Pigman Triathlon - Long Course - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

After first 200, moved to the outside and swam in clear for the most part. Very pleased with the decision as the punching, grabbing, swimming over made it tough to get a rythm even with the TT start.
Sighting was good, but I definately swim very diagonally and was constantly changing direction.

since the water was 77 (79 the day before) and a shallow lake and I overheat easily I decided to swim in the bottoms of my De Soto wetsuit (T1 Speedtube). This was a great decision for me as I came out not overheated, but still gave me hip flotation and speed. The De Soto system rocks as it gives you the choice to mix and match sizes and types of suits for all conditions and is easy on and off. I would highly recommend this for anyone.

Swim went well and I was pleased. Based upon my training limitations and the skipped swim workouts, I felt I didn't really miss them that much. I will try to get comfortable with bilateral breathing which might straighten me out a bit.

Even though I practiced transitions, I purposely took my time to catch my breath and be methodical. I was still surprised by how slow it was. I had never done a real transition in my life and actually walked part of the way from the swim to transition area which probably cost me a minute.

I would love to know how to get this to a reasonable time. I was totally surprised how slow it was, maybe a little bit more of a sense of urgency.

I started out feeling good but looked at my heart rate after 4 miles or so and discovered I was at LT, so I backed off and went by heart rate. I stayed seated in in lower gears for all the hills. In the last 10 miles I started to feel a little fatigued and decided to back off a little more knowing the bike was done and the run laid ahead.
I was surprised how slow it was, but adjusting for my lack of hill training and the difficulty of the course, I was right where my training suggested I would be.

TITS I bought my road bike this spring and need severe TITS to get better. I am still getting comforatable to being aero for extended period of time and due to the hills, didn't want to stay aero while pushing up many of the hills.

Slow again, I just need to pick up pace. I forgot my number belt and wanted to turn around after exiting transition. I thought it was required but found out it wasnt as long as my body was marked. This cost me another couple of minutes. Still felt real good

Remember my belt.

This is where it fell apart. The whole bike I was pushing a Gu every half hour and drinking 90% Powerade and the rest water with plenty of it. I didnt feel hot and went out well. My first two miles were around 10 minutes each and my heart rate was fine. Still, I felt a little fatigued and made a decision to walk the aid stations. I have never walked aid stations in the marathons I have done, but I figured what the heck. I slowed down an little and was going about 11 min miles and felt great. Turned around and then started to get excited that I was going to finish.
All of a sudden at mile 8 aid station out of nowhere I felt dizzy, nauseous and disoriented, almost like hung over. My heart rate as in LT zone 2-3, but my breathing was fast and shallow. I couldn't make sense of it but kep walking. There was no way I was going to DNF at mile 8 of the run and kept walking as painful as it was. I was frustrated and my legs felt great and wanted to run. I slammed a ton of water at the aid station 9 and kept going. It was one of the toughest things I have ever done. At mile 10 the symptons let up a bit and I would jog a 100 yards at a time. There is a big hill on this mile, so I decided to walk it and then start running if I could. I ran the last 2 miles at about 10 minute pace and although very tired, I could have kept running if I needed to. There is a long thead about this at http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...
but the short of it is I think a combination
1)My inexperience about what it takes to do a HIM
2)Lack of bicycle conditioning
3)Difficult bike course
4)Hear with no shade
5)Lack of drinking water to digest the Gus
combined to account for this.

Lots more water, better attention to my nutrition. I paid a lot of attention to nutrition in training and increased my Gu from every 40 to every 30 minutes just to make sure, but I foolishly didnt drink water to process it.

Laid with family and enjoyed my first triathlon.


First of all, this was my first triathlon. I am foolish, but also had planned for a sprint and Oly earlier this year, but life happens and both got scrubbed for various reasons. I decided to go ahead anyways with the HIM and really enjoyed it.
The people in Iowa are very special. The race was well run and although corn fields are not the most exciting scenery, the park and lake are beautiful. You can tell the RD really wants to put on an event people enjoy and I was impressed.
I enjoyed the race so much except miles 8-11 and would consider doing it again next year if my wife allows.
Finally, this place (BT) rocks, it really is a friendly one-stop place for triathletes and I am glad that I found it.