Beach to Battleship HIM - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Great swim, I've never been 1st in my AG on the swim. I knew I was having a good swim, it was nice to be in the first wave because you could tell where you were. I caught up to someone that was kicking like a madman and was able to draft for a while. When I got out of the water the lady said that I was 6th out of the water, so I knew that I had a good swim:)

T1 was interesting, I had a few clothing choices laid out, but the way it was set up if you wanted to use the changing tent, you had to go to your bike, grab your clothes and go back to the tent. I chose to change at my bike, I just pulled bike shorts on over my tri-shorts, a long sleeved cool max shirt and a light running jacket. I had put hand warmers in by riding booties and gloves before the start, I was glad I did, my feet and hands stayed warm.

Riding up 421 on my HED 3's I was laughing about the fact that all of the clothes I was wearing certainly offset the aero advantage of the wheels:)

I was dissapointed in my bike. I have never left in the first wave of a race before, so out on the bike there may only have been 10 people in front of me, not for long! I felt like I got passed by everybody. By bike PR for a 1/2 at White Lake was 2:45, I really thought I would beat this no problem. I felt good, tried to keep a good cadence and my average speed was 19.3. I was bummed by the time I got back.

Need to bike more or not do another 1/2.

It was pretty neat having someone take your bike and rack it, it was a little confusing because you did not see the transition area prior to the race. Skipped the changing tent again, slid on shorts over my tri-shorts and changed into a short sleeve shirt. Stopped at the porta-pottie.

I'm sure I could have been faster.

Meh!
I felt terrible on the run start, mentally and physically. I just was not into it, I walked alot till mile 7. My goal was to stay under 9 minute miles, I figured that keeping track of my splits would be a good mental excercise. That lasted about 4 miles. Had some flat Coke at mile 7 and that made a big difference, ran the rest of the way.

I still don't think that I do my nutrition right on the longer races.

Felt horrible after the finish, when they put the medal on my neck I almost fell over. Dizzy and the gray vision thing again. I went and sat down, drank a Pepsi.


Nutrition and the biking part, and maybe the running part too:)
Maybe I should just swim!


I PR'd for this distance, but considering how fast the swim was it should have been better. My wife was the volunteer coordinator for this race, she has been working on this race for the last year, and I thought it showed, the volunteers were great. I went over to the convention center and picked her up and we went back to cheer on our tri-club people that were doing the full. The last one came in at about 11:30 or so.
I think that this will be my last 1/2, I don't really enjoy training for the distance and mentally I just can't keep my head in the game for that long.