Ironman Florida - TriathlonFull Ironman

Normally the swim is my least favorite of the 3 disciplines. But I knew with the warm water and the wetsuit, it might be a bit more enjoyable than normal.

I seeded myself towards the back and to the right. After the canon went off I followed the rest of the pack into the water. I started swimming as soon as it was deep enough knowing that walking would probably not be the best thing either time wise or fatigue wise.

I tried to stay in open water breathing from both sides hoping to keep people on both sides, but mostly to my left. I sighted fairly straight as every bouy was about the same distance away. I figured I was better off staying wide but in clearer water than fighting for space. I managed to stay on some feet that was consistant with my pace and only got plugged up a few times. This continued for most of the first lap past the 2 turn bouys and back towards shore. I probably got a bit too wide going back into shore as the kayaks were closer than the bouys. I worked towards gradually heading closer towards the line without cutting across.

Upon reaching the shore I swam in as far as I could before having to get up and run through the shallow water to the beach. Cut across the timing mat and grabbed a little water at the aid station and then onto lap number 2.

I figured I was good to take it a little closer to the line the second lap figuring that the crowd had spread out, but I was wrong. A lot more contact on this lap. Fortunately all the contact was torso or legs and nothing to severe.

Otherwise the second lap was pretty consistant to the first. I couldn't find the clock at the half way mark so I really had no idea if I was having a good swim or not, but it felt pretty good and the effort was controlled. Probably the only issue was some calf cramping which never happens to me in open water swims, just in the pool if I push off too hard. Not sure what was up with that.

It is a great feeling in an IM to make the final turn towards the water exit and head towards the swim finish even if it seems to take forever to get there. Once I reached shore I stood up and started to get the wetsuit down to the waste, hit the strippers and it was off and headed to the showers.

Again I couldn't find the clock so until I finished the race and checked the watching thread spread sheet, I had no idea how my time was.

Nothing. Not sure why, but the only 2 times I have been under 2:00 min/hun in a tri were the 2 IM's. Go figure!

16 minutes, hmmm. I am almost embarrassed! I knew it was going to be cold on the bike as it was in the low 40s for the start of the race and the wind was going to be in our face from the north for the better part of the first half so I made sure to put some warmer clothes on in T 1. It was a battle to put a long sleeve compression shirt on a wet body and the calve sleeves over wet legs, but that is still way too slow.

It was crowded in the changing tent, but they let us go over into the dining area next door so we had plenty of room. I was deliberate in making sure I had everything, but thought I kept moving along better than I obviously did.

Having it warmer out so I could wear my bike clothes under the wetsuit like I normally would have might have been nice, but I need to move it better than this.

Took off out of transition towards Front Beach Road. I saw my Mom and Dad in front of our condo. I know my mom was releived that I got out of the water ok! Once we made the left onto Front Beach the cold wind made its presence known, but hey, I was doing an IM and the first leg was done and I was starting the second. And since the sun was shining I knew it was better weather then LP in 2008 so time to smile.

The bike traffic wasn't too bad along this stretch but once we turned north on 79 things started to get congested. Very difficult not to find myself in a potential draft situation. Plus, when I would get out of line to pass, there was genereally several bikes ahead 2 wide without much room to pull into line. Most of the time I figured I was better off spinning at a lower power number going into the wind and let the race come to me as things cleared out. Focus on starting my nutrition plan not worry about the other bikes.

Eventually after about 25 or 30 miles bike traffic, while still congested became managable where I could pass and get back into line without risking a rule violation. But at the same time this is where some of the frustration came. Along 20 heading east, I would pass a bike and then they would eventually come back by on the tail end of a pace line. Drop in line and slow down so I would have to pass again. There were several folks that this went on most of the entire bike. But their were also several that wound up with red cards through this section as well. I was glad to see the officials on the motorcycles being fair but aggresive in enforcing the rules. I could hear them come up behind us and give the groups a few minutes to complete a pass or fall back if they were getting passed, but if they maintained a draft they did not hesitate to penalize them. In my opinion, the ones I saw getting penalized deserved it as it appeared they were given ample time to fall into line before the cards were shown.

