Ironman Florida - TriathlonFull Ironman

Lined up about 5-6 people deep and to the right. First lap was really fast for me with all the drafting. 32:56 which is faster than my Half IM second lap slowed down when things thinned out and I found myself swimming alone a lot more. The water had some pretty good waves but they were rollers and didn't bother me actually made it pretty fun! I did get kicked and punched lost my nose clip in the last few hundred yards with a swift heel to ht nose. But thats part of the fun and im not going to let that bother me.

Nothing. I had predicted a 1:10 as my BEST case scenario swim. i stayed relaxed the whole swim and got out feeling fresh and ready for the bike. ( Maybe draft a bit better lap 2)

coming in at 1:10 I had to do all my own stuff as it was pretty packed. had to get my own bike and my bag. We could not clip in shoes and it was a pretty long transition run.

Nothing Everything went pretty smooth. I could swim faster so I had more help in the tent =)

Bike started Fast with the wind so I knew coming back would be slow. I took the first hour easy and worked into my target effort. Just after mile 40 I already had to pee I tried SO hard to pee on the bike but gave up around mile 50 at the next porta john and felt much better after that! I felt great and was moving well taking my 2 gels an hour and salt tabs and than around 60 my gut started to get full and was queezy taking any more gel or drink and I got a bit worried. On top of that I am not sure my Powertap was reading right anymore seemed to have low numbers(85-114) so ignored that and went by feel. I backed off the water and ate some cliff bar instead of gels I took a banana at an aid station. that feeling started to subside so i started taking in some of the course Gu roctane that was different from mine in hopes I would deal with it better peed again around mile 70 ( still couldn't on the bike)Also now my power tap was telling me I was pushing 450-500 watts for the next 10 miles ( I really ignored that since my legs were not throbbing and my lungs were not exploding!... I ignored it. By mile 80-85 I felt like a million bucks again so I kept with roctane and banana at each aid station and started taking my salt pill and drinking more water. I passed A tone of people going back into the wind that had blown passed me on the earlier portions. I finished the bike strong and feel I paced really well.

I made some big improvements in my nutrition from my last two HIMs but I obviously still need some work. Besides that I think I executed my bike very well.

T2 went pretty good. more volunteer help since the changing tent was pretty slow this time.

Nothing.

My plan was to take on course nutrition and take my salt pills my stomach was apparently unsettled still so I was having problems getting in nutrition. I ran well for the first 13-14 miles but I was not getting in enough liquids. At mile 7 my pace fell from 9 min pace to mid 10s is when I gave into my first explosive rest stop... so I was still running well through mile 13 -14 but around mile 14 I had another explosive stop. I got to see my wife and 3 yr old at the turn around and my son was ringing his bell and saying go dady. It was huge to get to see them as I headed away from the finish line for 13 more miles. After that things slowly started to drop off and I knew I would not be able to hold pace through the rest of the race so i slowed Down and implemented some preventative run walking. Picked orange cone to walk to or some other close marker and than ran 9:30 pace the rest of the time. The walking became more frequent after mile 18 but I never felt like my wheels fell off (around mile 21 had yet another stop of the same nature....) From around mile 18 I started taking coke and around mile 20 I found chicken Broth and I think it was like a gift from above It settled my stomach and I never had any more issues but was way behind on nutrition by that point. I ran into my mom around mile 24 and stopped to giver her a hug and tell her I was ok. From there my legs felt a lot better. I saw my grandparents at mile 25 and gave them a hug. My grandpa told me I had a sub 12 in the bag. Going into the race I told myself I would not look at times to prevent my Ego taking over and chasing some "magic time goal" so until this point i had no clue what the Total Time was. I thought with where the sun was I was going to miss sub 12 so hearing that from my grandpa i got bit emotional and my emotions took over and I finished strong. I got to the finish chute and High fived every hand I could find going back and forth across the chute. I got the chute and gave my best effort to Click my heels together for my brother who was not able to make it to Florida. I looked back and saw the clock was under 11:45 and I couldn't believe it. I was an Ironman.

I think I did everything I could on that day.

I saw my wife and Son and told them dont worry but I am headed to the med tent... Blood pressure was 80 over something and they said come this way.I took an easy 2 liters of IV and lied down on a cot =)


I corrected lots of my nutrition issues from my HIM mistakes but I still have work to get my nutrition dialed in and figure out the stomach issues.


I was very happy with my ability to keep my mind in the game and not let myself lose the mental game. I did have some rough physically spots but never felt let it defeat me mentally and it paid off with a great result.
Thanks to the great volunteers and spectators that made my day great.