Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Ok, so I had an AWFUL swim. I am enjoying the fact that in each event I learn new things. In this particular event, I learned that I don't really enjoy swimming in really choppy water. I was fine on the first leg but, once I rounded the bouy, I must have just plain forgotten to site often enough. By the time I looked up I was WAY outside of the lane and exhausted. MY stomach was pretty bad, my goggles were too tight and I was beginning to feel awful. I didn't panic but, definitely experienced that awful sense of dread that I might DNF. Well, thank goodness for kayaks. I was able to flag one down and hang out for a few minutes to regain some hope. My stomach calmed down a bit and I took off again. I ended up using the end of 2 more kayaks before finally getting in. My wife was on shore and said that I pretty much looked like death warmed over when I finally came into transition.

Not sure. I have to think about whether it was the food or the chop. I another half at the end of August and will do a bit of testing different strategies between now and then.

SLOW!!! I think that I just needed to regain some sense of land legs again. There were two folks in my area that had DNF'd and I can definitely understand why.
-The previous poster mentioned that the racks were short for a tall bike. Mine is a 63cm frame as well and I haven't seen any racks that fit. I hate using my brake/shifters to stage the bike but, there is not a lot of other options for tall folks.

Because of such a terrible swim, I needed to take some time to get my head back so, normally, I would have been disappointed with my t1 time, but, all things considered, I'm just happy that I kept going.

I felt that my bike was pretty good. It was certainly not a record setter but, I was moving along pretty well and picking people off. The headwind was pretty bad but, I had ridden the old course so, I expected it. Also, having driven the new course, I know that I wouldn't be rolling south forever.
-The northern routes were a hoot! It was just starting to get windy when I hit the first tailwind and enjoyed going from an average 15mph to cranking up to 25-30mph for a bunch.
-It started to pour as I was coming up the hill from the lake (approx mile 33). Then it was just buckets for the rest of the ride.
-The new last 10 miles are great! (Less the park through the park). You have a tailwind and can pick up some time with relative ease.

I need to figure out how to eat on the ride. I had one gel around 37 but, that was not enough to set me up for a good run. MY stomach was still pretty rocky from the swim so, the whole nutrition thing needs more study.

Wish it could've gone a bit faster but, I need to practice more (and get more experience in this sport, as a whole)

I probably need to internalize a bit more of a sense of urgency.

This run was all about completion and running to my plan. Both of which were accomplished but, at a significant cost to time. I will traditionally do a half-marathon in about 1:30/1:40. Not really fast but, respectable (in my opinion) for a 41 year old. Yesterdays run was no where near that.
It was raining pretty hard through most of the run. I didn't care for the soaking feet but, loved the fact that I wasn't overheating.

I need to run more. My weak sports were swimming and biking so, I spent way more time on them. I need to start to refocus on running as well

Not much other than trying to hydrate and enhance my advil diet... A bit of stretching but mostly just being overjoyed that I had actually finished!


I thought that the race was really well run and if any of the volunteers are reading this THANK YOU!!! You folks were awesome, even though you had to hang out in the rain while us slow pokes were still coming in. A special thanks to the kayakers who were extra patient and absolutely in responsive when I was having issues!