South Carolina Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My normal slow a$$ swim. But not bad considering I had no warmup. Kept my breathing under control. Counted strokes between sightings to occupy myself. Seen all the buoys and only made one navigation error when I mistook a yellow kayak for a turn buoy.

Swim faster.

Jumped on my bike and was impaled by the new seat. Gooch trauma due to extreme high nose angle on seat. Immediately dismounted. Got out the multi-tool and removed seat and began to adjust seat. Got the nose angle about right but the seat was too high and too far forward. Starting catching up to folks by mile 10. By mile 20 had passed a bunch and by mile 30 was looking good. At mile 40 the wheels came off...not the bike, but mine. Pushing too hard on the hills and not hydrating properly had taken a toll on me. I couldn't stand it any longer and decided to make another seat adjustment. When I got off the bike I couldn't believe how warm it had gotten. I was sweating profusely the whole time I was working on the bike. I made the fix at a water stop and drank a bottle of water while I was there. After I resumed my ride I could never regain the momentum. I lost a lot of ground those last 15 miles.

Not be a dummy and have the bike right before race time.

Felt bad coming off the bike. Quads were killing me.

Ran the first 3 1/2 miles before the cramps got bad. By mile 7 I was done. All this turkey needed was a fork and some cranberry sauce. Cramps got pretty bad and I was relegated to this sort of Frankenstein walk. Had to stop a lot and "unlock my legs. Drank a lot of water and took a lot of enduralytes but couldn't recover. Had to walk the remainder.

Carefully hydrate while on the bike. Also was overdressed. Had an underarmor shirt on under my jersey. Ditched the underarmor at mile 7 along with extra gels, sweat towel, and spare dry socks. Inspiration made me finish. All the good juju from this site plus all the cheers from the atheletes who had finished and were leaving. It kept you going.

Crossed finish line and was led into the med tent. 3 liters of IV fluids and a quart of gatorade and finally I had to pee. So I got my finish medal and a needle in each arm. Doc's and nurses were great. Walked back to transition. Got my gear and headed back to camp.


Dehydration.


Great race. My buddy crashed a mile into the bike portion and wound up in the hospital. A local lady won her age group. Two other friends had top 30 finishes.
Props to the old dude ranger who came by and checked on me that night after the race. He had seen me in the med tent and came to check to see if I was OK. He also came by this morning as I was striking camp to make sure I didn't croak during the night.
Thanks to all my peeps who sent the good juju that carried me to the finish. My time and lpacement sucked but the experience is priceless.