Beach 2 Battleship - TriathlonFull Ironman

I thought the start would be brutal and was surprised to find it pretty easy we started towards the front left side, after getting around the buoy I kinda found myself going right down the middle with just occasional contact. I could see swimmers to my left and right. I felt just fine but pushed this a bit more then planned. Must have been the taper at work. I had a guy swim across the front of me near the turn and yelled go around the boat as he was swimming towards a buoy way off to the right and he yelled back no we have to go around the buoy. Guess he didn't know about the Squiggly man. I seemed like I had a pretty straight swim and managed to hit the turns just right and kept things straight and as short as possible. Got to the ladder and had to wait a few moments to exit hit the strippers and had my suit yanked. Sweet!


The only thing one needs to know for the swim is out around the first buoy keeping it on your right then keep the boat with the squiggly man on your left, then to the marina. No other buoys were in play but were there just to direct you. This was covered in the pre race meeting and seemed quite clear.

Nothing this was a nice swim.

Note to right sided breather's, if it's sunny you'll be looking at the bright sunny beast for a good chunk of the swim. I normally bi lateral breath and ditched it due to the sun in my eyes, which made me swim off my normal pace which of course ended up faster but messed with my plan. So if you breath to the right learn to breath off to the left or deal with being blinded for the first 30 minutes of the swim.

Long trot to T1, I didn't really run but walked briskly the few moments I could gain here wouldn't add up enough to make worth jacking the HR. Got to the tent and thought holy sausage fest, found a spot and got out of my swim jammers throwing on my Oomph cycling shorts, then exited the tent and finished dressing outside. Putting arm warmers on a somewhat wet body is a bitch. Dryed the feet real well and got as much sand/dirt off as possible. Threw my bag in the pile and headed to the bike. I wonder if signing up early got me the good rack spot, I was right on the end two racks from the bike out. Gave Karen a kiss and continued on.

Time was aprox but the Garmin had 6:08 on the bike so I added the extra 10 minutes on the results to T1.

Nothing

Stuck to my plan and didn't want to eat the paste. This took patience on my part and being type A+ at times makes it tough. I passed no one besides folks pissing or fixing a flat in the first 60 miles and I mean no one. I had a stream of folks just cruising on by. I'm sure folks see me as a total poser with a nice Kuota bike, disc wheel and hed deep front wheel but I didn't really care and stuck with my plan. Hit my first lap of 31 miles at a 17.6 mph avg and Hr avg of 130, right on target.

I carried two 3 hour bottles of Infinit, three cliff bars and hammer gel so I only grabbed water bottles to top off the Aero bottle and pitched the bottles at the end of the aid station. Worked like a charm. I was thinking of using the porta potty at the first aid station but could tell there was at least one maybe two folks waiting so I pedaled on. Wish the first aid station was before the 30+ mile mark, I just about ran out of water.

Lap 2, mile 30-60 avg speed 18.2, HR 134. Still on target. Found myself all alone on a few occasions so I was able to drop the shorts enough to piss as I rode, no need to stop or piss on my self.

Lap 3, mile 60-90 avg speed 18.4, HR 140. Winds were coming out to blow. I've had so many windy rides this year that it didn't bother me much and I kinda of figured this may happen. The wind seem to be slowing some of those folks down that had passed me earlier. Special needs looked busy and I didn't need anything so I kept cruising at this point I had never been off my bike and figured I'm not stopping. Found another quiet area to drop trou and take a leak before getting back to the busier HWY.

Lap 4 90-Finish, avg speed 18.7, HR 146 I was starting to pass some folks now and felt real good. It was great to see the battleship from the bridge and know I just had to run a marathon to make this ironman finish a reality.

I had to laugh at some folks that were bundled up more then I would be for cross country skiing in single digit temps. I was plenty warm with shorts, jersey, and arm warmers. If I would've dressed warmer I would've had to stop and wasted time at special needs.

I've never been attached to a bicycle for that long and don't know if that will ever happen again. I'm glad things worked out for my potty brakes while on the move.

Ask the wind not to come out and play.

That was nice to drop the bike off to someone. Felt like a pro. My bag was pointed out and when I grabbed it I noticed an open porta potty and dropped my stuff and helmet and used it. I knew I'd have issues if not.

Hit the tent and was right next to Ben, so we chatted a bit as we changed. I hope one of the spectators enjoyed her free show from the two of us. Not sure why they had the door so open but didn't have time to worry. Got my running shorts, shoes, top and hat on. Remembered to turn on K's Garmin and headed out the door.

