Gulf Coast Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This is the hardest swim I have ever done due to the waves. I ended up doing breaststroke a couple of times to find the buoys.

I opted not to wear a wet suit since at the athlete meeting the night before the race the water temp was announced as 82. I didn't expect for the swim to be wet suit eligible. Well, prior to the start they found a 77.5 reading (don't know where that sample came from). Anyway, I didn't want to change at the last minute, so I went without. The water temp was fine.

Maybe wear a wet suit - very few didn't wear one. But, I am relatively happy with the swim. It took me about 150 yards to calm down, get use to the water, and get into my groove.

This was a little long transition. But without a wetsuit it went ok.

I did not rinse my feet. Ended up feeling the bark on the bottom of my right foot on the bike.

This was a hard ride. I am not a strong biker to begin with. The wind was tough at times. Add that the men started the swim after the women, so into the ride I had tons of men flying by me. Did a little damage to my confidence (I expect the men to pass me, but when hundreds are flying by you it gets to you).

I have to spend more time on my bike!

Also rinse my feet before putting on shoes. I didn't rinse my feet after running through bark to get into T1. Around mile 18 I started feeling the pain from this one piece of bark. I now have a nice blister on the bottom of my foot.

T2 went ok. I took my time, wanted to get my legs back before heading out. Also, needed to rinse my feet since I had bark stuck to the bottom of my right foot.

Same, I'm happy with T2.

This was a hot one - high temps and humidity with very little shade. This run was very disappointing, I felt with where I am in my running it would be much faster. Today was not my day, I just didn't have it in me. When I ran I was running under 9 min miles with no problem, but did a lot of walking. Very disappointing.

I am not sure.

Walked around, found my family.


I felt I was ok going into today. I have not had a lot of bike/swim time since the marathon the end of March, but I did think it would go better than it did. I think the conditions got the best of me. Glad I did it. I now feel I have more determination to get out and train harder. I will be ready when I return to this course again in November....this course will not get the best of me again!


This is a nice race. It is well put on, and the voluntter support (especially on the run) was teriffic. The race organizers can't control the conditions, but they did a great job with everything else.
My only disappointment was the expo. I had read it was "open to the public" so I expected a lot more.
This is a nice destination race. It's late enough in the year that it's warm and the family can "play on the beach" and do fun stuff. Yet it's early enough the tourism hasn't hit yet.