I didn't wear a watch of any kind during the swim, and the start was delayed, so it wasn't until I got my results post-race that I learned what an abysmal swim this was. I promised that I would whine / make excuses, but after reading everyone else comments I feel better about saying: This swim was long. The day before the race, B and I noticed that the buoys looks all askew, but figured they would be corrected. Guess not. After a wave or 2 had already started, the RD even announced that the buoys on the "home stretch" were off. Oh well. The no wetsuit thing hurt me a lot, because I'm a sinker and the suit really helps with my position. Other than that, I actually felt like I had a decent swim. I had minimal contact with others, and felt like I sighted pretty well. I drafted a few times, but not the whole race.

Stay up really late, then, in the middle of the night, drive a rented boat out onto the course and do the following (1) Move the buoys closer to shore (2) dump thousands of gallons of ice into the river to cool the water to under 78. Other than that, not too much. I just need more practice in OWS.

Originally, I assumed that my T1 would be much better since there was no wetsuit to fool with. But looking back, I'm still fairly slow. I know I need to "simplify" my transitions, as well as practice them. But given that I'm no where near a podium, comfort is important for a long course race with the conditions that were present. Plus, I'm always a little disoriented / wobbly when I get out of the water, and that never helps.

Practice. Maybe spin around in circles a few times, then work at putting my bike stuff on?

This was a very disappointing bike for me. As I said, I didn't know what my swim time was, but knew it had been long. I really wanted to beat my time from last year, and tried to push to do so. I was averaging 20mph until mile 40, where the headwind just killed me. Between the heat and the wind, I just kept getting slower and slower. My mental image was of an old school NES game, where the power meter just kept dropping and dropping, and eventually starts to flash orange.

I drank a total of 6 bottles of Gatorade on the bike, and probably 2-3 more of water (I'd take them at the aid station, drink as much as I could during the station, dump the rest on my head, then chuck them). I also had 3 gels, 1.5 at one hour and 1.5 at 2 hours. I had a bag of GU comps at 1.5 hours. I also had an S!cap at roughly 2.5 hours. I needed to drink more, but my stomach was just starting to rebel about the amount of Gatorade I was putting into it. I'd basically drink until I stared getting the nasty burps, wait a few minutes for that to subside, then drink again. It was really the limits of what my body could handle for fluid intake. I was starting to get a really sore left glute / hip flexor after about 40 miles, which is new for me. That area has never really gotten sore before, so I'm not quite sure what was going on. It was definitely liming my cadence near the end.

I did notice some drafting this year, but not nearly as bad as this year. I did ride next to "that guy" for about 30 miles - see the race report from Strates for a description.

I passed B at mile 10 to 15. I called out something to her, "hey sexy" or something like that, and got a dirty look from another girl I was passing tat the same time. It wasn't until she heard B reply that I think she realized I wasn't talking to her.

Not much that I can think of. I'd love a faster, more aero bike, but the cards aren't right for that yet. More heat training, but we've had limited opportunities for that here in MD lately. I don think all the training I've missed over the last 2-3 weeks hurt a little, but I had to move so there's really nothing I could have done.

I probably could have sped this up, but I knew that my swim was long, my bike was longer than last year, and there was no way I was going to PR the run, so I made sure I had everything down before leaving. I did lose some time because I couldn't find my spot for a while. I was in the right row, but had gone 1 rack too far. I also made sure to put sunscreen on, which took some time, but was definitely the right idea.

Not much. Find my back rack sooner.

I did the best I could. I told myself that, like last year, I wasn't going to walk at all. That lasted 1 mile. LOL at myself. I knew that if I pushed too hard I'd wind up in a med tent after blacking out, so tried to avoid that. By midway through the run my sweat rate had dropped to almost nothing, which I know is a bad sign. I carried a Gatorade with me for the first half of the run, and took sips when needed. I also took 1-2 cups of water at each station to drink, and 2 to dump on my head. I ate as much ice as I could stand, and ran through every sprinkler and hose I could find. It still wasn't enough to keep cool. After the turn around I ditched my Gatorade (I had drank about half) and stuck with ice and water.

Overall, it was a decent run for me given the conditions. When it's that hot and sunny, there's just only so much you can do.

I passed a guy in full BT clothes, as opposed to my free socks from Marmadaddy. I spoke to him, but now I forget his screen name (tri3sports, maybe?). I saw James Blackwood who looked strong, but didn't realize it was him until he passed by. I shouted support to Christy, who looked like she had to do a pirouette to see who yelled her name. I also shouted out to CJ. Steve Camp saw me, and gave me a yell. Most importantly (to me), I saw my fiance, ras26, near the end of my run and got a kiss. Who else gets smooched by a fellow half Ironman during the run? :)

Funny aside, I had dumped so much water on myself that my socks were soaked. So my shoes were really really noisy (along with the ice I was holding). I one point, I passed a guy, who comments "You're really squishy sounding!" I told him it was my socks (I left out that they were BT socks) and just laughed. Later, a different guy who I had been running with for a while passed by me when I was walking. He yelled encouragement "just 2 more miles, you can run the rest" or something like that. Anyway, when I started running again thanks to his words, he shouts, without looking back, there's that squishy sound! :)



Really, see bike comments above. More heat acclimatization, but we really haven't had the opportunities yet here in MD. 3 weeks ago for the Columbia tri it was freezing. I might have gone with a hat instead of a visor so I could have kept the ice up there. Also, a pre-race haircut would have been nice.

Drank water, and hung around near the finish to wait for B to finish. Saw her finish, and she looked good considering she has a broken back. Somehow I missed Christy and Steve's finish. After B finished, we saw Traci and CJ finish.


HEAT, HEAT, HEAT, humidity, and sun. Oh, and did I mention heat?


The volunteers for this race were great, and should be commended for their hard work in the heat and sun. I was a bit annoyed that the race started 15 min late, but oh well.

Overall, I had a good race. It's hard not to be disappointed when your time is worse that last year's in every discipline, but the vast majority of that was due to the heat. I'm not sure if the "table" will show up below, but comparing my placement from the year to last year, I'm in virtually an identical spot.

Bib 1512 1425
Date 6/14/2009 6/13/2010
Distance Half Ironman Half Ironman
Total Time 5:23:26 5:50:13
Overall Place 545 561
Percent 35.30% 36.01%
Sex Place 444 432
AG Place 67 64
Total race 1544 1558
Total sex 1051 1098
Total Div 126 138
Swim Distance 1.2 1.2
Swim Time 0:40:51 0:55:34
Swim pace 1:56 2:53
Total swim place 1126 1150
Percent 72.93% 73.81%
Sex swim place 823
AG swim place 104 110
T1 time 3:37 3:00
Total T1 place 938 944
Percent 60.75% 60.59%
Sex T1 place 643
AG T1 place 91 96
Bike Distance 56 56
Bike time 2:51:55 2:54:00
Bike speed 19.54 19.3
Total bike place 751 849
Percent 48.64% 54.49%
Sex bike place 684
AG bike place 81 92
T2 time 3:19 2:54
Total T2 place 739 516
Percent 47.86% 33.12%
Sex T2 place 371
AG T2 place 71 57
Run Distance 13.1 13.1
Run time 1:43:45 1:54:45
Run pace 7:55 8:46
Total Run place 297 277
Percent 19.24% 17.78%
Sex run place 212
AG run place 43 32