High Cliff Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swim was very shallow and even after starting to swim I got up and did a couple of dolphin dives as I kept hitting my arms on the bottom even though I was pulling right along my body. After that I just kept swimming and tried to get into a rythm. Had a guy that was doing about the same pace that I stayed with most of the swim and drafted off of him when I could. I haven't done any swims with chop like yesterday, so that was something that I wasn't ready for and had to get used to. Despite that inexperience I felt like the swim was going OK, but nothing special. Rounded the last bouy and had the sun in my eyes, so I was trying to figure out where to go. It hit me at that point that I remembered reading TriDDS's RR from last year and him saying that jmwebs had told him to look for the goalpost trees. I did the same and upon finding them just locked on and swam straight towards them. Got to the point where my hands hit the bottom and stood up and started running. About half way to shore my right hamstring cramped really bad and I struggled to work it out. I should have swum a little farther but oh well. Exited the water and the cramp hit again on the run up to T1.

Swim a little more coming up to the beach and do some more OWS with larger waves.

Hammy cramped up again something fierce as I was putting on my helmet and trying to get out of there quickly. Had to stop and and put pressure on it to get it to release. Said hi to my wife and parents and headed out. Didn't do the flying mount as there were a lot of people standing around trying to get on, so I just got going normally.

Not have a cramp.

Winds were out of the north, so it was fun going out as it seemed mostly downhill going out as well. Hills were not that bad IMHO except for the mountain that you have to climb to get out of the park. Started on my nutrition which consisted of Perp on the 15's and gel on the 30's, changed this up after 1 hour as I think I was taking in too much and my stomach told me to stop, so I cut back back on the gels and cut back a little on the Perp. Hit the Endurolytes hard after my cramp at the end of the swim and kept hitting them up throughout the day. Took in 4 gels and 1.5 bottle of Perp that were mixed for 1.5 hours each, and 3 aero bottles of water. Plan seemed to work until I hit the last aid station and dropped not one, but two bottles water on the pass so ended up riding the last 4-5 miles with no water, which sucked.

Not drop water bottles. Readjust my nutrition as I didn't need what I thought I did.

This was better than T1 as I didn't have the cramping issues. Could have gone faster, but I wanted to make sure I had everything for the run. Said hi to my wife and parents again and headed out for the run.

Not much.

This was the part I was worried the most about going into this. Started out with the urge to pee and stopped into what I thought was a bathroom and it turned out to be a shower, so I said screw it and headed out to run. Ran most of the first hill and only walked on it for about 15 seconds to get some Endurolytes in. Turned onto the trail and was happy to see it was through the woods so we had shade. Felt really good and thought to myself let's just run and see what happens. HR was in the low 160's for most of the run which turned out to be just fine. I even averaged in the 8's for 1 or 2 miles which made me happy. I haven't done any trail running to speak of, so that was new to me, but I really enjoyed most of it except running on some horse trails which were a bit uneven. I would have to say that was the only part that bugged me was the uneven footing as it put some strain on me feet that I wasn't used to and have 2 blisters to show for it. Had 3 Fuel Belt bottle of water on and 1 of GE which I went through most of. Used the aid station water mostly to dump on my head and drank a little each time. I really felt 1000% better on the run than I thought I was going to and ran the whole first lap and all but maybe 1 minute or so of the second lap. Jszat passed me around mile 5 or so and had a couple seconds to chat before he took off. I was running around 8:19 and that point and he took off looking strong. Chatted with a couple of other runners and really tried to just stay positive and run my run. Caught up with firstnet911 after I started my 2nd lap and he was starting his first and ran with him for a little while and then ran on. Saw scoobysdad a couple of times on the run and said hi and he said I was looking good, I felt good almost the whole way until aroun mile 10-11 and by that time I was starting to hurt and was ready to be done. Saw a group of donks that were chearing after their sprint race as I made the final turn down the big hill and I got a little choked up with emotion knowing that I was almost done. This hurt as it made the HR jump and I started having some breathing issues, but just kept pushing. Got to the bottom and saw the finish line and just ran as hard as I could to get across the line and almost freaked out when I saw my time.

Not much at all, REALLY happy with this run as it was only 6 or 7 minutes slower than my only other Half-Mary and that was a standalone.

Had some trouble breathing at the end so I walked it off and ate some food which really helped. Gave my mom, dad, and wife a hug and talked to the other donks and just tried to cool down.


Experience, this was my first, so I had no idea what to expect and I am thrilled with the results. I think if I keep working on my running and my biking I think I could get closer to 5 hours. I have only been doing tri's for less than a year now, so I am extatic with this result.


I had a blast. The support from my family, the donks, and everyone in attendance was great. I really want to thank firstnet911, amyjotris, maggyruth, peterAK and his wife Laurie for helping me try to stay calm the day before. I was sort of a wreck mentally on Saturday as I really wanted to perform well but didn't know what I had in me. I really want to thank my wife Danielle for putting up with me and helping me get through this. My goal was 5:45 and secretly I always wanted to do under 5:30, but didn't think I had it in me. I am amazed that I did 5:20 and cannot wait to do Steelhead to try and better this result.