Door County Half Ironman

Last weekend marked the fourth time that I raced the Door County Half Ironman, up in Egg Harbor, WI. The forecast was looking good for race day, but unfortunately in the morning we woke up to some high winds from the west. The swim, being in Green Bay of Lake Michigan on the west side of the door county peninsula, was definitely going to be rough, and the bike, being half up on a bluff, was surely going to be into the wind at some point.

Nevertheless, the race went on and it was a beautiful day. The swim took a lot of effort to sight the buoys and go straight. It was tricky trying to time breathing and sighting for the top of a swell. Swimming through the 2-ft chop was fun at times, but definitely not fast.

Onto the bike, I recently bought a new (used) triathlon bike that I was excited to race on. The first half of the race was fast and mostly sheltered from the wind. The second half was up on a bluff directly in the wind and again took a lot of energy similar to the swim. Overall, I had a personal best time on the bike averaging just under 21 mph.

Off of the bike and onto the run, I was pretty wiped from the swim and bike, and it was in the mid 80s with not a cloud in the sky. I shuffled my way through the run at a pace slower than I hoped, but finished in the top half of my age group and in the top quarter overall out of around 850 racers. Another great race!