Troika Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

When the horn sounded (boy was it loud!) I waded in near the back and started swimming. The water felt good, my goggles weren't leaking, and I was very relaxed. As I swam, I realized that even with the borrowed lube I had apparently missed the place that I was trying to get, as I was getting some chafing under both arms. I was in a small crowd for the first two legs, then it thinned out a bit on the way back, but I never was alone in the lake. I felt like I swam pretty straight, and sighted about every four strokes. I felt pretty good the whole swim, but noticed my shoulder getting a little sore and my arms being a bit tired on the last leg. I did swim over a little school of fish on my way back in - they were down in the weeds where I never looked last year if I could help it. It was a good indicator of how much more comfortable I am in the water this year.

Remember to lube my arms! Otherwise nothing, I was very happy with my performance, it felt a lot better than last year, but I only cut one minute off my time after a whole year of drills...just confirmed that I'm not getting any faster. Well, I guess I will be doing some more speedwork over the next year. Good swim.

Ran/walked up the hill to my bike while taking off cap and goggles and the top half of my wetsuit. The rest came off pretty easy, but one heel was a little bit stuck. I really like my new timing chip band - it stayed on and didn't have any flappy bits (I have plenty of my own flappy bits, I don't need any more!) - I hardly noticed it compared to my old one. It's a keeper. I wore my lucky PMS socks for this ride since it was a longie, and they went on pretty easy, as did my shoes. The gloves were a bit of a struggle, but not too bad, helmet and glasses fine. I jogged to the mount line, clipped one foot in and started off. I had remembered to put my bike in an easy gear but the clipped-in foot wasn't clipped in after all...I struggled for a bit with both feet out of the pedals, but finally got them clipped in and was ready to ride.

Learn how to get my feet in the pedals faster. I mostly can do it when I'm just riding, and I actually practiced doing my second foot on my last ride, but I just don't have it down yet. I feel like such a goober when I'm struggling along like that.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was a long ride and to take it easy. Very soon after leaving T1 I heard the ice cream bike bell and racinmason went blasting by...as usual. :) It's really cool to race with my brother, but he sure seems to catch me easily on his bike!

I struggled a bit in the early miles - I wasn't comfortable on my seat (the incredible shrinking seat syndrome) and I got this weird cramp that I can't figure out. It is the same one as in my other races - right at the top of my leg in the back, that makes my whole leg feel kind of achy and weak. I felt like I was working too hard and had to keep reminding myself to relax and slow down. I had a bunch of little aches and pains during this time...I know, whine whine whine. it was just not very comfortable and I was a bit worried about 3+ hours like that. It got better. I passed one lady during this time who said "you don't LOOK 41!" as I went by. I took that to mean I looked younger (maybe I looked like I was in my 80's!) but she made my day. The ride finally came together and I had a very nice and moderate effort through the middle miles, even up the hills. About mile 45 I started sitting up to climb the hills. Partway through I realized I had forgotten something else - to sunscreen my lower back where my top rides up. I remembered in time to avoid much of a burn.

The last 15 miles or so were the best part of the ride for me. It started with a long fast downhill where I passed several people I'd been following for miles. The last miles were the strongest for me and I had to continually remind myself to slow down. I felt like riding hard here.

All through the ride I sipped my 4-hour-bottle of Perpetuem/HEED mix every 15 minutes, and tried to sip water every five minutes or so. At points I felt some stomach pains and eased off the nutrition a bit, but was worried about having enough fuel for the rest of the day, so I kept sipping. I felt plenty hydrated on the bike.

This was a fun ride, and I came off the bike feeling a little stiff but darn good.

Sunscreen my lower back. Figure out how to pull things together earlier in the ride - those first few miles were rough.

This was great! I rode into the transition area toward four or five guys standing in the way. (At the race meeting they talked about this - "they said there were big guys, you WILL stop" - funny) They all pointed towards one guy, so I rode toward him, he grabbed my bike by the handlbars and held it while I got off. Leg and back spasmed a bit going over the seat - ouch! Another guy held an open bag for my helmet, shoes, socks, and gloves. I jogged over toward the benches, where yet another volunteer handed me my run bag as I sat down and started getting ready. She tried to help but there wasn't much to do.

I had noticed some wheezy breathing during the last hills on the bike, so the first thing I did was to use my inhaler. My fresh socks went on easily, as did my shoes. I changed my glasses to the ones that are more comfortable (after all, I'm gonna be out there awhile). I took my hat and number belt with me to put on while I was moving. The memory theme continues as I forgot to lube up my toes. I looked in my bag, saw the lube, and simply didn't think about it even though that's why I put it in there. Took my final inhaler hit and was ready to go.

