Harvest Moon Long Course Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Despite the large orange buoys, I did a terrible job sighting. Possibly because this was my first open water swim in about 30 years. I did a lot of breaststroke. I never felt comfortable but kept moving. Hey, do timing chips float, because I started to worry that it was coming off my ankle.

Learn to sight better. But overall I was pretty happy with the swim.

I was really slow. That was on purpose and I'm not worried about it. Maybe next time I'll go faster.

I'm none too fast in the best of times, but even slower up hills. I had some back pain, which made it hard to stay in the drops. That was odd, since I haven't usually had that problem.

Umm, lose weight? Get more flexible so I can be more aero? Spend lots of money on a tri bike? No, scratch that last one, my wife would kill me.

Another slow transition, but the real problem was that I didn't reapply sunscreen, and I was out on the run course a long time.

Well, more of a walk than a run. I was already dragging coming off the bike, so I should have just taken the Aquabike turnoff and declared victory. I jogged and walked for about 8 miles, until my knee started causing me some pain, and then it was mostly a walk to the end.

Train more for the next one. I had injured my Achilles tendon, and while it seems to be fine now, I didn't get in nearly enough miles.

Well, doing a HIM as my first triathlon might not have been a very sound decision. I have even more respect now for those 300 odd people that came in ahead of me.

The volunteers were terrific, as were the other participants. Everyone was really friendly. I liked the course a lot, and I think I'll do it again sometime.