This swim was a little tough for me but I did well considering. Waters were rough, I thought, and my wave was pretty crowded up until about 1000 yards into it. Someone actually grabbed my ankle and pulled it. I'm not sure why she did that, but I hadn't had that happen to me and was unsure what to do, so I just kicked my legs a little. It was hard to sight heading directly into the sun and I kept getting a little off track. I got back on fairly quickly, though. Too much sighting needed for me.

I would have sighted less and been more aggressive but since this was my first half IM I wanted to really be conservative. That's the wrong approach, I think. ;-)

Transition went well. No problems here. I'm usually pretty tired when I get out of the water but I wasn't this time and was able to hustle through transition.

Nothing much. Perhaps hustle even more since my times aren't evidence of my hustling.

I'm not sure what happened here. I felt good coming out of the water but I didn't feel as good on the bike. I did get moving at a good pace but about 40 minutes into it I had to pull over and throw up. I had to do this again in another 30 minutes or so. I'm assuming it had something to do with the swim. I didn't push too hard on the bike either. I was being too conservative, I think.

I also managed to get gel on the back of my knee that caused my legs to stick together every time I pedaled, which was for 3 and a half hours. I tried to clean it off with water throughout the race but it didn't work. Eventually it started to really hurt. I saw later that I had sores back there from it pulling my skin. I'll have to try and avoid that next time.

Overall my heart rate was very low throughout the entire bike, which is perhaps a sign that I went too easy.

Ride harder. I was strong at the end up those last bits of hills in the last 12 miles when others were dying but I should have pushed throughout the entire bike course. Again, I was being way too conservative. I was nervous about running 13 miles on a bum leg.

Again, an ok transition.

Run faster perhaps.

This is where it all fell apart. I actually felt good overall except my hamstring the first few miles. Then I realized I didn't bring any gels, so I tried one from the course, which was different than what I use and it was so warm. I immediately threw it away and threw up about 20 minutes later. I sipped gatorade and water the rest of the death march. So I was running a decent pace for about 4-5 miles then my hamstring just hurt so badly that I had to walk. I walked/ran for about 3 miles and then started to feel like my muscles in my legs had nothing left in them. This could be because I stopped running for a few weeks because I was trying to rest it and also perhaps because I didn't have any real nutrition. Live and learn.

A better hamstring :-) Overall I think I went into this race trained pretty well. My body felt good almost the entire way and like I said I think the only reason my running legs died on me was because I wasn't running the past few weeks and the gel problem (maybe). I couldn't have asked for a better day with a bum hamstring for my first half IM.

Walked and met Bob and the rest of the gang participating. Went home and relaxed.


My hurt hammy :-(


This race was a blast. It wasn't a great day for me but I had a ton of fun. I would definitely do it again.