Auburn "World's Toughest Half" Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim course was long. I'm guessing about 500 meters. The course was diamond shaped and shared the same course as the olympic distance, but they moved the first buoy further out for the Half. At least that's what we were told. I felt great going around the first two buoy's, but it took forever getting to the third. I was swimming with the same couple of people since the turn at the first buoy, so I figured if I was slowing down, we all were. We finally made it to the third buoy and began our return to the start, but again it seemed to take forever.

This is a very challenging bike course. You start climbing right out of T1. Rural roads for the first 6-7 miles and then a 2-3 mile stretch through neighborhoods where you climb a hill over two blocks, make a sharp turn and then descend for 1-2 blocks, and repeat. We came back through this section at the very end of the bike course.

I think I paced myself very well. I was passed by a lot of people over the first 15 miles, but passed most of them from mile 25 - 50. I took in ~980 calories (2 bottles of malto/nuun mix w/ ~490 calories per bottle). I also drank water, but in hindsight I don't think I drank near enough. Temps were in the upper 80's to mid 90's on the bike.

Drink more water. I probably could have taken in another 200 calories.

I left T2 with a very hot 400 calorie bottle of malto/nuun and a very cold bottle of water they handed me as I started the run. I drank water at every aid station. 1-2 cups. Soaked myself in water at every aid station, but I was still very hot.

My HR was peaking at 188-189 at times. Three times I got very dizzy and just had to stop and let the world stop spinning. Twice I was within 100 yards of an aid station when I got dizzy and I wasn't sure I as going to make it. There were other times where I felt fine and was running well. Unfortunately the bad times seemed to outnumber the good.

I drank my 400 calories and took in another ~220 in gels. I probably should have gotten another two gels in me. I also took ~8 lava salts.

Drank a lot of water. Had two smoothies. Drank more water. Drank a bottle of gleukos sports drink.


Lack of heat acclimation.
I suck.
Dehydration - I went close to 11 hours without going to the bathroom. I peed about 30 minutes before the race and then again about 3.5 hours after the race despite drinking a ton of water after the race.


My Ironhead teammate, Jason Kurian, took 1st in the 30-34 AG and 7th overall.

19% of the field DNF'd.