Timberman Triathlon Half Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

After overheating on the swim at the Philly Tri, I decided to just keep it very easy and try drafting. I definitely felt the difference when I got out of the water as I felt much fresher than I had in the Oly race. I could have pushed a lot harder in the swim but I think I made a good call by just easing into the day.

I decided to take my time in the two transitions and make sure that I got a gu in me.

I had bagged everything as it was sort of drizzling right before the race started. It would have been nice to lay everything out so it would be easier to find when I came in.

I threw the chain right after I turned onto 106 as I tried to accelerate back up to speed. After playing with the gears to try to get it to catch, I pulled over and wasted a minute or so putting it back on the gear. In retrospect, I should have just stayed seated and just eased the power and the speed back up to race pace as I came off the corner instead of trying to make a second or two by standing. The only other thing that bothered me on the bike was the rear wheel. Unfortunately it got knocked out of tru on the trip up. I loosened the rear brake so it wouldn't rub, but it definitely made the handling a little squirely on the two descents at the end.

Replace the cutup power bars (which I decided to try on a whim) with the candy corns I ussually keep in the bento box. Unfortunately the power bar pieces that I had prepared ended up melting into a solid power mess and being useless. Thankfully, you can't go wrong with Fig Newtons and they made it through (and into my stomach) without incident.

Hot, slow and painful.

Taper

Sat down in the water and tried to get some relief for the shin.


Injury and other races the week before. I ran the Crater Lake Marathon and the Haulin Aspen Trail Marathon on Aug 13 & Aug 14. Unfortunately, I took two headers on the trail in Bend, Or and smacked a rib and my shin on the left side pretty badly. While they didn't hamper me too much during the swim or the bike, it definitely hurt everytime I went to pull with the left arm or ankle the pedal with my left leg. However, where I really felt out of sorts was on the run. While I could sort of run through the pain, there was no way I was going to run a decent time given the injuries. Mentally, the run was very difficult. While I knew I wasn't going to run a good time, I just started looking for reasons to walk/run slowly as opposed to pushing through to the end.


This was my first Half Iron so I don't have a lot of races to compare it to. That said, I thought the RD did a great job and would race it again (I just wouldn't run a double the week before). The only thing I found confusing was the timing of the waves. I'm sure there was a reason for it, but I didn't get why we started in wave 10 (next to last/right before the first timers). BTW - The event was 15 minutes late because they were trying to get people into the park.