The swim felt good. I held back some to try and keep the breathing, heart rate, etc., under control. Sighting went very well also. Coming in I nailed every buoy. I was off course about 10 yards between the last buoy and shore, but nothing major.

Nothing.

This was the absolute worst thing on earth. My suit zipper pull got rerouted wrong, and when I pulled down it would not unzip. I pulled hard enough to get chunks of suit, until finally the whole zipper pull ripped from the zipper. I was stuck. It took forever to "manually" reach back and pull the zipper apart enough to get it off. Not to mention the energy, frustration, and cussing.

With my new suit I will practice on the zipper thing until it is down cold.

I more or less enjoyed the bike. I probably went a little too hard or did not drink enough, or a combo. My back got stiff towards the latter 1/3.

Probably back off a little on the bike, and force myself to drink what they offer on the course. I drank all that I carried but I still should have had more.

This transition wasn't too bad for me. I need to practice the flying dismount thing, etc., but I didn't have any major snags.

Practice flying dismount.

This is where the wheels came off, literally. I felt a twinge of a cramp as I was pulling in on the bike and thought, uh oh. I started out on the run but I couldn't get my heart rate down without practically walking, so I trotted along trying to stay cool in the heat. At about mile 6 or so, somewhere in that damn park, my calves started cramping so I couldn't push off. After 7 miles of shuffling along with cramping calves my quads and hams locked up in sight (literally 100 yards or less) of the finish line. I was stuck until they unlocked and I could shuffle across.

Figure out how to keep from cramping so bad. I suppose I should try salt tabs, etc. I didn't but I really need to educate myself on this.

After about 5 minutes I could walk again no problem. I had some cramping the next couple of hours, but I was able to clear out transition and get cleaned up pretty quickly. Having cramps forced me to go so slow that the last 5 miles or so really did seem like a warm-down! I drank a ton of liquids and gels, etc., the last 6 miles so that probably saved me too.


Cramping, cramping, cramping. And the heat.


Since this was my first Half IM at least I can say I set a PR. I thought is was really well organized and run. If they could only do it in December it would be perfect!