American Triple-T Ohio - Race #4: Little Smokies Half Iron - Triathlon

My best swim of the weekend. This went very well. I suspect it was a touch short but I'm taking it. I felt remarkably good for this. I was able to swim in a group. Navigating was good. Overall very satisfied with this swim.

WTH was I doing in here. I put on a lot of clothes, more than yesterday and did not regret the extra clothing. For some reason I struggled a little to get all of the stuff on. I was happy when I got out on the course and was not frozen solid.

Faster.

This was a combo of the yesterday's two courses. It was hard and hilly but pretty great.

not sure why this took so long.

This trail, as I pointed out before, is way hard. But, at this point, you know exactly what you are in for. The first loop is survival. Going out on the second loop was pretty dismal but as I got to the turn around I had a wave of "I'm feeling awesome" wash over me and I decided that I was going to finish this darn thing as fast as I could. Did the 0.63 mile climb back up to the high point of the course at 8:00 pace or better, which is saying something because it is steep. When I got to the 2.62 miles of down hill I decided to let it fly. Got under 7:00 pace and did all I could to keep it there. Passed a lot of people in the last two miles. Just wanted to finish stong and I think I did.

food. warm clothes. some socializing but I had a five hour drive ahead of me so I packed up and got going pretty quickly


This race weekend is one of my best overally experiences in triathlon. Really fun. Really well organized. Nice grass roots, non corporate feel. This really is a must do race. Not sure if my wife will let me come back next year :) but if she does then I will be racing this again.

If you are wondering whether you should do this or not, the answer is yes.

Writing this almost a month later, I have seen a nice little fitness boost from doing this as an early season race.

Seriously. Sign up and do this race.