I sipped on the gatorade interspersed with alternating the cliff bar and EFS. However, at the start of the 2nd lap, one of my gatorade bottles ejected from my xlab rear seat carrier on a hard bump, but I still had a full bottle left and just grabbed a powerbar bottle from an aid station. Then the other bottle ejected somewhere, no probs though, lots of back up opportunities.

This was a good controlled ride, however at about the 2 hour mark my HR dropped and it was getting tougher to keep up the pace, but I dug in and hoped that I wouldn't torch my legs for the run.

I continue to improve in biking, and will just keep doing the same to get faster.

Good transition, but I layed on the ground for about 5 seconds just to regroup before the run.

I felt decent for the run, tired yes, but after a slow jog out of transition to the first water station, it was getting faster. I grabbed some water and continued on, my pace settled in at about a 7' 10", so I was happy and felt comfortable. I almost tripped over going up the hill to the bridge, kind of funny.

I had a planned 1hr 40' run, so I hit my mark. But, I also could have gone faster, although probably not. I planned to walk every aid station and I did for the most part to grab some fluids and cool down. I calculated that if I spent just 20 seconds walking through about 10 aid stations that added about 2 to 3 minutes to my time... and that's about right since my watch was showing a pace of 7' 20" when I was running. This was only my second HIM event and I fell apart at Mountain Man, so I took the cautious route. Next time, I won't be as cautious.

At about the 7 mile point, my inner quad muscles were cramping and one time almost siezed up, I stopped and massaged for about 20 seconds and was near an aid station so I grabbed 2 cups of gatorade and moved on... the cramps subsided and allowed me to run but slowed my pace down to an 8' for miles 8 through 11, then Dan Cadriel (a fast age grouper in 45 - 49) caught me and I did my best "Iron War" with him and he was doing a 7' 20" and I just beared down and ran side by side to the finish line... that helped a lot, but put me into a pain locker for sure.

Not much, my running in the past 4 weeks have shown significant improvements, next time I know I can get close to a 1hr 35' run time.

What warm down, basically a vital organ shut down... joking, but I went to the med tent to make sure as I was about to fall over from getting dizzy.


I had a great race and it was the best race that I've ever had. This race truely reflected my current abilities, I couldn't be happier. And I have the confidence that I will get faster.


This was the final race in the Redrock series, it was a great show, everything on time and good and fast athletes. This is a pentultament event for the area and athletes have more years of experience at this length or longer, so with just 1 year under my belt, I feel good about the results, very proud.

I MISSED 7th place by 4 seconds, arrrggghh!

I would have come in 2nd place in the 45 - 49 AG, but it seem like there was three racers ahead of me that will graduate next year too.