Ironman Wisconsin - TriathlonFull Ironman

Mass start swim and surprisingly there wasn't a ton of contact at the beginning even though I was sandwiched between people and up towards the front on the buoy line. However, there were several other areas where congestion and contact was really bad especially around the first two buoys.. I just found it ironic that the worst of it wasn't at the beginning.

My swim went well. After doing MOWS in 1:13 I was guestimating I'd be a little faster here with the draft of 2800 people. I was really happy with the time because I didn't push pace nearly as hard as I could have and I cam out of the water feeling really good. In fact, I came out of the water with a thumbs up to the camera and couldn't believe how quickly the swim went by.

Nothing

I would have to guess this is one of the longest and hardest transitions in triathlon so there is no way to get through it quickly. My time of 8:21 definitely beats by 16:xx time from two years ago, but there is still some room for improvement. The volunteer was very helpful in getting my stuff sorted and organized so I only needed to throw on my socks, grab my sunglasses, helmet, shoes, & some gels for my jersey pocket. Once I got everything I stopped at the sunscreen applicators and then proceeded on with shoes in hand while I jogged to my bike.

Nothing

Goal was to ride the stick and first loop easier than the remainder of the course. Felt like I went pretty easy on the first half, but by the second half it was getting a bit warm and I didn't feel like going much harder. So I ended up keeping the pace about the same throughout the entire ride.

One obstacle I had on the bike was that my HR monitor died out of the water. I only got sporadic readings all day and when I did, it was nonsensical data (like 50 bpm). Unforunately for me, my cycling and run is heavily dependent on my HR readings. Because of this malfunction, I knew I was going to have to do the entire race by "feel". I have a pretty good handle of my RPE and how it relates to my HR, but I also know sometimes they are significantly different. So all of that played into my head on this race day.

Basically I finished the bike at what I felt was a comfy pace and one in which I did not feel like I overtaxed myself in any way. I only stopped once at special needs after loop one and I ate 1/3 of a PBJ sandwich and drank 1/3 of my cherry Pepsi. That was probably my favorite nutrition item of the day. On the bike it was Special K bars, jelly bellies, perform, & some bananas at the aid stations.

Even though I felt like I did not overcook it on the bike, I did notice towards the end that my stomach was starting to act up and give me a nauseous feeling. I was hoping that would go away.

My thought at this point is that perhaps I ate a bit too much early on in the bike. I would normally blame going too hard as the likely cause, but I really didn't feel like I did that. Best I can figure is that I should have smoothed out & diversified my nutrition better early on in the ride.

Before approaching the helix, I removed the Garmin 910 from my bike and attached it to my wrist. Once I got to the top of the helix I handed my bike off to a t2 lady who whisked it away for me as I ran into the indoor t2 area. This went quite smoothly.

By the time I got to t2 and sat down to change shoes, I really noticed that I was feeling sick to my stomach. I was not liking that, but I still made a quick change of shoes, put my visor and sunglasses on and grabbed a few gels before heading out.

Not much.

As I always like to say, the Ironman marathon is the hardest marathon you will ever run. And it did not dissapoint. I went in expecting this and made sure my run training was solid. I knew I should have no problem breaking 5 hours hours which was one of my goals. My confidence was pretty high because I knew I was ready. Unfortunately I was not able to reach any of my run goals on this particular day.

Right from the start I was feeling nauseous and didn't feel like eating or drinking anything. I immediately began walking out of the chute. I tried running a little bit but I would feel much worse. I refused to get sick so early in a 26 mile journey and was starting to feel like maybe I would need to walk the entire 26 miles.

Somewhere around mile 3-4 I met up with a training friend who was also walking and he asked me when I last took in any salt. It was at some point on the bike, but I didn't recall exactly when. So I took one at the next aid station with some water. I also saw the coke and found it to be somewhat desirable, so I drank that & enjoyed it. Suddenly by mile 4 things started to amazingly turn around for me. I ruined my race by walking the first 4-5 miles, but between miles 5 and 20 I ran almost everything except the aid stations (which was part of my plan). I relied solely on coke, salt (every 45 minutes), bananas, & Perform during this period and that served me well. During this period I was actually controlling when and how fast I ran instead of having my stomach dictate everything to me. That particular nutrition plan bought me 15 miles of solid running which was much better than walking 15 miles,

At mile 17 I took a salt tablet and it did not sit well with me causing me to gag and throw up at the aid station. The good news is that I was able to resume running again, but I didn't really think about the problems that throwing up will create down the line (more to that in a minute). I started running again back towards the State Street turnaround and was feeling great. I was in control again despite the short vomit detour.

At about mile 20 I realized if I could keep running I had a chance to break 13 hours (a goal of mine). Unfortunately at about mile 22 I had to start walking again with the stomach issues back. I ran a little here and there when I could, but it was definitely turning into more walking than running. At mile 25, I began sweating uncontrollably and was a bit chilled. Also, out of nowhere I threw up again. I knew I was probably dehydrated, but it wasn't until after the race that I realized I didn't drink or eat anything after getting sick at mile 17. That was a big mistake.

I knew I had just over a mile to run and there was no way I wasn't going to finish this race now (hell I had 4 hours to complete 1 mile!). So after getting sick at mile 25, I just manned-up and ran the last mile in a unhealthy, messed-up state of being. As I reached the capital, my friend Leslie, who was volunteering, joined me and ran with me about a quarter mile (illegal, yes, but believe me, she had no bearing on my pace).

Came down the finisher chute all smiles even though I was hurting big-time. The finish was more emotional for me this year because of my fight through the run. I had some dark feelings out there several times and am proud of the way I battled through them. Even with a horrific run time, I was still able to PR my Ironman time by over 10 minutes, so that made me happy.

Comes down to a better nutrition plan. My endurance was there to keep running, but my stomach certainly prevented it.

Sat in a chair for 30 minutes and was only able to consume a half banana and some chocolate milk. Went back to hotel, showered, and walked back to the finish line to watch finishers until midnight with my normal cast of characters (this is becomming a yearly tradition whether doing IM or not). Upon my arrival, my appetite was back and I consumed 2 half subs, 3 pieces of pizza, and a few bottles of water. Oh, and my friend Tom brought a box of wine so our small group drank wine for 3 hours while watching the finishers. Good times.


Stomach/nutrition (the normal).


I had five goals for myself: 1) Finish, 2) Beat 2012 time for a PR, 3) Run a sub 5 hour marathon, 4) Break 13 hour overall time, 5) Do NOT puke on the run course.

Although I only accomplished the first two goals, they were the most important, so how can I not be happy with that?!