Ironman U.S. Championship - TriathlonFull Ironman

I ended up being on the last ferry. There was a lot of speculation that the tide/current was going to increase as time went on so a lot of people were deliberately getting on the last boat. However, this was not the case for me. There was a huge line of people standing in line waiting to get on a ferry. I felt no need to stand in a huge line when I could sit on the side and rest my legs as much as possible so I waited.

The swim went really well once I got in the water. I almost jumped on a woman getting in because she popped up out of nowhere right when I was jumping in. That would not have been a great way to start the day.

The entire swim was very uneventful. I did pass a lot of people, but because of the time trial start, there wasn't nearly as much contact as a typical IM. The water was a bit murky so there were a few times that I bumped into the back of people, but I would just move over and be on my way.

The only issue I had was my damn goggles kept taking in water. I had never had that issue with the goggles I used, but that was a drag. I had to flip over to my back at least 6-7 times to empty the water out. However, with it being a point to point swim, I wasn't as concerned about being able to see and just dealt with the water being in my eyes. I'm just keeping my I don't end up with pink eye from it. :)

As I approached the end of the swim the water got super murky. You could stand quite a ways from the actual swim exit so a lot of people were waddling there way along, but I swam as close as I could.

As always, I did my best to take it easy during the swim and definitely felt I achieved that. It was fun seeing the buoys go flying by and I really enjoyed this swim.

Picked up some new goggles at the expo after the race. The leaking goggles will be retired.

T1 was a bit different than normal for me. Since I started the swim 20-25 minutes behind a lot of people, the transition was much more crowded than I'm used to it being. There were a lot of people just sitting on the ground outside of the changing tent. I'm figured it was probably super crowded in there and I decided to take my chances. I was able to find a chair in a good spot and even got a volunteer to take my bag right away. I found my bike with no problem at all and took it right out to the mount line. The mount line was pretty busy as well, but I didn't have any problem with traffic at the line.

I'm happy with this one.

The only significant climb came right out of transition, which isn't ideal, but I really focused on keeping my power down and not going out too hard. My heart rate was a bit higher than I wanted to be, but I just tried to relax. There was a lot of traffic on that climb, but I was able to make my way past a lot of people without and issues, but did have to call out "on your left" quite a bit. At the top of the hill, I saw one of my clients Bryant as he yelled to me which was a nice pick me up. After that, it was onto the rolling palisades parkway. They completely shut off one side of it so you went out in one lane of the highway and back down the other. There was a lot of traffic and some people were weaving onto the other lane to go around people, but for the most part it wasn't too bad. However, I did pass a ton of people on the way out. I really focused on my power and trying to keep it even on the continuous uphills and downhills. There was a nice tailwind for most of the first way out which was nice and really helped get the average pace up after starting off with the big climb. Besides, the first lap was rather uneventful. I just focused on staying within myself and my taking in lots of fluids and the rest of my nutrition. There was a bit of a headwind on the way back, but it wasn't too bad. I kept myself entertained by giving praise to people that I passed or passed me. There were some very nice bikes out there that I commented on. But, I'm still baffled by how many people just don't even respond to me. I think its pretty funny actually.

Everything was going great as I started to approach the special needs station which was setup at a gas station right off the highway. I'm riding on the right side of the road like I should be and had no intentions of going to the special needs area (I didn't even have a special needs bag), but all of the sudden this guys flys up to a little in front of me and just starts cutting in to me! My reaction was immediately to yell "What the fuck!" and the guy swerved back over a little bit, but it forced me to have to ride into the special needs area. At that point, I've got these volunteers telling me a need to slow down which did not make me too happy. I cruised through there and was back on my way, but that could have gotten ugly and I don't know what the heck that guy was thinking.

The second loop was pretty much more of the same. I stunk to the gameplan and didn't push it too hard. I did pick up the effort level a little, but not too much. However, the winds and the heat did seem to pick up a bit on the second loop. I was able to pee 3 times throughout the bike which I knew was a really good sign considering how hot and humid it was. The wind slowed me down on the way back to town, but luckily we had the downhill back into transition to shake the legs out and still increase the averaged speed for my bike.

Since I wasn't able to ride the course before hand, I really didn't want to set a time goal for the bike. However, in the back of my mind, I was thinking sub 5:30. I pretty much nailed it!

I'm pretty happy with my bike split. There is definitely room for improvement on my bike, but I was happy with my plan and execution.

Pretty happy with T2, but it could have been a little better. When I sat down and opened my bag to grab my shoes, my left shoe was untied. I don't know how the heck that happened. Granted I'm sure it only cost me about 5 seconds, but I didn't understand how it came untied. I don't think I've had to tie those laces since the first time I got them.

Not much. Hopefully my shoes will stay tied in my transition bag next time.

"Bike for show and run for dough," right? Well that was my strategy for this race. I knew the run course was going to be tough and wanted to make sure my body was ready for it. I knew the first 16 miles or so was completely rolling and I needed to pace myself probably and keep on trucking through. After that the course would be pretty flat so I would have the most difficult miles behind me.