Nothing, could've been a bit quicker but had to take a seat in the porta potty.

Felt ready to run and was keeping things easy. Muscles and cardio felt great, but my knee decided to act up once I got into town. I had been having issues with my right knee for the last couple of weeks, which was odd since it had been fine for most of the year. I had to stop and rub out my knee cap and could continue on. I knew if I broke 4:40 I could brake 12 hours which was my secret goal and I thought very doable. Karen was waiting at the house and it was good to see her.

I made the turnaround and headed back and things became worse with the knee. The body still felt very capable of cruising but the knee would have none of it. I passed the house again and told K I wouldn't brake 12, but should be close. I was hurting at this point.

Got back across the bridges and grabbed a quarter PB & J out of the SN's bad along with a chocolate dove candy. I was worried about getting chilled but left the long sleeve top in the bag. Chatted with TriOk (robyn) for a second and headed back out. I was really focused on getting across the bridges again. I saw Ben up ahead and could see he had slowed down. Chatted for a few with him then got back to running at my slow and steady pace.

I kinda of had a down moment and knew I couldn't do the sub 12, but I also had the feeling that I had this race in hand and would finish regardless. I also thought of all the great people in my life and family that helped make this all possible and how lucky I was to be alive doing an iron distance event. Once I got out of my funk I tried to make small talk and just enjoy the evening. I busted some guys chops for being bundled up with arctic wear tights, jacket and a knit cap. It had to be in the 50's and I would've died in something so warm. Of course he thought I was nuts running in shorts and a sleeveless top. I stayed plenty warm.

I found that coke and pretzels was my little "crack binge" and seemed happy to have this combo working for me real well. But they ran out of coke and I didn't get any for about the last 8-10 miles until the last aid station between the bridges.

The park was dark and things seemed lonely. Introduced myself with Keyone at the turnaround but she was still moving strong and kept on cruising. I was braking the course down now. I worked at getting out of the park area and back up the hill to Greenfield Street. Then it was to get to the house, after getting past the house and onto Water Street I asked a guy what time it was as looking the Garmin was just confusing me and I was screwing up the times and started thinking I was going to barely break 13 hours. Not sure how I lost an hour but my mind was tired. When he said 6:31 I was thinking I had a shot at the 12, but then added up the hill out of town and the last bridge and knew it wasn't happening and just enjoyed the last 3 miles. Chatted with a few folks and just kept moving.

The last bridge was kinda of nasty as it was pitch black and the traffic wasn't backed up like earlier so there were no headlights. The knee was real sore but functioning fine. I would run 3 cones, walk 1 cone to the top of this Mt Everest like bridge ;-)

Once I was at the summit I was very relieved. I came down Battleship road and a couple of girls that run with one of the local colleges cross country team ran along side of me and we just chatted. I felt great. Seeing the finish area was so sweet and getting across the line felt awesome. They grabbed my chip and I found K. Felt great to get a hug from my honey!

Nothing really, the knee issue may prevent further attempts at the IM distance but I have time to work on that.

Looked for some post race yummys and was shocked to see it looked like leftovers from an aid station then found the cold pizza and had a Mountain Dew. The lady there seemed downright offended when I asked "is this the post race food" She came back with "Well what did you expect" How about something I haven't been looking at for the last 12+ hours. WTF! Here's the leftovers, lame!

I got chilled quickly and headed for my bags to get some dry clothes on. Once I had that done I felt better.


The knee issue.


Overall I loved this event as a racer but there are still issues that need to be worked on. Having time splits with T1 and the bike put together seems like a major snafu, not to mention running out of coke on the run. The post race food wasn't very good either.

I guess the waits were better then in 2008, but there were a ton of folks walking across the bridge from the HIM as the waits must have been kinda of bad. We didn't want to get stuck waiting on got my stuff and took the trolley back. I would've liked to hang out and root some folks on, but with our rental house along the run course knew we could do it from there and eat some real food.

I was impressed that they seemed to do a good job of moving bags and the overall organization of the race.

For spectators its not all that easy to get around with the boats and trolleys.

The race photos shown below were of poor quality and I feel like I was ripped off. Don't bother with them and have a friend or loved one get some good pics. I can't believe there isn't a finish time and the finish photo is out of focus, WTF.

Overall I'm real happy with making B2B my first full iron distance race. The wife and I also enjoyed hanging out in town for a few days afterwards. Wilmington is a great town to eat and drink, not to mention take some history in. We hope to go back someday.