Ironman 70.3 Raleigh - Triathlon

Did a quick warm-up before the swim. Went well and wasn't all too nervous waiting to start.

Started at the back and let the group go for a bit, but caught up as soon as I started to swim. Ended up getting caught behind a bunch of folks in the middle so angled wide to find some open water. Got paused behind a few more groups on the way out, but found mostly open water and was able to get into a rhythm.

It seemed a little longer to the first buoy than I thought, but kept wide around the turn and had space for the across leg. I was trying to concentrate on stroke (head down and good rotation), but it got a little choppy on that length and since I breath left I had to rotate further than normal to get a clean breath. Threw my stroke off a bit, but no issues otherwise.

I tried to get on a couple of feet as swimmers were going by, but by this point I was passing people in my wave and the ones coming from behind were the fastest in the following waves, so wasn't able to hold anyone for long.

Last turn was fine and tried to keep a good pace and strong pulls coming in. Overall my technique was probably better at Reston the week before, but the swim was pretty uneventful. Only issues were expected stuff around finding space, one breath full of water, and getting bumped around a bit. Did fine w/ all of that though and didn't have any mental issues on the swim.

Would like to have swum faster though.. Need to figure out what is still keeping my swim relatively slow. I know the start lost me 2 or 3 minutes, but still think I could go faster.

Not start at the back. I ended up in top half of the swim but started out dead last. Need to start wide but closer to the front so that I can find more open water and maybe even get on someone's feet.

took my time, said hi to Amanda, wasn't trying to move all that quickly

could have been faster, but at that point wasn't necessarily doing the race for best time so kept it pretty relaxed

Wasn't sure how I was going to pace the bike (or race) going in. Had done 185w in simulation, but legs were pretty tired after. I was thinking keeping around 180w for the race, but also knew I ride better w/ some variability than I do trying to keep a perfectly even pace thoughout which just seems to wear on my more for some reason. I also tend to recover pretty quickly from harder efforts, so wasn't entirely sure how i'd pace for the ride.

Coming out of T1 there was a big pack on the hill and not wanting to get caught behind all of them or get into drafting trouble I decided to hit it a little harder to get clear of the crowd. By the time I got clear of the hill and crowd I had a NP of around 210 and decided to just east in to 195 or so and see how I did.

Ride was good through half way point and I kept to around 195w NP. Drank a full 32oz bottle by the 2nd water stop and was mostly on track w/ nutrition. Plan was 2 honeywaffles (320 cal), one each during first hour, plus an EFS concentrate bottle w/ 600 calories that I would split over the ride.

Second half I think I lost concentration for a bit and lost some wattage, but was still feeling good and ended w/ 189w NP. The wattage seemed fine for a half and I probably could have gone a bit harder to maintain first half wattage throughout.

Nutrition seemed good, but looking back I didn't drink much in the second half of the ride. I think part of it was I had to pee about a third of the way through and wasn't able to go on the bike and so held out to T2. I wasn't drinking much though on the way there.

Definitely drink more. VI was 1.033, which seemed fine for a half. Will try to limit this a bit more for the full.

wasn't rushing it too much. stopped to pee on the way out of transition

went out of T2 behind Trey and used him to pace for the first half of the first lap, but fell off a bit when we hit the hills. Felt good through most of the first loop, but the lack of water on the bike started catching up w/ me by the end of the lap.

Second lap was a bit rougher. Pace fell off until mile 10 when i picked it up a bit for the finish. Paces by quarter: 7:59, 8:13, 9:25, 8:10.

Nutrition wise I took in 120 or so calories w/ some Chomps, plus some Coke on the 2nd lap. Probably could have used a bit more, but I don't think nutrition was as much of an issue as the lack of keeping my hydration on the bike. I did stop at the water stops and drink a bit at each, but I probably drank a gallon and a half after the race before I even had to think about peeing again.. was definitely dehydrated.

Drink more on the bike. Even w/ being dehydrated I finished pretty strong and could have kept that pace throughout if I didn't get myself into a hole. I also think i'll try a gel bottle next long race to make sure I get in my nutrition too.

None.. finished and drank non-stop for the next hour and a half. Felt pretty wiped out for an hour or so.


got behind on hydration for run. On swim started too far back and got held up a lot on our leg.


This was my first 'normal' Half and I enjoyed the course and race overall. Saw a lot of teammates on the course too which was nice.