Beach 2 Battleship Iron Distance - TriathlonFull Ironman

Well the swim...It was suppose to be an incoming tide that puts up super fast swim times, instead there was no tide and there were some really slow times. Hind sight is 20/20 but I shouldn't have just assumed the swim would be fast. I did 1:20 in Louisville and that was without a suit. I should have trained and got the swim down closer to 1:10. Not much to say, just didn't go hard used it as a warm-up for a long day.

On a good note I was 158 overall on the swim still top 25%

Train more in the Water.

It was a very long run from the water to T1. Like 400 yds long. And COLD!!! But when I got to the tent I took my time made sure to get everything on. This was my first IM so Transitions weren't a concern. Maybe next time I'll go faster

If there is anything I hated about this race it was the Bike course. It was flat, boring, and super windy. We started out with a slight headwind but nothing unbearable. The further into the bike the stronger it got. I kept thinking this is great. We will get a tail wind for the 2nd half of the bike. I WAS WRONG! We got a tailwind for the last 20 or so miles. I fully expected a bike time of around 5:20-30 not near 6 hours. Oh well you have to take what the course gives you, and this one was tough. Much tougher than expected.

97 overall on the bike still top 25%

I was just so happy to be off the stinking bike. I sat there and got my composure before the real work started.

I went into the run thinking I would go out and back at a very slow pace (which is hard to control) then I'd pick it up on the way back out. So the first 13 miles were pretty uneventful at around a 10-11 min pace. I only walked at aid stations. I refused to allow myself to walk and I was passing the land of zombies the entire time by actually running. Then the 2nd half came. I planned to pick it up and though I felt really good I just couldn't. I had formed a rhythm and just couldn't break it. So I stayed at around 10-11 min miles. The cool part was definitely getting to blow by (well waddle by) people walking up hills. I got to see the family 3 times on the course and that means a lot when you've been out there for that long. Sure picks you up a bit. All I've ever heard was that the race starts at mile 18 of the run. Well that is stupid! I kept expecting to find this mythical place where the pain and zombie land would kick in... it didn't. And I can only attest that to good pacing and good nutrition. At around mile 20 I started wondering what my time would be, after the bad bike I knew going anywhere near 11hrs would be out of the question so now I was wondering if I would break 12:15 (a secret goal I've had since IMLou). Surprisingly my brain was functioning enough to do math and I realized that if I could just run sub 10 min miles the rest of the way I would break 12 hrs. The next 2 miles to the 22 mile marker where at 9:40's. (This is going to be tougher than I think.) I just kept pushing. Then somewhere between 22 and 23 it clicked I picked it up and I really picked it up. I was running through the darkness headed to the downtown lights, people, and the finish at around a 7:45 pace. I would run sub 8 min miles to the finish. The screaming crowds and the sight of the Battleship across the river helped a lot. The pure raw emotion of a years worth of training being over fueled my fire. I hit the two big bridges in the last 2 miles with a vengeance and never dropped pace. People thought I was crazy. Seriously one guy (who was on his first loop) said you know you have to turn around and run another 13 miles? I screamed no I don't I'm going home!!!! My last mile was 6:51 pace. It was incredible. No words can explain it. I felt no pain and was running my fastest miles by far in the last miles of the Marathon. Who does that? When I finally made that finishing shoot I couldn't help but smile, I saw my wife and Keegan and then a few tears and a huge smile started coming. They had put just as many hours into this as I had and it made it even more special having them see me finish. No words can explain that feeling of finishing your first Iron distance. I will never forget it.


97 overall run top 25%

Ha post event warm down! I was freezing!


Set-up does a great job. The race and venue is incredible. The only down fall is the boring bike course, but everything else is great!