Route 66 Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon

Water was warm but wore wetsuit anyway. Most of my training in open water this year has been in a wetsuit and figured I wouldn't be competing for awards anyway. Water was extremely choppy due to incoming storm. Caught several mouthfuls of water but never got nervous or anxious. Felt like waves pushed me off course several times.

Need better swim technique and efficiency. Feel like I was so much better of a swimmer last year. Feel like I have lost my technique and some speed from last year. Need to work over the wintertime on getting that back and strengthening my kick which is non existent.

Don't remember much of T1 except I know I took my time. Peeled off wetsuit. put on socks and shoes. Put tri top on. Had trouble getting aero helmet buckled. Put on chamois butter. Everything I wanted to do.

Speed things up. May swim next time wearing my tri top so I don't have to put it on in transition.

Felt like I had a strong bike going up until mile 38-40. Started to rain around mile 12 and rained pretty hard for awhile but felt pretty good considering the humidity. Also noticed a pain in my left knee but that seemed to subside pretty quickly. Grabbed a water bottle around mile 35 and the water tasted awesome. Realized at this point that I was probably dehydrated with the humidity and had only been using infinit. Really started to fall apart around mile 45. By the end of the bike felt horrible and exhausted. Things seemed to fall apart really quickly.

Where do I start...more solid nutrition on the bike. More water and less liquid nutrition. Probably don't need to push the bike to an 18 mph average or else I wont have a chance at a solid run.

Came off the bike feeling tired and sore. Could barely walk from the pain in the outside of my left foot. Felt spent and was facing a half marathon. Was still a bit overcast at this point but was extremely humid. Felt so horrible that I was actually considering turning in my chip and calling it a day but went out on the run course anyway.

What can I say? This was absolutely the toughest half marathon I have ever had to get thru. The first 4 miles my left foot was killing me. Every time I would attempt to run my stomach felt upset. The first mile and ran/walked in 10:30 and actually felt like I might be ok. From then on it became mostly a walk and by the time I hit mile 3 it was a complete walk with no hope of running. Met up with Tony Kerr around mile 1.5 I believe and he walked with me for awhile. I was so spent at that point I couldn't even keep up his walk pace. At the mile 11 aid station I remember stopping and getting an ice cold towel for my head and neck and remember putting my hands on my knees and almost blacking out. By mile 12 I was no longer really walking it was more like a stumble. I came across the Lindsay bridge and could see the finish line but still could not muster up enough energy to run. Finally the last 100 yards I was able to jog and barely jogged across the finish line simply because I have never walked across a finish line.

Probably should have stopped after the bike. Foolish pride took over along with stupidity.

After stumbling across the finish line I headed into the beach house in the cool down area and slumped down in a chair. Must have looked like death because I had several volunteers ask if I was ok or if they could get me anything. After sitting for a bit got up and walked back across the street and loaded my stuff from transition.


Several excuses. Weather, nutrition, lack of a clear purpose for actually doing the race, pushed too hard too early.


Race course, venue, organization and everything associated with race was great. This was my worst performance since Pigman. Several factors played into this but bottom line was that I didn't have a great pre race plan and I didn't execute any type of a plan. Really need to refocus and get ready for Pigman in 3 weeks.