Harvest Moon Long Course Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I think the air temp was in the low 40s at the start...water temp was around 60. Normally I will swim 100 yards or so before the start but I just didn't feel like it. Jumped in the water just before the gun went off. I did go under the water just to be sure my goggles were sealed but didn't swim at all. I started pretty much behind everyone. The first 100 meters I was freezing my ass off and i think I was having trouble breathing. I stopped for a minute and looked around and got my breathing under control. I never felt I was pushing hard on the swim. I just wanted to get through it with no issues. I never really did warm up...the water was cold! When I got to the shore I was very dizzy...kept falling to the left whenever I tried to stand up. Eventually hobbled out of the water and to the transition.

warm up to get acclimated to the water before the start.

yea, my transitions suck. I was still dizzy when I made it to the TZ and sat down, took in some powerbar and water. As always, the suit was stuck on my ankles and had some issues there. It was cold and I decided to ride with wool socks and arm warmers so I put those on as well.

I just need to practice if I am going to get any faster at transitions.

felt pretty good for this ride from start to finish. passed lots of riders and I was only passed by 2...and I later caught and passed both of them. It's nice passing people but because I was in one of the last waves and my swim time is so slow all the fast guys were in front of me. I tend to push the bike more when ridders are passing me as I will try to catch them. I had a powerbar and 2-gels on the bike. Overall I am happy with my bike.

I think I could have pushed this a lttle harder but knowing I had 13 miles to run...I held back some.

I kind of took my time here too. I didn't want to run in the wool socks so I changed socks and even put vaseline on my feet. I thought I had another gel in my backpack but couldn't find it.

I need to have a plan going in to the transition.

I started out holding back...I just wanted to get my legs in run mode and not worry about my pace for the first couple miles. I had to make a quick pitstop early in the run but other than that I ran the entire time...even through the aid stations. I was just running steady the and told myself that I would pick up the pace the 2nd half of the run. Well, I got to the turnaround and I don't know why but I just didn't pick it up at all. For a minute i did manage to pick it up some and get my HR over 140 but I soon found myself going back to my comfort zone. Just could never really hit the higher zones for some reason. The last couple miles I felt were the hardest as there were some pretty good hills and I just didn't hit them as hard as I would have liked to. As I was finishing my wife and kids were waiting for me to finish. This brought a big smile to my face! My 6-year old son ran with me for about the final 50 yards or so. He said because he beat me to the finish that he should get my finisher's medal! :)

I kind of feel mixed about the run. First this is the slowest 1/2 marathon I have ever run. But then again, my goal was just to run consistant and be under 9-minute miles. Well, I just did that so I should feel good about the effort. But looking at my heart rate this was no more than a Z2 training run...I should have hit it harder. For some reason I couldn't make myself push the higher zones.

Hung out with my family and some friends. Had some much needed food and hung out for the prize drawing for the Zip wheels...I didn't win. :(


Take a couple minutes off of my transitions and push the bike and run just slightly harder I'm pretty certain that I would have been under 530. I didn't mention this in the RR but sometime during my ride I stopped my watch. I did restart it and figured it had been off for about 30-minutes. But I never really knew for sure what my time was. But actually, up until I crossed the finish I thought I was under 530. Overall I'm happy with how things turned out.


this was a good race. Darren and his wife do a great job getting this together and the post race food is better than average in my opinion. If I do another 1/2 IM next year it will most likely be this one.