SOMA Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The swim out was horrible because I could not see anything. However, my pace was nice and steady. I guess I could have pushed it more, but since this was my 1st 1/2 IM, I wanted to come out of the swim nice and fresh. I felt 100% great after the swim, so I guess that mission was accomplished. The actual swimming was fine.

Different goggles. Even though I had the non-fog drops, the drops dried out before I actually put the goggles on, so they ended up fogging big time. That added with the swim into the sunrise for the 1st half sucked. I stopped at least three times on the swim out and one time had to ask the kayak dude which bouy I had to go around, to which he responded "that one over there" which was way in back of me, so I had to swim way back around. Bleh

I just took my time on this. Now that I look back at other people's transition times, I realize I could have cut a few more minutes off my total race if I had been more "hardcore" about the transitions. But hey--it's the virgin experience and I wanted to take my time. Heh.

Go faster. Maybe skip the wetsuit stripper, the guy I got was kind of clueless, I think I might have been just as fast doing it myself. But maybe not. I guess eventually when I get all serious, I could learn to get in my shoes on the bike, however, this course was not really great for that since there were metal construction plates on the ground you had to go over right away (which would be hard to do while strapping into shoes).

I really tried to focus on getting food and calories into the body during the bike so I wouldn't bonk on the run. Worked pretty good! I think I went the right speed/intensity/etc. I probably could have gone faster, but again, since it was the 1st 1/2 IM, I didn't want to regret hammering later on the run. My right aero support came loose on the second loop and was totally useless on the third. Sucked, but I managed.

Get a new bike--the one I have is just barely hanging in there. Components are old and slowly falling apart. Aero bars are always annoying. Wheels are old.... just an old bike (I bought it very well used, though it is a great quality bike).

I took this slow again. Took some time to drink some eFuel, rinse myself with some fresh water, towel off, spray on sunscreen, adjust my shoes... just took my time.

Uhhhh, take less time. I definitely could have done this transition much faster.

I cramped up bad on the second lap. I was averaging under 10 min/mile for the first lap, and just bit it big time for #2. I was getting on the verge of charlie horses in my groin (both sides) and the quads (right above the knee on the inside). The groin cramping was the worst--strange... don't know if it was from the biking or what. Then again, I never ran more than about 6 miles in training, so uh, yeah, maybe that's my problem! The second lap was so slow, it really brought my heart rate down.... while my muscles were "failing" my cardio vascular fitness was totally fine. When I crossed the finish, I wanted a few Advil, and the medic had to take my blood pressure in order to give me the medicine. My BP, RIGHT AFTER CROSSING THE FINISH, was below normal. I asked him, "is this normal?" and he said no. So I think that basically, from a cardio point of view, the last lap of the 1/2 mary was a warm down.

Train a bit more seriously for the run. Also, get more salt into the body for the run. Also, get more liquid into the body. They didn't give out water bottles to drink from, just cups. I like being able to sip as I run... so next time if they aren't giving out bottles, then I'll need to bring a Fuel Belt.

Not much (I know, bad)... walked around waiting for friends to finish, took pictures, walked more.


Experience (i.e. maybe being too cautious, taking too much time in transition) and a crappy run due to cramping.


I really had a great time doing this race. There are definitely TONS of stuff for me to work on for the next race. However, I had fun, and the race itself wasn't too painful (the cramping was frustrating), and I'm stoked for the NEXT ONE! :)