Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swim kinda sucked. I did a warm up swim to try to find the deeper water so I was not running for the first leg of the course. Turned out the swimable water was just to the left of the bouys. I stayed out there until the turn. The water was super choppy. It was almost like swimming in the ocean at low tide. I thought that I could ride the waves in on the last leg but that was not the case. There seemed to be an under current that pulled back before the wave hit. I got a small push then was pulled back. Not the best swim I have had.

I probably would try to draft more. I really need to get aggressive in the water and start throwing haymakers at anyone who comes near me. If I can do that and back people off of me I can probably get a fast start and then once I get passed by stronger swimmers I can just draft. Playing catch up just doesnt work all that well for drafting.

Decent transition. I think I moved a bit faster then normal, although I did have some sock trouble that kinda slowed me down a bit.

Not really sure what I can do different other then keep practicing my transitions to get the movements down better.

The ride was pretty good. I didnt think it was all that hilly. I tried to keep a pretty even pace so I wouldnt crap out near the end. The wind for the first 10-20 miles was pretty wicked. It definatly hurt my overall time. It did make for a real nice tailwind on the way back though. I was pretty good with nutrition. Once it started rainning people started taking less chances and slowing down. I dont mind the rain and am pretty confident in my handling ability so it didnt really bother me too much.

I would probably hit the infinit a bit more and maybe push on some of the hills a bit harder. It was easy to kinda get into a group and stay around the same guys and not really push things. I wish in the middle I pushed a bit harder when I had the wind. Maybe that would have made all the difference.

Pretty quick for me. I did slow for some water and took my time getting on my race belt.

I will pack along an extra pair of dry socks so I dont have to keep on the wet ones from the ride. I should have taken off the socks in transition and gotten all the stones and sand out before leaving for the run, then I would not have had to stop during the run....

Good run. There were some killer hills that really put a hurting on me but I felt real strong. I started off pretty slow at almost a 9m pace for the first mile. I decided to really try to pick it up try to keep a sub 8m pace for the rest of the run. The salt tabs were a huge help until the end when my calfs started cramping. My last mile must have been pretty close to a 9m or more pace. I really felt awesome until I hit that last mile marker. Not sure when it happend but at some point my foot really started bothering me. I thought it was a rock but it ended up being a pretty big blister just off the ball of my big toe.

New dry socks for the run and make sure all stones are out of the socks. 2 stops to clean off my feet and clean my socks is just not good. Took some momentum out of me on one of the climbs.

No real cooldown, just walked to the car and did some streching and laid down in the back of the car for a while to gather myself


Not being a good swimmer. I had a pretty good ride and a real good run but my swim just killed me. I have a feeling that swimming will be my downfall for many races to come.


This race is awesome. If I dont get into IMPL I will 100% do this race again next year. It was a fantastic even.