This Weekend, I Tried To Beat Dan Loeb's Time In The Half Ironman Triathlon

Business Insider

About five weeks ago, I wrote a post about hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb's "pretty lame" triathlon times.

Admittedly, the post was tongue-in-cheek.

There's absolutely nothing lame about finishing a 70.3 mile race involving swimming (1.2 miles), biking (56 miles) and running (13.1 miles). Let alone running a hugely successful hedge fund at the same time.

After writing that story, I decided to sign up for the "Mighty Man" Half Iron in Montauk. Loeb finished this race in 2011 with a time of 6:15:01 (3:02:44 bike and 2:20:30 run).

I had never done a triathlon before.

The race was scheduled for September 29th, so I had only a few weeks to train.

It's not like I started completely from scratch. I lift weights about five to six days a week doing high intensity interval training. I occassionally run 10Ks after work, too.

As for the swimming, I grew up doing swim team from fourth grade until I graduated high school. Even though I had not been swimming lately, I still felt comfortable in the water.

What freaked me out the most ahead of the event was the cycling. Before this, I had very little cycling experience.

The first time and last time I used a road bike was a 78-mile charity ride from Philadelphia to Avalon, New Jersey on Memorial Day weekend. I crashed my bike during that ride and finished last.

After pushing myself for the last five weeks, I accomplished my goal yesterday by crossing the finish line.

I finished the 1.2 mile swim in 38:38 (100th overall); the bike ride in 3:31:49 (228th overall) and the 13.1 mile run in 2:07:18 (146th overall). My final time was 6:26:47. I came in 188th out of 265 athletes.

I didn't beat Loeb's 2011 time. And that's OK. There's always next year!

Competing in a Half Ironman was one of the greatest mental/physical challenges I've faced. It was also an incredibly humbling and gratifying.

I've included highlights from my journey in the slides that follow. I'm looking foward to doing another race. For now, I need to rest and recover.