Ironman Texas - TriathlonFull Ironman

The deep water mass start was AWESOME!!!

I got in the water with about 10 minutes to go. The heaviest traffic was outside then inside so I took the middle about half way back from the line. Treaded water on my stomach (thanks for the tip TJ!) and waited.

The gun went off and away we went. Pretty uneventful for the first 50m. Then it was on. Solid kick face, lots of contact and so on. FUN!

I think I was to far outside for a while and this probably cost me some time. But it was cool as heck turning to breathe and look across the sea of athletes making their way down the course.

At one point just prior to entering the canal some lady lady grabbed my right arm pretty hard. So I stopped and asked her if she was ok. She said yeah, sorry about that, blind athlete. Wait... what? I expected a lot of things out there, but not that! rock on lady!!! (and this wouldn't be my only cool encounter with a blind athlete during the day)

We hit the canal and things got pretty tight. The spectators on the banks started getting pretty thick and really loud. AWESOME!!! I was pretty much up against the right wall for the majority of the canal.

Got to the stairs and climbed on out. Nice.



Pick a tighter line. But overall I had a blast!

took some time to find my bag. finally did and got going. tore it open and popped the lid on. ran through the tent. got to my bike. put my shoes on. saw the family. asked jarrett what time it was.. 8:30.. damn, slow swim. oh well. off we go.

next time i'd tie a really short piece of off color string to my bag. it'd be easier to find then having to pick up a few bags and read the numbers on it. overall though ok.. looks the the top ten in teh a/g avg'd about 2:56 so 3:08 is good to go.

The first 65 miles were awesome!

Had to stop once to take a leak and then at 1488 we got stopped by traffic cops to let the cross traffic go for about 4 minutes. It was irritating. People were yelling at the cops to let us go. I just stood there and talked smack to whoever would listen. By the time we got rolling there was easily a couple hundred athletes stacked up. The irony of all those training miles alone and here i am in the peloton during the freakin' race. I made you proud Tony! ha!

So. Mile 65. I hear a loud pop and think ahh great I'm flat. No big deal lets get it changed and get on down the road. But I didn't feel flat. I looked down and everything seems to be ok. I ask some chick next to me if the tire looks ok. yep. Good to go. Well, no. I'm not going anywhere. whats up? I go on as far as i can when I come to a little hill and drop my chain. really? I couldn't get it back on with my foot so I hop off. Nothing is working. oh no. Mechanical, busted spoke and its a mess. I'm now at the mercy of the support guys. ugh! So I'm thinking well at least I get to meet some folks up at CDA in a month. There's no way I'm giving up all this training for a spoke. I'd hit it.

Then my ankles start feeling really weird. Then they start hurting. Then I look down and ahhhhh... I'm standing in a fire ant mound. HA! So I brush off the ants on my ankle and I see the ants on my shoes but do nothing about them. Well a few seconds later I have my shoes off and I'm killing ants like crazy. A bit bloody but not feeling the bites, I'm good. Shoes back on. Move a few steps up the hill... right into another mound. awesome. Repeat the process over again. You gotta be kidding me.

A short time later the tech shows up. I'm now really really happy! Dudes name was Mark. Thanks bro! He throws a 404 on and off I go.

Nope. About 50 feet and I realize the gears are skipping. Thankfully I caught him before he took off. A few more adjustments and I'm back in the game, for real this time.

Hit special needs. Made a new bottle and off we go. I was disappointed but knew there was still a long way to go so tried to make light of it, smile and move on. At some point the sun really started blazing and I remember feeling it on my arms.

Somewhere around mile 85 I had a bit of chaffing starting so I look down to grab the small tube of aquaphor in the bento box... it's not there. ha! Oh well.

The last 22 miles were pretty weird. Traffic was getting pretty heavy. At times we were passing cars and having to ride down the middle of the road through stopped traffic because there wasn't a shoulder.

Somewhere around mile 95 (maybe) we turned directly into the wind. That sucked. Somehow I either missed or there wasn't a 110 mile board. It was torture wondering where transition was. Finally I rounded a corner and there it was. The only thing I could think was damn, I still have my shoes on. Then I realized I was done with this bike... ahhhhhh! Then I saw my old neighbor and great friend yelling at me to get moving... HA! awesome!!!

I wish there were bars in the T2, it'd be nice to sit down in the a/c and have a beer.



Skip the bike. Come out of the water and just go run.

6 minutes in transition. Really? But on this day, go figure.

Another awesome volunteer grabbed my bike when i hit the line and I was off to the run gear bag. Grabbed it and headed for the tent. Uh-oh, forgot the Garmin on the bike. (I turned it on at mile 100 so I wouldn't have to wait for a signal on the first mile of the run.) I run back to the rack, grab it and head for the tent. Get to the tent, thrown my socks on, shoes on get sunscreeend up.

Overall though, I felt great leaving T2. Here it comes...the f'ing Ironman Run. AWESOME!!!!

Not forget the garmin. Don't take so damn long!!!!

