Troika Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My goal was to do this in 35 minutes, based on my perceived fitness.

I didn't have time for any warmup, and I got very little arm stretching, so when the gun went off I got in the water for the first time. The buoys were difficult to see, but that's partly due to my crappy goggles that I insist on wearing. They're all scratched up, so there is a lot of glare from the sun. Anyway, the water was pretty clear, so I could see feet when I got close to them. For the first half I didn't really draft. Somehow I found myself all alone with people way to the right of me and way to the left. People that I thought would draft off of me decided to go elsewhere, but I don't think I was far off course. I almost missed a buoy about halfway through, because there is a decoy buoy used to mark the presence of a ski jump, so I was going for the wrong one. I corrected at the last minute, but I heard a lot of people cut the course, which explains my ranking :)

After about 400 meters my left arm went all crippled. My shoulder hurt super bad, like it was going to rip off or something, so I did the whole swim without being able to get any power out of my left arm. That's unfortunate, because it's my stronger arm. After the race I would realize that I can no longer lift that arm, so I probably injured myself pretty badly. The next day (when I'm wrote this report) I still couldn't extend my arm to a 90-degree angle with my body.

In the second half of the swim, people clumped together, so I started drafting. Because of all the energy I had to expend catching a draft and then avoiding crashing into the people around me, I probably went slower than I would have if I were all alone. Also, most of the drafts were slower than I would have liked, so my second half effort wasn't my best. I was surprised to see how close to my goal time I was.

Forget about drafting, because I can go pretty fast when I'm all alone. Drafting works well if the person goes just the right speed, but otherwise I think it's more trouble than it's worth.

Also, I should warm up, obviously.

As usual I squandered a good swim with a bad T1. When I stood up out of the water, my stomach hurt so I didn't run up to the bike racks. I sorta staggered there. My wetsuit came off like it was nothin', but I took a fair bit of time putting sunscreen on. After getting permanently uglified at Ironman Arizona by the sun I don't take chances with that anymore.

Maybe put on sunscreen before the swim and trust that it won't wash off.

The bike is generally my weakest leg, especially compared to the competition. My goal was to do 18.7 mph, because that would give me a 3-hour ride. I doubted that would happen, so I was thrilled with the result of this ride.

The beginning of the bike ride had a tailwind, which was nice. Over the first 10 miles, I averaged 19.2 mph, so I thought that was great. I was really wimping out on the first few hills too, because I was worried that I would wear myself out. I lost a lot of places in the first 10 miles, so I guess other riders were more sure of themselves than I was at the beginning.

After 10 miles we hit some flat spots, and just felt good so I kept my speed up around 20 mph. On the flats I settled into a good rhythm and other cyclists' positions became more stable. I got dropped from a group of cyclists in this section, and they built up a 500ish-meter lead on me.

When we hit the main chunk of hills (miles 15-35, I guess) I started moving up in the field. I always thought of myself as being fast on the flats but not very good on hills (because that's my running style), but apparently on the bike I'm a reasonably good climber (at least compared to the people I was riding with). I caught up with the group ahead of me and passed them after a couple of hills. While other people were standing to climb and breathing really hard, I decided to keep a little bit in the tank when climbing so that I could charge down the other side. Using that combo I was able to pass people (uphill) and then build a large gap (downhill) before they even knew what was happening. By the end of the hills (mile 35?) I had passed several groups of riders, there was a big peloton about 1/4 mile behind me, and I was in no man's land.

At this point I started to become aware that my legs were becoming sore. Particularly, I had been using my hamstrings a lot and I wanted to save them for the run. So I stopped attacking as aggressively from this point on. I picked off only stray riders that were having trouble. After a few miles the peloton caught me. A couple riders went cruising away, but most of them stayed in a little pack right around me. It was the front of the women's field (they started 5 minutes behind me). I spent the remainder of the race exchanging the lead with various members of this group. The only reason they didn't pass me was because the ones that were attacking were really bad at it. They sprinted to get past me, but then slowed down, so I just zipped around them again. It was a little annoying because they wound up drafting and blocking a lot (one person stayed by my shoulder for a full minute and a half before managing to get ahead of me), but the continuous passing and repassing made things interesting. Miles 50 onward were very hilly (and steeper than the earlier part) so I had an easy time staying with the group. With 2 or 3 miles to go, they all started pushing really hard and escaped me. I decided I should take it easy, let them go, and deal with them in the run. I was pretty worried about how well I would run off the bike, because my hamstrings were starting to cramp by now.

