Mooseman Triathlon Festival - Half Iron Distance - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Anyone who knows me knows that what I am about to say is very rare and this could be a first: I am happy with my swim. In fact, it was the best leg of the race for me! On Saturday I went for a quick swim in my sleeveless wetsuit and made the decision to wear it on Sunday for the race. Yeah, my arms were kinda cold but I have a much better range of motion with a sleeveless.
The swim start was pretty violent. People all around me, clawing at me, pushing my legs down, etc. Good practice for LP. I started to lose my cool but then I just focused on breathing and moving forward and eventually it got better. It was very weird swimming near other people for the entire time. I'm usually all by myself!
I had to stop twice to let water out of my goggles but other than that I was truckin along nicely. I got out of the water feeling good.

Nothing

Had a sip of water, got stripped by a pair of boys, and headed for my rack. I like to be efficient in transition but I don't rush all that much. I dried my feet, put on my socks, shoes, sweat band, sunglasses, and jogged out the chute.

Nothing

I felt good heading out on the bike, I was still nice and cool, but I had to pee pretty badly. I was looking for a good tree when I came upon the first run aid station and it had a porto. Score! Felt much better after that. Last year on the bike I was absolutely dead, but this year I had energy and it is much easier hitting the early hills with energy. Devils Hill was no match for a compact and a 12-27. I got up it no problem, no weaving back and forth across the road. The one problem I did have was shifting back into my big ring. My bike has this quirk where it doesn't want to shift back into the big ring for the first time on a ride. I have to keep changing gears until I find one it likes and then it will shift rings. Usually it's only a problem the first time I shift back up but this gave me trouble the whole ride. From what I have read it seems to be a known problem with my bike model. I need to bring it in to be looked at.
This year I finally broke down and bought an Aerodrink and today was my first time actually using it. Am I glad I had that! I took a water bottle at every aid station and filled the Aerodrink and I just sipped water like crazy. It was starting to get really hot so I knew I needed to stay hydrated.
There is a particular section of the course, when you take a right out of town and start a series of long, gradual climbs. That was by far the hottest section. It's wide open and the sun just beats down. Ugh. That's when I started thinking about how much the run was going to suck.
Overall this went pretty well.

I probably should have backed it off a little, especially in the heat. I may have also drank too much because my stomach was sloshing water when I started the run.

The chute was crowded with people who wanted to walk their bikes into T2, and I wanted to jog, so this was a little annoying. I finally got around them and got to my rack, hung up the bike, helmet off, bike shoes off, sneakers on, visor on, Fuel Belt on, sunscreen on, and off I went.

nothing

I started out ok. I ran a 9:15 first mile and I thought "ok, slow it down a little" but then I didn't need to tell myself to slow down, I just did. After mile 1 I got a side stitch, much like last year. Crap. So I slowed to a shuffle and tried to work through it, and by the turnaround of lap 1 it did.start to go away. By then I was really feeling the heat and I had nothin goin up hills. I walked the hills. I hated to do it, but I had to. I ate and drank everything I saw. Coke, pretzels, water, orange slices. I kept 2 sponges in my top and re-soaked them every chance I got. Some of the residents along the course set up their own little aid stations and they were spraying people with hoses and squirt guns and providing buckets of water to wet our sponges in. Very nice.
About a mile into the 2nd loop this guy started running with me and we chatted to pass the time. It turns out he is doing LP this year too so we talked about that and other stuff. It made the 2nd loop go by much faster. Many thanks to my new friend Ed!
We ran the last mile in around 10 mins so I finished strong even if the rest of my run wasn't very good. Oh well.

I think I did the best I could have today.

Felt like crap. And then had a very long walk back to the car with a bike that had a flat tire and a bag that weighed about 30lbs. Drove back to the cottage, ate a snack, then C and I went for a swim in the lake to cool off. Packed up the car and headed out.


The heat.


This is a very organized and well-supported race. Lots of volunteers, plenty to eat and drink out on the course, plenty of cops and marshalls, mile makers, arrows, plenty of portos in the transition area (very rare) and on the course, cool Moose goodies.