Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

REALLY, REALLY need to swim, and swim some more!!! Got legs cramps around 1/2 mark, and further on. I was tired, cramping, and needed assistance to pull off the wetsuit and get my legs massaged. The medical support team were great.
My arms felt great, though, during the swim.
Locate my tinted goggles next time and wear them, since my non-tinted Speedos were fogging up and couldn't see at times from the sun glear.
The 2 lady lifeguards were adorable and nice. They asked if I wanted to rest next to them when they saw me struggling between the 1/2 to 3/4 mark. I had to decline and keep moving.

GET MORE SWIM TIME IN!!!!

The sand walk out of the water to transition opening was not fun due to my legs cramping. I took my time to let my body get oxygen and get my HR down.
Double-checked everything before getting out.
I felt quite lonely and uneasy when I looked around and saw only a handful of bikes left.
I really was quite p.o.ed that my Garmin wouldn't stay on even though I charged the thing beforehand and didn't have it on prior to the race.

Work on getting time cut by at least 1/2.

1st hill is when you just get out of the transition area. There were a couple of hills that one needed to gear down on, but nothing bad, IMHO.
The course was fast. There were a couple of county roads that were quite bumpy (but I'm used to riding those), and didn't help when I felt like I had to pee.

Push the bike a little harder. Figure out the Garmin beforehand to make sure it would work.

Move a little quicker, but I was a gentleman and didn't want to knock over or bump into the girl that I was a second behind on the dismount area.

Cut the time in 1/2.

Walked up the hill, and took my sweet time on the first lap. 2nd lap I picked up the pace quite a bit and received a lot of good comments on how fresh I still looked.

Pick up the pace a little after the 1st mile instead of the 1st lap.

Walked around and stretched a little. Had ice packs applied and taped on my quads for about 30 minutes or so.


The swim!!!! (and doing more longer training).


The volunteers and spectators were great. If anything, I would never recommend the swim portion (let alone a 1/2 Tri) to any newbie - I'm just quite lucky that I have some natural ability.
A couple of other participants were very nice and offered some wisdom which helped.
Plenty of water, Infinit, salt tablets, etc. at the "stops", with very helpful crews.

A great race!