White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I'm pretty happy with my swim, having reached the ladder in 34:18. On the "away from" and "return to" the dock legs of the triangle, I had a hard time staying on a straight line, but the middle leg was one of my best straight line, open-water swims yet.

I'd have picked my pace up a bit more in the middle of the swim and I'd have stayed on a better line. I might have added as much as a tenth of a mile to my swim by going so sideways.

I had a good run from the water into the transition area, passing a few people along the way. I had the top part of my suit off before I was in the transition area, and except for thinking I'd dropped my goggles (turns out they were on my head) that part went smoothly. I had a hard time getting my wetsuit off my lower legs and feet, though. What do I expect for not practicing that?

Remember sooner to stand on my wetsuit with one foot while I pull it off the other.

My favorite part of this race was the first hour on the bike. I went 21mi in that hour, seemingly effortlessly. The second hour was pretty good, too...~20mi at that point, but then I found that maybe I'd been working too hard. I started slowing down, thinking to myself that 18mph wasn't bad, after all that's what I was targeting and I was already ahead of that. Then 17...well, hey, I'm still ahead of my pace overall. 16mph. Sure that's fine. 15mph. That's slow. I hurt. The last 5mi or so were the worst cycling miles I've had all year. I've never been happier to get off my bike than I was at the dismount line. All things considered, though, my pace was faster than my targeted 18.6mph, so I'm happy with the ride. There's probably a less painful way to do that average speed, though.

Start out a little slower. If I'd let my first two hours be more like 20mph, maybe the 3rd hour would have been a bit smoother.

This was easily the low point of my race. I've never had T2 be slower than T1, so that makes this a first. I racked my bike and tried to undo my cycling shoes (I don't leave them on the pedals)...and I couldn't reach any further than my knees. My hamstrings were so tight that my legs wouldn't bend, so I took off my helmet first, then my cycling gloves, then took care of my tri belt with run number on it. I had a sip of water, then with nothing else to do, I tried again to get my hands near my feet. No dice. I could have sat down, but I didn't think I'd get up again so I leaned heavily on my racked bike and slowly went down to one knee, changed that shoe, then stood all the way back up (still leaning on the bike) then went back down to change the other shoe. Finally finished with those tasks, I shuffled out of T2. My left hamstring was so tight I couldn't take a half-stride, let alone a full one.

Nothing...that was the best I could do, given how I felt coming off the bike.

The first mile was painful and slow. I was targeting 9min/mi for the whole run portion, but the first mile was probably around 10min. My legs just wouldn't work right, and it took a while for them to settle in. Happily, the second mile was ~8:20, so I was then close to my target pace. Up 'till mile 9 or 10, I was feeling really good, and imagining that I might have a time more like 1:45, but after that I started to tank. My legs were tired, I was getting a tingling feeling along my neck and the back of my head, and in mile 11 my forearms started to cramp. If it had been any hotter, I probably would have had real problems running the whole way to the finish, since I couldn't get enough water from the aid stations, but as it was, I finished without walking. Final pace was 9:24s, and I'm satisfied with that.

More bodyglide under my arms! The lack of that in that particular place killed my mechanics for the last 3mi.

Just stayed on my feet for an hour while I ate and drank.


The poorly managed bike leg. I'll have to ride more and learn to hold back a bit earlier.


Setup did a great job with this race, with a well-marked course and good support along the way. I think the volunteers were great! They worked hard to get us our drinks and food, and they were very encouraging.