Ironman 70.3 Eagleman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Having not worn a suit in a long time, I was starting to feel contsrained around the neck when I zipped up. After a minute or two, I felt fine. I started wider out and bit back to avoid the faster swimmers. This was the first race where I actually felt like I pushed myself hard enough. After the first buoy I knew my pace was too fast comfort and I settled in nicely. About .25 mile from swim out, my left calf seized up twice. Each time I floated on back for 10 seconds, worked out the knots and increased my kicking. Crossed the swim out time mat at 37' - 10 minutes faster than last year.

Best swim to date. I felt slightly undertrained in the swim area, but was very happy with my time

As I kicked off the wesuit, those calf cramps kicked back. Had to sit on the ground to pull off the wetsuit. Was going to pre-clip, but decided against it. Went sockless for the ride.

No cramps.

I did some I cadence spinning to find my legs and work the cramps out of the my calf. Once I got out of Cambridge, I went into the big ring and felt good almost the entire way. Last year, I pushed too hard on the bike so I wanted to keep myself in check and not push it. I settled into a pace around 22 mph and just kept at it.

Had guy in front of me get flagged for a questionable littering penalty - might have been 10' past the drop area. I was lucky because I literally ditched my bottle 10 seconds before he did. Was unfortunate to see the paramedics out on the course for a down female biker. Hard to tell what happened, but we did have to slow down for the emergency vehicles.

My pacing was solid and my HR dropped to about 148 for long portions of the ride. I could have rode harder, but knew that I need to save it for the run. Things slowed down a bit on Egypt Rd as the wind and road conditions were not optimal. Nutrition and hydration were spot on and took salt throughout the ride.

2:37:38 was almost 4 minutes better than last year!

I need to practice with the shoes on the bike a more. I was able to dismount though with the shoes on the bike.

Made the decision to run with hydration and had some cold bottle of fluid waiting for me. Quickly applied some sunscreen and stopped to kiss the family on the way out of T2.

Nothing in particular.

Last year, I started to cramp up almost immediately. This year I had none of that. I felt good from the start and went out too quickly at 8:00 pace. I quickly slowed down to a more manageable pace of 8:30ish. My game plan was to take ice at every stop and to walk the stations where I needed fluid. The name of the game was to keep my core temp cool and the ice really did the job.

The run really starts in earnest when you get out of town and the heat of the highway sinks. I felt very strong through mile 6 and it felt like the turnaround couldn't come fast enough. Went out at 8:33 and felt great.

Heading back while the others were coming out was a confidence booster. Things really didn't get tough for me until mile 10; at which point, I convinced myself all I had left was a 5K. Looking at my watch, I was having a hard time doing the fuzzy math, but it looked like a sub 5:15:00 was possible. I chose to ignore that and just keep with the task at hand.

As I got to the final aid stations, you can just about see the finish line a little over a mile away. I estimated that if I could run an 8' mile I'd go sub 5:15:00. It was tough but I HTFU'd and took my shot.

Running down that corral I knew I hit my goal and was just elated. Run time of 1:52:24 was a 12 minute improvement from last year and my finishing time of 5:14:02 was an improvement of 25 minute from 2011!!!

Nothing. I ran smart.

Doused with the fire hose. Refuled and rehydrated.


Others have said it, but this race is just first class all the way and justifies the cost of the race. The volunteers are just superb. Every station was well provisioned. Best of all, the town and the townspeople really embrace the event. Coming through mile 12 a girl had buckets of cold water and was asking people if they wanted to be doused. It felt great. It is not the greatest race for spectators, but my kids had a great time playing in the river after the swimmers were out of the water.