I recently finished the Memphis Half Ironman in Tennessee with my family. My last “Family Iron”, which is a little bittersweet… but what a hell of a race to wrap up with.

For those who don’t know, my Mom and Step Dad are the two people who got me into doing Triathlon. They moved into this sport after being extremely active in road cycling, and prior to that mountain biking, and (for my mom) marathoning.
I have past Race Reports that touches on this. I think I mention it every time actually. But this was going to be my mom’s retirement-from-long-distance-tris race. I won’t be surprised if she squeezes in an Olympic here or a Sprint there. But this Half Iron distance was going to be her last “long” race. And while my mother has raced in three other full-distance Irons and I think six or seven? half-distance Irons she would be racing this race nine-months post-hip-replacement! Crazy, right?
And being able to do events like this with my family over the years has been very cool. So this last one would be that much more special to complete for my mom after surgery early in 2021. I was also set to later compete in the Full Iron Sacramento with Jay as his final full-distance before he retired from long events, but that got cancelled due to weather. So now he and I have to suffer through another Summer of Iron training to race in 2022.

The Memphis Half ended up being no easy race, either. Weather reports as the weekend approached focused on just how bad the weather was going to get. From “chance of rain” to “it’s definitely gonna be raining” to “you’re racing in a storm, guys..”.
Memphis made us work for it.

Here’s a great example of what I mean with the weather. Pouring rain and look at my posture…. sitting upright, stiff, and aware. one hand on the brakes and even my expression is basically saying “yeah, this is sketchy..”. I had my sunglasses on because the rain was so hard it hurt your eyes when it hit your face. ha!

Overall Target – Sub 6 hours

My goal with this event, prior to any talk or discussion of rain and bad weather, was to finish the event in six hours or less. The last time I had done a Half Iron was in Puerto Rico and didn’t break 6:00 since that run course was brutally hot and I just couldn’t find the energy after putting down a fast bike. Going into Memphis I planned to try and back off my bike pace a bit by watching my overall power (since I have power meters now) and save energy for a strong run. 

Arrival that morning was ridiculous though. When we got up for the day it was already pouring rain. The traffic back up was so bad people were getting out of cars and walking to check in. We finally made it to park, but were directed into a grass field we just KNEW would be a mess trying to leave later that day. 
They also ended up having to delay the start by about 30 minutes if I remember correctly to give everyone time to check in.

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Swim

Projected Time: 50 min
“Good day” time: 45 min – I figured I could a 45min swim or faster based on recent pool workouts
Actual official clock time: 42:15

Going in to the event as a whole I started to question if I had been training enough in the pool, or water in general. I’ve done zero open water swims this year in SoCal. There was a sewage spill in Venice area, and most recently and oil spill in Huntington. Basically the water quality has been pretty terrible in Southern California and I have no desire to drive all the way to the beach just to swim open water.

The day before the race we did the open-water-practice session thing they had for athletes, to get a feel for the water in the lake. So I was semi prepared.

Due to the rain in the morning I opted to wear my sleeveless wetsuit and start in the last group. I knew this could/would be messy with crowded water by starting in the back when I’m typically mid-pack or just ahead of mid-pack for starting. Getting in and starting my swim the water was warm, plenty crowded, and I laughed to myself that I had not swam in a wetsuit in nearly three years.
The rain also picked up during the second half of the swim. I’m now wondering if that was part of the reason I had a really hard time sighting. Usually I’m pretty good at it and can keep straight lines.
But for nearly the entirety of this swim I was very wide and far to the left of the buoys, and even in trying to correct my path I was getting thrown off losing track of the red inflatable buoys in the grey and darker morning weather.

The U-Turn was a bit confusing because as you can see it’s not just a squared off double-turn. You backtrack at an angle and then turn again. I also had a hard correction at the slight-left turn on the way to the exit.

All in all, I swam a solid pace at 1:48/100yd. I just went a couple hundred yards further than I needed to. Breaking 40min would have been nice, had I swam straight.

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T1

Transition here was long. It was actually longer than T1 in Puerto Rico! And that race has a known run in T1 that people actually set shoes aside for because you run a couple blocks down a street.

T1 here in Memphis was a long, steady uphill path from the water exit. At the exit they had a guy who was unzipping and helping with wetsuits immediately as you exited the water. While I would not have needed help with my sleeveless, he had my zipper done and suit pulled off my shoulders quicker than I realized what he was doing. It was honestly very helpful as I was still getting my bearing and balance having just stood up.

I kept a very short jog pace for T1.
It was pouring rain at this point. I was soaking wet having just swam, but I was fully kitted under my wetsuit in my bike kit. I was basically considering/thinking about what my bike portion was going to be like.
When I got to my bike, the entire transition area was a mud pit. And I was at the end of a racks on the corner half the people had to walk around. So, a high traffic area that was a huge mess of mud.

