We swam directly out from the beach, then 90 degree right turn, then a second right turn back to the beach. It was a clockwise swim, which is great since I'm a RightHandSide breather. I started at the front, on the side away from the bouys, which was actually the most direct line to the first turn. I don't think the course was square with the beach.

The water was clear and calm, perfect for a swim and it turned out to be my best competitive swim to date. I did very little sighting above the water. Instead, I used the other swimmers and the "lines in the sand" to navigate. I did a lot of drafting on this swim (inadvertently tickling a few people's feet along the way). When I wasn't drafting and the water was shallow enough, I used the lines created by the waves in the sand to navigate. They ran parallel to shore, offset by about 20 degrees. I swam 70 degree to parallel going out and 110 to parallel coming back in. This allowed me to keep my head down and sight only when I was close to a turn bouy or the swim exit.

Nothing. Oddly enough, swimming has become my strength in these events. It is the one discipline I struggled with the most early on, but is now the one I enjoy the most.

This went fairly smoothly. Since the water was cold, I came out with a touch of swimmers vertigo. I trundled up the beach to T1. They had overhead showers on the way to rinse off the salt water, which were awesome! I used Body Glide around my calves which helped the wetsuit slide off easily.

At the start, there was a cross wind blowing south off the land towards the water. The route took us down along the beach for 7-8 miles, then we turned and headed inland (into the wind) for 10 miles or so, then took a right turn and rode a country 2-lane (rough pavement) till the turnaround. On the way out, there was a slight headwind, particularly along the highway and I was relishing the thought of coming back knowing I'd be able to bank some speed, so I took it easy, but maintained a 21mph pace. Since the country road was parallel to the coast, there was a cross wind the entire way. Upon turning back onto the highway, I was shocked to get hit with a big headwind. The damn wind had completely changed directions and was now blowing north. Since we were on a major 4 lane divided highway, there was nothing to block the wind for us. My speed slowed considerably, there were spots where, on flat ground, the wind slowed me down to 16mph.

Crispin Henry (Cheryniv) passed me on the bike leg (he was doing the bike portion of a relay team). We met up after the race and I asked him about the wind. He, too, complained about the constant headwind. I was at least relieved to know that I wasn't making this stuff up in my mind.

Another problem was my HR. When I got on the bike, I was shocked to see it was up at 160. That was after 4 minutes of "rest" during transition. It took about 30 minutes for it to settle down into the 130's during the bike. But, it was hard to maintain. My avg HR on the bike was probably 150, which is much higher than normal. The blame is partly due to race-day adrenalin, but the caffiene in my Cliff Shots probably didn't help. I ate 4 during the bike and 1 during the run. My HR was 10, sometimes 20 points higher than normal during the bike and run.

I would have pressed harder on the outbound section of the ride.

Could shave a minute here by hurrying things up. But, this was my half IM, it wasn't about speed today.

I need to learn to transition on and off the bike with the shoes mounted on the pedals. This will save considerable time in the future. That also means learning to ride and run with no socks.

Again, started conservatively. My goal today was to run "my race" and to finish without walking. It was painful to watch people passing me on the bike who where in my age group. But, I just kept my head down knowing that I needed to pace myself, to learn, and to finish. There will be other races. Today, I'm a participant and will leave the racing to the better athletes.

The run was great. There were plenty of aide stations along the way. Each one had water, gatoraide, and these heavenly sponges soaked in ice water. Without those sponges, I would have suffered. They were awesome.

Half way thorugh the run, I unzipped the top and rolled it down to the waist so I could cool off. I had a one piece tri suit on and in hindsight, will go with a two piece next time I'm in a hot climate so I can remove the top. It was really hot. Before the race, I applied sunscreen to my back, but only to the exposed areas. I knew I'd probably get sunburnt, but keeping cool was more important. After about 10 minutes of running with my skin exposed to the sun, I came to an aide station. There stood a beautiful angel with her hands covered in sunscreen! I stopped, turned my back to her, and she covered me up! After profusely thanking her, I kept on my way.

At the 11 mile mark, things started getting painful. I passed lots of people with leg cramps, others being helped into ambulances, others continuing to run even though they were clearly on the verge of heat exhaustion. That breeze that haunted us through the bike had strangely disappeared on the run.

When the devil on one side of my shoulder would come and say, "lets walk and rest for a minute", I'd immediately focus on keeping my feet cycling, on my form and cadence. I also thought a lot about the folks here on BT. I didn't want to disappoint. I thought about all the well wishes, all the advice, all of the words of wisdom. That was what kept me running. There are so many great things about this community of triathletes, and the motivation provided to me during that run is one of the best.

Just walked around, basking in the notion that I had just done something for the very first time. This was a new achievement, a new plateau for me. My children were there to greet me at the finish. They are fairly young, but I was hoping that this would somehow rub off on them, that they would see that all the pain and hours of training were somehow worth it in the end when you finally achieve a goal. I had really accomplished something, I was pleased with my performance. I was happier still to share it with my kids.


I need to continue my swim training, but move my focus to both strength and endurance on the bike and run segments. This is the area where I stand to gain the most in terms of speed and time. I need to be smarter about approaching a race, understanding the wind conditions, etc. Part of my morning routine on race day needs to be a better assessment of the conditions for the bike.

My nutrition was spot on, with one exception. I have been using these Cliff Shots which contain caffiene. Over the last few months, I've pretty much cut caffiene out of my diet. I've trained with these Cliff Shots before, but never had more than 2 of them during an event. Today, I had 5 of them and I think they contributed to a higher than normal heart rate. My HR was at least 10points higher than normal on the bike and run. I will be eliminating caffiene from all of my race day nutrition.

Some memories of this weekend?

1. Standing on the beach at 6:15am, feeling the sun soaking into my wetsuit, watching the pro's start the Triathlon.

2. Seeing Patrick (owner of All3Sports) with his tent up on the run route, cheering on all his customers. It was cool to get the "Lookin' strong!" from him as I passed his tent on the way out and on the way in. That is why he has such a loyal following, they guy drove 6 hours to do nothing but watch and cheer on the athletes. Its why he's earned my patronage as a customer (and is the cosignee on my 2nd mortgage).

3. Seeing the "bottle launch sites" on the bike ride. There were a few spots on the road where the pavement had dips or big bumps in it. About 15-20 feet after each of these bumps, you'd see tons of water bottles, gel packs, tubes, tires, etc littering the roadway. Word to the wise: Make sure your stuff is secured to your bike.

4. Feeling the "individuality" of this sport. This is the first tri I've done where there weren't people around that I knew. I was on my own, doing my own thing, running my race and doing it among 1,400 other people. I really got the sense of it being me against the race course, not against the other athletes. Again, I wanted to finish this time, this race was not about me vs. the competition, but me vs. my flaws, weaknesses, and doubts. I am happy to report that I won.

5. Finishing! It was my first half IM. It makes an Ironman seem almost possible. IMFL is here in the very same location, so this was a good primer for that race. Goodbye, Panama City, see you in 6 months.

6. Sharing this with my kids. I do hope that regardless of what they choose to do in life, that they understand the relationship between sacrifice and pain in achieving goals. Those things that are the hardest and that require the most sacrifice usually yield the best, lifelong results.

Best Tip I picked up during the race: A few people brought Sidewalk Chalk and wrote notes on the pavement so they could easily find their bikes in transition. Great idea!

PHOTO LINK: Instead of posting photo's here, they are in my log via the link below...

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/photos/photo-thumbnail...