As I left transition, I felt terrific. There is a steep climb right out of the gate and I went up it with ease. My goal was to keep around an 8 min pace for the first 6 miles and then go from there. I also wanted to keep my cadence up and make sure I was getting in plenty of fluids. I typically took in 2 cups of perform and tossed as much water on me as I could at each aid station. Although it was hilly, it was nice that most of this section of the run was in the shade. It was still very hot, but it could have been worse if it was out in the open. Here are my splits for the first 6 miles:

Mile 1: 8:01
2: 7:59
3: 7:53
4: 8:03
5: 7:33
6: 8:06

I continued to feel great at the 6 mile point, but decided I should stick to around a 8:00 min pace. As I approached the turnaround to start the 2 loop inside the park, I was feeling very optimistic. Basically everything stayed the same, but there were more people on the course when I was doing my 2nd loop. Lots of people were walking the hills, but I kept pushing throughout. Here are splits for the next 9 miles, which point me through the 2nd loop inside the park.

Mile 7: 7:46
8: 7:40
9: 8:07
10: 7:47
11: 7:56
12: 7:28
13: 8:21
14: 8:02
15: 8:02

Mile 16 was tough. It included a steep climb out out on the street to the George Washington and included a couple rounds of stair climbs. I handled them pretty well, but they were tough. When you exited the park, there was no longer the shade of the trees from the sun so it was really hot. Mile 16 was 9:31, but I'm not sure how the GPS handled the stair climbs. I did slow down a little bit, but definitely not significantly.

As I crossed the George Washington bridge, I was starting to get pretty tired. However, its super windy on the bridge so the wind was actually kinda nice. I could also see a few other competitors out in front of my and I was gaining on them pretty fast which I figured was a good sign. Throughout the entire run, I just continued to pass people. It was hard to tell how many people I passed, but I only recall 1 or 2 people passing me the entire run.

As I went down the stairs from the bridge, they had the whole street blocked off and there was a decent amount of crowd support. Since I hadn't run this part of the course yet, I was pretty pumped and was hoping that the rest of the run was going to be like this. That wasn't the case, but oh well. As soon as took the next turn, I heard my brother and my parents yelling for me which was totally unexpected and awesome! It was the first Ironman my brother had come to it was so nice to see them and it definitely gave me a good lift.

The rest of the run was along running paths through the park. Some of it was along the Hudson which was very windy. There was some crowd support, but not as much as I expected. The course just kinda wound around and wasn't always sure where the heck I was going. This made it tough because I was really starting to hurt and just had to dig super deep to keep running. My cadence was starting to drop, but I really focused on shortening my strides and that really helped. The aid stations seemed to be stretched out a bit more and I think they were only every 1.5 miles if not further apart which stunk. I would notice my pace start to fade and then I'd be able to pick it up again after I got some more fluids in me. Nonetheless, I just kept on running. I knew I was in contention for a Kona slot and just kept thinking about how hard I had worked to get to that point and knew I could push on for a little longer. I played that mind game with myself for probably the last hour and half or so of the run.

One guy that I had passed earlier did come up and pass me with about 2 miles to go. I tried to hang with him, but didn't want to blow myself up. However, he did motivate me to pick the pace a bit. Here are my splits for the miles after the bridge:

Mile 17: 8:40 (included some more stairs)
18: 8:02
19: 8:08
20: 8:27
21: 8:47
22: 8:52
23: 8:57
24: 8:20
25: 8:09
26: 7:28

As I approached the end, my Dad was waiting at the top of the last little hill and told me I only had a few hundred yards left. Since it was a time trial start, I knew every second couple count so I pushed it as hard as I could. Here is a link to a video my brother took:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiWErErOYpU&feature=youtube_gdata_pl...

Really happy with my run. I faded a bit towards the end, but I'll take it. I would like to get my cadence up, but I'll take it.

I had nothing left at the finish. The volunteers had to hold me up and walk with me for a while. Eventually I got to a chair and was able to sit down with my parents and my bro. As the finish approached, I thought my time was going to be good to get me to Kona, however, when I saw that it put me in 9th in my AG, I actually got really sad because I didn't think it was going to be good enough. Nonetheless, I didn't get too down. I had executed my game plan and I knew it was everything I had. I realized it was out of my hands and that fate would decide.

I did get a massage after the race, but I had a really hard time getting any food down. I was finally able to get some food in me when we got back to the hotel. I didn't sleep particularly well as I was nervous about getting a slot.

I got to the expo for 9am and I found out there were 8 slots in my age group. I was happy with this because I only thought there would be 7. That meant I just needed 1 slot to roll down and I was in. Some friends had some research and the guy that finished 1st in my AG appeared to have already gotten a slot in Florida so I thought I was good. However, it was an extremely long 2 hours waiting for roll down. When it was all said and done, there was only 1 slot that rolled down and I GOT IT! I was so excited and was actually shaking my the time I got, but I was so pumped and just couldn't believe it. I'm going to KONA!!! :)

Here is a video of me getting my slot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkSwGEg8gc4&feature=youtu.be


I am very happy to say that I did not have any issues with my bad hip throughout the race, which was totally awesome and a bit surprising. I'm glad I didn't go too hard on the bike, but I think I have to consider my bike to be my weakness at this point.


The logistics of this race were totally crazy, but I thought they did a fantastic job with it. I won't be signing again for next year, but I would recommend this race to people.

Kona baby! :)