Vineman Full Ironman - TriathlonFull Ironman

Swam decently... had not trained much going into the swim so I was perfectly happy swimming at a decent comfortable pace. Walking at the turn around to shake the arms out.

I didn't have a watch on so I never slowed to try and look at my watch. That helped me keep a steady pace without any worry of time.

Train more on the swim.

In and out pretty well. Only change was the addition of putting on my bike HR strap.

Decent transition... maybe a towel spread out as my feet had dirt on them.

I really like this bike course and as my 3rd go around at this race, I know the course really well. This was also the first time I rode a IM with a HR monitor on the bike.

I started out at a nice pace and got comfortable on the new Uberhund aero bars that I am testing. It was just my 2nd ride with them. The bars lightened the front end of my Argon E-112 and felt really good.

I rode at a steady pace keeping my heart race in the 130s and low 140s for most of the ride.

My bike computer stopped reading the speed sensor about 11 miles into the ride but the HR kept reading. I kept myself comfortable and kept cruising up and and down all the rollers while holding steady speed on the flats but was oblivious as to how fast I was riding.

At the first aid station about 22 miles in, I slowed and found that the water bottles they were using did not stand up in the aero bottle as I dropped it just after starting to empty it. They also did not have any bananas ready to hand off so I ended up grabbing a clif bar.

2nd aid station, I botched up again but knew that I needed to top off the water as the 3rd bike aid station was farther along. I stopped and topped it off, got a banana and was on my way again. Every other aid station would go smoothly and they even had some stations ready with bananas peeled.

About 17 miles after losing my speed sensor reading, it came back while I was going about 40 mph on a downhill. Sweetness! I like knowing how I am doing speed wise but still kept following the heart rate.

A little into the 2nd loop, I caught up with a guy I raced with during the run at this race last year, Lihan. He had actually crashed a few minutes before I caught him and was regaining his composure. He showed the big cherry on his hip to me and then I descended away and continued on my ride.

I caught another rider, a young guy in his early 20s, he decided he wanted to keep pace with me and passed me back. Then as I passed him again. As I went by he says "lets keep this pace going!" I agreed but kept to my HR and I actually lost him as he fell back.

I then came upon a rolling area and was caught by another rider. This guy was pretty fast and was the first rider that passed me in the race (turned out he was a aqua bike rider). There was another guy who caught me as well as I went by the aid station a little before some down hill and then the chalk hill climb. I kept at my pace and would catch him on the Chalk Hill climb. I climbed chalk hill so well this year that it didn't even seem like too much of a climb. Knowing the course really helps. I put a lot of distance on that guy during the climb after passing him early in the climb. It was cool to use the grade read out on my computer... Chalk hill is 7-8% grade.



I did pee on the bike... worked fine as I was riding so well that stopping would have not been pertinent.

Great ride!

Long run with the bike from the bike finish to my rack spot. As I got past the Barb's race bike racks my eyes became quite large as the bike racks were empty!

I had biked so well that I was up near the front of the race. I later tabulated it and had moved from 379th out of the water to 22nd place off the bike.

Could have moved a little faster but some of the time was from using the port-a-potty.

Started out the run feeling great with a bounce in my step. Like the swim, no watch on the run. (It was sitting on the desk at the motel)

I felt pretty fresh and I know that this extra energy was coming from seeing the empty bike racks.

I ran the first loop in 1 hour and 18 minutes and felt good, only walking on the steep uphill section and at the aid stations.

I knew that I would slow so I just kept going along as my body felt it could due to only running once a week with the longest run being 6 miles.

On the 2nd loop I slowed and walked a little more doing the loop in 1:37 and the same on the 3rd loop 1:44.

All in all, I ran well and was less than 2 minutes off my best marathon time.

More run training.

Ate a veggie burger said hello to some friends and watched another friend finish. Went with my buddy to Applebees and ate 2 orders of sliders.


Lack of running and swimming going into the race.


Personal Record for the Iron Distance!

Personal Record for the Iron Distance bike split by 25 minutes!

Missed Personal record for the marathon by 1 minute and 37 seconds.

Great race! Can't wait until next year!