I could take all the time spent thinking about the swim and bike over the past three months and it may be close to all the time I spent thinking about the run. With the kiddos always running around, work, training, etc… it can be difficult to find time to just sit and think. I can’t tell you how many times I’d find myself spacing out in the peace and quiet of a bathroom at home, the office or somewhere thinking about the run. Sometimes 15 minutes would go buy and all of the sudden I’d be pulled back into reality by a scream from the kids or something.

I also never in a million years would have guessed an 11 minute pace would be impossible. I mean 11 freaking minutes. Come on....really?

I felt great coming out of the tent. This is it, we’re here. The crowd was great, volunteers were awesome, again. I looked down and saw 8:30. Whoa buddy, back it off. Backed off to 10:30 and held there for a few minutes.

Then I knew something wasn’t right. I don't know how or why or what, but I knew something was really wrong. Less than a mile into the run and I know I’m in trouble. NO. yep. F+CK! yep. Ok. Let’s walk a bit and see how we feel. Ran into Spidey and chatted a bit about our day. We were both in the same boat but he was on lap two, lucky bastard. Played leap frog with him for a few miles then he was gone.

This really can't be happening. I'd run a few hundred yards, maybe then walk the same. The crowds were pretty thick from mile 4 to the finish where the we'd start the next lap. It really didn't bother me much passing the chute. It was actually pretty cool to look at and watch people cruise on in. The crowd was amazing.

But shortly after passing the finish it got pretty quiet. Kind of nice because i didn't feel bad for walking again. I did catch the race clock at the finish line, it read 10:32.

Lap 2. Things were now really going south mentally. I couldn't do a simple time/distance equation in my head. And I began to think I wasn't going to make it in by midnight. This was completely inaccurate but I couldn't process the math in my head. I began asking people what lap they were on and damn if most weren't on lap three. So my math must be right and I'm in some serious trouble. How could this have happened? This is an absolute nightmare. Forget 14 hours, forget 15 hours, how on earth am I not going to finish this by midnight. Oh no.

The last half of the second lap had the craziest crowds. I saw smilford in his grass skirt acting like a fool, awesome! Aaron walked with me for a little bit which was encouraging. It got really loud along the canal, very cool. But I just kept thinking I might not make it. But I can't f'ing quit. I can't.

Got to special needs and tossed my garmin in the bag. Traded the visor for a prana band. Put new socks on and off we go. Ummm, no. I couldn't get up. A volunteer saw this, ran over and pulled me up. Thank you.

Ok, for real this time... off we go. I come around past the chute to start the third lap. Gonna get a look at the clock and see how much trouble I'm in. HA! I had to stop and put my hands around my eyes like Tiger lining up a putt in order to see it. 12:40... I felt like a first grader... no more flash cards needed!!! I can do math in my head!!!! This really sucks and its not what I ever imagined, but I'm not going to let the kiddos down... at least I'll finish this damn thing. We'll worry about the how the heck we got to this point later.

The third lap was a lot slower than the previous two. Don't get me wrong,. it was tough and it sucked. More physically by this point than mentally but I'll take that any day.

One of the most memorable parts of the entire day was walking down the overpass close to mile 18 (i think) where the swim start was and a blind 60 year old athlete passes me. I don't know man, just seeing him slowly pull away into the dark made me think how fortunate I was and what an incredible reminder that know matter how bad things suck, I'm really lucky to be out here.

The last three miles were rough. I knew I had to pass two more aid stations and I was dreading that. I didn't want to see them, didn't want anyone asking me if I wanted perform. They were so incredible all day, but I just wanted to get through them. By the end all I could do was whisper thank you to them all. I felt terrible about that but it was all I could do.

Finally arrived at the finish on Market Street. A couple things stick out... Nick your breath smelled like rotten beer, nice! KK slapped me on the backside. nice! I turned around to see if anyone was behind me. Nobody. People were yelling "its all you" and things like that. Pretty crazy scene. I came aroud the last corner into the chute and there was Jarrett, the kiddos, my dad and Mike. The one thing a couple of you told me was to take it really slow in the chute. That I did. I walked over and gave them all a huge hug. And then went on in.





Maybe try not to have a run split longer than the bike split. That would be nice. HA!

I don't know. I know everyone says the bike this and that. I get that. I know. But I don't think I hammered the bike. Heck I was on the side of the road for at least a 1/2 hour through the ride. So I don't really know what went down. A combination of a lot of things, I 'm sure.

Felt pretty bad but turned down the invite to medical. My catcher stayed with me for a while but I finally convinced him I was good to go. I walked out of the finisher's area and thought hmmmmm, maybe I'm not good to go. Started feeling really awful so I walked on over to medical. BP was a bit low (66/40) so they checked me on in. A little while later I felt better and was on my way.


Not really sure right now.


Some really amazing volunteers out there!!! Thank you all!!! Great race!

So grateful to have such an amazing wife that put up with all this crap for the past several months (years maybe).

You peeps up on The MG are so AWESOME!!!! Thank you!!!