Ironman Florida - TriathlonFull Ironman

The air temp was in the low-40's at the start of the swim. This was a really rough swim. In the first 200 yds, I had my left goggle kicked off. Throughout the rest of the swim, I was punched in the head once, and kicked in the jaw 4 times. Considering this was also my first OW ocean swim and mass start, I'm not going to complain about my swim performance. I wasn't sure where to line up, and what strategy to use, because I figured my usual swim strategy of lining up at the front of the wave and jumping ahead of the majority of the pack in the first 200 yds wouldn't work with the number of strong swimmers that would be in this race and in a mass start. I opted to line up near the inside, and several rows back. Overall, my swim time was within the range I expected.

Maybe try lining up in the front, but toward the outside in hopes of finding more clear water.

Somehow, I missed the wetsuit strippers, and the volunteers in the bike area couldn't find my bike faster than I ran to it, so I grabbed it myself. I also had problems putting on my arm warmers. I'm glad that I rolled them up the night before to unroll them onto my arms, because it would have been impossible to put them on otherwise. I stopped to us the port-a-potty on the way out of T1.

Maybe consider using a long sleeve jacket instead of the arm warmers.

The beginning of the ride was a little chilly, but I warmed up within the first hour. The course is so flat for most of it that there aren't many opportunities to get out of the saddle or even change position. This was a little rough for me, because I didn't have that opportunity in my training. Drinking was good. Took in about 1500 calories of Gatorade, 1 Clif Bar, 2 Gu's, and a couple shot blocks. I did not stop for my SN bag. I stopped once to us a port-a-potty somewhere between 60 and 80 miles. Pace may have been a little fast based on the crash-and-burn I experienced on the second half of the run.

Back off my effort level a little. Probably do more long trainer rides, even though they kill brain cells. The long hours in the aerobars would have helped prepare for this race.

I was pretty happy with this transition. It was the 56th fastest in my AG.

Nothing.

I grabbed my FR305 in T2, so I could monitor my pace. From the beginning, I knew I was going too fast at about a 9:30 pace, and kept trying to slow down. I went through the first 7 miles at faster than a 10 minute pace. Things started to slow down at that point, and I settled into a better pace through 13 miles. Then things started to get hard. Around mile 18, I went into an aid station, and realized that I was getting a little disoriented. The volunteer tried to hand me water or Powerbar drink, and I didn't understand what was happening. I knew I had to back off a little at the point to recover. I mostly walked the next 2 miles, then I started alternating walking and running again, but it was something like 3/4 mile run & 1/4 mile walk. By 23 miles, I was exhausted, and had a lot of pain in my quads, but I knew the finish line was within reach. From that point on, I didn't walk much, if at all, and my running was back down to about a 10 min pace. Nutrition and hydration seemed to work well. I would alternate water, Powerbar drink, or cola at aid stations, and I ate mostly oranges, plus I had a few grapes, pretzels, and about 3 cups of chicken broth after it got dark and the temperature dropped.

Find a way to slow myself down more for the first 1/4 of the run, and back off a little more on the bike.

Walk around.


Fitness, and pacing to a degree.


IMFL is a good race for first time IMers, especially if you think you might have trouble making the finish cutoff time, because it's a very fast course.