Ironman 70.3 Branson - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I really was impartial if it was a wet suit swim or not, but have enjoyed the last 2 races with it on, so I was leaning towards wanting to use it. I did start to get warm a bit late in the swim, but a quick tug on the neck would allow a rush of cool water fill the suit.

I shot right off the front at the start and had clean water for about 3 minutes before running up the earlier waves. There was a light fog and I had trouble sighting the next bouy so I swam a bit with goggles on my forhead. Got in a comfortable groove and just followed the group.

Work on dealing the elements. I start to lose focus when I dont know where I am going.

This one took a while. There was no pool to clean the sand off so I brought 2 bottles of water and dumped them on my feet to clean them off. I sat down and took my wet suit off, got some socks on, then my shoes. Had to bag everything I wanted to have transported to T2 and lost some time stuffing my suit. I used my road shoes today, since that is what I will be wearing for my full in Arizona.

Not a whole lot since I used this T1 as a dry run for Arizona.

It paid off to be able to ride this course for the past 5 months. I really didnt see too much suffering on the bike course (we will talk about this later) and only saw a handful walking up the hills. I missed my gearing a couple of times on the lower grades between hills, but did a great job maintaining a steady cadence up the hills and using the down hills. The trip down to the landing was great except for a couple of tight spots with cars. I did miss my nutrition once, but was smart on making up for it.

Pay better attention and dont miss the nutrition.

Felt like a regular T2 for me. Only thing I missed was putting on some sun screen for the run.

Put the sun screen on.

Now came the suffering. I spoke with a lot of people who felt great on the bike during all those hills only to suffer greatly on the run. The afternnon temp rose up to 90 and the sun beat down. I did a great job with my run/walk (run .9 miles, walk .1) routine that I will be using for Arizona. I really worked over the aid stations and did a fair job keeping hydrated. About mile 6 I started feeling the heat and was looking for sun block at every station. I hit the bathroom at mile 9 and realized I was dehydrated and took corrective action. I started working the aid stations over twice as good this time, taking every cup of ice/water/gatorade I could hold, drink, drop, repeat. I also realized that I had not taken any jel in for over an hour and got that back in the routine. I like to take jel every 30 minutes. On the 3rd loop of the course I started realizing that almost everyone was walking, most of the time. They just looked like zombies marching on to the finish.

Got to remember to hydrate/get my nutrition down better her. I was lucky that I survived this part of the race.

Jumped in the 55 degree fountains, kept downing fluids, got some Old Chicago, and stayed around to cheer in everyone I knew.


The hard part was holding back as it was a training event for Arizona. I still ended up putting near max effort and the heat was certainly a factor.


I am not going to blame the hills or the heat for the quaility of this event. The organizers really put on a great event at a great venue. September in this part of Missouri could have easially have been 50 and raining as well. The only issues I had were the lack of a rinse off station for the beach exit and there was some poor traffic planning on the very fast (30+ avg) return trip into town where a was forced around and between cars to stay on course in a tight 2 lane spot where traffic was backed up and in the racing lane. Other than that I had a great time and look forward to it next year.