Duke Liver Center Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I started out well to the right since I breathe on my left mostly. This allows me to keep an eye on other racers and not drift far off target. I did manage to get on someone's feet for most of the way out. Fortunately, we were aiming for an island. Otherwise I had no idea where we were heading.

The goal here was to stay smooth and in control and that's what I did. On the way back the sun came up over the trees and was right in my eyes when I went to breathe on the left. So, for a while I switched to the right for practice. Doing this I drifted a little and lost the toes I was following. Finally decided to just deal with the sun.

I kept aiming for the inflated wavy things and thought I was going straight. But then I would see people way off to my right. Oh well, I'm aiming at the finish line. Got there and looked at my watch. Very pleased about the time, especially since I was careful to swim strong but not too strong. Did this race 4 years ago and it took 10 minutes longer then.

Not much. I'm very pleased.

Nothing special here. Dropped the goggles and swim cap. On with the helmet, shades and shoes. Grab the bike and head out.

Need to tape my insoles down so they don't slide when wet feet go into them.

This was the part I was really nervous about. I've been using my garmin 305 as my bike computer with cadence all year. But in my last training ride, the faceplate popped off and the thing is pretty much a total loss. So, I spent frantic time on Saturday trying to hook up a different bike computer only to find the batteries were dead. New batteries at Walmart and got them in there. No idea if it was accurate. Also, when pumping up the rear tire I bent the nozzle and had to replace the tube. Nervous about that too.

Anyway, off on the ride I went. And felt really good. The first 21 miles went very well. Got passed by a lot of people even though I felt fast. That's the problem starting early. Only the elites were in front of me, so all the fast people were catching me. Just had to keep telling myself that this wasn't my A race but a tune-up for B2B iron distance.

Due to the heat I bumped up my water and salt intake. Went through about 60 ounces of water, and an electrolyte pill every 20 minutes. Bumped up to 2 pills in the last hour. Also, got down about 900 calories during the ride. Right on plan. 200 calories of Accelerade. 200 calories of Heed. 500 calories of hammer gel.

For the purpose of this race, I don't think I would change a thing. I kept reminding myself whenever someone would pass that the goal was not to race but to practice nutrition and the distance.

Because of the gravel on this course, I went ahead and put on socks in transition. That added some time but I think it was worth it.

Not much

My A race this year is a flat course, so almost all of my training I have done on flat areas. About a week before this race I remembered how hilly the course was. Far too late to do anything about it.

I actually did the first loop in 55-56 minutes. A little slower than I had hoped but very much acceptable. The second loop took 1:07 or so as I ended up walking up some of the hills. There were a lot of people struggling, but I did think I was doing better than I ended up. I was really frustrated that they had no mile markers out. That, and the fact that my garmin had broken earlier in the week and I had no distance or HR information that I normally have.

Once in survival mode the goal was to run in the shade as much as possible. With a bald head, I have to wear a running hat in the sun, but took it off in the shade to allow more heat to escape. Then, I got chased by a horse fly for what seemed like a mile. One of them eventually got me, actually bit through the running hat, and left a huge welt that looks great on a bald head.

Once I got to the top of the last hill I was so excited I actually picked up the pace. Downhill and then flat. Once I hit the flat area I had 3 minutes left to beat a buddy's time from another race, so I picked up the pace again. As much as I could. Every step brought another muscle twinge that threatened to be a series of cramps. But I think all the endurlytes I took really helped, and the twinges never got worse. Finished 8 seconds ahead of my buddy's time.

Find a cooler race

Water, coke, salty food. Hopped in the lake to cool down.


The volunteers were amazing. They stood out in that heat for hours.