What a releif it was to turn onto 77 south with the tail wind for the next 10 miles or so. It spread the field out a bit more and my average speed jumped up to 18.5 at the end of this section. Plus it was nice to get a mental break from pushing the wind

Turning left onto 388 brought the wind back into play as well as some rolling hills, but it wasn't too bad through here. The trees at times acted as a funnel to focus the wind and at other times protected us from the wind. The rollers while neither steep nor difficult provided another mental break from the constant spinning the flat had given us. The downside of this section was the out and back towards half way and special needs at the end of 388. Wow, was this section bumpy. Probably made worse by the fact that I had thought of stopping the prior 2 aid stations to hit the porto potty but the lines were too long so I just kept riding figuring I would find one sooner or later that I didn't have to wait for. So after stopping at the porto potty cost what seemed longer than it probably was, maybe 3 or 4 minutes then another 100 feet down the road to special needs another couple minutes killed. But I got my full infinit bottles and a peanut butter sandwich. (Infinit is awesome, but I have to have something to chew on!) I also got rid of my arm warmers and gloves as it was finally getting a little warmer out. Left the calf sleeves on as they really weren't that warm and I thought it would kill too much time to take them off.

North on Blue Spring Road we were somewhat protected and it wasn't till we headed east on 20 that the final battle with the wind. We had a steady cross wind that at times would gust and move me around some. Probably one of the few times that I was a bit uncomfortable in my aero bars, but knew I was better there than fighting up on the horns.

Finally saw the intersection of 79 coming up and knew it was time to enjoy the tail wind home. Almost without effort was able to bring the speed up into the low to mid 20's. I tried to push some without over doing it to save the legs for the run. If there had to be a windy day, at least it was from the right direction to finish on a positive note. The turn onto Steelfield road for the out and back seem to come much quicker than I though it would but moving at the pace I was I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Finishd the out and back and pretty quickly back to the bridge which meant 12 miles to go.

Up until turning south onto 79 I figured the best I ould get was 6:20 or maybe even 6:25, but really made up a lot of time the last 30 miles or so fortunately. I don't think I burned too many matches do so either. Came down Front Beach Road and made the final turn towards home. I was pleased with my bike, but happy to be finishing up the ride!

Overall I was happy with my bike performance but made a couple of serious mistakes I think. One, I should have had either leg warmers or long bike pants as my legs got cold the first half and that cold ache never left and I think that came back to haunt me on the run. Second, being cooler I didn't realize until the next morning, but I still had half a bottle of infinit and my speed fill was still half full of water. They both should have been gone or close to by the end of the ride.

The good news was that I kept my power numbers right at 69% and the goal was 70 or just under. Plus this was pretty consistant without the spikes or dips.

Although I am happy with the bike, it is said that there is never a great bike followed by anything other than a great run. I had an ok run, but not a great run so I can't say I had a great ride.

One thing I have found with my running is that I respond well to high volume. Although I had enough volume on the bike to do this race, to reach the next level will require a lot more work on the bike to build the endurance level on the bike that will support the endurance I have been building for the run.

Better than the first, but still wow. Lost another few minutes here. I did decide to do a full wardrobe change again which didn't help.

Make a list, too many things to improve on in transition.

Left out of transition feeling pretty good. The sun was shining, the streets were lined with people cheering us on. I was hoping to run the first half of the race somewhere in the 9:00 to 9:10 per mile range and see how things went for the second lap. First couple of miles came in at about 8:30 pace, felt good but a bit too fast so I dropped it off to about 9 minutes and held it there for the next few miles. Just as I was entering the park at about mile 5 or so is when the stomach started feeling funny. I am struggling to describe what it felt like, but I guess the best description is that I felt hungry. Normally on my long runs I would just up the intake of infinit when I felt hungry but it just didn't help here. HR was still in the upper 130's lower 140's so the pace and effort was not an issue, so I figured I would try something different than the infinit. Orange slices and water for the next couple of aid stations helped some along with continueing to sip the infinit for the calories and electrolytes. Made it through the park and headed back towards half way not feeling great but not bad either. 9:30 pace seemed to be about the best I could do, but the legs also felt at this point that they could maintain this pace. Saw Phatknot, Jashac and KathyG on the way back which helped with a little motivation. The girls a couple of miles from transition that we passed 4 times alway brought a smile as well. I think as the day went on they got a bit drunker and had less clothes on. Always something to look forward to!

