Ironman Kansas 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Felt good and shaved off 8 minutes from previous year swim time. The last 200 meters were more crowded than the swim start as multiple wave groups began catching up with one another. Loved the sleeveless suit that I borrowed from a friend, may have to trade in my full suit ... Yet, another thing to buy for this tri habit.

Removing wetsuits always slows things down a bit, however since I was using a friend's suit, I wanted to make sure it properly got into the Gatorade bag and made it back from T1.

10 minutes faster than last year, loved the new Felt tri bike. The last 6 miles I started feeling it going across the dam, and started wondering if I pushed it a bit too hard and if my legs would be ok on the run.

Favorite thing I saw on the bike course: (1) someone had 16 GU packets taped to the top tube of their bike, wow, I really hope they didn't eat all of those! (2) someone had a ziploc bag with a whole peanut butter sandwich dangling down from their top tube held by duct tape. Loved it, when I was riding by, I told him to watch out for someone reaching over and stealing it. Everyone seemed pretty friendly and nice on the course, only a few people mouthing off around the "BP" oil spill.

Ok, caught a lot of crap after the race from family and friends on this T2 time. I will fully admit, the 2 mile line at the bathrooms before the swim start, required a brief break into the "office" at the bathroom inside T2. I knew based on when I came in on the bike, I had a few extra minutes to make my goal time overall. Was trying to think big picture.

Started off mile 1 with some really tight quads, however, I have learned that I just have to run it out. Took all three salt tablets within the first 3 miles, which absolutely worked, but will remember, I need a lot more in the future. The tightness would come back from time to time, but I treated this run as a series of 13 one-mile runs, ensuring I walked each aid station which helped the legs and ensured I got plenty of fluids in.

I knew that my pace was still keeping me at my below 6 hour goal, so I continued to walk the aid stations, except for the last. Saw my family and friends 4 different times on the run course which was great each time.

Light-headed ... drank a coke to keep the wife from thinking I was going to take an unintentional nap.


Last year I finished at 6:32 and I really wanted to be under 6 hours for my second go around. Therefore, I can't really complain about some of the mistakes I made out on the course, as having that goal made me take the steps to finish with 3 minutes to spare on my goal.