Lake Stevens 70.3 Triathlon World Qualifier - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started out near the front, wasn't too worried about getting beat up, after about 50 meters I noticed they had a cord set up which followed the buoys the whole course. Sweet, followed the cord the whole way. Got kind of stuck between packs again so missed out on some opportunities to get in any good drafting.

Probably could have pushed harder on the swim, but I knew what the bike course was like so I wanted to save some energy.

Need to learn to have shoes attached to bike, I may practice that through the summer.

Not much, I am more worried about cutting time on the bike than in transition!!!!

Jumped on my bike with a goal to push hard on the flats, spin up the hills, and coast on the downhills. Having this be my 3rd Half iron in 6 weeks I was a little worried that I would not be able to have a good ride as the previous weeks training was pretty bad. I was pretty wrong, I got out and felt pretty good right away, started pushing some hard gears and was holding a good pace. I was determined to nail my nutrition today so I had set times in my head where I would take in nutrition no matter what. Worked out pretty well. I ended up getting passed by a few people who were just killing the course, but I wasn't worried about it and stuck to my plan. Finished the first lap in 1:29:38 and felt pretty confident I could repeat that on the second lap. Got passed by some more people who were drafting bigtime at least 7 people in a straight line. Brutal, this pissed me off enought that I wanted to say something to them (or throw a water bottle at the lead rider!!!) but decided against that course of action and figured I would catch them on the run anyway. After that group I just settled into a good pace and hammered the last 5 km's into transition.

Throw the water bottle at the drafters!!! Just kidding, I was pretty happy with my ride, cycling is my weakness(somehow swimming has become my strength, I don't know how that happened) so I was very happy with that time over a tough course.

Ran in, took a few extra seconds to get mentally ready, took off.

Need to get elastic laces for shoes!!!

Ran out reasonably hard, trying to settle into a pace that was tough but sustainable, passed a ton of people in the first three miles of the run, and was making good time, even better I must have nailed my nutrition as my stomach was not giving me difficulties for the first time this year. As I was heading out towards the turnaround for the first lap I saw my buddy who was racing as a pro for the first time and he looked strong and his time was good so I was super pumped seeing that he would have a good day. Hit the second lap and the heat really started to sap my energy, ended up walking for a minute at about the 13km mark but then picked it up again and just made sure to walk the aid staions and get enough fluids as the heat was rough on me. As I hit the hill with about 2 miles to go, I caught a couple of the guys who were drafting and blew by them(Felt like saying why draft if you can't run, but didn't want to act like a tool) Cruised the last 2 miles to the finish and crossed the line not with my best time ever, but very satisfied with my effort on the day.

I'm not sure. This was the only race I have done that did not have coke. I should have tried to find out about that. I love coke on the run, what can I say. Probably could have taken in some gels but I didn't want to mess around too mcuh as my stomach has been iffy.

Crossed the line, found my girlfriend and hung out under a tre in the shade with some pizza and cookies.


I gave the race a 3 for a few reasons. The race expo sucked bigtime. For an Ironman sponsored event it was terrible. They only had 2 booths and that was it. Other than that I enjoyed the race, dissapointed they didn't have coke on the run, but it is a race worth doing. I will probably do this again next year.