Chesapeakeman Ultra - TriathlonFull Ironman

Perfect conditions for the swim, no wind and a slack tide. Then only thing that could have been better would have been to have the tide at our feet like last year.

Got off well and rounded the first buoy with little difficulty, however, the next buoy was far away and had a little trouble sighting to it. However, just stayed calm and continued to swim at a relaxed pace. knew I was at the 1/2 way point when I went under the Rte 50 bridge, as an engineer I found myself checking out the structural elements of the bridge, occupied a little time atleast. Then on to the finish. sighted the rest of the buoys well and then say the orange buoy which was the turn to the finish, when I noticed spectators righ there, the swim was over and sooner than I thought. sighted to the boat ramp and swam until my hands began to touch bottom, got up and began to run up the ramp. Well, my first and last large mistake of the day, not check the ramp surface b4 race. The ramp was grooved concrete, which really hurts on your feet when running on it. SO to make a long story short, I had a very graceful stumbling/tumbling exit from the water. But on the bright side our cheering squad was right there yelling like crazy!!!!! For the swim, I was lucky and had no jelly fish stings, felt a few with my hands/felt and across my face, but no stings.

Be more graceful on my exit from the water. :)

Great transition. Out of the water, stripped wetsuit to my waist w/ no problem and had my bike gear bag handed to me. got into changing tent, which was crowded, and found a bench, got my wetsuit stripped, that was nice, and got my bike gear on, then loaded up my swim stuff back into the same bag and was out to the Port O' Pot (POP) for my first (of many) pitstop of the race.

Nothing, through everything went smoothly.

Great day for a bike ride, little wind to start and was able to get into a comfortable cadence and position quickly. Stomach was a little upset for the first hour of the ride, but was able to get nutrition in and it settled down. However, my big issue on the bike was that I was not sweating as much as normal becuase it wasn't that hot, only about 70 degrees. therefor at every aid station i was stopping to pee, which added to my bike time. It worked out great however becuase stacey and I kept "leap frogging" on the bike. I would catch and pass her, only to have her pass me while I was peeing!! Kept my HR around 120-130 for the bike and was averaging between 18-20 mph for most of the ride. At mile 65 got our special needs and was out for othe second loop. By this time the wind had picked up considerably and the first stretch out was disheartnening. However, I just kept telling myseld to bide my time and remember the tail wind that I will have for the last 20 miles in. This is about as flat a course as you could ask for and it is just beautiful it's own way. All marsh and wetlands, real pretty. I would sit up to drink every ten minutes and stand for about 2 minutes every hour or so just to get out of the saddle.

Try to learn to pee on the bike, as it may have saved me about 10-15 minutes on the ride if I didn't have to stop at every station. However, I am extremenly happy with my performance!!

Good transition. Neat having soemone take your bike for you and hand you a bag w/ all of your run stuff. Kind of like being pampered amid 140.6 miles of non stop movement.

nothing.

The run, my first marathon in years and after 114.4 miles of other activities, what was I thinking!! :) Got out of T2 well, and was looking for Stacey, ofcourse she beat me out of T2, ran out to our screaming fan base and began the process of catching up to S. we had already decided that we would run the marathon together if we were close when we finished the bike and that is exactly what we did. It was an absolutely incredible run, and having her there made all the difference in the world. First loop went well and b4 we knew it we were back at the High School and heading out for our second loop. At this point my stomach was rebelling against just about anything sweet, so I began trying differen't foods, and found that saltines and H2O are awesome. S and I kept each other going and then we were back a the High School again for our special needs. We both took jackets, as the sun was getting ready to set and we knew it would get chilly. Out on the last loop and was really feeling good, I must say that it is the best I have ever felt in a marathon, just incredible. On the last loop S decided we should dedicate the last 6 miles to people that we know and that are important in our lives. This was special becuase it gave us time to thank those that could not necessarily be there but that were on our thoughts. One of those miles went out to everyone on BT, as it is a great community!! Watched an incredible sunset. At the turn around to head back at about mile 22 our time was 12:15 ish and we decided to try and break the 13 hours mark. I was like a "horse that see's the barn" and S kept pulling me back a little, which was great because w/o that I would have blown up about mile 22.5 and had to walk it in and probably not broke 13 hours. We came back to the High School and saw the fans and our families cheering for us. The Finish is in the football stadium where you run 3/4 of the track to the finish. My neices and nephews were there are were able to run the track with us and cross the finish line with us. It was absolutely incredible!!!! I get goosebumps every time I think about it!!!

Nothing, I thought it was a great run.

Got those space age blanket deals and hugs, high 5's and congrats from everyone. Then S and I said our goodbyes to the family and sent them off to dinner while we went into the gym for a massage and some food. Cheese Pizza is awesome after and Ironman!!


Having to pee so much on the bike, but I was afraid that I would dehydrate without drinking like I did.


This was an awesome day, made even better by the fact that I was able to race with the most incredible person on this planet for the whole time. Without her I could not have gotten through this race, Thank You!!!!

I would highly suggest this race to first time IM'ers. Vigo puts on a well organized and supported race and being that it was a small venue you get great support without the throngs of athletes that can make things difficult for a first timer. I know that the smaller venue really helped me stay calm and not get to caught up in the "race" aspect of this event.