Ironman Florida - TriathlonFull Ironman

My first mass start was phenomenal. 2400 racers entering the water at the same time was too cool. I seeded myself at the very front but about 2/3rds of the way to the far side of the corral. The front ranks had waded out to the sandbar and so I think the first loop was probably a bit short.
The cannon went off and I entered the water. The first 1/4 mile was a pretty good effort level and I knew I couldn't sustain. But, I stayed to the right and away from the melee. The first lap was largely unremarkable and I got out of the water right around 29:00. I had the thought that that was crazy fast as my fastest 1.2 mile pool swim was about 29:30.
I then reentered the water for the second lap and took a tighter line. The field had gotten much thinner at this point so drafting became a much more difficult affair. I started encountering more contact with other swimmers as this point. Most people would brush your feet and then immediately alter course or slow down. At one point, a person hit me mid-thigh 3 or 4 times. I kicked pretty hard after the 4th time and connected pretty solidly. He/she didn't make contact with me again.

My navigation started to become a little sloppier on the 2nd lap for some reason, probably due to fewer swimmers. I think I could have saved a little time if I had been more diligent.

I took advantage of the wetsuit strippers coming out of the water and hustled on to get my swim-to-bike bag. I found it before the volunteers and trotted into the transition area. The transition area was a bit of a mess. I dumped out my bag and pulled on my tri-jersey. A volunteer came over and helped me get it over my head along with a zip-up cycling jersey. I then pulled on my arm warmers and compression sleeves for the calves. Lastly, socks, bike shoes, and gloves. This process seemed to take forever as my wet skin just clung to the apparrel like nobody's business. Almost 10 minutes later, I roll out and find my bike.

T1 was a struggle for me. The colder weather (38 - 40 F) out of the water had me concerned about my ability to function on the bike, so I think I overdid the clothing. I'm second guessing myself now, but wonder if the arm warmers and calf compression sleeves were overkill.

I started the bike and saw my support crew on the way out. The next 30 miles were mostly into the wind and in shade. I was starting to get concerned about my nether regions due to wet tri-shorts. At one point I considered taking off one pair of gloves and putting it you know where, but opted against it.
Once I started heading west and/or south my pace really picked up due to the tailwind. I was averaging about 25 mph with the wind about maybe 18 against it. I was largely governing my effort level with my heart rate monitor and tried to keep my HR between 75 - 85 MHR. This worked pretty well. I got to special needs and grabbed my bag of peanut M&M's and exchanged my water bottles. Made it back to T2 largely without incident.

My nutrition on the bike was:
3 20-oz bottles of gatorade/EFS solution (Approximately 300 calories each).
8-10 packets of Roctane in gel flash.
2 on-course half bananas
2/3rds of peanut M&M's.
Total Calories: 2000 - 2500 calories

I was very happy with my bike splits. I never felt like I was going to fast, but at same time, it never felt easy. My nutrition seemed good and fluid intake was about right. I started needing to pee at around 80 miles and considered stopping, but the lines were too long.

Got into T2 and dropped bike off with volunteer and then grabbed my run bag. Helmet was off by the time I made it into change tent. Slipped on running shoes, removed cycling jersey, and changed garmins. Grabbed 3 packs of roctane and bottle of gatorade/EFS and hustled out of tent.

I considered removing arm warmers but didn't. In retrospect I wish I would have.

Wow...the marathon. I came out of T2 with a clock time 6:55. I thought to myself, holy crap I'm more than an hour faster than my realistic expectation. I started running and started watching my HRM. In several training runs, I was able to sustain a 10 min pace by not letting HR get above 90%. So, this was my strategy. Run by RPE but not let HR get above 90%. When it does, walk it back down to 75%. Rinse and repeat.

For whatever reason, this approach didn't work. My first two mile splits were something like 8:45 and 8:50. I was watching my watch and started thinking holy crap, I'm going to go sub 4 on my marathon, but HR never got above 87%, so I figure what the heck.
At around 4 miles I started realizing this was not sustainable and forced myself to slow down to something like 9:30's. Came through the state park and split the first 6 miles at around 9:06 pace.
I started getting really hungry at this point and had a couple of grapes at mile 6. They were soooo good.
At the next aid station I thought that those couple of grapes were so good and that a solid handful more grapes would be even better. Almost immediately, I knew this was a mistake. My stomach started doing knots and I didn't want to eat anything. I knew that this was going to be trouble so went back to a liquid only diet of mostly water until my stomach settled down. By mile 10, I was doing more like 10:30's and my stomach was still hurting. I slowed down through the mile 10 aid station and my head starting spinning. I had visions of Julie Moss staggering through the famous Kona finish and was afraid that was where I was heading.
I distinctly remember thinking about some advice that I had read on some internet forum: "Most people who get into trouble in ironman do so because they're going too fast".
So, I slowed down. Way down. I walked the next three miles and took cola and gatorade at every aid station. By this time, my original HRM plan was out the window.

At the halfway point, I saw my wife and sister-in-law. They cheered my on and I started feeling in a better mood. My stomach was starting to feel better also. I grabbed my run special needs bag and drank a small bottle of sprite and had a small handful of peanut M&M's. I started trotting again and was run/walking about a half mile at a time.

Somewhere around 15 or 16 miles in, a started hearing shouts from the aid stations hawking the chicken broth. I've heard a lot of stories extolling the virtues of the IMFL chicken broth. Let me tell you, the stories were spot on. That broth was like a salve to my stomach, my spirit, and my legs. I drank a half cup and perked up pretty quick.

I continued my walk/jog regimen with gatorade, cola, and broth until about mile 20. Somewhere in the state park I realized that if I could hold a better than 11 pace for the last 5 or 6 miles I could come in under 11:30, and shatter my 12:00 "best-case scenario" goal. So, I figured what the heck, now is the time to go for it.
I picked up the pace to a solid 10:30 and vowed to only walk aid stations.
My last 7 mile splits were:
11:03, 11:03, 10:14, 10:07, 10:31,10:36,10:36

I was about 2 miles to go from the finish line when I realized I had sub 11:30 in the bag with 25 minutes to go, so I slowed down a bit. I let a couple racers pass me in the finish shoot so that I could have a solo finishers photo.
Heard my name called and that I AM AN IRONMAN.
Then I managed to spot my support crew along with my awesome wife and daughters in the crowd and stumbled to a halt to be caught by a fantastic volunteer. Done.


I should have paced myself more conservatively early. I think that with a smarter effort I might have shaved a solid 10-15 minutes off my finish time without any additional effort or fitness required. Lesson learned. Respect the distance.

I stumbled to halt and managed to get my daughters over the fence for the post-race picture. Grabbed some pizza and headed to massage tent. I could not stop shivering and went back to condo for about a 30 minute shower. My plans to return to watch other friends finish was gone and proceeded to eat ravenously and drink beer.


Execution, Exectution, Execution.


Say what you want about WTC, but they executed the hell out of this race. This was exactly the experience I was looking for and they fulfilled their end of the deal. My hats are off to the race organizers and volunteers for a fantastic race.