Tupper Lake Tinman Triathlon - Half Iron Course - Triathlon

Swim was a little rough for me. They ended up starting the half ironman participants in 2 waves so there weren't a ton of people in each wave. Despite this, I feel like I got beat up quite a bit in the first couple hundred meters of the swim. Going out on the loop seemed to take forever! I half expected my time to be a lot slower than it was.

Went pretty smoothly, despite my bike being in the very farthest back.

I came into the race hearing that it wasn't too hilly. Then to my surprise, the first 10 and last 10 (it was an out and back course) were all hills; when you weren't going up you were going down. After I got into the 10 mile mark, the rain really started coming down. The rain creating puddles, plus the terrible conditions of the road made for a rough bike leg. Despite this, I was pleasantly surprised with my bike leg.

This is where the organization of the race started bothering me. In the transition area were tons of spectators/not athletes. After racking my bike and about to head out on the run I decide to hit the porta potty before I get going. There were 3 porta pottys in the transition area, 2 were occupied and at least one by a not athlete. After this incident I start running towards what I thought was the run start and the volunteers just stared at me. After finally reaching the volunteer they ask "Are you running?" (and I just thought "Isn't it obvious?") and then points me in the opposite direction. Although I realize I should have checked out the transition area more thoroughly, I think some better guidance was warranted instead of waiting until I'm way off course.

The run overall went pretty well. The start was rough, with the first two miles all uphill and the first mile through completely drenched fields. After this there were two out and back loops which were rolling hills. I started off the first few miles at 7:45 pace and thought I was on course for breaking 5:20 (a 14 minute PR). I didn't have my watch going continuously for the entire race so when I saw the 4:58 coming down the final stretch I couldn't believe my eyes. The last straight away was on a completely puddle filled field and all I could picture is me face planting right in front of everyone at the end.

This race was a bit up and down. On a positive note I really surprised myself with a huge PR on a tough course. However, considering the price paid, the awards and post race food was lacking. Finisher medals were given, but you got a piece of paper for all awards (except 1st place overall). Despite being a not even customized piece of paper, I still had to wait over 2 hours for the awards to start. The food consisted of only oranges/bananas/beer where in past years they've had a BBQ. The volunteers seemed very disorganized and knew very little about the race. My family has done this race the past few years, and it seems like the organization is on a downhill slide.