Rocketman Florida Triathlon - Half Iron Course - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Water was shallow enough at the start to stand. I had been expecting a deep water start... mostly because that was what the event co-ordinators had been telling us.

Swim started out well, I was in the very first wave, which was probably less than 50 people or so. Navigation was good to the first buoy. After rounding the first buoy wind was stirring up quite a bit of chop which made navigation a bit more challenging. I ended up with a chafed neck probably from arcing my back farther up to see.

Considering I haven't swam in conditions like this before I did well. I sighted frequently since random waves seemed to knock me off course and kept calm focusing on rolling far enough to get good breaths each time. Chop wasn't bad enough to necessitate breathing to one side or the other.

After rounding the second buoy I couldn't see the swim exit, didn't know what to sight on land and all the people in the pack in front of me were swimming to a white buoy which I knew was for the international distance and from the start appeared to be well outside where we needed to go. I didn't want to end up out by myself so I stuck with the pack. I think we ended up swimming a couple hundred extra by rounding this buoy, but oh well, just about everyone did it.

The main pack seemed to exit between 39 and 41 minutes with a couple superstars way out front.


Navigation was tough. Wind was stirring up some moderate chop after the first buoy which I'm really not used to. I navigated fairly well to the first and second buoy, not so much to the swim exit. Given the circuimstances though, I'm comfortable with my choice.

Lost my goggles out of my sleeve on the swim exit. I thought I had hold of the sleeve, but I guess not. Grabbed a swig out gatorade right out of the water to get the saltwater taste out of my mouth.

The rest of T1 went smooth, I was quite a bit quicker than most of the field out of T1. Getting into my shoes went well and without incident.

Not loose goggles.

Overall I had an AMAZING bike. Best case scenario I was shooting for a 2:30 bike split, and I came in ahead of that.

There was a fairly strong tailwind for most of the ride out, which became a nasty header on the way back. The course had lots of direction changes, and the Half course in particular had lots of little jigs that went out and back onto side streets which obviously had variable wind conditions. I passed 3 or 4 people right out of T1 and rode down a few more before I settled into the spot I occupied until I was passed once with just a few miles to go. Every time I was able to count on an out and back area, I seemed to be in about 6th or 7th place. There must have been one or two guys way out in front that I never really saw since I ended up in 6th off the bike.

6TH OFF THE BIKE!!!!!

As luck would have it the wind conditions mirrored my last and most successful long training ride before the event. I was able to stay somewhat conservative with the tailwind and drained what I had left on the way back. The HIM course linked up with the course for the other two races for the last hour or so, I was able to slingshot my way up through the BOP into the MOP of the racers from the other distances while I was riding into the headwind.

After exiting the Kennedy Space Center the wind calmed a bit, we went up over a bridge where was able to find some inner HTFU. Otherwise I did feel like I was starting to fade a good bit on the bike.

Pacing was pretty solid. Especially considering I don't use anything but a wristwatch ;) I think I did go out a bit hard, and probably could have given up a couple minutes on the bike and gained more on the run.

I frequently have this problem.

Overall I can't be anything but insanely happy with my bike.

I realized as I was starting the run that my original nutrition plan had been to eat a Gu just before getting off the bike. I completely forgot to do this.

T2 was quite a bit slower than my usual Oly T2, but I had more nutrition, a hat and wanted to be sure I crossed my Ts and dotted my Is before heading out on the run.

I realized as I was starting the run that my original nutrition plan had been to eat a Gu just before getting off the bike. I completely forgot to do this.

I had two Gus in my pocket from T2, so I took one at the start, and figured I would take the second around the 1:00:00 mark. If I needed another I'd just live off the course. Original plan was for :45 and 1:30 not being sure if I'd need the one at 1:30 or not.

I ran well out of the gate, The sandwich boards marking the miles were all over the place marking different distances for different races and not every mile was marked, but I'm pretty sure I ran the first few miles at about a 7:20 pace. I was telling myself to slow as much as possible, but still ended up finishing the first loop at around the 50 minute mark which is about a 7:40 pace or so. After the first looop I had a pretty good sense that I'd be able to make my 5:00:00 goal even if I started to run into trouble.

Things really started to get ugly around mile 7 or 8. I started walking the aid stations, and just after the turnaround had to walk a minute or two between them. I slowed to what felt like close to a a 10:00 pace and was barely hanging on.

The course heated up, it was over 80* out, there wasn't a scrap of shade on the way back and the humidity was more than I'm used to. I was in insane pain by the time I crossed the 10 mile marker and barely putting one foot in front of the other. At mile 10 I swore to myself that I wouldn't walk another step except to get water at the last aid station. No matter how bad it hurt I was going to make myself run 5K.

My watch was at 4:30 when I crossed the 10 mile marker and I was having serious doubts that I'd be able to finish in under 5 hours. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to go and crossed the line in 4:58:03!!!!!

After that I staggered around a bit with my hands on my knees, tried not to fall over and then pretty much collapsed into my fiancee's arms.

The last hour of the race was probably the most pain I have ever been through. I'm not sure if it was pacing, nutrition, or if thats just how the end of a long course race is supposed to feel. In any case I beat my goal time by almost two minutes, finished 10th overall and 3rd in my AG. What an amazing day! I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

I was in so much pain, it was all I could do to lean on my fiancee and sip on a coke (which was AMAZING) and drink some water in the shade. After about 30 minutes I was able to form mostly complete sentences again.


First time at a new distance. Pacing and nutrition.


Tough race to call. AMAZING course and venue. Not many people can say they've been that close to the space shuttle launch pad.

On the other hand, the RD seemed to be from a running company and had no effing clue how to run a triathlon. They couldn't figure out what water temperature would be wetsuit legal, kept sending out conflicting information about the same, packet pickup was a nightmare, the entrances/exits of the transition area weren't marked. My wave was the first and it was 5 minutes late. I have no idea what happened with the rest of the waves. The course was pretty well marked, but the design was an absolute confusing mess Instead of just sending everyone out on the same route with three different turnarounds there were signs everywhere directing people in different races in all kinds of different directions.

Post race activities were pretty sub par considering the number of participants. The award ceremonies for the Classic and International distances started over an hour late and took forever. My fiancee and I waited aroud for hours for the 70.3 awards so I could get mine, but eventually gave up after 2:00PM when the other award ceremonies finished, and the MC said she had no idea when the next ceremony would be but she hoped it would be soon. Then the band started playing again. There was almost nobody left at this point. I'd be shocked if more than a dozen people were there for the 70.3 ceremony. The staff promised they'd mail out the awards to people who won. Hopefully they do because I'd really like to have it, I just couldn't stand to sit in the sun any longer.

With some better know-how and organization this could be a very cool event, but it definitely fell short in a few key areas.