Goseong IRONMAN 70.3

	Swim (1.9km)	Bike (90.1km)	Run (21.1km)	Total
Time	36:08 (1:55/100m)	2:31:51 (35.3km/h)	1:46:02 (5:05/km)	4:57:45
Ranking	Age 5/40 Male 50/1107	Age 4/40 Male 73/1107	Age 6/40 Male 123/1107	Age 4/40 Male 71/1107

June 2026.

I participated in my first half-distance IRONMAN race.

The weather wasn’t as hot as I expected, and it was cloudy in the morning so the sun wasn’t too harsh. The conditions were far better than I had hoped for. The course was also laid out along the coastline, making it absolutely beautiful.

Let’s talk about the results.

At the start of the year, I set a goal of finishing under five hours. As the race drew closer and I could see my fitness improving, I started to wonder if 4:45 might be within reach. I’d also put up a good result at the Daegu Triathlon earlier this year…

But as expected, I wasn’t accustomed to racing at this distance for nearly five hours, and an ankle injury kept me from running well in the final stretch, so 4:45 wasn’t in the cards. I finished with a time of 4:57.

I finished 4th by a margin of just three minutes, so next year I’d like to crack the top 3 with a time in the 4:30s.

Swim. The water temperature was just right and the course was a single loop, so I figured it would be comfortable. But being my first time at this race, I started a little toward the back of the group, and the physical contact was brutal. I took elbows or hands to the face at least three times and it really hurt. There were a lot of jellyfish in the water — scary at first, but I figured there was nothing I could do about it and just kept swimming, so it wasn’t a big deal in the end. Because I was swimming in wide arcs, my GPS logged 1,976m — nearly 100m more than the course distance. Next time I’d like to swim a tighter, more accurate line.

Bike. A beautiful stretch of road running along the coast. With only about six turns on the entire course, there was a real joy in just putting the power down. I’d heard there were a lot of hills, but there were far more than I expected.

I rode to a normalized power of 203W, which was within my target range, but my cadence dropped off and it took a toll on my run. Next time I’ll need to work on maintaining 90 RPM. It was also my first race using a disc wheel. The handling felt trickier and it made me quite nervous. I usually only ride indoors, so it’s clear I need to get a lot more outdoor riding in.

Run. After cresting a big hill at the start, there was a brutally relentless gradual climb for about 2–3 kilometers. By this point the sun had come out and it started to get warm.

After back-to-back swim and bike legs, the run hit harder than I expected, and going out too hard on that first hill meant I couldn’t hold my pace all the way to the finish — something I’m disappointed about. I clearly need to put more work into long runs and brick sessions that link the bike and run together.

The race operations were smooth and well-organized, and I’d love to come back and race here again next year — hopefully with much stronger legs!