Ironman 70.3 Pocono Mountains - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

No swim due to high water/current. Lots of storms in the NE over the last month

Since swim was cancelled it was a TT start by number/rom. Pro's went off with 30s intervals then the rest went of in less than 3 sec intervals. Started with one and I was 987 so it was about 40-45min before I went and the frist pro taking off.

The excitemnt was builing as my row started lining up and I forgot all bout the loss of the swim. it has been oalmost 13 years since I last competed in any organized event and forgot the feeling you get as that adrenaline get you going.
I went out too hard with no real ability to warm up. I had 3 layeres on, long sleeve under armor, short sleeve cycling jersey, and my Gore jacket with the sleeves removed and full gloves. I think the clothing was fine although I might have been good without the jacket.
I started passing people right away and all the negativity from the loss of the swim completely disappeared. People were riding all over the place so just passing on the left was almost impossible. I hit the first hill and just sprinted by lots of people and was mazed to see people walking some hill so early.I kept up the hard pace until disaster struck! About mile 10 there was a sweeping right that was tighter than I had anticipated. I was blocked from turing in tight so went wide and started to hit the brakes and felt rear lock up and start sliding. I immediatly let the brakes go and aimed for the side of the road. Call it the MTB instinct. I would always rather hit some bushes over pavement and that was my choice. I leaned my butt over the rear wheel and tried to apply gentle pressure to brakes. Front wheel hit the ditch and I got thrown over the bars and landed about 5 feet away from bike. I was easily going over 20mph at that point. Fortunately I was not injured....other than my pride. I crawled out with bike and realized I had landed ona bramble bush and had stickers all over me. Gloves, jacket, sleeves, shorts.....COVERED!(more about this during the run). My rear speed/cadence sensor was in my spokes and at the time i though my front wheel got knocked out of tru. Whatever, I was unijured, made some adjustments and got on my way again. The positive is that it made me realize I needed to take it down a notch on the intensity level.
After this I got into my rythm and felt good throughout the bike. Stood up most hills coasted down and rode relativly hard on the flatter sections. I had gone in thinking 18-18.5 avg would be good and bested that and paid for it on run

Go out a little slower and try to recon course. I did try this time but they had so many raod closures it made it diffcult. Ultimately I felt very happy based on training and ability ot get sub 3hrs

Coming into T2 roads were not yet paved so was bumpy and slow. Not much congestion so can't complain there. Ground as mentioned during pre-race was a mess now after crew/spectators/racers went trampling through. Remebered exactly where my stuff was. Took a bit to remove jacket, gloves, and shoes as did not want to step in mud before putting dry sneakers on. Took one gel and put race belt on with only 2 bottles although had 4 prepped. Treid to pick some stickers off shorts but found it useless so moved on.

Not sure as this was my first transition ever. looking back maybe just throw a towel down and stand on it to change? Just so muddy not sure I would be willing to destroy something like this for some time.

Felt OK coming out of T2. and just get off the track and BAM! cramps start hitting me in medial quads. I am a cramper and cramp in most anything over 3-4 hrs regardless of intensity so can honestly say I was expecting this. No biggie dealt with it before. Stop. Stretch. Massage. Run again trying to keep about 10min/mile. Get out of Highschool and BAM! hits me again. So I'm thinkging this sucks and I barely even started. I got 13miles of this shit?!?! gonna be a long run!
So keep up the routine with walk, stretch, massage, etc. Walk all aid station and eat banana and gatorade or whatever they had which tasted terrible IMO (cough medice flavored orange drink). I try to keep it slow and figure try to recover first half and do better on second half.
Sure enough hit the turnaround and between bananas and slow pace felt better along with mental part of knowing almost done and less than 6 miles to go started running and ignoring pain as much as possible. Every mile got better and ran the last 3 at just above 8min/mile which is what I had wanted based on training. Smile from ear-to-ear as felt great and started p[assing people that had passed me much earlier as most were fading in the stretch and i was getting stronger. Quads were buring but didn't care at this point and was gonna suck it up for rest. Hit the city and the crowds just gave me more motivation and completely missed the family in the finsihing chute! lol a great day overall

Not sure. I always cramp so was expecting it. Don't know how to prevent it.

Ran into waife and kids and just kept walking for abit. Left them in restaurant while I went to T2 to change


Cramps. I am not sure going slower on bike would have helped as this has been an ongoing issue for me for the last 15years. I always cramp. Nutrition felt fine. never felt hungry or thirsty including post race although I obviously ate as neessary.


Great race even with loss of swim. Only at one section during bike was I a little confused as to where to go but that had more to do with flagger chatting up some girl than anything.