Liberty Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Solid swim. The time included about a 1/4 mile run from the beach to T1. I was in a constant battle with another guy from my age group. We were on the same line and very close in ability. Constant bumping and crossing over each other. My main issue in the swim was veering off to the left when I would go for 5 - 6 strokes without sighting. Other than that I felt very good. Took off kind of hard to get some separation and I caught quite a few of the "Elites" right away. Got into a good smooth groove in the water for the rest of the race until the final 100-200 yards. Then I started to kick a little harder to get the legs ready to go verticle.

Better / more often sighting. Other than that, I was very happy with my swim.. I actually got out of the water, looked at my watch and it said I was done in just under 31 minutes. Very acceptable if you ask me.

Suit got stuck on my Garmin wrist and both heels. Had to pry it off. May experiment with cutting the wetsuit up my legs a few inches to see if that will help. Also, got out of Transition very well. On my bike very well. First foot was okay. Couldn't get second foot in my preclipped shoes at all. Actually had to stop, get off my bike and put my shoes on. Easily wasted 3 minutes jacking around with this.

When I first came into T1, I noticed someone had jammed their bike in between mine and the person next tom me. He did not move my stuff, just my bike but made a mess of the other person's organization. This kind of bull shit really pisses me off but in Transition, all you can do is just forget about it. He must have been an olympic racer since they were allowed to stay in transition after the Half participants went to the beach.

Practice getting into shoes and up to speed. I don't want to give up on the pre clipped bike shoes just yet.

The bike is not my strongest leg of a triathlon but I felt like I performed very well. I started with my aerobottle full of water with an Elixer tablet and a second bottle full of Powerade. Picked up 3 bottles through the course bottle exchange and drank all of them (2 water and 1 with Heed). I had 4 gu packs that I took every 10-12 miles with the last one at mile 50. Took one potassium tablet at about mile 30.

The hills were no problem at all. In fact, I was riding with some strong bikers and my ability to gear up the hills would send me sailing past them up the hill and they would eventually catch me on the next flat stretch. Mainly because I wanted to keep my HR in the low 140s and my speed (on the flats) in the 21 mph range. I did drop one bottle at the bottle exchange and stopped to go get it. I did not want to run low on water, just in case the heat turned up.

I do think the bike course was short a mile or so. My garmin and my bike computer were both reading 54.5 miles. If that is the case then my average speed of 21.8 mph is still very acceptable to me. I really thought that my bike performanace was much better than could be expected considering the lack of long rides that I have been able to get in.

Jeremy passed me at mile 29 (he was top 5 bike at 26 mph) and Nick did not catch me until mile 49 (I expected that to happen around mile 35 or so).

Be better at bottle exchange and get a rear mounted bottle cage for the longer races. If it would have been a very hot day, I might not have been able to stay hydrated.

Also, focus on getting the long ride workouts in. Need to have more miles on my bike, even if it's back on the trainer due to all of the rain and cold weather we have been seeing.

The guy who jammed his bike in next to mine was still out on the bike course when I got back so I did not have many issues getting my bike re-racked. Got my helmet off easily, socks on, shoes on, grabbed my hat, bandana, race belt, gu bottle and took off. Very easy T2.

Nothing really. I am not going to run without socks, especially in this distance, so I went about as fast as I could.

This is my second HIM and I could have almost copied the run report from the previous HIM and posted it here. The run started off good. I kept track of my HR and pace and did not want to go out too hard. First mile was around 8:20, then 8:30, then 8:30 again and I was happy with this. I could have run harder but I wanted to make sure I did not cramp up....... WHAM, quad cramp at 3.5 miles. For the rest of the race I was dealing with my quads cramping up. I had a bag of potassium tablets that I would suck on and it seemed to help, but I know that whatever was causing the cramps was not going to be fixed. I walked the water stations, loaded up, filled my gu bottle so I had a squirt of something in between stops and kept moving forward. The cramps would still come in when I was walking so I told myself, just keep running. If I was going to be in pain whether I was walking or running, at least with running it would be over faster. I was very frustrated with the leg cramps because I felt like I could have pushed harder on the run and kept my HR and breathing under control.

I truly think that I can get my HIM run down to about 1:40 once I figure out the nutririon compnent and increase my fitness level on my bike.

I was not extrememly unhappy with my run, just very disappointed. I felt I was looking at a sub 5 hour HIM at the start of the run and if I could have held event an 8:30 pace, I would have been there. I just need to train more, or reduce my expectations.

Crossed the finish line and saw a bunch of my Sux Tri Club teammates waiting for me. The Olympic course participants were all done and Jeremy, Chad, and Nick were already partaking in the post race food. I stretched once I felt my quads were ready to do so. Relaxed, packed up my stuff, and waited by the finish line for the rest of my teammates.


I assume it was my lack of fitness level on the bike. Probably cooked my legs at a 21.8-22.4 mph pace, but it felt great out there.


This was a well run event. The post race meal was okay. Hot dogs, chips, fruit, cookies and Muscle Milk. I did get a chance to try a new flavor (Banana Cream Pie) and that was good. I would rather have seen a big pot of spaghetti or burgers, but I do like a hot dog from time to time.

I do think the distance was short. I think the bike was only 54.5 miles and the run was 12.5 miles (according to my Garmin). The race officials need to make sure the course is accurately set up next year. Not sure why the run would have been short though. I understand that the bike ended up getting changed due to some construction.

No matter what happened, I was still happy with this race and will be excited to do it again in the future.