Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon - TriathlonFull Ironman

I was really nervous about the mass start, Jet and I had come to Wilmington 2 weeks prior and swam the full course twice. This was a big payoff because navagation was much easier on raceday. The National Anthem, then the starting line announcer with the music jamming helped get me in my zone and ready to race. When the cannon fired I started my garmin and my 11 hr countdown timer and started in the water far left. I went as far left in the channel as the paddleboarder would allow me because I had read here on BT that was the fastest current. From my pre swim I learned to use the big water tower as a landmark for where the turn was coming up so sighting was a breeze. Sure enough when I got to the turn bouy, my line pushed me right into the perfect spot, in the last zig zag I hugged the green channel markers rather than the blow up bouys which gave me a straight line in. I climbed the ladder looked at my watch, it said something about 47??? wow. Yelled stripper! got my wetsuit off and ran with focus to T1

Very happy with my swim, my goal was to be on the bike course in an hour

Very slow T1. I usually dont wear biking gear on a tri but being 112 I decided to wear my cycling gear. At the last minute I had thrown some tights into my swim to bike bag. These proved useful. Had a hardtime getting everything off because I didnt dry off good. The tights especially. I had my 100$ sugoi rain/wind jacket that folds up really small and fits in your jersey pocket, but it fell out while i was fighting my jersey on and i just threw it in my bag. Should have brought it.

I always have better transitions when I go back through my RRs and see what worked and what didnt. I should have done that this time

The only thing I didnt like about the bike course other than the cold, windy, rainy conditions was the fact that I am fidgety right out of T1, getting a drink, gel, etc.. anyway all of the turns and obstacles the first mile made it hard for me to do what the hell i wanted. They should reroute the course because I am fidgety. Back to the bike, I felt great on the bike, hit my nutrition, fought the wind, rode the tailwind. My bike goals were to be 5:30 on my best day, 5:50 on my worst. I think I could have made the 5:50 pretty easily if I didnt have to wee wee 5 or 6 times, I did a half in sept and never had to stop and pee once, not even on the run. I guess the cold conditions did it. I also stopped at the special needs station and changed my wet socks and gloves, this took longer than I wanted due to not being able to feel my hands.

This was my first full and I feel like I judged well on power output under the conditions. I may have pushed a little too hard when I got the tail wind but i felt like I was making up some time. I dont think I can pee myself without the help of a half dozen J&G's so Im just going to chock this bike time up to good experience and my longest ride eva.

I completely changed at both transitions so I apologize to those around me when my package was out. Put on my compression shorts, running shorts, live it t shirt Jack Daniels hat and socks and shoes and grabbed my race # and headed out.

Just try to speed things up

First 140.6, first 26.2. I was training for Tobacco road marathon at the beginning of the year and stress fractured my left tibia. After 12 weeks, yes 12 weeks of not running I started my season back. 2 problems this caused was I was unable to understand the distance of 26.2 before my B2B and i was paranoid about running long.
I started my run feeling good, the road out from the battleship I checked my pace and was going at around 8:00, I checked myself before I wrecked myself and slowed to a 9:00. As I was going up the first bridge into the wind, I felt something in my left shoe underneath my foot, I stopped right before mile 1 and took my shoe off, dumped it, adjusted my sock, put it back on and started running again. By the second bridge, I was sure a CO2 cartridge from my bike was being stored under my left foot, I thought about my friday surfing injury and began to panic. By mile 3 I couldnt feel my left foot and had thoughts of quitting, I pushed through but I still wanted to stop and take my shoe and sock off to see if i could diagnose something. With my head out of the game and tears welling up, I thought about my family who would be waiting on me when I came back through front street around mile 9 or so. I yelled out "dig boy"! at the top of my lungs and said to myself "what left foot". My goal was a sub 4 hr marathon, i made the turn at around 58 min and headed back focused. I saw my mom and kids in town and took a min which was planned into my race time to stop and give them all a hug. It was great being able to see them out there. I fought my way back across the bridges, passing the Jet on the way, through the turn around where I had to really psyche myself up to do it again. The second half marathon was tough and I had my sub 11 goal in reach but it was going to come down to the wire, when i made the turn at 19.5 my 1100 countdown timer said 59 something, it was still well in reach but i had some digging to do. When I passed 20,I decided that I was too tired to worry about the 20 mile wall and kept moving.With about 3.5 to go on front street I saw my teammates Travis and Brad, they were pumping me up and I was able to pick up my pace for a while, but then I found myself alone on the bridge again fighting the wind. Crossing the final bridge, I looked at my timer and had about 2:30 left to make my goal, I passed the Jet again at this point and told him i wasnt going to make it. I tried to sprint down the bridge but my legs wouldnt go into a sprint. After navigating a test mouse type finish chute, I happily crossed the line at 11:02:22, with a marathon time of 4:03:46

Get a couple more long runs in. Train better

Went to the warming tent where it was too hot, walked a bit, ate some pizza, listened to the band rocking some Sublime. Had two lovely girls massage me. Tried to gather my senses.


I started off my 18 week training plan very good. Due to circumstances some controllable some not, my training got bad. I need a good coach to tell me what to do and make me do it.


Set up did a great job. I wish I could thank all of the volunteers personally because they were all wonderful. I will definitely do this race again and recommend it to my friends.