Silverman - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This was a great swim for me. My first mass start. Executed my plan to stay left edge and along buoy line. Did more drafting than ever before. I avoided most contact.

Nothing

I was anticipating more help in the changing tent. I was on my own. I had planned on not having to pack my wet clothes in my bag and try to make sure I didn't forget anything so it cost me about a minute doing this stuff on the fly. Even with more time, my swim cap and nice race goggles disappeared.

Plan on being more self-sufficient despite all the rumors that there was going to be so much help in the changing tents.

I was extremely pleased with my bike. This is a tough course and I don't train on hills so preparation was difficult. I ended up doing a lot of interval work which really paid off. There really is almost no true flat part of this course.

Nothing I can think of. I thought I executed my plan perfectly.

Again had little help in the changing tent. Because gear bags had to be turned in the day before, I could not fill my fuel belt bottles. I put infinit powder in each bottle and hoped to get a little help filling them with water when I hit the tent. Didn't happen. I had to fill them all myself. Had I not had to do this, I would have been out in less than a minute.

Plan on being more self-sufficient despite all the rumors that there was going to be so much help in the changing tents.

Despite executing my bike exactly to plan, my legs were just not used to doing 56 miles of hills. I went out on the run within my planned pace but my legs just weren't prepared for the almost completely uphill first 9.5 miles after that bike. I also started worrying about hydration so started drinking water from aid stations in addition to my infinit. Bad decision. I should have trusted that my hydration was fine and stuck with my infinit because I ended up developing a stomach cramp. I had to walk a few aid stations and a couple times on the later uphills but still finished with a decent time and would not have podiumed even if I had hit my goal run time (1:45) so not too disappointed. More importantly, I learned that I needed to trust my training with my hydration and that it's better to walk a few times and lose a couple of minutes than to risk injury or sickness.

More hill training and better race execution planning considering the whole race in addition to it's individual parts.

Always gotta say experience and training. And them damn hills!


This is a tough course but is a first class race. It is extraordinarily well organized. Frank Lowery the RD does an excellent job. The activities, expo, meals, pre-race, post-race, aid stations, swag, etc. are great. The gripes I had in the changing tents are volunteer related and out of his control. He could have used a few more in there but can you really complain about a race that has 2 volunteers for every racer? He is obviously a sadist! You will understand what I mean after you race this course! But this is a race that any serious triathlete should do at least once in his/her career. This course really shows you what you are made of.