Fortunately my bike was near a ground cover thing in the grass, you know for like underground pipe controls. It provided a clean area to sit. And I sat down and cleaned off my muddy feet with a rag, methodically put on my socks so they wouldn’t bunch or have issues in the rain, put on my cleats, my arm sleeves, bandana, packed everything up best I could with the assumption it would all be rained on the rest of the day, and grabbed my bike.

Unlike some people I carried my bike all the way to the mounting line. Walking through mud my feet were instantly soaked in muddy water and dirt, covering my white cleats. I stomped them out as soon as I got to the cement, got to the line, mounted up and started my ride.

Mentally I figured T1 could take me up to 10 minutes. I’m surprised it took me only 6.

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Bike

Projected Time: 3 hours
“Good Day” time: 2:45 – this would be considered a fast time if I intended to save energy to run. Also with the rainstorm I was mentally prepared to target 3hr flat
Actual official clock time: 2:46:16

Starting out on the bike course it was already raining hard. And we had some immediate downhill with a few 90-degree turns in it just to get out to the main road. I joked with riders near me that we in for a hell of a day. One guy said his brakes were already barely working.
The first two miles or so I was trying to not only find my pace, but also put my vest on. It was a bit chilly and my thought was that I should try and keep my core warm. But after not being able to zip it once it was on, contemplating stopping to zip it, then deciding against that… I ultimately took it off and shoved it in my back pocket.

Because I started in the wetsuit group, and in the last 10% or so of the entire field, I would have a lot of ground to make up on the bike. Cuz if i’m an average swimmer at best, I’m at least an above average cyclist.

The first 5 miles were some of the busier ones. But everyone was in an overall upbeat mood. People cracked jokes about the weather, they gave plenty of room to people who were stopping because water bottles/etc were falling off their bikes, and overall you could just tell there was a kindness to everyone dealing with how the day was shaping up.

The course itself had some very, very hard turns. Which would be dangerous in dry weather, let alone the pouring rain.
And when I say pouring rain, this was by far the worst weather I’ve ever ridden in.

I tried to watch my power and speed with my Garmin 810, but couldn’t read the screen easily between the rain on my sunglasses and the rain on the screen. So I would occasionally check my Speed and Power on my Gamin 920 watch.
I knew I was going much faster than planned, and way over on power, too. My planned power target was 170 average. And I was consistently at 200w most every time I checked.

I specifically remember the first very-hard right turn, sharper than 90 degrees, too. (Top left of the map, we cycled clockwise) There was a girl who was just ahead of me that I shouted to not worry and I was staying back and taking it wide. Approaching all hard turns everyone was pretty vocal or at least used very clear hand signals to warn they were slowing. No one wanted to crash into others.

There were some extremely beautiful parts of the bike ride through rolling hills. There were other beautiful stretches through covered woods. And there were definitely a few very steep climbs. I was a little surprised to drop all the way into my easiest gear on three different parts of the course. Others stood up and hammered it up those hills, but I took it easy and slow. And then quickly passed them again when it flattened. I knew those were not worth burning up my legs for.

There was also one big drop on the course that several other racers somewhat slowed down for. I put my bike in the hardest gear and sped up since there was a huge climb right after the dip. I hit around 38.8mph… in rain.. on wet roads. haha! One other cyclist who was similar pace to mine was off to my left only a bit behind me. “Not bad!” he yelled as we climbed up and over the next hill, both of us flying past everyone else.

Looking at the map along the bottom you see a left turn that’s sharper than 90 degrees. That’s the only one I came in a little hot toward the last portion of my ride. I couldn’t 100% tell it was a left turn. And for several miles leading up to that there were fewer people right around me. I had broken away from some of the larger groups. So I had no one to “follow”.
“LEFT?!???” I yelled to the cops. “Oh yeah. Left!!” they shouted.
Of course my brakes were probably, I dunno, 40% or something at that time. So I slowed…sorta… took the turn reallyyyy wide. Went outside the cones and then had to correct and get back on the course.
Nothing dangerous in the sense of “I went into traffic.” But that’s just because traffic was also blocked around that section.

The last couple miles were rollers and mostly straight. I tried to dial back a bit rather than power through. It was leapfrog for a few of us at that point.

Overall on the course I was amazed and impressed at how safe others were riding, the kindness in verbalizing and signaling intent, and the sheer lack of accidents I saw. Also the amount of people standing on the sidelines, in the rain, cheering everyone on!

Entering T2 the rain was letting up. And I was shocked that I basically hit my 2:45 time target which was planned for dry weather. Didn’t think I’d pull that off in a horrible storm and tons of water.

