Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon - TriathlonFull Ironman

This swim is the reason many people do B2B. The swim coupled with the fact that Wilmington is only a 2+ hour drive away are the reasons that I signed up for it as well. I'm not a good swimmer and my other two IM swims were 1:45 and 1:55. When we swam two weeks prior to race day, I swam 56min but I knew I probably did not go far enough down the channel to hit the turn bouy so I shorted the course some but was still expecting a swim time right around an hour so I was quite dissappointed with 1:16.
I did the worst job of sighting that I have ever done in a race. I was ALL over that channel. The plan was to go wide left. I think that back fired on me. It took me forever to even get to the first bouy which you should hit almost immediately. Then the current pushed me so far back right that at one point I was swimming directly back across the channel and ultimately ended up far right anyway. The day was overcast, gray and foggy. I couldn't see any of the bouys. On our practice swim I had sighted off from the SeaPath towers at the finish for the entire swim but the day was so dark that I couldn't see the towers. Nothing looked even remotely familiar to me.
On our practice swim I had problems with my goggles leaking and they leaked again in my next pool swim so I decided that I'd have to go with different goggles. I have a mask that I used to prefer for open water but hadn't worn it in a long time. Tried it for a couple of pool swims and although I didn't really like it, I decided that it is good for open water and I would go with it. I think this was a bad decision. While the mask gives a better field of vision, the optical quality is bad and I think that added to my inability to find the bouys. There were a couple of neon greens one that I could see but still had to get pretty close to them before I was certain that they were actually course markers.

I knew that I had cut the corner and shorted the swim on my practice swim and that turn bouy seemed an awfully long ways down the channel. That orange bouy was a turn bouy and the course had you go right of it and turn left. I was amazed how many people I seen that swam the course the way I did in my practice swim and didn't go anywhere near that turn bouy. I'm certain it saved them 10 minutes of swim time.

Different goggles. Not attempt to go far left, just head straight down the channel.

I always hear about people coming out of the water and having the wetsuit strippers just yanking that thing off from them in seconds. That has never happened for me. Once again even the strippers got the thing stuck on both my watch and my feet. Had a towel in a bag stashed just past the strippers, grabbed the towel and stuffed the wetsuit, cap and goggles into the bag. I admit that I was in no hurry to get on my bike into that wind and cold so I took my time in transition. As always more time ticks away then what you realise.
I totally appreciate the volunteers at these events however, as a BOP swimmer I find that by time I get into the changing tent they are either worn down or the fun has gone out of it. I was clearly struggling with being cold and wet and trying to make my hands work and getting things organized. There were only two volunteers in the tent and neither of them even offered to help any of the half dozen women that were in there. I had the same experience in T2.

If I'd had any clue that my day was going to turn out as it did I wouldn't have been so lackadaisical. I could have PRd today if I'd even had an average T1.

This was a very interesting bike ride for me. I suffer terribly in the cold and wind on my bike. Watching the weather forecast in the days leading up to this event, I had completely prepared myself to be absolutely miserable for 8 hours. Since I had no time expectations I was OK with just settling in and doing what I had to do. I had no intentions of pushing against that wind.
As usual I had NO problem finding my bike since there were very few left on the racks. Headed off knowing it would be a lonely ride. The fast HIM guys started passing me immediately. It was kind of fun watching them.
I had forgotten to open my nutrition packs before the race. My fingers were completely useless in full gloves and very cold. I had to pull over on the highway to take a glove off and open stuff up.
When I got to the first water stop at mile 21 I really had to pee but there were 4-5 people in both lines. I didn't want to waste that much time plus I was very cold at this point and it was a misty rain so I was getting somewhat wet. I knew that if I stood in line that long I would be completely frozen and would have a very difficult time continuing. I was wearing leg warmers and a light weight jacket over a heavy long sleeved jersey, full fingered gloves, to covers on my shoes and chemical toe warmers inside my shoes. Even with this I was cold and I have a history of hypothermia. So I passed that water handoff and started looking for a place where I could stop on the side of the road. A few more miles I stopped at a spot where I could lean my bike against a sign and walk down a short path behind some trees. Good. However, I encountered two problems with this. First: I took off one glove and could not get it back on. My hands were useless it took a good 3 min to get that glove on. Then when I finally got ready to go again I realized that I had walked in sand and my cleats wouldn't lock in. I tried to no avail to clean them out. Ended up riding 10 miles to the next aid station without being able to clip either shoe in.
My game plan was to focus on getting to special needs. After that I knew I only had ~25 more miles until I'd get the wind to my back. I had a sandwich from Jersey Mike's in my SN bag. Knowing it was there gave me something to look forward to although I didn't eat as much as I should have leading up to SN since I knew I had lunch waiting.
When we rode the loop two weeks prior to the race, we stopped at the chicken and had a fun photo op. We knew that on race day it would be a bright spot when we passed the chicken and thought of the laughs we'd had. Approaching the chicken there was a big 'Caution: Giant Chicken Ahead' written on the road. Funny.
People who race these things, and some believe you simply shouldn't do them if you aren't going to 'race', would be aghast at my execution of this bike ride. But it was exactly what I needed.
On a day that was the perfect formula for me to be out of my mind miserable, I was in a happy place all day. Never once did dropping even enter my mind. The back pain that I suffered with that so seriously limited my training, never showed up today. Taking the two weeks prior to the race almost completely off seemed to be the right thing.
Once I made the turn onto 421 with the wind at my back it was a matter of taking it home. It was still a long stretch to go but with the wind pushing me and my back not hurting it was just a matter of getting there. I was happy to see the bridge and to get off my bike but I wasn't desperate to be done for the last 15 miles which would have been normal for me.

