EagleMan Ironman 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I feel as though this was my best swim ever. Jellyfish were really bad during swim practice on Saturday. I only swam a little and didn't really want to get stung. On Sunday I coated my arms and face with Vaseline. My wave was in the middle of the race, so I was hoping that the Jellyfish would be gone by the time I swam. Much to my pleasure I really didn't see or feel any Jellyfish on my swim. I took off in the middle of the pack, didn't try to sprint. My focus was on drafting. I stayed right behind a pack of guys for the first 2 lenghts. The long back straight away was with the current, and I felt really good. I didn't try to puch it too hard though. Back to why this was by best swim ever, I did not tire, I drafted really well, I sighted really well (swam right to the buoys), and felt great from beginning to end.

Nothing. Just keep training and learn to swim faster.

My goals in T1 are to get the suit, cap, and gogles off, get my bike shoes on, helmet on, and glasses on. Grab any extra nutrition needed to go into my pockets. Grab my bike and run. No food or drink here. I don't run in bare feet and get into my shoes on the bike. I'll need practice with this, but don't really feel this is necessary yet.

Run barefoot eventually.

I really did not think that I was going to beat last year's time, with this wind. Last year I did 20 mph. I was watching my spedomiter for the first 20 miles or so, and it said 21+ MPH. So I was happy. I am a much better cyclist than last year. My goal was to ride 10 miles strong, take a 1 mile break to sit up and refuel, then repeat. At mile 35, I had to take a 1/2 mile break, then repeat. This worked really well for me, especially with the Hammer fuel. More on that later. I caught Lisa at mile 44. I was relly happy to see her, knowing that she was okay made me feel good. At mile 50, I remember last year how tired and sore I was, I didn't feel that bad this year and knew that I could PR the bike (barring a flat). And I did. I now want to see a category of race wheels vs. non-race wheels. I feel as though even though I am not nearly the fastes cyclist out there, you are not passing me on non-race wheels.

Keep on training.

I was really happy coming off the bike @ 2:45. I drank a lot of water, and I had to pee. I got my running shoes on, and headed for the port-o-john. And I had to wait for at least a minute. So, that's the reason for the long T2 time.

I am fine with this.

My goal going in to this race was to beat last year's time of 6 hours. I had over 2 1/2 hours to do this half marathon. With the weather this year, and my conditioning, I knew I could do that easily, so I went out gunning for 5 1/2 hours. Last year, at mile 3, I had to walk a lot of this. This year, I ran right thru the 4 mile marker, and felt great. Lisa caught me at about mile 5. We were cruising together up until mile 7. Then I noticed it. She took some Hammer Fuel, and I did not. It was almost like she had a turbo boost and I had nothing left. I simply could not keep up. At mile 9, I had 45 minutes to run 4 miles, and beat my goal of 5:30. I knew I could do this as long as I did not have to walk. I got to mile 11 and walked a little. Got some water, gatorade and ice at the mile 12 aid station. I ad 15 minutes to make it. I had one more sub 9 minute mile in me and made it to the finish in 5:27:27. For the 2nd year in a row, Lisa got to see me finish.

Keep on training.

Water, hose off, chair, food.


Ran out of gas on the run. But at mile 11.


This is my 2nd time at this distance. I have come a long way. I now feel about this distance as I did in year 2 of Olympics. Hard enough, but I know that I can do them. I am in the best shape of my life and now in my 4th year of this sport am really getting the hang of it. Lisa and I experimented, and we know that we shouldn't, on race day with nutrition. We bought some Hammer Perpetuem and Endurolytes. Wow, this stuff works. We made the paste for flask containers, liquid in our bottles. This along with water in the Aero bottle fueled me just fine on the bike. I did not bring any of this with me on the run. And I ran out of gas at mile 11 Overall, this was a great race for me. I can do this distance, now I can learn how to do it better.