Oliver Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was very surprised with my swim time as I didn't start swimming till late April. My last swim prior to that was in Set. of 07
I think it helped that I found a couple of good drafts to follow. They weren't really any faster than I was but it did allow me to conserve energy.

I always take the winter off from swimming but usually start back at it in Feb. I think it would be a good idea to go back to that strategy.

T1 was very long. The first 50 meters was up a steep hill to the far end of transition. Then another 150 meters to my bike. Because of the weather I decided to put on a long sleeve cycling jersey which was a dog fight to get on while wet.

Not much. What slows me down is that the soles of my feet go numb during the swim which makes it impossible for me to run to the bike. I always put my shoes on before leaving T1 so running then is much better.

What can I say, riding in the rain just plain sucks. Luckily it stopped just before starting the second loop. I passed tons of people but unfortunately they were mostly women from the swim wave ahead of me.
Legs felt good till 1/2 way through the second lap then I started to worry about the run.

I knew I wasn't going to have a PB bike time because I just didn't put in the long rides necessary. Longest ride this year was only 75k and that was only a couple of times. Just gotta get more T.I.T.S

There was only one other bike on the rack when I came in so bike racking was quite easy.

I was really concerned if I would be able to run very well because my legs were toast coming off the bike. The run out of transition is up a long hill before it levels off.
Surprisingly my legs felt not too bad. I fell into a pace that felt comfortable. I knew i was cruising because I passing people left and right.
I had no idea how fast I was running till I hit the 10k mark at 45:20 Wow! I still felt good so I kept up the pace. That didn't last long. As I rounded a corner there was a slight up hill on the way to turn around. At the top of the hill both legs where the hams connect to the gluts cramped up. I stopped and stretched a bit then continued on at bit slower pace.
The second lap was a bit slower but still fast enough to continue passing people on a regular basis.


Don't know really. I've been running for so long I feel as if I have tried every approach possible to race day. I am very pleased with this run.

Not enough time on the bike or in the pool.


I went into this racing expecting a mediocre performance. I knew my bike mileage was down and I hadn't started swimming till late April.
I was very surprised with my overall time. The solid run I had allowed me to PR by ~5 mins. I am very happy with the results.

Was great to know that peeps from BT were racing here too. I didn't know them well enough to look for them in the race although I did see hazmaster on the run but that was about it.