I was still completely soaked of course. My shoes were long since clean of any mud. I was surprised at the lack of mud/grime/road-dirt on me since the majority of bike ride was spent trying to stay out of other people roost of water they were throwing up from their rear tire.

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T2

Our T2 transition was much shorter. Start at one end, exit the other.

Much faster overall of course, in general. Quick stop to use the bathroom since I think people peeing on their bike is gross unless you’re a legit pro or age-grouper and those seconds actually would hurt you to not save.
Racked my bike, put on my running shoes and run bib. I emptied my pockets, chugged some of my gatorade from my bike… and then turned to face the same mud pit again…. wearing my white running shoes.

Welp, nothing I could really do. By the time I got to the cement my white shoes were covered in mud.
Right at the start of the run there were a lot of standing puddles. Most people were using these to run through and stomp and try and clean their shoes a bit.
I did the same.

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Run

Projected Time: 2:00-2:10
“Good Day” Time: 2:00 or less
Actual official clock time: 2:04:34

Going in to the run I was trying to gauge where my legs were at.

The rain had stopped. Overall I felt pretty good I thought. And then at about 0.4 miles or so there was a sign: Mile 7. A few of us joked “oh, awesome! we’re already at 7!” but really I hate loops for this exact reason. But basically zero courses have no loops in them due to size requirements.

By Mile 2 for me it was starting to warm up. And the muggy air was setting in. I took off my sleeves that I was still wearing at that point and grabbed some gatorade at an aid station. I could feel the tiniest bit of cramping in my left leg behind my knee. I changed my step and gait a bit. I didn’t want to try and stretch it out or do anything drastic since that’s what hurt me in Puerto Rico and my leg fully cramped in that race.
Changing my pace helped and I was able to run-out the cramp. A mile later at the next aid station I grabbed a caffeine gel and ate most of that. Followed by water later on at the next station.

The support here on the run course was great, too. I specifically remember at guy around mile 2.5 cheering me on and saying “You’re gliding! You’re making it look easy!” and that stuck with me, I think because I was really focused on running comfortably so as to not cramp. haha!

After clearing the Village area the course takes you up into the park. The course runs through trees, hills, and wooded paths. The support all over the run course was great as well. From the aid stations and all the youth volunteers cheering everyone on, to bystanders doing the same. The top part of the top outer loop in that map was open area and hilly. I chatted briefly with one guy who had a tattoo that I learned was for Suicide Awareness. I asked him the meaning after seeing quite a few people with the same identical tattoo. They were all there running for fundraising in memory of a friend they lost. The inner loop in that top loop section is a very hilly climbing section before it drops you right back down into the Village area. In that climb there is a section that had huge posters of the children that St. Jude’s had helped.

And then you do a second lap. The same guy at the 2.5 mile mark cheered me on again. The clouds had since rolled back in a bit so it cooled down. The hill section was a bit harder on me the second time around. You can see where my pace drops well past 12min/mile at four points. Those were the steeper climbs that I opted to speed walk up rather than try and keep jogging.

Coming down the last hill is a very comfortable, fast finish. It’s downhill and then a hard left turn into the finish chute.

There was no one really around me so I had plenty of space to finish and cross the line.

Overall I had a pretty great race.

Officially I finished 43 out of 165 in my age division for Men. Top 26% (nearly hit that Top 25% haha)
I was 264 out of 1,168 Men. top 23%
And I was 307 out of 1,764 total Athletes. Top 17.5%.

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Post Race and waiting for the family

After I finished my race I was handed my medal and hat. And then walked over to take my photo with the professionals there on the Ironman background.

I exited and made my way through the crowd, and asked around with people I saw eating where the food was located.
Lunch for the athletes was back in the Check In tent. I made my way through and grabbed a couple of the chicken sandwiches, a banana, and a Coke. And then went to the center of the Village to watch to live feed and sat and ate my lunch. After I finished I noticed a guy sitting next me with his phone checking the Live Updates. I asked if he could check on my mom and J for me. He did. And he let me know they were both still on the course, running, and within finishing times/distance. Awesome!

I headed back to Transition and got my phone out of my backpack and tidied up my other bags a bit. As I left Transition I was checking the live feed and realized Mom had just come by the area I was in heading out to her final lap of the run. I ran down to the course to find her.
Catching up with Mom I gave her a hug and sped walk/jogged with her for a couple hundred yards. Let her know I had a great race. That J was a bit ahead of her. And that Monica (my sister) was keeping everyone updated in our family group-chat.

After that I broke away from Mom so she could focus on her last 5 miles and I started my walk to wait at the Finish.

Standing at the Finisher chute cheering for people as they come in is always so much fun. People cry and get pretty emotional.
Everyone has their mountains to climb. And completing a Half is that Everest for some. So it’s really inspiring to watch people react to their finish.

