2007 Toyota Challenge - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

It wasn't an overly crowded swim, but was probably the most physical swims I've done in terms of catching a random foot/hand to the face. In the 1st lap I found myself off course a couple times, but corrected my sighting by the 2nd lap. This was the 3rd race I've done with a 1.2 mile swim and this was easily my best time.


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Fairly smooth transitions this race. Having a race suit that can be worn under my wetsuit really speeds things up. Getting a jersey on a wet body is tough.

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At Steelhead I really felt like I started out on the bike way too hard and held a pace/HR higher than I should have. I was very careful to keep my HR at the appropriate level on this race and not get caught up in what other people were doing. The wind seemed to get increasly worse with each lap, plus you could start to feel the heat by the 3rd lap.

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This was another smooth transition for me considering I took the time to put on my arch brace which probably took as long as putting on my shoes.

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I ran the 1st lap very conservatively, keeping the HR low. I walked through all of the aid stations taking some combo of either water and/or gatorade at each station. It was definitely getting hot, but I didn't think it was going to much of a problem other than just being uncomfortable. I made the turn to head out on the 2nd lap and was feeling very good so I decided to pick up the pace a little, but still keeping things fairly easy. When I hit the 1st aid station, I again took one cup of water and 1 cup of gatorade. After drinking the gatorade and half the water, with the other half going on my head, I started running again and almost instantly started feeling nauseated. I walked it off for another 20-30 seconds and took off feeling fine. That was a precursor of things to come and that pattern of drinking and being nauseated continued at each aid station, but the ill feelings were lingering longer and longer each time. Somewhere between the 10-11 mile mark I realized that things were basically over for me. It was all I could do to keep from vomitting, although in hindsite I might have felt better if I would have let it go. Plus both of my calves were cramping. I walked the rest of the way in. I tried to run the final stretch, but I could even go the last 50 or so yards doing anything but a walk without my calves completly tensing up. Anna was at the finish to take pictures and saw that I was having trouble with cramps, but didn't realize that there was any thing issues beyond that.

After the finish I sat down and tried to drink some water and I couldn't even get it down. I had Anna locate the medical tent were I spent the next 90 minutes with an IV and oxygen.

I felt that I started the day out well hydrated, but I probably needed more fluids on the bike course to help compensate for the heat. I went through 3 full bottles on the bike and took a couple cup of fluids from each station along the run, but both my body and my race suit were completely covered in salt, so I know that I lost tons of sweat and electrolytes.

Overall Avg. HR 144


Hydration! Although ever since my hamstring injury last winter, I haven't been satisfied with my running endurance or speed. I really need to to focus more on my running as that is definitely my weakest link at this point in time.


This is the 2nd HFP race that I've done. They seem to be well run events. This race did get off to a bit of a late start, but only by about 10 or 15 minutes, so it really wasn't much of an issue. I would definitely do the race, but hopefully with cooler weather!