The Jerseyman Half Iron Distance Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I felt really good during this entire swim. Had some trouble navigating as they didn't have enough buoys and I really feel that this course was alot longer than 1.2 miles! When I got out of the water and looked at my watch, I was expecting to see something around 40 minutes. WTF!! I either swam long because I didn't navigate well or the course was not really 1.2 miles or a combination of the two. Looking at the results, I am inclined to say that the course was long.


Not sure what I'd do differently. My swim sucks and this was pretty disappointing given the work I've been doing in the pool.

There was a long run from the water to transition and you had to run in the sand about 50 yards before you hit the grass and the T-area. No wetsuit strippers. This is a pretty good transition time considering all that.

Nothing

Okay, I had high expectations for this bike, but I gotta tell ya, that it was raining when I came out of the water and I just couldn't deal! After LP and then the Sprint that I did 2 weeks ago—both in pouring down rain— I just wasn't sure I could deal!! I got on my bike really hoping this was gonna pass, but already my glasses were wet and I couldn't see that well and it just felt like LP all over again.

Also, they sold this course as flat and fast and really IT WASN'T!! There were sections that were, yes — but, there were lots of long, subtle climbs (like the one to upper jay before the out and back) that are really tough and then a few good hills too! This is the first time I've done a race of this distance where the bike was one big loop so that was a little scary. I was concerned about how well it would be marked and whether there would be cops and whatnot at the intersections and left turns. Luckily, this is the one place where they seemed to have planned pretty well. There was one big intersection we had to cross over twice that was welled manned with state troopers and there were cops at all the turns. There was a metal grated bridge we had to ride over where they put down a rubber mat and made everyone slow down. We did ride through a covered bridge which was beautiful and lots of little backroads which were gorgeous, but chip sealed and pot hole-y so not exactly good for going really fast.

It rained the entire time I was on the bike. Heavily. It was miserable. I saw my mom and brother in Frenchtown where they were waiting for me to come through. It was good to see them at around mile 17. This would be the last crowd support I would see until I got back to the park for transition. There were two aid stations on the bike course which was fine. I finally saw Dave again as I got back into the park and toward transition.

Not sign up knowing that there was even a chance of rain.

This was a good transition. I really tried to keep things simple. I really needed to pee but did so after I left transition. There were portos right there outside of transition just off the run course.

Nothin'

This run course was really hard. More difficult than Mooseman IMO. My run time includes a couple of minutes in the porto. As I started out, my legs were not feeling like they were gonna give me a good run and my lower back was screaming. I tried to ignore and just settle into an easy pace. I had to do alot of talking to myself to stay motivated. As I left the park and got out onto the main road, I was in a pretty good groove—a slow one, but I was moving forward so it was all good. I knew at this point that I was not going to break 6 hours so I just let it all go. This main road had zero shoulder and where the road ended the land went up so there was little place to run with cars going by at 50 miles and hour and certainly no place to set up aid stations. So these were few and far between. But, I guess there was enough of them. They had water and GE, and Gels which you had to ask for. They had trouble manning these and it was pretty lame. The rolling hills they described on their website were more like hills and the whole course was like this. One loop so out the turn around and back. I don't think it rained much during this run, but I don't remember. We had to run through the big crazy intersection again on the way out and on the way in. Again good work stopping the traffic so the runners could keep going. I saw my bro and my parents heading to the park as I ran this part of the course. At the turnaround, there was a very steep hill down and then you ran around a women who was standing there and back up that fkn hill. It was very tough! This whole part of the course was tough. I walked the steeper hills as my legs just didnt have it. There was not one mile marker so no fkn idea really where you were in the run except to know that you were roughly half way when you hit the turnaround. I was doing GE and water at each station and finally asked if they had any gels. One station did, they next did not! They have some work to do here because this was not enough support for a race of this distance. There was no crowd or community support out on the run at all. You were just out there with your own bad self. The other runners were your only support. As I was heading back in, there were alot of people just heading out and I felt really bad for them because they had a long hard way to go and you knew they were gonna start shutting things down soon. I ran as steady as I could and walked when the hills got too steep. I was leap frogging with this one younger guy. I caught up to him at one point as he was walking—knew he was struggling. I said "let's get some barbecue" and we started running and ran together for a bit. So it was this kind of thing to try and get through this god awful run. I finally made the turn back into the park. Down the long entrance road and then turn into this dark path and there is just no one and there is no music, no announcer and its not raining, but its dark and I have no idea what time it is, but it feels like its like 7:30pm or something. I'm on this winding path wondering when the f*k this thing is gonna end! Finally make a turn and can see the finish. There are some people along this stretch. A few clapps and way to gos. I see my family up ahead. They are the whole crowd. Finally, the timing mat. I cross over and get accosted by an old dude demanding my chip. I was like "back off Chippy!—its been along day!" Ya know, I knew he needed the chip back but give me a second! The finishers area was like 3 feet deep so there was no time to walk for a sec and catch your breath, just an old guy grabbing at you and then handing you a metal. No announcer, no nothin'—pretty lame!

Nothing—I did the best I could do on this day and in these conditions.

So, I stood around with my family and then decided if I didn't put something in my stomach, I was gonna be sick. I felt really sore and beat up. Walked over to the food tent and the skies opened up. Pouring down rain!! I wanted to scream!! I ate a banana Water was dripping of the edge of the tent and into the food. I didnt want to eat the macaroni salad as it was warmish all day and I didnt like the idea of it. Nothing else looked appealing and my stomach was not happy. The rain poured down and I just couldnt take it anymore. I took a quick look at the results they were posting. It said I 4th in AG. Oh well, as I expected. We left without going to the awards ceremony. I was absolutely pouring at this point! I didn't realize I had third til I got home and looked at the posted results. Decided to back to my bro's house and shower and be dry before heading home.


A tough course and the rain and perhaps a long swim course gave me my worse HIM time yet. But I actually placed and didn't get my hardware...


I think this race has a lot of potential to become "one of the premier half iron distance races on the east coast", but they have some work to do. They need more community support and volunteers lined up. They need a better finishing area. They need to accurately lay out the courses, provide mile markers and sufficient aid and to ensure that everyone gets a chance to finish. They need to bill it more accurately as a challenging race course and they may need to reconsider the run course as there were many people left out there running through that big intersection after the cops had called it a day. Yeah, the weather really screwed things up for them as I'm sure its tough enough to pull an event of this magnitude together under the best circumstances, but people need to feel safe out there and I think they fell short on this. Also, its a big deal for a lot of folks to finish a race of this length and difficulty and they should have provided more fanfare around that.

Not saying I won't ever do this race again. I think the people that showed up and finished are among the tried and true triathletes out there. The rest were first timers or relative newbies who didn't get the support or the celebration that they needed or might have earned on this very difficult day. As we were heading back to my bro's house there were still some runners out there in the heavy rain trying to negotiate that intersection and I felt very bad for them.