Beach to Battleship HIM - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

So I took my time after getting out, got my suit stripped and then ran 85yds to the mat. Actual splits aren't up so this was off my watch.
Swim I thought was pretty choppy to start, but I was ok. Near the last left hand turn angle I was focused on a buoy straight ahead and then I looked up to see not a soul around me or in front of me. Looked left and there they all were, so I had to make a quick change. Other than that it was pretty uneventful.Oh there was a "slight" current helping us on our way.

Train. I totaled 15,000 yds for Aug, Sept, and Oct combined when I guess with my lack of swimming ability I should have done more like 75k

It was a long run (+- 400yds) on pretty rough pavement to T1 so I am sure it was not super fast if the times were available.
I had gloves and a top in the bag, but I decided to just go with my suit that I had under the wetsuit.

nothing really

I planned on backing off on the bike because of my overall lack of training. i really wanted to try and enjoy it. I tried to acknowledge anybody who cheered for me, and I thanked all the volunteers and police, joked with a guy at the turn around when I was meant to turn in front of him but I turned behind him and then I gave a shout out to the wheelchair athlete going up the other side of 421.
My time is from my computer and includes a 1 min stop because I had to take a tinkle Veej. I started to feel a little strain just after 40mi and once back on 421 with about 15mi to go I was really feeling the headwind so I tried to back off instead of trying to grind into the wind. This was part of the reason for stopping for a pee even though I could of held it till T2. I told myself you are just trying to keep it chilled so stopping will just help you keep it in check. I guess I manged to stay under control because I pretty much kept my wattage the same. 198w for 1st 36 miles and 195w for last 20mi although my speed went from 21.8 in 1st 36mi down to 20.3mph for last 20

I think in retrospect I rode a smart race although putting in more volume and more race specific training is definitely needed.

I was not sure how long the road into T2 was so I actually got my feet out of my shoes coming down the last bridge, so I had to ride about a 1/4 mile with my feet on top of my shoes

nothing

I knew there was a a BIG climb at 3/4 mile so I really told myself to go slow. i wanted to make sure I ran a slow 1st mile. I hit mile 1 in 7:33 so I was happy enough that it was slow enough. There was another climb at 1.5mi so again I just got myself to back off although I got to 2mi in 14:03 so that was a 6:30 2nd mile. I just kept telling myself to chill until the turn around and then I could try and stretch it out a little. I was catching some people and was going pretty good. I hit halfway in 43 flat and started home. My quads started to hurt around 8mi, felt like someone had hit both of them with a hammer, I could feel a blister on my right foot as well, just tried to keep it going. Had a little run in with a motorist crossing the draw bridge with about 1.5mi to run. I guess she no longer wanted to be in traffic so just threw her car into a u-turn and stopped when I got my hands on her hood, needless to say she heard from me and I have to admit I tried my damndest to dent her hood by beating on it with both hands.
With 1mi to run, at the last water station, someone said you can catch that guy. I looked up and saw someone about 200yds in front of me. I thought back to about mile 37 of the bike when a pack of 6,who might have might not have been riding super legal, past me and at the time I thought I am going to run you b****es down, well it was that time (I have no idea if this guy was part of that 6 pack). I worked up the big ass hill over the bridge and caught him before the top. As I past him I looked at his calf and he was in my age group. As I turned onto the battleship rode I zipped my trisuit up in case someone was there to take a pic and I kept it going (gotta try to look good at the finish). Just before I made the left turn onto the grass in the finish chute, a car tried to pull out and just about took me out. I scream in his open window as do about 5 spectators. I avoid my 2nd, in the last 2 miles, run in's with a car. One of the spectators, Rick Katouf, holds his hand up to high 5 me and says that has to be the best move of the day. I get to the finish and see my overall time and am a little shocked. I was only looking at my run time on my watch so I totally did not think I had come close to 4:34.
I negative split the run 43:00 1st half 42:17 2nd half

Like all the other legs train. I squeezed 3 10 milers in to the last 3 weeks of training but other than that I was no where close to running enough.
On the day I think I ran great and I left it all out there, but in a sensible way.

sit under a tree


Just lack of training


Great race. I am just iffy that it is so late in the year because it seems like the weather is a bit of a gamble although it turned out perfect for us on the day.