Troika Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

good swim for me, finally broke 30...didn't have any luck drafting tho, got out in front early and then got dropped by the two leaders (who swam 26-27) so i was all alone, finally felt someone drafting within the last couple 100 yards, and got passed at the end

nada

its T1, nothing to report

went out quickly on the bike...this was my first real 'mass' start, so I was actually 3rd overall for a couple of miles on the bike. Definitely not used to that kinda of competition, and when i got passed I attempted to stick with them, instead of just riding my own race, funny how everyone says 'race your own race' but its easy to forget

ended up making a mental mistake, took a water bottle from 1st Aid station, took a couple sips, and chucked it...so i rode the next 20 miles with about .25 of a water bottle. i could feel my lips getting dry and i knew i was gonna be in trouble soon, when i got to the next aid station i made sure to grab two bottles, but the damage was done, and it hit me hard the last 10 or so miles

oh, and there is a STEEP hill in the park that isn't really talked about, but its there, and its steep

overall id say it was ok, i wanted 2:35, but its still an improvement from my PCT ride

started the run with ~3:08 on the clock, so i needed a 1:52 run to break 5 hours, my main goal...i was a little nervous b/c i died on the last 5k at PCT and finished with a 1:51, so i knew I was gonna be cutting it close.

got a gel down within the first mile and then just started ticking off the miles. was going at a little under 8 minute pace (1:45 pace) so i felt great. it was a hot run, but i think we dodged a bullet, b/c it could have been a LOT hotter. thankfully, the aid stations had great volunteers and ice cold sponges. worked out a little routine of grabbing two, one under the hat, one down the shirt, and just ran to the next station where i switched out for fresh ones.

ended up going out in ~48 mins, so i just needed to run the return (mostly downhill) in an hour, started to feel confident that I could break 5.

got to the last 4 miles and i had 42 minutes to break 5. at this point a fellow AGer caught me. I could tell he was running a solid pace, and I might have been able to stay with him, but I decided that my goal of sub-5 was more important than AG places, so i 'let' him go.

ended up just cruising in, the last miles or so got pretty long, and it sucked having ppl on the course saying 'your almost there'...at that point almost there for me was 50 feet. so i was relieved when i saw the radio guy a couple 100 yards before the finish

absolutely nothing. i might have been able to stay with that other guy, but im just not sure, i could have very easily blown up, and had to stagger in to the finish, so im happy that i was able to just cruise my way in...

hmmmm....ham


rolling hills killed my legs, that and trying to keep up with the 2:18 bikers


under a new RD this year...only thing that I didn't like was the awards ceremony wasn't until 3 pm (when the course was closed), good for the slower finishers, but bad for the AGers who had to wait around for 3 hours