Beach to Battleship HIM - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Signature part of B2B, right here. Swimming with the tide, on a day with no chop = fast time. No fooling, you'd see the next buoy way off in the distance, a little red dot on the horizon, next thing you know you're flying past it. Had plenty of open water, got a chance to draft a for a bit, not too much sun glare - All the things that could make for a challenging swim were absent. My only gripe is the need for more buoys to navigate by..There was a long stretch where all there was to go by was the shoreline..If anything, I cut the course short but I really wasn't sure where I was going for a while there.

Swim time includes about fifty yards of running to the mat and wetsuit stripping - My watch said swim was more like 28:30.

Easiest swim ever..Could have been faster still with some more navigational help but let's not forget the tide - Borderline cheating? Ha! Every course is different..

It was LONG run to T1 in numb feet..I took a moment to get into the arm warmers/socks/garbage bag I wanted to wear until I dried off so not blazing fast transition but good enough.

Could have been a little smoother, sure..

So, I had a flat coming out of T1. I had noticed bike tech support near transition, so I ran my bike over to the two guys manning the SAG truck and they got the tube changed in 3-4 mins, plus the time it took getting to them. Total time lost: Maybe 5mins..For maybe ten seconds I was Normann Stadler at Kona in '05, cursing in German and all. After I unclenched my tiny balled fists of fury - O'why me, race gods, why me? - I took off and did my best to make up time.

Uneventful ride from there on out, excepting a chase pack that reeled me around the 20th mile..This group may not have been drafting each other in the strictest sense but no way there was 3lengths of separation. I got one look at this crowd, stood up on the pedals and sprinted my way clear..

O'evil chase pack: Thou shalt not swallow me..Begone!

I picked folks off one at a time thereafter, except for one young fellow who dropped me with 5 or so miles to go..I saw him again about a mile before the finish on the run.

Fastest split in AG, even with the tire - I was definitely ready to ride and next year I'll try and do even better.

Find some way to appease the seemingly capricious god of tire inflation.."You Looking at me?! You lookin' at Me?!"

A bit of T2 comedy on this day, folks. Bag wasn't where I was looking..Why? Because I was looking by the wrong rack, that's why. Tom Hanks spiel in Castaway about the 'sin of wasting time' makes me reflect on the bitter irony of my time in T2 on this day.

Not be such a cranky alltom1..I mean it. Snarling surliness is no way make friends.

Anyhoo, I felt ok coming out of transition..Couple of bridges to run over and it was mostly flat from there..I had a stitch in my side that didn't let up for a few miles but legs felt pretty fresh. I started to bonk once but some GU took care of that..Started drinking a little Coke around the halfway point: No stomach problems/No leg cramps..Let's play 2!

I picked off a few folks, had some others pass me, only one from my AG that I could tell. Fastest run I've had in a 1/2IM by nearly 15mins and 3rd in AG.

It's no blazing fast run time but I think I left it all out on the course, Saturday.

Well, this event was the bookend to my season which started with IMAZ in April..I raced all summer long, mostly sprints, probably peaked a month or so earlier and the last few weeks of training, esp biking, got to be a little bit of a chore.

Based on current fitness levels, I think my time was about right. I can definitely get faster on the run, though and that'll be a big focus for 2009.


Some thoughts:

The course is perfect and the race organizers really knocked themselves out to make the debut a success. Mission accomplished. The point to point nature of the event clearly made for a logistical headache and they'll have to work that out, hopefully before next year, because I am planning to come back and do it again. A few more buoys on the swim, another aid station on the bike, and some more water taxis and they'll have a stone classic event.