High Cliff Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

For the second race in a row, I had virtually no nerves at all about the swim. This is shocking considering I thought about not doing any more tris at this race last year (I did the sprint) because of water freak outs. I have put those fears to bed completely. But still I was surprised that I felt So calm before this swim. Calm yes, fast not at all. This time does not surprise me, because it is right about where I am in training (tiny bit faster). I even drafted a little bit, until I realized that the person was even more slower than my pace. The course was very wide, so there wasn't much crowding, but I kept finding myself going too wide and trying to bring it back closer to the buoy. Once I rounded the last buoy, I tried to push my pace. Now that I have confirmed that I can do this distance without issue, I need to push the pace earlier. Oh yeah there was this green slime that was all over my body after this swim.

swim in a straight line. push harder earlier.

I took my time in transition, because I figured I was going to be on the bike a while I wanted to make sure I was set. I had a little problem getting the wet suit off. I also put on sun screen (the sun burn on my back tells me I missed a few spots) Lumbered out of transition.

Not much, this is slow, but I took my time on purpose and wanted to get the sun screen. (oh yeah I guess I would do better job of applying sunscreen)

Well this was a little slower than I wanted, but really went according to plan. I had two bottles of Perpeteum and one water bottle and lots of gels. I set my watch to go off every 10 minutes to remind me to take something (gels every 1/2 hour) By the time bike was done, I took 6 gels, 48 oz. of Perp. and about 36oz. of water. I also targeted a 140 hr and my avg was 141. So I was slower than I wanted to be, but that is just how it worked sticking to the plan. I felt good on this entire bike, I did pass some people. I was just having fun out there, I found myself singing quite a bit on the course. Yams had done a recon. of the course and reported that the course had lots of 'lumps' (the rest of us call those hills Rob) and so I could not get the song "My Humps" by the Black-eyed Peas out of my head. I hope no one was offended.

not too much. I need more base to be faster out there, but I am pleased I followed my plan to a T.

This is slower than I would like, it took about twice as long as a normal transition. However I put on another dose of sunscreen and put on my fuel belt.

Just get my rear moving faster, no real reason that this had to be this slow.

Ok so have you ever had a nightmare that came true? Little background. Last fall I suffered a IT band injury. I didn't run for two months. Well I went to PT and then slowly brought myself back. I have been running pain free for the most part for 5 months and I have had no issues at all, even on the 10+ mile runs in prep for this race. So when at mile 4 I felt that pain in the side of my knee that feels like someone is hammering a steel spike into your knee, I was blind sided. Through the next nine miles my emotions went through the gamet: denial, anger, grief, acceptance and then back to anger. This is a two loop course, so I could have cashed in at mile 6, but decided very quickly, that was not an option. I came up with a plan to run 6 minutes and walk 6 minutes and set my watch accordingly. That worked for a while, but found myself not making the full six minutes and then the run kept dwindling down to about two minutes. At about mile 9, I simply could not run any more and started walking. By about mile eleven, even walking was very painful. I was so mad at this point. I guess I was mostly mad at my body for letting me down. There were other BOP runners out there trying to encourage me. They just thought I was tired. Oddly their kind words made me madder. But I tried to keep a smile on my face and encourage back. Finally, I got to the finish line and, at the encouragement of the announcer, mustered a little shuffle across the line.

Not suffer a massive IT Band meltdown on the biggest race of my triathlon career

walked back to transition and talked a few minutes to Firstnet911, TriDDS and Kyle. All the food was pretty much gone.


Even on a good day, I would have been BOP, but the injury just plain sunk me.


Well I got my finisher's medal, but it feels empty because of the failure of my body. I am proud of my mental effort and the fact that I did not quit.