Nothing. I'd like to be faster, but the fact that I'm running a half-marathon which is longer than my longest training runs dictates (for me) a certain amount of preparation.

I feel good about my run. I ran the majority of the time and even though I was hot and kind of tired, I felt surprisingly good.

I bypassed the water at the transition but did stop at the POP. While I thought I drank enough on my bike, I realized after I passed the water that I felt like I was starting the run a little low. It took the first few miles to catch up. At the first station I got a cup of water but was still thirsty when I left it so I figured I'd better start taking in a bit more at the next. I drank a bit more from then on, and only had too much at the third station, which meant I walked a bit longer than I'd planned, but it soaked in pretty quick and I felt a lot better. I alternated a half-pack of HammerGel and HEED at most of the alternate stations, and took water at all the stations. It's amazing what a difference fueling correctly can make. :) I had to avail myself of the vaseline at the first station for the chafing under my arms (and while I was laughing about having to put vaseline there, the lady holding it said that was where everyone was putting it) so I couldn't open my gel at the next station with my slippery hands...I had to ask for help - how embarassing. It was hot and I didn't sweat as much as normal all through the run, but I did feel pretty good. I also got fresh ice-water sponges at each station. I had to stuff them down my shirt while I was managing the drinking and gels and stuff (which I'm sure was very attractive), but as soon as I could I put them under the shoulder straps of my top - felt like it was cooling the blood going to my brain. :) I even got a scoop of ice in my hat a couple of times. It was so cold it hurt where the ice touched my skin, but well worth it.

I'm not sure how I did it, but shortly after the turnaround I managed to soak the tops of both shoes. I could feel it soaking through my socks and around my feet, and pretty soon my socks and shoes were wet and squishy. Ugh. That was when I remembered that I hadn't lubed up my toes at T2. Duh. Even with all that, I didn't get any blisters...hooray!

As I was running along one stretch, I saw a spectator up ahead under a tree who looked familiar...it was my DAD! What a great surprise that was! (I have a really cool family!)

I finally caught my brother just after the 9 mile marker and we stayed together for a bit - that was a very welcome distraction.

The last couple of miles were the hardest mentally. I could feel that I was tired but knew I was so close. I started figuring out how long I'd been out there, and really hoping my family had come early since I was ahead of my best case estimate. Luckily for me, they had and there they were when I turned the corner. The two younger girls ran up the final hill with me - that was a great way to finish!

Overall I was very happy with my run. I think my running pace was similar to my long training runs which is a bit of a surprise after swimming and biking, although the total pace was brought down a bit by the walk breaks.



Not bypass the water at T2 and not soak my shoes.

Milled around a bit with the family and club, stretched (only a little, but some is better than none). While I was bent over stretching, I heard one of my daughters ask her dad in a quiet voice, "Is Mommy ok?" So cute! Watched racinmason's finish, milled around some more, took a little walk and was finally ready for my MASSAGE! That was the best thing EVER! I felt so much better when I got up off the table than when I layed down...wow! Drank a bottle of Recoverite, then walked what seemed like several miles to pick up my bike and stuff. After that, I picked up the yummy post-race meal - some fruit, a yummy cookie, a wonderful turkey and cheese sandwich on my favorite Great Harvest bread (although they were running out of turkey so I got - I kid you not - a 1/2" by 2" slice of turkey on my sandwich!) Major thanks to RM for sharing - he must have looked hungrier than me! :)

Sat and ate and watched the other finishers. Waited for the last finisher (who looked great but had battled serious GI issues the whole run - boy is she ever tough!) then packed up and came home.


Hmmm, training and extra weight. :) I didn't have enough bike miles this year - I didn't start serious base building early enough this year and struggled to fit in the few miles that I DID get. Even so, I took 13 minutes off my bike time. I did manage to keep my run volume up through the spring, which really showed this year. I took 22 minutes off last year's run time and felt better throughout the run. I know I could go faster if I carried less weight...we'll see what next year brings. (7:23 last year, 6:47 this year...)


This was a fun race! The event is very well organized and the volunteers did a great job. They had enough water stations on the run this year (twice as many as last year) and were sponsored by HammerNutrition, which conveniently is the fuel I prefer and train with so they were stocked with all the stuff I would have otherwise carried with me. :)

They allowed one earbud for music on the run this year. I can understand people not wanting to wear music when they race, but I enjoyed having some tunes with me. I hope they continue this.

Every year there seems to be a worry about whether the lake will be cool enough for wetsuits, but the two years I've been there they were allowed. If you swim in the lake for practice, go early in the morning - the lake smells horrible later in the afternoon. I was in it a few weeks ago and was quite worried about having to swim in it again, but it was fine on race morning.

I hope to be back next year.