Ironman 70.3 Mooseman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I purposely stayed way to the outside and as a result I had no contact for the entire swim. I paid by swimming an extra tenth of a mile which was fine with me. I was extremely happy with my time. During my first triathlon a few weeks prior I had a panic attack in the water so my primary concern was comfort in the water. Mission accomplished.

I got to transition and found everything soaked. Apparently it had rained some more during the swim. I put on my bike jersey and helmet and went to reach for my wet socks and shoes when I realized that I was still wearing my wetsuit bib-johns. That had to be a laugh for some folks watching. Pulled the jersey off, got my act together and got out on the bike.

Take off my wetsuit?!?!

I drove the bike course on Saturday and knew it was going to be brutal. I'm pretty happy with the split given my current experience and ability. I've only been riding for about 6 months and hadn't previously done a climb this steep. I need to work on eating and drinking on the bike. I was under on both here while trying to maintain pace on the bike and I paid for it some on the run. I also need to work on being a little more aggressive early in the race. I laid back a little for the first 5 or 6 miles before the initial climb and probably could have picked up some time.

Eat and drink more. Be more aggressive early in the race. Ride more!

Again I was just dealing with everything being soaking wet. I was going to change socks but realized that the others were as wet as the ones I was wearing so I slipped on my running shoes, tied them up and got on my way.

I fell apart a little on the run. My standalone half marathon time is about a 1:45. I hoped to run sub 2 hours for this race. I ran the first loop on target but started falling off at the turnaround. I ended up walking up the couple of hills and the aid stations. I was out of fuel and my legs were really feeling the bike course. I feared this would happen when I got off the bike and realized that I hadn't had enough to eat. So I suffered a little and rolled in at 2:06. Lessons learned...ride more hills and find a way to get your calories in on the bike.

Stretched a little. Walked a bunch to get back to the car.


This was a tough bike course for me and it showed on the run.


I enjoyed the race quite a bit. It was certainly a challenging first half ironman race for me. I'm also still learning quite a bit with it being only my second triathlon. I'm looking forward to improving my time at the next venue.