There was a bad accident on the bike course and the start of the race was delayed by 10 minutes or so.
Lobo and I started out in the back and to the right of everyone else in our wave. It seemed to work out, because I was able to get into a rythm really quick. After the first two bouys and we were heading west now and the wave behind us was all over me. My wave had black swim cos on and the wave behind us had yellow. I looked up to sight and all I saw around me was a sea of yellow caps. Then things gor real rough in the water...half way through the swim? Twice I was dunked when people started to swim over me, so I started to swim very aggressive right back. Things calmed down a little bit but things picked up again on the last leg of the swim with the yellow caps! I felt good overall and I didn't have a panic attack! Not even close to one. When I came out of the water onto the steps someone took my arm and pulled me up. I started running and I remembered to take advantage of the strippers. I looked over and the owner of Tribe Multisports was right there and he and another guy wipped my suit off in a matter of seconds! Wow, that was cool!

My navigatoin could have been better, but overall I was very pleased with my swim.

After having my wetsuit peeled off of me I ran to my row and then to my bike and I looked down and the bottom of my feet was covered with grass. I had a small towel there to try and wipe off the grass, but it didn't work that well. I finally just put my shoes and helmet on and I was on my way.

I would put my shoes on after one good swipe of the feet to get the grass off.

There was three loops to this course and I went out pretty conservative for the first 3-4 miles, when I should have gone a little harder. The first loop was fine and I was using it to get used to all of the turns I knew were ahead of me. I was about 6 miles into the first loop and Andy (Chile) screamed past me! Man, was he working the bike hard. The second loop I started to pound it a little harder, but I started to get a very sharp pain on the inside of my left knee. I started to back off a little bit, but by the third loop I knew I needed to go hard or I might not make my goal time. I had the same 5-10 guys around me the whole 56 miles and we would all go back and forth.

I should have trusted my ability on the bike and went harder when I knew I should have.

Coming off of the bike I thought my knee was going to hurt, but when I started running with my bike there was no pain at all! I thought, cool, I should be ok for the run. My transition went pretty fast, but I needed to go to the bathroom pretty bad and I forgot my race number by the time I was at the end of my row, so I had to run back and get my race belt with my number and then proceed to use the bathroom. What was funny was I went to the port-a-potty three other guys looked at me and said that looks like a good idea.

Use the restroom before the race. And remember to put my racebelt in my shoes to remember to put it on first.

There was two loops and the first loop went pretty good and I felt somewhat fresh. The second loop was completely differrent! I could not get my rythm, unitl I started running with a guy named Adam. He was hurting big time and we started to run together and the next thing I know he's talking up a storm and I didn't realize 3 1/2 mile went by. We had picked up the pace quite a bit and I realized I only had about 2 1/2 miles to go. I thought I'm going to finish a half ironman! I couldn't believe it. I signed up for this race even before I had ever done any type of triathlon. I then saw Lobo and I knew we were going to be close to each other finishing. When I caught him he said his achilles was on fire and he would be right behind me. When I was coming up to the last tenth of a mile I saw my coach and friends cheering me on and I got a burst of energy and sprinted up the hill. I then saw my wife and Lobo's wife cheering me on and then the finish line chute, what a sight! I just finihed my firs Half Ironman!

I needed to take in more Endurolytes on the bike and the run.

Waited with Lobo for the rest of the Tri group to finish and ate pizza and drank Pepsi. That Pepsi tasted GREAT! What a great day. I wish I could've seen the BT'ers again to take a picture, but next time we'll have to do it. IMAZ here I come!


Get better on my nutrition.


Great race, because I finished it. Great race support and friends to share this with.