Niagara Falls Barrelman Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon

This could have been a fast swim, but it was too crowded. I got bumped, swam over, knocked around, and punched in the head. I did my best to just swim through it all, but I was slowed mostly by traffic in front of me and I am not comfortable or confident enough to push my way through. It seemed like everybody stopped at the turns too. It was a mess. I felt good when I was able to find some room, but I was disappointed when I saw my Garmin time upon exiting the water. I was hoping to be around 35 minutes. My swim placement was the best I've had yet in a triathlon though. It's nice to be top third in my AG instead of bringing up the rear. I've worked hard on my swim.

Not much I could do.

Kind of long run through transition, across the bottom of the stands, up the stairs, through transition. Plus we had to put all our swim stuff into a bag for transport to the finish. Not my fastest or smoothest transition with all the fumbling around, but I kept it moving.

Go faster.

The bike ride was only slightly less crowded as the swim. I stuck to the watts my coach told me to stick to. The course was completely flat. 21 mph never felt easier and I was passing a lot of people. I stayed right on top of my nutrition. I do all of my riding on hills, and the constant flat pedaling in this race started to wear me out. My watts and heart rate started to slide after 40 miles and I did not fight to keep them up. I also felt the heat coming on fast. I came upon a lot of bike traffic the last 10 miles and I could not avoid coasting behind packs of other riders. The course was 2.5 miles short due to some late construction, and I was happy this was cut short. I wanted off the bike. Still my fastest HIM bike by a LOT.

I could have benefited from some long constant spin sessions on the trainer, rather than the ups and downs that I usually ride. I am getting nitpicky though. 21 mph is 21 mph.

In one end of transition and out the other. No problem finding my rack and I was happy to see my gear bag made it. A little time wasted having to empty my bag and sort through my stuff.

Nothing.

85 degrees with a heat index in the 90's. This run was pure misery. The run usually bails me out, but this one was total survival mode the entire time. I knew early on that I was in trouble. I never walk in my races, but I walked plenty in this one. I didn't even bother trying to run the uphills. This is the first time I've ever run/walked a race (I was doing 5:1). It's not like I crashed and burned, but it was more of a very slow but steady 13 miles. I know a lot of people were hurting because I was still passing people and didn't get passed a lot. It was nice seeing DW run by in the the direction as I was starting lap two. I was stopping at the aid stations to get multiple cups of water plus ice. I choked down three gels but could not eat my last one. On a positive note, it was a very neat course and I enjoyed the scenery despite my suffering. This was a rare race for me in that I didn't care about my pace or finish time...just finishing was satisfying enough.

Not race in the heat? Not much I could do. 2:06 run is the slowest HM I've done out of 35 or so HM/HIM runs. I did what I could. I've done one Ironman and my run pace was faster in that one. My run placement was still top 25%, amazingly enough. I could do this run 30 minutes faster if the weather was only average.

A finish line volunteer poured two bottles of water over my head. I thank him for that. Then I stood under a large fountain of cold water for a few minutes. That was beautiful. Then I waited for DW to finish.


The heat. OMG the heat. This was the hottest race I've done. I went into this race thinking I had a real shot at going sub-5:00 with room to spare, but the heat just ruined me.


This has all the making of a very fast PR course if the weather cooperated. The event is well organized but with the increased field size they need to make some adjustments to thin out the crowds on the swim and bike. The aid stations ran out of ice after I finished, and while that did not affect me, it affected members of my crew who really could have used ice on the second loop of the run. The swag is nice (medal, shirt, finishers hat) and the F2C booth with recovery drinks at the finish expo was much appreciated. Overall this was a good event and I'd do it again if not for the eight hour drive.