I came across the finish line, a volunteer removed my timing chip from my right leg, another volunteer handed me a towel and a third placed a finisher’s medal around my neck. I grabbed a Gatorade, walked to the food tent, sat down and felt completely satisfied.
I had just completed my first Half Ironman, it was a great experience, even though I really did not know what to expect, I was able to beat my goal time by about 10 minutes. Coming into the race I felt I would complete the swim and be on the bike in about 30 minutes, I felt I could finish the bike in about 3 hours and complete the run in about 2 hours. That would put me at about a 5:30, plus maybe a little for T2.
Swim. Going out towards the first turn I had a little trouble seeing the buoys, so I was zig zaging a little. I think I would have been better off with clear goggles instead of the tinted ones that I used. But once rounding the first buoy I had caught up to people in the waves ahead of me so I was able to follow packs of people on the course. After the second turn it was very easy to see the flags at the water exit so I was able to swim pretty straight and fast on the last leg of the swim. My swim time was 27:03 which turned out to be the fastest swim in the Half.
T1 was nice and easy, put on my bike shoes, helmet, Garmin 305 and put a bottle of Hammer Gel in my shirt pocket, and took off to the bike course. T1 was 2:49.
Bike. This was a 2 loop bike course and for the first loop I was just making sure that I was comfortable. I took Hammer Gel every 20 minutes and drank about 1.5 bottles of Gatorade every 14 miles. I averaged about 20.1 mph the first loop and kept it pretty consistent until about 10 miles to go and I picked it up a little and finished the bike in 2:45:23, averaging 20.3 mph.
T2 was casual...I took off my bike shoes, sat down and put on my socks, running shoes, race number and hat and headed out for the run. T2 was 2:24.
Run. I took a look at my Garmin and it said I was running at an 8:15 pace, way too fast for me so I made myself slow down. I walked a minute through each aid station as planned. I completed the first loop in just over 1 hour and was feeling ok. I continued about the same pace until about 3 miles remaining. At that point both my sides were hurting; I tried to keep the same pace but fell off a little and ended the run with a 2:02:51 for the half marathon.
Total time was 5:20:33