Made it the turn around just over 2 hours, not quite as fast as I had hoped, but only a few minutes behind, so considering the gut issues ok, I'll take it with a smile. As I am sure most anyone who has ever done this distance gets asked, I get asked what is the toughest part. I don't know about the rest of you but to me it is when you hit half way and the sign points one direction for the finish and the other for the second loop. Heading out on the second loop and watching the faster folks go the other way is tough to me, but I perservered on.

I stopped at special needs and grabbed the only thing I had put in that bag which was a long sleeve tech shirt. It was cooling off quickly so it was a wise decision.

It was about half way where the pace dropped off quite a bit. The legs weren't sore, but heavy. I think the cold wasn't helping this. The stomach while not good, wasn't getting any worse so I kept moving. I continued to alternate between sipping the infinit, drinking water and getting a few orange slices.

I hit the park again just as it was getting dark. The park is a dark and quiet place after the sun goes down! But just before leaving the park is where the motivational sign with the cheerleaders and the annoucer guy. You can start to hear them so that kind of helped with the motivation.

One of my goals for this race was to run the marathon. Hitting the turn around on the second lap with 6 or 7 miles to go was where I thought it would be tough. I knew at that point I would have a lot of people around me walking and walking an aid station would get stretched out if I let it. I had given this a lot of thought durning the Sunday long runs and had tried to anticipate when I would hit the wall and how I would react. Maybe because of working on the mental part, or maybe because of the run volume, or who knows why, but I never reached the mental wall of wanting to walk. The legs were heavy, but didn't hurt, the stomach was giving me problems, but not so much I needed to deal with it, I was moving slower than I wanted, but I was still running, so lets keep going!!

I started adding cola at the aid station in the park and this helped with the stomach issues some. Through down some pretzels as well. Tough to eat pretzels as good as they tasted though while running. Just a bit too dry.

It was definately dark and cold heading through the neighborhoods on the way back to the finish. Several times I came up on walkers and was almost on top of them before realizing someone was there. I may be mistaken and being that LP was in July so the sun was up longer, but it seemed that there were more lights on the run course there than in Florida.

The final miles clicked away and before I knew it I was running by the dancing girls and heading towards the finish. Just like one of the hardest parts is turning out for the 2nd lap, one of the best parts is coming to that fork in the road and making the turn towards the finish!

It is an awesome experience to run down the finish chute of an IM, The people lining the sides cheer for everyone! All of the emotions of the day come and the hard work that it took to get to this point are realized! Nothing more rewarding than setting a goal, doing the work and reaching that goal!

I had hoped to do a 12:30 or better IM and hit my time goals for the swim and bike. I lost some time in the transitions, maybe enough to break 12:30 but I honestly thought I had a chance at a faster marathon. I probably should have watched my nutrition on the bike better with it being cold it was too easy to lose track of getting enough in. I think the early cold temps on the bike didn't help the leg muscles either.

But I think the biggest limiter on the run for me was the deep endurance for the bike. The type of endurance that the big mileage months are starting to give me on the run need to be done on the bike as well.

At the end though, my main goal for the run was to run the entire marathon and I did. I gained a lot of positions on the run both in my age group and overall. I am happy with my run and I am happy with my whole race.

I had a smile from ear to ear. The finish line catcher guided me through getting my medal and the other finishers gear and lead me to the pictures. From there I made my way to the end and found Connie. I went and grabbed some Pizza and water while she went and picked up my bike and transition bags.


Genetics and experience!


First off I don't think doing this distance is possible without a strong support system at home and I have the best! Connie puts up with the long workouts on the weekends and worries about me when I am gone. On race day she is the best cheerleader out there! Everyone should be as fortunate as I am!!

Thanks also to all the other BT'ers that did this race and participated in the IMFL race thread! Great group that kept me motivated and my focus on the race!

Also the pemmstate mentor thread is an awesome group that gave me a lot of knowledge, support and motivation as well! Thanks guys!

I also need to give a huge thanks to all my friends here on BT for the inspires and support, and when I actually managed to spend some time at home I was fortunate enough to get to train with some of you!