SOMA HALF IRON DISTANCE TRIATHLON - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The music before the wave was awesome and really pumped me up. Since it was a floating start, we had to tread water for about 8 minutes before hand. Mike and I went along the inside buoy line. My goggles were really fogged and I could not see anything. The first 100 yards were a bit conjested but opened up nicely. I spotted on the sun and just swam to the left of the sun and that seemed to work well. My goggles finally cleared about 600-700 yards in. I focused on my tempo(1:17) and staying streamlined in the water. Once I found my rhythymn I had no issues and could have swam for a long long time.

Really nothing. I know swimming is my limiter but I executed as planned with very little problem. My goal time for the swim was 47min and I finished 43:25. I will improve for next year but really, the swim was easy and better than expected.

Wet Suit strippers helped a lot. My legs were a little wobbly. Very solid transition with the distance that had to be run from the swim exit to the T1 entrance.

I may have been able to shave 10 seconds by not putting my Tri bag under my bike. Other than that, I was very pleased. I gained 8 spots from 103 place on the swim to 95 after transition so I passed people on transition!

The roads were smooth! My goal was to average 180 watts on the bike and nailed it perfectly. My average speed was a little over 20MPH with a goal of 18MPH. My nutrion consisted of the following:
On the bike:
- S-Caps for Sodium
- 1 Uncrustable - Bento Box
- 3 hour bottle of perpetuem in aero bottle
- 1 bottle of gatorade on down tube
- 1 bottle of water
- 3 Gus in Bento box

I ate all on my bike with the exception of all of the Gu's. I picked up two waters on the bike. Set the power meter to yell at me for anything less than 180 Watts and maintained 180 for as much as possible.

Every loop it was great to seek Rene, the kids, Jes and Jake yelling everytime I went by. I need to be less aggressive on lap one on the turns. I took a couple of them a little too fast and it really didn't gain me anytyhing


This would be a perfect course for Disc wheels or a really deep dish setup. Next time I will use a disc rear wheel

My T2 was solid. I was in and out pretty quickly. I had a good position in transition.

Get out of my shoes before the parking lot.

My left knee "tweaked" at mile 4 and I thought I was in big trouble. I focused on POSE taking shorter strides, higher cadence and no toe push off and that helped instantly. I knew my buddy Mike was about 5 minutes ahead of me on the bike. At about mile 9 I looked up and saw Mike so I kicked it up to catch him. One of the coolest parts of the entire event is when I came up and said "Hey Montoya, lets finish this thing" we ran the rest of the way in pushing each other. He started to point out the buoy locations for the 2.4IMAZ swim and I told him to shut up. One step at a time. At about 1.5 miles to go, I calculated that if we average sub 9 minute miles the rest of the way in we could break 5:30 for the overall event. I passed this info to Mike and he took off. As we were in the home stretch I was hurting bad, talking to myself etc... Mike told me to man up and we finished strong! One of the Outlaws husbands was video taping the finish and when we were in the chute he yelled Hey Mike, we both gave a wave and he emailed us the video. It was pretty cool. It was great when our wives saw us and yelled "they are finishing together" It was pretty awesome. Mike shoved me across the finish line first but we finished together. He is a good friend and next year IMAZ!

Nothing significant, it was perfect ending to a perfect day. My legs felt good and I finished stong with nothing left just as it should be. If there was one thing that I would change would be running through the aid stations. Each one probably cost me 30 seconds and 11 is a lot of time.

We found our wives and kids. I got the biggest teary hug from my wife and kids (which was nice). We grabbed some water and talked to a few of the NM Outlaws. We got our gear. Stopped at In&Out Burger and ate a mombo Cheeseburger and fries and went to the Condo. The kids swam, Mike and I cooled our legs in the pool. I got in the hot tub and streched. Had a steak and a couple of beers to celebrate. It was truly a perfect day!


I could have pushed the swim and maybe shaved a minute or two. My transitions were solid. I need more power on the bike and get my seat moved forward. I find myself constantly pushing myself off the rivet for comfort but I always settle to the front. Other than that, my race was 30 minutes better than my goal time. I don't know what I could have done differently.


Great race, great venue, great volunteers. My only complaints are as follows:
- The T shirt didn't have any distance or anything saying how far the event was. For this being my first 1/2 Iron distance, it would have been nice if the T shirt would have said so.
- Food for supporters. There wasn't any. Our wives and kids had to bring their own food in and for being out in the heat for 6+ hours it is a long day. Food for purchase on the grounds would have been great and would have made it much more enjoyable for them.