LongHorn Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Festival - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

As I was heading over for my wave to start I noticed they were already in the water and the announcer said 2 minutes till the green caps start(my wave) I made my way to the water in time to go under and get a little water in the wetsuit and make sure it felt Ok. The first 500 meters was pretty chaotic. I fought pretty hard to get a good position. After we spread out I was able to settle down and find my groove. I thought the swim was great, I came out of the water feeling good and looked at my watch to see a 40 minute swim and I was blown away. I didn't think I would be nearly that fast out of the water. As I was running up the swim exit I noticed my friends and family there cheering for me and telling I had an awesome swim which made me feel even better.

not much I would have done differently.

I had already taken my wetsuit down to my waste before I reached the wetsuit strippers. I approached and pointed at one volunteer, I layed down and rocked back and with one clean jerk my wetsuit was removed. I was amazed and got up, gave the volunteer a high five and said that was freaking awesome man, I appreciate it. ran to transition tried to wipe the mud of my feet the best I could and put my bike gear on.Then I had to bag up my wetsuit and goggles. Grabbed my bike and ran for the exit. By the time I made the exit my cheering crew had ran over to the bike exit to cheer me on and take more pics. It was nice to see them again.

I should have had another spare water bottle to rinse the mud off my feet with

The bike started out great, I was moving along a little faster than what I thought I would be, but I wasn't pushing myself too hard. I noticed a lot of people having flats and I prayed that I would not get one, luckily I didn't.There were some pretty good hills on the course and I had been practicing for the hills. It really felt great being able to pass a few people on the hills. Halfway thru the bike course one of my rear water bottle cages broke and started squeaking like crazy. It was a cheap one from Academy sports that I liked because I have only launched one bottle out of it. After five minutes I reached back and twisted it with my hand to keep it from squeaking so I could ride in peace. The last 10-15 miles seemed to be a long slow climb. Some of the roads looked flat but the longer I rode the more speed I kept losing. I wasn't quite prepared for this. My nutrition on the bike was really good. I had 4 miniature payday candy bars and two Gu's throughout the ride and lots of gatorade and water. I also took endurolyte pills and anti-fatigue pills from Hammer Nutrition. As I returned from the bike I saw my family and GF and friends standing at the bike dismount yelling and taking pics of me. That gave me a great energy boost and I felt like a rockstar having them there. They all had huge smiles on their faces.

More training on the bike to increase my speed. I'm really happy with my performance but it would have been nice to have had a faster speed.

I took all of my bike gear off and changed shoes for the run. It went pretty smooth despite having to bag all my bike gear.

As I took off for the run my crew had already moved to the run exit. I can't emphasize how great it was having them there for me. Immediately into the run my heart rate started climbing and I had to walk for a while to get it under control. Around mile three I was finally able to keep my heart rate under control and steady my breathing. by this time it had started heating up I was getting dehydrated. At every water station I grabbed a cup of gatorade and 2 waters. The run had a quite a bit of trail running. I wasn't a fan of that, I almost rolled my ankle twice because of the dirt ruts under the grass. Coming in for the turn-around for the second loop I was feeling mentally great but physically I was having some stomach problems. I had some Gu's with me but the thought of them made me want to hurl. I was doing quite a bit of walking and I was determined to finish. I saw my GF and family at the turn around loop and this really picked me up. They were going crazy for me. Starting the second loop I began reflecting back on my journey. Two years and ten months ago was when I ran my first mile ever. I had gone from 320 pounds to 233. My bodyfat percentage had gone from 45 to 22. Three years ago I saw my friend( who is really like a sister to me) Andra finish a sprint triathlon and I wanted to do one. Last year she and I finished off the season by doing the Toyota US open in Dallas. She did the Olympic and I did the Sprint, and now I was only a few miles from finishing my first Half-Ironman and she was there with her family cheering me on. I really got after it the best could on the second loop. I tried to run as much as I, but my hamstrings had already decided they had enough. They started to feel like they were going to cramp up on me but they never did. They just didn't want me to run anymore. As I approached the arena where the finish line was I couldn't find my family. I was actually about 20 minutes ahead of where I thought I would be time wise and I started to think that they might miss me crossing the line. As I made the final turn to enter the arena I was approacj=hing another runner who was walking. Thankfully she started to jog as I got closer. I looked over my sholder and saw that no one was coming up behind me for quite some time so I slowed my run a little so I could cross the line by myself and let her do the same. Right as I entered the arena I saw my family and GF there on the rail. They gave me high fives and jumping and cheering. I heard the announcer call my name and I new I had done it.I finished in 7:25:58 my goal was 7:45:00 It was simply amazing to experience. Everyone always says to go out and enjoy your first one and I truly did.This is one race I'll never forget.

My running still needs some work. I should have had my fuel-belt for the run so I could have had liquids when I needed them instead of having to wait for the next aid station.

I drank a lot of cold water, ate a vanilla ice cream cup that they were giving away( it tasted horrible but it was cold)They also gave me a Bar-B-Que sandwich that I gave away, the thought of trying to eat made me sick. I found my GF and family and got a bunch of hugs then I started stretching. After I was thru stretching we headed back to T2 to get my bike and had to walk about a half mile to get my gear bags. I didn't really like that too much. Then we headed back to the families house and I took an Ice Bath, then got cleaned up. We ate dinner and sat around on the couch talking for hours. It was a great way to finish off my race race.