Beach 2 Battleship - TriathlonFull Ironman

As the start grew closer and the National Anthem was being played I moved closer to the front of the pack. It was a beach start and looking at some of the guys on the front line I figured I’d let the swimmers have the front row. (By swimmers I mean the handful of guys with the Swedish goggles) When the horn went off it was a pretty smooth start going into the water, I figured that it would be shallow for a ways and porpoising would be the way to go. I figured wrong! I took one dive, pushed off the sand with my hands, went to push off with my feet and there was no sand to push off. DAMN!!! I started to kick and felt my heel hit someone’s jaw HARD. I felt terrible and just hoped that that wasn’t a BTer. I got a few elbows and a slap across the back of my head but otherwise just settled into cruise mode. I was side by side with one guy for about 5 or 10 minutes before he dropped back. After that I was looking for a pack of swimmers or at least one that I could follow. I was thinking my sighting was terrible as I was quite a ways away from the buoys but could still see the water tower that I spotted early on. So this was just going to be a lonely swim, the cruise control was set and I just kept looking for the boat with the “squiggly man” on it to turn. I felt like I was doing 1:15 100’s but was still wondering why I couldn’t find anyone to follow. I reached the “squiggly man” boat and saw a bunch of people on the boat drinking hot coffee. I stopped and said that it was just cruel to have hot coffee up there while we were freezing our asses off in this water. Then, in the spirit of marmadaddy, I asked if they had any bacon they could throw me!! They laughed and pointed me in the direction I needed to go. I still couldn’t see anybody and was starting to think I was off course or something. I stopped and asked one of the kayakers if I was heading the right way and if they had any bacon. (Hey, it got a laugh once!!) About 200 yds from the finish someone went by me and I got on his feet. As we approached the dock I thought about pushing a bit to overtake him but then just sat back figuring he worked hard to pass me, he deserved it. I was surprised to hear the volunteer say I was the 3rd out of the water. I walked around the corner and saw the wet suit strippers and my first thought was that maybe I should keep it on. Nah, I laid down and let them rip it off, hoping to god I put my tri shorts on! (I went without a top knowing that I was going to be drying off and changing into my BT jersey and arm warmers.) Fortunately, I did have my shorts on! Got to the showers and rinsed off for a bit and jogged along the dock where people were telling me to go. Holy crap it was COLD!!!! I finally got to the timing mat and saw RSTOCKS3 chalked on the sidewalk. I said “HEY!! THAT’S ME!!!” to a volunteer. Crossed the mat, ran across the street, got my T1 bag and got my frozen butt into the tent.


Start a little farther outside and not try to cut the buoy too close. The current forced me right into the buoy. Not talk to the people on the boats. (Although it was fun!)

Let's see, it was 42 degrees out when we started swimming, the water was freezing and after having my wetsuit stripped off me I was pretty well numb from my head to toe. It was a long run from the dock to T1 and I know the little cobblestones would have been killing my feet if I could have felt my feet. As it was, I couldn't feel my feet and I just tried to make them make forward progress to the tent to change. I packed everything in my T1 bag to make sure I took my time, dried off and dressed warm for the ride. Jim (run4yrlf) said hello and left before I even had my shirt on. It took a few tries to get my BT jersey on wet skin. I got my compression socks , arm warmers shoes, helmet and gloves on and headed to my bike.

Dried off better. If I were really racing I would have worn a tri suit to eliminate much of the extra time with the jersey but I wasn't "racing"! ;)

