Ironman Germany (European Championships) - TriathlonFull Ironman

Intense! These guys are fast. Probably one of the most intense things I've ever done in the name of sport. Legs, elbows, arms flying everywhere for about the first 800 meters when we rounded the first turn. Goggles knocked off twice. One elbow to the forehead. No kicks to the face (thank goodness). After about 800, there started to sort of be some clean water, but it wasn't really until the second lap where I was really swimming by myself.

No idea. Started at the front which is where I think I should have been. If I had started back a ways I would have had to swim over people. I guess I could try swimming with hundreds of people in my lane during workouts.

New experience. Huge uphill run out of the water. Saw the time on the big clock and was feeling good. Grabbed transition bag and went into the tent to change. Took my time since what was a couple minutes going to save me. :)

Maybe move a little faster, but also wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything since 6 hours on the bike without something is no fun.

It was hard to get out of the draft for the first 10 miles or so there were so many people. Felt like I was constantly backing off. I think the officials took that into account and were pretty lax first the first 30 or so since I saw a couple trains come by. :) Thought I was staying close to the planned power, but apparently was waaayyy under. Was shooting for around 75% of FTP, but ended up around 65%. I think there was more long down slopes that I was not prepared for and just kind of rode. Probably could have stepped it up pretty easily, but not bad for the first one.

Hold wattage a little better regardless of how fast I'm going. I let the fact that I was holding pretty good pace give me a mental reason to slack off on the watts. Mental mistake, but I also figured a little underpacing on the bike wasn't the worst thing.

Oh yeah, don't crash at mile 15. Hit some guy's discarded water bottle that he did not throw to the side and came down on my hand, elbow, and hip. Ouch!

Got caught a little off guard since I was wearing bike shorts and I had planned on changing into running shorts, but the T2 tent was not for changing apparently, so I just switched out what I could sprayed down with sunscreen and headed out.

Again, no idea. Didn't really know what to expect too much.

Ran the first couple of kilometers and then the hip started to say hello. It had been in the same position for over 5 hours on the bike after the crash and it was now acting out. Managed to run/walk through about 2 laps and then had to sit down and stretch when I saw the folks at the Nestle aid station (where they were allowed to hand off special needs). Also still struggle to keep the salt levels high enough in the heat. Just told myself to enjoy it and run when I could.

Not crash on the bike. Learn the amount of salt my body needs. Felt like the water intake was right on, but was losing sodium.

Went into the "athlete's garden". Sat down and stretched. Went out to see the folks. Heather made me go back in and get my finishers certificate and finisher's shirt. I was a little out of it. :) Came back out. Heather made me go back into the Medical tent. Got 2 pints of saline. Felt great afterwards.


Crash on the bike. Sore hip. Unexpected heat. Not enough salt intake.


One thing I would say that was missing were some things in the athlete's garden that I thought were going to be there, but weren't. Perhaps I just missed them. The helpfulness of the volunteers here was a little lacking as they would not tell Heather or my Dad where I was or even look when I was in the medical tent. Very strange.