I'm no super star but I do have a decent athletic resume. There are some thing on there that I am quite proud of. Overcoming my fear of the water and competing my first IM swim is a biggy on that list. The way that I handled this bike ride, both mentally and physically, in the cold and wind ranks right up there on that list as well.

Choose a different spot for a pee break so I didn't have to ride without being able to clip in. Open my nutrition packages before the race (rookie mistake that I should not have made).

Another slow transition and again no assistance from the volunteers in the changing tent.

I forgot to get my advil off the bike. I should have had a second baggie in my vest.

One of my mantras for the day was 'Just make it to your shoes'. Any time I do a triathlon I am always happy to get to my running shoes. Triathlons always remind me of how much I love to run.
Used a 2min:1min run/walk ratio for the entire run. I haven't run more than ~5 miles on pavement in two years and then only a handful of times. This was going to make this run a big variable for me. Can my back take the hard surface? As it turned out I was having some trouble in the first half and thought things might get bad later but about mile 9 or 10 I scored some advil off from a friend and it was just the ticket to get me through. I wore the Bondi B Hokas which I believe make a big difference.
I had a huge smile on my face and enjoyed all 26.2 miles of this run. According to my splits, I was about 3 minutes faster in the second half of the run but my SN stop and a couple of minutes lost to the train were included in the first half so I probably wasn't at a negative split but very close to even splits. And I could have easily kept running when I finished.
The logistics of this race presented a small problem for me with my eyeglasses. I normally would put them in my T2 bag and wear perscription sunglasses on the bike. Since we had to turn in our transition bags on Friday I couldn't leave my glasses in my T2 bag. So I ended up doing the first half of the run wearing my sunglasses which was OK but after it got dark I had to take them off which left me totally unable to read my watch or see much of anything else.

Nothing. I love to run!

Changed into dry clothes as soon as I finished, met up with some of my friends, had a couple pieces of pizza and headed back to the hotel.
I popped my head into a tent thinking it was the changing tent but it was the warming tent (co-ed). I asked someone where the changing tent was and they gave me general directions. As I started to walk away from the tent a volunteer stopped me and said that I was welcome to change in the warming tent. Since it was so cold many of the athletes were doing so. I explained that I had to remove the wet bra. She chuckled and said 'believe me, no one cares, many people are doing it'. I responded that heck if nobody else cares, I sure don't either. Was as discreet as possible with the space blanket draped over my shoulders but yeah I changed in that warming tent and I was happy to do so!


Lower back issues seriuosly limited my training for this race. I did prove to myself that I can do an IM on much less training then what most people would say is minimum as long as the attitude and expectations are set correctly. With that said, this is my third IM since 2008. 2010 I dedicated to ultra running completing several marathons, a couple of 50K runs, a 50 mile, a 100 K and a 100 mile run. So it's not like I'm completely out of shape and I thrive on 'endurance'.


This is a great race and being close to home, if I ever decide to do another IM I would most certainly come back to this one. I did not mean to be negative about the volunteers in the transition tents, I'm sure they would have helped if I had ASKED. Overall there were lots of volunteers and the ones at the aid stations both on the bike and run were awesome.

I have now done 3 IMs. Each one had it's very own distinct personality. The first was 97 degrees, the second had cold water and I was hypothermic after the swim and held in medical, the third I was undertrained and had to deal with the wind. Oddly my times for the three events are: 14:02, 14:04, and 14:06. Guess I'm consistent.

I enjoyed this race much much more than I ever expected that I would. I attribute that entirely to the fact that I went into it so relaxed. I am truely at the point in my career where I don't need to be 'fast' any more. I've been there (kind of) and just don't need it anymore. I'm having way too much FUN.