I got on the bike and just felt COLD!!! I knew I needed to get some calories in early on so I started on the Gatorade and sipping water. I had my NeverReach filled 3/4 full with water, there was supposed to be aid stations every 13 miles or so and planned on refilling the water at these stations. In the first mile of the ride cam the first draw bridge with the nice metal grates that everybody loves. In the pre-race meeting we were told that there would be a nice rubber mat covering the grates. I don't call an indoor/outdoor carpet from Lowe's a solution. It was just like riding on the grates uncovered, squirrely as hell. The other bridge was a few miles down the road and seemed to be just as bad but I made it over both of them and was ready for a long flat ride. I was going back and forth with a couple guys, turns out one of them was Jim (run4yrlif). I didn't recognize him at all. Next race I'll have to spend more time that 10 minutes with BTers so I recognize them on the course. At about mile 12 I flatted! :( Fortunately it was my clincher back tire and not Dan's tubular front tire because I didn't have a spare tubular with me. I took my time fixing the flat and let my fingers thaw out. I think I had it changed in about 10 minutes and was back on the road. At least now I had lot's of people to catch up to and pass. I found myself creeping up in the 23-24 mph range and kept backing off. I have not put the miles in to be able to sustain those speeds. For some reason I had to pee a lot on this ride. Maybe from swallowing salt water or maybe just because I was freezing and my bladder shrunk. Anyways, I found myself pulling over about every 30 minutes or so to pee. (The valve to pee and ride wasn't functioning) I was sipping from the NeverReach when I realized when I layed my bike down to change the tire all of the water dumped out. Uh oh!! I was out of water and Gatorade and looking for the first aid station that was NOT at 13 miles or so. I think it finally came up around 28 miles!! Holy crap was I parched by that time! With the flat tire and all the pee stops I pretty much made this ride into a supported leisurely century ride. Mike kept popping up with the camera, that was a lot of fun seeing him out there. A couple times I pulled over and chatted with him for a minute or two. This course was definitely a flat course. I think a sub 5hr is very attainable on this course but not without training. After about 70 miles or so I said to myself that I really had no business being out here with the training that I have been doing but we'll make the best of it and have fun. The last 20 miles or so felt like eons. My HR was low and I was conserving energy fine but my a$$ wanted to get out of that saddle!! Throughout the entire ride the mile markers were off. At the 30 mi sign I had 31 mi, 60 mi I had 63 mi, 100 mi I had 105 mi and I was just thinking "I can't believe I'm going to have to ride 5 extra miles!" I came up on the 110 mile mark and the Garmin said 110. Whew!! Dirty trick but whew!! The last 2 miles were easy, ending up with a large bridge before turning into the road leading to the battleship and T2.

Train like I'm supposed to! :) Do the workouts Kevin takes the time to write for me.

I saw my friend Chris as I came in to T2 and looked for Matthew but he must have been playing somewhere. I took my time in T2, changed shirts, put my fuel belt, hat and glasses on, looked out the door to see if Matthew was around and then started my run.

Nothing really, taken more time to see Matthew and give him a high five.

As soon as I started the run I realized I should have found a john in T2. I went over the first bridge and passed the 1st mile in 9:15 which I was fine with. I stopped at the first aid station to use the john and of course there was someone in it. It was frustrating to stand there waiting at the john. Oh well, what can you do? I stretched a bit, took a drink, finally went to the bathroom and started running. Over the second bridge I felt allright but knew it was going to be a long run so I just had to make the most of it. Running through the commons I caught up with Mike, it was great to see him. He was on his bike with the camera bag and rode along side me for a while. He would ride ahead, set up for a picture then do it again. It was nice having a personal photographer. :-) For most of the first loop I was jogging at an easy pace and walking the aid stations. I was having a lot of fun out there and thought I was going to be on track for the 10:59. The porta-john situation was frustrating, having only 1 john at each station was killing me. Not because I had to go that often but I kept stopping, waiting for a minute then deciding to try the next one. When that one was occupied I would do the same thing. I finally got in one, did my thing and left only to leave my green Gatorade bottle in the john!. I turned right around and the frickin' door was locked. I swear I waited 5 minutes for that darn bottle, when the door finally opened it was a little kid!! AAAAhhhhh!!!!! All that time for a Gatorade Swim Souvenier! Ugh! The 2nd half I was just getting tired. I was walking between the aid stations, talking with a lot of others walking, nutrition at this point was out the door. At one aid station the volunteer asked me what I wanted and I said "You know what looks good? Those Oreo Cookies!! Give me 4 of those Oreo's!!!" Yep, nutrition was out the door but holy cow did they taste good! If only they had milk! With about 4 miles to go it was past 5:30 and the sun was getting low. I wanted to finish before it got too cold so I ran the last 4 miles in at a pretty good pace to finish strong.

Train like I was supposed to.

Walked around the finish area, drank a couple waters and a beer. Yum!! Mike went to get the car and when he got back he had a quart of chocolate milk! Double yum!!


Lack of training


Great race for a PR! The swim is lightning fast, the bike is pancake flat and the run has a lot of turns to keep it from getting too boring. All in all it was a great race!