Racing for Recovery Triathlon - Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The out portion was rough with swimming into the waves. After that I could settle in but it was a long swim.

More open water swimming. I had only done it twice this year and not in that type of water.

I took my time because I knew it was a long day. I could have went faster but I wanted to body glide my feet so I wouldn't forget to on the run.

Move faster!

This was the longest ride for me to date. There were a couple rough patches on the course but it was good overall. You could never get out of the wind because it was open land most of the course. I started to get a cramp right above my right knee so I backed off a little at the end.

Bike LOTS more. I would do a lot of long out door riding. You can't do it on the trainer.

This was pretty basic and good.

Not much.

I was doing ok for the first couple of miles and then the leg cramps and upset stomach kicked in. Around mile 4 I dumped water over my head to cool down. By 5 I was holding back the quisyness(sp?). The leg cramps started to overcome me and I started to run walk to get them to calm down. It felt like someone punched me right in the quad just above the knee. With about 2.5 miles to go I rand with a guy named Mike and talking with him got me to finish running the rest of the way. We were talking about doing this as an example for our kids(he had 4)and how we were excited to see them at the finish of this long day. His kids ran up to him as we made the turn into the finish and there was Lily so I took her from my mother and we finished this thing together just as I always planned on doing. I could not have finished it without the thought of TJ, Lily, my mother and father waiting for me at the finish about an hour longer that I had hoped:(

Run LOTS more. I would do a lot of running on tired legs to get the feel. I had a lot of cramps so I need to get nutrition down better. Not rely on my running partner Molly(dog) to drag my slow butt around the neighborhood on runs.

Tried to eat somthing but that was not happening. You would think after all this I would be hungry but I could not stomach anything. Packed up and left. Went back to the hotel we stayed at and they let me back into the room to take a much needed shower.


Training and nutrition are huge and I was humbled by both. I will need to do more of each IF I ever do another one of these.


I know 3D gets bashed a lot on here but they put on a great race. The volunteers were plentiful and the aid stations were all over the place for us. I would say it was a very well run race.