Ford Ironman 70.3 Hawaii - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Took the advice of Greg Welch and went 50 feet wide of the first buoy. The only problem with this is that I was never able to make my way back to the inside and I probably wound up swimming a total of 200 or 300 extra yards over the course of the swim. The benefit was that I missed out on almost all of the full contact nastiness that all my friends talked about afterwards. The drawback was that my time was incredibly slow for me. A good five minutes slower than I can comfortably swim the distance during training.

Navigate better. Pull harder.

Bad transition. I came out of the water with a lot of people that were walking up the hill to T1, then I had a hard time organizing with half my stuff on the bike and half my stuff in the bag.

Hurry up, dummy.

I didn't really know what to expect, so I probably erred on the side of caution on the bike. I definitely could've pushed harder, especially on the flats and downhills. I was passing lots of people on the climbs, only to get passed back on the downhills. I got pretty pissed off at a couple of very large packs of drafters.

Push harder. I got really complacent, especially on the second half after I almost got blown off the road heading down from Hawi.

I got stuck (again) behind a guy who just wanted to sort of walk his way to where his bike was racked. I couldn't get around him in the corrals, so I just had to suck it up and deal. My feet were burning hot on the bike, so I decided to put on socks before the run.

Just move faster.

I felt pretty comfortable for most of the run. I had a mini-meltdown around mile 8.5, but I was able to pull it together, get some electrolytes in me, and get back to running. Walked very little and passed quite a few of the people who'd blown by me on the bike.

I still could've probably pushed harder, especially the last few miles.

Shower by the beach, tuna fish sandwich and chips, cold coke. Then I walked around and watched people from the group I was with finish for the next couple of hours.


I didn't really know what to expect, and as a result I was more conservative than I probably needed to be. This was only my third triathlon, and the only one that was longer than a sprint. I have an extensive long-distance running background, but I had no idea how those efforts would compare.


Everything about the race was flawlessly organized. The course was incredibly well-marked. The aid stations were stocked to the brim. The volunteers were incredibly awesome. I will do this race every chance that I get.