EnduraSport Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Felt good on the swim and found some people my speed to draft off a few times (so didn't help me go faster, but I was able to ease up in sections without losing speed). We swam straight out from shore, then turned "up wind" on the lake resulting in some chop. But the diagonal back to the start was then down wind which made it faster and a bit nicer to finish that way.

In hindsight, it appears my HR was too high for the effort level though. It's quite possible that even though the water temp was OK, the hot & humid air was already dehydrating me. When I stood up to get out of the water, I felt more "drained" than usual. Especially considering how I felt while I was swimming.

Maybe not wear the wetsuit.

Walked up the short hill out of the water and stepped to the side to get out of my wetsuit. Then barely jogged to my spot. Went smoothly for the most part but, again in hindsight, I think I was already "out of sorts".

Maybe sit down and rest for a couple minutes and try to drink some fluids right then. Hadn't really hit me yet though.

Course starts with a steep climb out to the main roads. Knew my HR was really high (typical in T1 though), so made sure to take it easy on the way up. Once on the main loop, I began to try to settle into something a little below goal watts to allow my HR to come down. Began drinking too. However, after about 10-15min it was clear this was not going to work. My HR was still very high and, unlike most times when this happens, it actually seemed to jive with my breathing and RPE. So I tried to ease up a bit more, but my HR still only came down a few beats.

About 30min or so into the ride and I shut it down. I tried to ride very easy, get my HR down some and hope things might improve later in the ride. But my legs felt like they were working hard too. I was riding watts below LP and my legs felt tired. It was crazy.

I drank 6 bottles on the bike (nearly 128oz), but it still probably wasn't enough.

Maybe slow down more or just pull over and rest for a few minutes. Not sure about this.

Took my time in T2. Had picked up an extra bottle on the way in (so #7 now) and stopped to drink some of it.

Stop longer? Drink even more? Probably didn't matter by this stage.

Knew I was toast already, so I just set out at a jog hoping I could keep that up for awhile. But I started walking in the 3rd mile. There was plenty of walking the rest of the way, though I would try to jog whenever there was a downhill to at least take advantage of that. Finally worked a little harder toward the end when I realized I was going to be close enough to 6 hours that I should try to break it.

Not much. Could have pushed a little harder, but didn't really feel the need to prove anything to myself at that stage.

Headed into the lake to cool-down. Then got some food (didn't really feel like eating much, but wanted to get something in me) and drink (cold Coke was good) before driving home.


Heat, allergies/cold that hit me in the days before the race, poor training lead-in due to vacation, post-IM fatigue,...

Basically, I think it may have been a lot of little things that just compounded one another--with the heat & humidity probably being the topper. The net was that there was just no way I was going to perform to the level I had in my head on the day. Still wonder what things I could have done differently to get closer to that level though. Any suggestions?


Good course. Good organization. Good post-race goodies. Tough day. I'll be back at some point to try to get some revenge on this course.