Ironman 70.3 Kansas - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I lined up in the middle front row and got clean water right from the gun. I went all out until the first bouy when I eased into my race pace. I immediately noticed the serious chop and waves coming at me from the left. I didn't let them affect me and just kept at my pace. I hit previous wave traffic pretty quickly and did a decent job of getting through that. I kept my pace as we turned into the waves and then turned again back home where the waves were now coming from the right. I got a bit off course coming back in as I continued to navigate through slower swimmers. I swam until I hit ground with my hands and then jumped up and headed to transition.

I don't wear a watch when I swim, so I thought I was close to a sub 30 time getting out of the water. It wasn't until my wife told me later that I was 33ish at which point I got down on myself. Looking back at the race results I saw how much the chop slowed the swim times and I am okay with it when looking at my time and rank compared to others. I still need to sight and navigate better especially since I am going to be starting in the last waves for the next few years.

I forgot to put body glide on before getting in my wetsuit so I had trouble getting it off my heels. I had a good transition spot and was running with my bike until some idiot came out of his spot and ran right into me almost knocking me over. I ran past the traffic at the mount line before getting on my bike.

Not forget body glide.

Coming out of transition my heart rate was in the 170's and I focused early on getting that down under 150 which I was able to do relatively quickly. I knew that I needed to go out and race my own race and not pay attention to the fast bikers that were passing me early on in the ride. I was able to let them go and just stay at a comfortable pace. We had a pretty nice tailwind on the way out which made me feel fast, but I knew that coming back I would have to deal with the headwind. I kept right on my nutrition plan with a Gu every 45 minutes and taking in 2 bottles of GuBrew and a little less than 2 bottles of water that I picked up at the aid stations. I started to fatigue a bit near the end, but still had plenty of energy from the hill at mile 50 where I passed quite a few people. I spent the last 6 miles mentally preparing for the run.

My overall bike ability just needs to improve. I am actually quite happy with my time which was 2 minutes faster than last year and harder conditions (no wind at all last year).

I absolutely dominated T2. One advantage of signing up for the race late was an outside transition spot right at the entrace. I did a flying dismount, which is always fun, and ran right to my spot. Shoes went on, I picked up a Gu and headed out to the run.

The only thing that slowed me down was that I put all my stuff in a plastic bag just in case it rained. Taking everything out of there cost me 15 seconds at most.

I went out as planned and targeted 7:50 miles. I really had to focus to slow down early on because my adrenaline was pumping, and I was running fast. I felt really good and just let the miles go by maintaing my pace. I was passing a good amount of people who passed me on the bike, and that was really fufilling. There were a few people who flew by me, and it took all I had to just stay in my race. I started to push the effort on the 2nd half and really only had 2 bad miles. One was the second time on the big hill and the other was the last mile which was the only mile that I really felt bad. I don't think I was passed at all on the second lap of the run and I passed a ton of people. I am really pumped about that. I kicked hard on the last straight away and passed 2 or 3 people in the finishing chute.

Just improve my overall run ability. I ran 13 minutes fast than last year which speaks to how much my bike and run have improved. I really want to be under 1:40.

Not much, I just walked around with my family and stretched some. I felt so much better than last year when I thought I was going to collapse.


Choppy swim and wind on the bike.


I improved my time by 14 minutes over last year and increased my place by 23 spots. I think I may have actually got 33rd because there is a guy ahead of be with a 51 minute HIM which is obviously wrong. I am very happy with this race, but still left with the thought that I still have a lot of room for improvement. My bike was only a few minutes fast than last year, but the course conditions were harder with the wind. The run was way better than last year and I think it speaks to how smart I was riding my bike. Temperatures were perfect in the low 70's, so I didn't have to deal with any heat at all which was great. My body felt 10 times better than last year. I was completely trashed last year and felt good this year. I am shooting for sub 5 in Boulder this August and I need to get my bike faster to do this.