Ironman Florida - Triathlon

What an experience! I seeded myself a little cautiously in the 1:10 corral. The first 400-500 yards were madness. I knew right away I made a mistake and should have seeded myself in the hour corral. Lots of climbing and pushing to get where I wanted to be. Took the first turn buoy wide to avoid any real contact there. Finished first loop in 28 min. Second loop was a lot less entertaining. No crowds. I did manage to make someone mad at the turn buoy. I accidentally hit him trying to cut the turn as tight as I could. According to him "I had the whole damn ocean". Apparently he's the only one able to cut the turn tight? Did a lot of passing on the swim and didn't really get much opportunity to draft at all.

Seed myself in the right corral. It was WTC self seeded start which was basically still a mass start so not too sure how much a difference it would have made.

Grabbed my T1 bag from a volunteer and was left standing there not really knowing where to go. Asked another volunteer which way to go, the guy who handed me my bag went on to someone else. 2nd volunteer pointed me in the direction of the bag I already had when the transition area was the other way. Funny start to my day. Once I got into the changing tent I opened my bag, tossed my wetsuit and goggles in, put my helmet and shoes on, and was out the door. Didn't change. On my way to my bike took a pit stop to use the port a potty. Got to my bike and the volunteers didn't know I was coming so I had to unrack my bike. No biggie. They were yelling numbers before I went to the bathroom and I think they unracked then re-racked my bike because of my pit stop. I was out of the water with some of the faster AG'ers and they deserved more of the attention.

Nothing. I was all smiles. Very happy with my swim and just trying to take in the day.

I attempted to ride as clean as possible despite the blatant drafting packs. It was tough to ride my own race coming out of the water ahead of/with a lot of FOP racers. Adrenaline got the best of me a couple times and I had to keep reminding myself to back off. I use my Garmin 910 for gps but also have a cateye speedo just to see avg speed and current speed. I forgot to take my cateye off when I racked it the day before, and it rained. It didn't work at all, so I had to keep looking at my watch on my wrist. I don't use HR and will be purchasing a power meter before my next, but this was all done by feel. I consumed 1860 cal Infinit, as was the plan. Finished it with 10 miles left in the ride, right on schedule. Got off the bike feeling great!

Nothing. This ride was as good as I could have imagined

WTC transitions are awesome. I didn't take my shoes off prior to getting to dismount. Just unclipped and handed my bike to a volunteer. Then took off my shoes and ran into the change tent with my T2 bag. Once in the tent I dumped everything out on the floor and started putting my socks and shoes on. Volunteer came over and packed my bag back up for me, wished me luck, and I was on my way. I missed one spot with trislide under my arm and it was hurting bad. I was sooooooo thankful to see a table with Vaseline on it. Stepped out of the tent and was met with sunscreen volunteers. Off to the run.

Overall went well. Can't really think of what I'd change.

Started off way too ambitious. Plan was to start in the 8:30-9 min/mile pace. Actually started off at 7:30/mile. I attempted to slow down but for some reason couldn't stop myself. First 5 miles were all under 8 min/mile. First half of the run was done in around 1:45. Legs still felt okay but around mile 12 I started cramping bad. My nutrition plan I had trained for was GU every 30-45 minutes. Could only get the first 2 GU's in then had to switch to coke. Anything not liquid would not go down. Threw up at mile 15......and welcome to BONKVILLE!!!! I've never had this feeling before. Every time I tried to run I'd throw up. Had to walk mile 15-19, which was so discouraging. While walking I was throwing down cups of water with handfuls of pretzels. Stomach started to settle a bit at the turn around in the park, and I was able to start a very weak 30 sec run/walk. All I could get was 30 seconds before feeling sick. This sucked because while running I was under 9 min/mile and my legs felt okay all things considered. Once I realized a sub 11 finish wasn't realistic I did a lot more walking. I did the math and found I could walk a sub 12 finish. Mile 25 I sucked it up and finished the race with a jog. The finishers chute was awesome. Hadn't done a race with anything like that before.

Actually follow my plan. I ran this marathon in the dumbest possible way and paid the price.

Saw my family right away which was nice. I had a solid 3 hours on the second half of the marathon to think about how stupid I had been. Over the course of the second half I kind of lost perspective on the fact that I was finishing an Ironman and was more focused on what I thought was ruining my time. They were right there to remind me what I had just done. Stumbled over to pizza and attempted to eat, stomach still wasn't having it. Walked over with my dad to get my bike and gear bags.


Myself. I didn't follow my plan. Also probably could have used salt sticks on the run. Those pretzels were amazing and at the time felt like they saved my life!


I wanted to do my first full at a WTC race for the atmosphere. IMFL lived up to the experience. Right after I finished I swore I was done with the distance. After 2 days of reflection I have to get at least another shot at it.