Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Water was a little too warm for me in a full wetsuit. Started feeling panicky at 17:38 into the swim. Stopped, cleared goggles, checked watch, and took some deep breaths. Was fine after that. Got punched hard in the side once while on buoy line and decided to stay off buoy line when waves of other swimmers passed; affected navigation a bit. Had to pee three times in the wetsuit, but did not have to stop swimming so I don't think it affected performance. Was actually pretty happy with the swim.

Try to find goggles that don't fog up. Learn how to swim faster. Not much else I can do.

Still having trouble getting the wetsuit off in good time, but otherwise I felt like this was a good transition.

Dean told me (afterwards) about Aquaphoring the whole bottom of the suit and the ankles and his suit slid right off. Need to try that. Could also trim off some of the bottom of the suit around the ankles to help it come off.

Felt really good on first loop of bike. Right groin muscle tightened up within first 10 miles just like at IMSG, so I had to deal with that, but otherwise I felt good. Had to stop at first aid station to pee, and was seriously thinking about peeing on the bike if that aid station wasn't coming up soon. Took salt tablets every half hour. Ate two payDay bars and part of Pop Tart during ride. Put Zip Fizz in water on second loop. Cadence monitor didn't work so I didn't have cadence info the entire ride. Both Elliot and Dean passed me during my first loop (their second loop) -- it was fun to see friendly faces and they both looked like they were doing well.

Second loop was very lonely, and I started to get fatigued. Entire route was either up or down; very little flat part anywhere. Gorgeous views and mostly shady on first loop, still some shade on second loop. Still passed a few people on hills on second loop, but most passed me back on the downhills. Second loop also saw ALOT more traffic, and this slowed me down as I had to slow down for cars in between bikes. Roads were not closed at all and there were NO bike lanes on the entire course, but most cars were really good about going around us. I didn't see any crashes and relatively few bikers on the side fixing flats. Road was pitted and cracked, but not as bad as IMSG.

There were sneaky little uphills on the way back into town that caught some people by surprise; saw one guy walking at that point who said he was okay, just surprised by the hill. I made the whole thing without walking, although I did stop twice -- to pee on the first loop and to fill the speedfill (and pour water on myself) on the second loop. The bike was really a lot of fun, and it was rewarding to get up and over the big hills and scream down the other side. Seeing green trees, lakes, streams, cows and sheep made the ride enjoyable.

I could have jammed a little more at some points. I was trying to "save" a little so I'd have legs for the run. As it turned out, I was so hot and fatigued by the end of the second loop that I didn't have any legs for the run. I was very glad my bike was still set up for climbing, but aero bars would have been good for the downhills.

I was in bad shape already by T2. Very hot as the last 10 miles of the bike were without shade, and there were some short, steep hills that made you work. I tried to run off the bike, but just didn't have anything in me. I took longer than I should have at T2 and this was simply due to fatigue. I decided not to put my Garmin 405 on because I knew I wasn't going to be running the run anyway and I still had my Timex from the swim recording the overall time.

Not much I could do differently this time.

Run sucked. Didn't have any legs and was overheated coming out of T2. Water bottle was hot. Walked within 3 minutes of starting the run. Decided that if I was going to walk, I needed to manage it. Told myself I could walk for 30 seconds and run for 90. I ran for two minutes instead, then on the next go ran five minutes to the first aid station. At that point I put ice in my hat and cold water in my bottle, poured water on myself, and felt much better. Ran for five minutes, walked for 30 seconds, then made it to aid station 2. Ice, water. Kept going. Really just made it from aid station to aid station. Walking a little more at each aid station. There were a couple of miles that I didn't stop between aid stations. Stopped to pee at mile 5. Ran out of salt tablets, and somewhere on the second loop took Gatorade, then later on some Coke. I never did see any fruit at the aid stations, though Dean later said he saw oranges on the ground. I had been looking forward to fruit, but didn't get any. Stomach was OK until second loop after the Gatorade, then it started acting up, but not terribly bad. Would have been able to run through it under normal conditions. I did force myself to run more on the second loop because I was alarmed about possibly not making the 8-hour cutoff for the medal. Saw Elliot's parents on the first loop of the run, and Dean and Elliot at the end of the first loop, told them I would be another 1.5 hours, and that was almost 6.5 hours into my race. Second loop was really lonely as there weren't many of us out there, and those that were were the walking dead. I tried to pick a walker and run to the walker, then stop for my 30 seconds, then run to the aid station. That worked pretty well for a while. Got really bad lower abdominal pains -- same as during swim at IMSG during last 5K of run. Had to stop running again. Tried to pee at aid station but didn't help much. Walked it out and was able to run/walk again up the final hill. Ran from mile 11 to the end stopping only at aid stations for ice. Nearly collapsed at finish line; felt dizzy and disoriented but recognized Dean, and was ushered into medical tent where they put bags of ice on my chest and under my head to bring down the core temperature. That was funny -- when I laid down, it felt like I was being wheeled away. I had to open my eyes to confirm I was still in the tent on a stationary cot. Took quite a few minutes to come back to my senses.

I guess I need more heat conditioning.

Time in the medical tent. Berry smoothie at local coffee shop. Used Compex Active Recovery on calves and hamstrings after race.


Heat. Also need to get better on hills. Even though I'm better than I used to be, I'm still not very good.


Volunteers were AWESOME! Spectators were great. Saw spectators on bike and run courses. Hoses on the run were definitely appreciated; some were manned by volunteers and some by Lake Stevens citizens. Disappointed by no fruit on the run course. Nice course with T1 and T2 within easy walking distance of each other.

Race day saw record breaking high temperatures; I think under normal temperatures this would have been a really fun race. As it was, I did have fun on the swim and the bike, even though the bike took me a full 30 minutes more than I estimated. Run sucked mostly because of the heat and there was little shade on the run course, but for people used to heat, it was fine. There was pizza at the finish, but I was in no condition to eat pizza. Expo was really light on vendors. Finisher's medal was nice; would be great to have more finisher's gear.