Nothin'. I killed my goal time.

This had the potential to be a fast transition, because they catch your bike. You throw all your stuff into a trash bag, put on your shoes, and away you go. Apparently I didn't understand the idea of a fast transition, so I took a little time trying to find a place to sit down to put my shoes on.

Nothing. I figure that a longer T2 makes me more rested for the run, so I make up the seconds. The same isn't true for T1, however.

I killed the run. My goal was 1:35, based on my open half marathon PR of 1:30. I thought it was an optimistic goal, but I managed to hit it almost dead-on. It was the 10th fastest run of the day, too.

To make my time, I needed to do 7:15 per mile. I came out of T2 pretty fast, and I did the first mile in 6:54. I didn't think that was good. Then the second mile was even faster: 6:49. I was still worried, but I decided that if I could do a few more fast miles then I would have a big buffer if I crashed later. So I tried to keep this pace.

I ran the first 7 miles pretty well (mile 7 was my fastest: 6:18). I passed lots of people, and mentally I was doing well. I was cheering on the other runners when I went by and all that junk. My hamstring cramping went away after a few minutes of running, but my legs felt like a ton of bricks. Luckily the course was flat, so I could keep them moving. It was very hot, and the race director kept stressing how important it would be to keep cool, and no one seemed to hear him...but, man, he was right. There were aid stations roughly every mile, and if I skipped one of them I really suffered until I could get to the next one. Luckily as soon as I drank some water I could be immediately rejuvenated, at least until the final miles.

I accidentally dropped my water at the aid station at mile 7 or 8, and that's when I started to go permanently downhill. Just keeping my feet moving was a real mental challenge. I stopped cheering people on because I had to concentrate very hard to keep from falling over. I was still passing people, and luckily no one had a chance of catching me even if I slowed down by a lot, but it became really hard to resist walking. At the mile 8 aid station I caught a bunch of people who slowed down to drink, but one guy wouldn't let me pass by. He sped up to stay ahead of me, which seemed unusual until I saw he was wearing a Seattle Running Company jersey (the mark of a true runner...or something). Sure enough, he was ready to battle the rest of the way in. I, however, was not ready. I spent a couple miles trying to get by him, but I couldn't seem to get closer than 5 feet behind him, and I was struggling from the heat the whole time. At aid stations I got sponges and water, but I still couldn't keep cool. By mile 10 my arms were getting all tingly (from dehydration, I assume) and I was getting a little confused. I was right on the edge of falling apart, so I decided to let this guy pace me in for the last few miles. I felt guilty that I couldn't challenge him, because I thought he would think I was intentionally making him do all the work. However, I think my presence right behind him actually made him run faster (he thanked me afterward for "pacing" him), so it worked out for everyone. He had one final surge at the 13-mile mark and ended up beating me by 10 seconds. I'm not sure if I could have gone so fast for the last part of the race without him pulling me through.

Because I decided not to challenge the guy ahead of me, I officially got passed by no one during the run. I moved from 93rd place to 40th over the course of the run, so I guess I passed 53 people.

Not skip aid stations. I also should have drunk more on the bike in preparation for the heat, but I didn't want to have to stop for a bathroom break. And don't get me started about the idea of peeing while riding...

My legs weighed about 500 pounds when I finished, and I couldn't really keep my balance. I tried pacing back and forth near the medical tent while drinking some sports drink, but most of the time I was hugging a lightpost, hanging on for dear life. I had this medical guy following me around because I looked really bad. I wound up drinking 7 cups before I was well enough to do anything, and it took me so long to get my composure (at least 10 minutes) that I decided a formal cool-down was unnecessary. I did some static stretching, but my hamstrings decided not to participate in that. They also gave me this awesome lunch, but I couldn't eat much of it because I guess my body stopped making saliva somewhere during the run.

About an hour after finishing, I went to the start line and swam around in the lake to cool off. It felt ridiculously cold.


A crappy shoulder during the swim, uncertainty during the bike, and the heat during the run. However, I hit all of my goals, so I don't regret not going faster.

I hydrated less than usual before the race, which might explain my problems with the heat.


This race was tricky for me, because I did it all by myself. The transitions are in different places, so the logistical side of things would be easier if I had a little support crew. Despite the complicated logistics, the race directors and volunteers made everything go smoothly. The scenery and varying terrain on the bike makes it fun (and fast). The run is a little boring, but everyone is in survival mode at that point, so I don't think anyone minds.

Oh yeah, I posted what I think is the bike route in the route manager in case anyone wants to look at it for next year.