2nd half ironman of my short tri career is in the books! Hopefully this RR will help someone who wants to the race in the future.

Swim - Pretty calm, the lake was small so there wasn't much to worry about with currents, waves or sharks. There were some weeds for a few hundred yards but nothing too severe. As much as I liked this race, i have some complaints, and they start here. Why on earth have bouys that don't come more than 3 feet over the water, are white and a pale shade of red, and to make matters worse are only located on the corners but nowhere inbetween the 400 yards separating each one? I much prefer the big orange triangles. Anyways, I was able to see the swimmers in front of me and follow them. Cool side note, a 2000 US swim team olympian participated in a relay and did the swim in 20 minutes. My time was 30 minutes, I think the course was a little short.

Bike- This is where I have done the most work this season and was sooooo excited to ride a flat course, compared to hilly Bloomington IN. Well, the first 13 miles were rollers and not at all flat, then the fun started! There was some rain for the first hour and then again a little later, thankfully the winds were nice and calm. The course was a 28 mile out and back, when I hit mile 21 Chris McDonald (winner of IM WI) came the other way. First time I'd ever seen a pro like that... really really neat experience. Nothing really of note on the bike, 3 aid stations, great volunteers, all but 1 intersection controlled. I started a thread a while ago about getting to 20 MPH on the bike, and my computer said 20.8!!!!

Run - Ok, I am not a complainer but for people who want to do this race, there are some things I would have wanted to know. There are no mile markers and the aid stations are few and far between (1 every 2.5 miles, give or take). ok, done complaining... That was an insanely hard run course, the first few miles were all up and down short, steep rollers, then the course moved to paved forest trails and flattened out for a while, then moved back to the hills. My goal was to break 5 hours for the race and because I had no idea how many miles i'd gone I was just trying to keep my pace and be strong, not fast. Unfortunately coming down one of the hills I pulled a muscle in my quad and had to walk the last 3 miles (well maybe it was more or less). I stopped looking at my watch and don't know the run time. Final time of 5:38:XX. Still a 15 min PR with an hour of walking!!!!

Thoughts: I love this distance, I love this sport. I held the pace I wanted for 4:30:00 out of 5:00:00, that is 90% in only my second 1/2 iron. Was I a little upset to walk? Of course, I am a competitive person, but I'm 23 years old and have a lot of time to get better! The waiting will only make getting there sweeter. Anyways, if you made it this far thanks for reading! This forum has helped me so much and I truly thank all of you who contribute. Happy and safe racing!