Ford Ironman 70.3 Honu - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

A couple mistakes here. I was somewhat concerned about the swim so I started in the back of the pack. This caused 2 problems: When the swim started. I hit a wall of slower swimmer and had to navigate through them. Then I had trouble finding anyone to draft off of because I had to pass a bunch of people to get to the faster feet. I didn't catch a good draft until the final 500 meters.
My other mistake was I was too conservative. I swam most of the race at my cruise swim speed instead of race effort. I did this intentionally because it was my first HIM, but the last stretch, when I did push a little, I felt really good.

Start in the middle of the pack. I'm a better swimmer than I thought I was going to be in OW. My only comparisons have been to my training partners, who are veterans at this sort of thing. I probably could have saved a couple minutes by just starting further in front.

Fair transition.

Learn how to do that shoes on the bike thing.

I love the bike. I went from #636 to #269 overall on the bike. And I think I passed most of the people going up to Hawi. I had a perma-smile the whole way and talked to a bunch of people on the course. The scenary was beautiful as always.
I was surprised to find that I average 19 mph going up to Hawi. I thought that since the head winds where so strong there'd be an equally stron tailing coming back. No such luck. Cross winds hit and I couldn't pick up as much speed as I would have liked. Normally I up my average for the ride by about 2mph on the second half, but as you can see I picked up only 1mph today.
On a seperate note seeing Macca come flying down the hill was amazing. I heard this whirring sound when all the pros came flying by and thought I wish I could make that sound. Well, I came as close as I could w/ non disc wheels today. Did I mention that I like the bike. I've only been training on the bike for about 4 1/2 months now. My first group ride of 45 miles, my avg pace was 15.8 mph. I think I can get faster w/ time. I hope I can get faster w/ time.

Well. I taped baggies of endurolytes and gels to my top tube, but the wind was so strong that by mile 7, they were hanging off the side of my tube. I had to pull them off and since they were taped the gel opened and I had to eat it.
Also. 1/3 of the way up to Hawi a guy comes up behind me and says "your right water bottle is going to fall off your bike soon!" (I use a hydrotail). Then he says for the past mile it slipped out of the bottom of the cage and was rubbing against my rear wheel. I smiled, thanked him and said that I could use this as an excuse for not going faster on the bike. Like, maybe I would have been 5mph faster if it wasn't for that darn gatorade bottle! We chatted for a while, then I picked up speed and kept spinning for Hawi.

Stuck my foot in my shoe and found a gel in the tip.

I meant to grab a gatorade bottle off my bike and run w/ it, filling only when necessary. However, 2 miles out for T2 my bottle ejects and I am force to hydrate only at aid stations. It must have seemed pretty funny to people that my watch notified me every 5 minutes to drink, but I didn't have anything to drink.
I held back too much on the run. The course was difficult, but I could have pushed harder. I think my final mile was 8:40 or so. Too late. But once again, first time and now I know what to expect. My goal was to average less than 9:45 and I did. Fair enough.
Off the bike my legs didn't feel strong, but 2 miles in I felt like a runner again. Funny thing is my first couple miles was done at a faster pace. I slowed up after that.
On a positive note, I didn't walk at all. I even kept it to a shuffle through aid stations.

Not be afraid to push.

Smiled, thanked everyone. Caught up w/ friends and rehydrated. After about 30 minutes of so, I picked up my bike and rode it 2 miles to the event parking lot.


Mainly inexperience.


Great day of racing. My first HIM. I have doing a sub 5:45 HIM as a long term goal...I almost did that on my first try. I think I need to readjust. Long term goal........maybe sub 5:20. We'll make it a multi year project.
Ammended w/ the official results:
Okay, I was 63/87 in my ag on the swim. I was 44 of 87 on the run. And 19th fastest on the bike for my ag. I need to work on swimming and running!