EagleMan Ironman 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started off up front and actually got swum over a few times in the first 200-300 yds. I haven't been swimming enough to have my initial speed, I just set the cruise and go. It didn't take long to start passing everyone back again. I got a jellyfish across the face before the first buoy, that felt weird. Kinda like going through a pricker bush with tine prickers. I immediately thought of 2 things, 1 - The theme from SpongeBob and 2 - I should swim with my mouth closed. After rounding the first buoy and getting by a bunch of swimmers I found a group that I thought I could draft. The draft lasted about 50 yds and I took to the outside and went by them. I just set the cruise control and swam. I was having a hard time swimming with my mouth closed and canned that idea. My sighting was perfect and after the second buoy I only saw caps from the wave in front of me. At the third buoy there was a big group of the previous wave and I was weaving in and out of the swimmers when I felt this nice little prick on my tongue. "YUK!! I hope that doesn't swell!" As I approched the shore I felt my arms go through what felt like squishy seaweed then felt the prickers again. I'm sick of jellies!!

Nothing, very pleased with how the swim went for being on a once a week swim plan. :-)

Apparently I was so glad to get my shoes before the race that I didn't set the velcro up very well. When I went to get into my shoes I pulled the strap out of the loop and had to thread it back. What a PITA!

Check the velcro on the shoes.

Once I got into my shoes I was having a blast! Had a slight tailwind and flat roads. My HR to start was in the 150's but my effort was pretty low. I was holding an avg speed of 23-25 mph at a pretty easy effort and was thinking that this could be a pretty good race. The plan was to eat a fig newton and dring a gatorade every 30 minutes while sipping water fron the NeverReach. I got to the first aid station at about 10 miles and my gatorade was 3/4 gone so I dumped it and grabbed another. Volunteers were superb at handing the Gatorade on the run. I don't think I was a 1/2 mile from the aid station when I heard "Psst.....psst.....psst.....psst" and thought "Damn!". First thing I did is jog back a little ways to a mailbox to rest the bike against. (I remember laying the bike down at B2B last year and losing all my water.) Found a piece of glass in the tire and picked that out, changed the tube and got on my way. All in all it took a bit longer than I wanted but it got done. Now that I was rested I got back on it and was averaging around 25 for a good stretch, passing a lot of people I had passed before the aid station and saying "hello again" to them. Somewhere around mile 19 or so I saw this woman crash on the lip of the shoulder and she went down hard. There were 3 or 4 bikes that rode right by her, I couldn't believe they didn't stop. I stopped and helped her. She had taken a nice little gouge out of her forearm and had road rash on her elbow, back and shoulder. I had a paper towel in my tool kit and had her apply pressure to stop the bleeding. When she looked at the wound she wasn't feeling too well and I thought she was going to pass out. She laid down for a bit and I was waiting for an official to ride by and call for help. It was kind of scary to think that someone could really be hurt bad out there and there is no way to get an ambulance out there. No houses, noone with a cell phone and no officials anywhere when you need them. Anyways, Stephany from Maryland wanted me to leave because she was worried about my race. Let's see, she's feeling dizzy and bleeding and I'm going to leave her to race........I don't think so. What seemed like an eternity only turned out to be about 10 minutes according to my Garmin. She started feeling better and was joking around a bit, her color was normal and she wasn't feeling dizzy anymore. We decided that she could ride to the next aid station and get help there. I followed her for a bit until she was sure she was okay then I left her, she assured me she was going to drop out at the aid station. She'll be back next year! Back to work again with my speed in the mid 20's until one corner around mile 30 when I turned into a headwind. Oh boy, this is going to be a loooong 25 miles in a headwind. I was still trying to get a bottle of Gatorade every 10 miles and I started to down a couple Enduralyte tabs every 30-45 minutes as well. The rest of the ride I spent in aero because if I sat up my speed dropped 2 mph! I passed a lot of people for a third time and they were starting to recognize me. (That can't be a good thing in a race) It was a great feeling to see some of the pros on the run course. My speed started to pick up some and I was passing people like they were standing still the last few miles. I took my feet out of my shoes with a couple blocks to go and cruised into transition.

Probably push a little harder in the beginning. I never really felt like I was racing on this ride.

I was slow getting my fuel belt on and making sure I had everything I needed. I ended up not taking my water bottle which I probably could have used.

Plan better and practice more transitions.

This was a great run for me. One of the main differences I see from riding the Plasma is not in speed but it is that I do not feel my back at all when I get off the bike. That was worth every penny! (Thanks Bryan!) I planned on doing this run at the pace I want to do IMLP at using a :30 walk break at each aid station while taking in nutrition and hydration. It worked perfectly. I had a fuel belt with 2 flasks, 3 gels in each flask diluted to 10 oz with water. Odd aid stations I was taking a full glass of Gatorade and a glass of water and pouring cold water down my back. On the even stations I was skipping the Gatorade and taking a big hit of gel before I had a glass of water. I was following one girl who seemed to be holding the same pace for the first 4 or 5 miles and using the same walk break at the aid stations. She started to fade off the pace and I wished her a good race and continued on. When I reached the turn around I felt great and really didn't feel as though I was working very hard. I picked up the pace a little bit figuring I would negative split the run. I was slapping the hands of a lot of BTers and ADKers on my way back home, that definitely helped the motivation and put some energy in the legs. With about 3 miles to go Kevin (t3coach1), my coach, passed me and was looking strong as hell. I tried to hold a pace with him but he was a machine. I maintained the walk breaks until the last aid station where I just took a few seconds to wash down a gel and kept running. (That's where the 7:07 came from) I was probably running about a 7:10-7:15 pace when I was running but that little walk break was refreshing.

Absolutely nothing! Awesome run and the heat didn't bother me a bit!

Walked around, stretched, hung out with friends, ate black beans and rice (you would not believe how good that tasted after a race!) Chatted with Fred (PennState) and Paul Fritzsche (one of the nicest pros on the planet) for a long time. I am really looking forward to seeing both of them again at IMLP.


Overweight and undertrained.


This was a top notch race. Very well organized, the volunteers were all over the place and very friendly and the course is very fast (a little boring but very fast).