Scheels High Cliff Triathlon - Half Iron Course - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I diligently practiced bilateral breathing and was all set to relax and swim calmly. I only breathed on one side the entire time and battled the choppy water. I felt like all my practice went out the window. I stayed really close to the buoys and was breathing on the right only to keep on course the entire time. Since the waves started in groups of 50 this was easy to do without bumping into people.

Definitely do more open water swimming. I only went once and the water was calm on Winnebago that day. I did sign up early for this race and was glad to be in Wave 5.

I used the wetsuit strippers and my suit got hung up on my timing chip and the kid struggled to help me out of it. Probably only added 15 seconds but it felt like forever. I did not realize that wetsuit stripping and the run up the hill to transition were part of my swim split.

I put on cooling sleeves for the bike due to predicted sunny high temps. I struggled putting them on over damp arms and had never tried this before. I realized everyone else wore them under their wetsuits. I think it added a min to my t-1.

I completely exceeded my goal on this bike and was so thrilled with my performance. I took it easy in the first 15 miles and then had plenty of gas in my tank for the duration. I rode the second half 10 min faster than the first, mostly due to tail wind and course elev. I ate solids, drank my gatorade and water and traded my gatorade bottle at the second bottle exchange only.

Nothing. It was fabulous.

I was organized and just grabbed everything I had laid out. I had to re-do my hair into a ponytail for my running hat which adds more time than the avg person not dealing with a thick, tangled mane!

Nothing

I was on a total high off my bike. The first 3 miles flew by but I needed a bathroom break after that. I hadn't seen a potty so I peeled off course at the park rest area to use a public restroom building. It added 1:30 to my time but really no choice but to go. Then the downpour hit me around mile 5 and initially felt nice but really mucked up the course and trashed my shoes and socks. I also felt like I was running alone for quite a while and was happy the race was headphone-legal. I had some calf cramping at mile 9-10 which slowed me down a bit. Then I pulled it together when I realized I could still come in under 6 hours (my dream goal for my first race).

Not much of anything. I did all of my nutrition properly, felt as good as I was going to and don't think I could have avoided calf cramping. It has happened to me in marathons and sometimes you are just fatigued. My background is running and I really hoped to run faster than this. My goal was probably too fast based on the actual course.

Screamed like a 5 yr old girl when I saw my training partner at the finish line and realized we both broke 6 hours on our first attempt at half IM. Thrilled to see my husband, kids, mom, and friends who all came to cheer. Couldn't have been sweeter.


Nothing. I hired a certified coach to write my training plan and followed it religiously for 18 weeks after building a base. Everything came together (except perfect weather but what are you going to do there).


I never saw a potty on the run except right out of transition. Not sure if this is odd at a half IM since it's my first one.