Musselman Half -Iron Triathon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I know this course was long. It had to be. My swim was good except for the moments when we had to sight directly into the sun and couldn't see the bouys. Actually, I though the triangle was too smooshed and kept confusing which bouy I was looking at, but anyway, the course was long. I finished several minutes later than I should have, but right on target with my typical place in the field. I checked the swim of a woman I know to be sub 1:20/100 and her average was 1:31, so I know it was long. Doesn't matter, I had a pretty good swim, probably should put more effort in, but I get lazy (just like swim pratice years ago...)

you should really do some harder swim workouts and stop relying on the fact that you have good technique

The end of the swim was really a wade through some mucky water and then a run through sand, grass and pavement before getting to the mat, that part, although it counts in my swim time, was not as quick as I would like, but the rest went well. I got my shoes on quickly, ate a gel, and generally had no issues.

I said all spring that I had to hit 18mph to break 6 hours and I did it. I didn't fight the wind, pushed it when I had a tailwind and finished all my water, heed and gel. The first hour I averaged a slow 17.4, the second hour I averaged a much better 20, and then dropped again in the third hour to 17 or so. I'm very happy, but still can't wait for a new bike that doesn't weigh 24 pounds. My quads were on fire at the end, but I felt like I was within myself. Having done the course several times in the last 8 weeks certainly helped.

My legs were pretty well cooked when I got to the dismount line and I was very concerned for the run when I discovered I was unable to run the bike into transition. I walked, slowly and calmly, racked, put my shoes on, grabbed my number, struggled trying to jam some gel in my pocket and ran out. I RAN out, yippee! And I was 5th in my age group for transition, so I guess the walking didn't hurt.

I felt great through 6 miles and then had a stomach issue crop up; the thought of more gel or heed made me feel sick, so I decided to stick to water and suck it up. I've run enough marathons that 6 miles of running on your guts alone was within my boundaries. Then the mile markers just disappeared. I started to get nervous about my pace, and was trying to conserve some energy by walking the big hills and then running fairly hard. I drank and grabbed a sponge at each aid station and just gutted the last miles out. with 2 miles to go, I really thought I might not break 6 hours, mostly because the mile markers had returned, but were not placed very well. I anticipated at 2 hour half and that's what I did.

I've been nursing a hamstring injury all spring and did a marathon on it in May, so never did any hard running training for this, just plain putting in miles. I think if I weren't injured in May and had done some harder runs I could get this easily down to 1:50.

I crossed the finish and promptly plopped my ass into an ice tub. Lots of folks were just standing there in the tub, but one guy was sitting, so I walked over to him, said I'm sitting with you, and plopped. So good....

10 minutes later I was drinking Genny Cream Ales with my buddy Jake and laying in the shade expressing that this may have been the hardest thing I've ever done, I'm never going to do it again, until next time.


honestly, the only complaint was the mile markers. The roads aren't closed and it was windy so I suppose that has something to do with it. There were 600 volunteers and 630 participants. 11 aid stations on the run all with water and heed and most with flat coke, clif bloks, hammer gel, sponges, bananas and kids with hoses. I would do it again and highly recommend it