Marsha, J’s sister, found me at the finish and hung out and waiting with me. She joked that she didn’t come too early in the day due to the weather. And I agreed with her that that was by far the right choice – the rain sucked and there was no point in standing around in it just to cheer for us.
We watched the live tracking online waiting for J to eventually come into the chute.
I described to Marsha where J and Mom were on the course and what they had ahead of them before finishing in terms of climbs and descents on the trail.

When J came down the chute he was hyper focused on his finish and didn’t hear us cheering for him.
And not terribly long after that, Mom came down the the chute for her finish as well! Finishing strong and with plenty of time still on the clock.

I ran around the back to exit area to go and congratulate her, and J. Mom was emotional since she wasn’t sure if she would be able to do this race in the months leading up. After a hip replacement at the start of 2021 there was a period of time that she questioned her ability to race ever again. But she did it.

We got a family photo with our medals. And then made our way to the benches so Mom and J could sit and rest.

While we were hanging out there I broke away and went and grabbed some food for my family from the tent. And then a short time later Mom and I went and packed up her/J’s bikes and bags to bring back and then I went back for mine. J sat and talked with Marsha and rested.

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Trying to leave… oooohhhh, the mud!

We knew getting out of there was going to be a pain in the ass. And we walked as far as we could on the pathways and roads to avoid any grass and mud on that return to the car. But once we got there, it was stuck. Not nearly as bad as some of the vehicles… Looking around you could see other cars – sedans particularly – that were clearly not getting out of the mud any time soon. We were in a Suburban, but it was two-wheel drive, and the wheels were just spinning in place. There was a tow truck that was winching people out, and a guy in a Jeep that was pulling people out with a hook and chain.

The guy in the Jeep yelled “You stuck! You need a pull?!”
“Yeah, if you think you can pull us!” I yelled back

He was super chill and jumped out, came over and pulled the hitch cover off the Suburban and hooked up his tow chain. “I have one of these. I’ll get it out!” he looked over in the cab “Yeah, this is the two-wheel…” nodding that we def needed help out of the mud.
J got in to drive in reverse as the Jeep started pullin’ us straight back to the solid ground. The Suburban was juuuust barely moving so I ran over to push on the hood. I honestly don’t know if I helped that much, but at that point any little bit was better than nothing. And after just a couple minutes of pulling we were out! The hardest part was probably just getting the Jeep > chain > Suburban lined up in the straight line for maximum pulling.

The Jeep owner got out, un-hooked this chain and hook and wrapped it back on his car, getting ready to go help the next person.
I thanked him. Gave him $20 and said something like “Dude, Thank You. You totally saved us!” and he just nodded and smiled.

Not once did these guys ask for money. They honestly seemed to just be out there helping for the sake of helping.

J and I pulled the car around to the road, loaded up the bikes (which took a bit of time, and then we headed back to the hotel.

Once back I cleaned all the bikes up, started cleaning some of what I could with all my gear, and then finally showered and changed after a totally wild race day.

That night we went for BBQ. It was a delicious choice for dinner.

The remainder of the trip we spent doing a few touristy things like visiting Graceland and site-seeing.
But with the rainy race day and then seeing the photos afterward of us all cycling in the pouring weather, it’ll be remembered as the worst weather I’ve ever raced in. And also one hell of a final race to do with my family and wrap up quite a few years of Iron events together!

Professional Photos from Race Day:

 

My Photos from the whole weekend:

Not excited for a very early flight out that morning. It’s 445am.

Airport is empty. I’m trying to find Starbucks

We went direct check in after I arrived

The clouds were beautiful. Better than anything we get in SoCal

Bike building and prep

Short shake out ride and bike drop off

This was obviously before everything turned to mud in the storm

Most of my gear is white… which is not a great choice in the mud

Morning of the race it was pouring, so I switched to my Iron Chatt cycling kit. Which was a great choice since these cycling shorts are way more comfortable when totally soaked

The nightmare of traffic trying to get in

And then the long walk to the Iron Village

Everyone sitting around waiting for things to get going

Everyone getting their bikes ready, some getting their wetsuits on. Getting closer to race time

After I finished

Pretty much ruined my running shoes. Well, stained them anyway

Waiting for the family to finish. Staying warm

Emotional finish for Mom. And rockin’ her Ironman Arizona hat

Tear down was very fast that afternoon as everyone packed out

And of course the car was stuck in the mud…

This guy helped pull us out!

Being touristy the next day going to Graceland

And time to break down the bikes and pack to fly out the following day

The Elvis medal is pretty sweet though!

Another race weekend done. Packed, and time to head to the airport!

Gas is always cheaper outside of SoCal!

Mom and J catching their flight to Northern California, while I wait for my flight to Southern California

And home!

Rebuilt my bike the night I got home since I had training to do the next day, ha!