Ironman 70.3 Eagleman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The officials announced that the swim would be wetsuit legal. I got a little overheated during the swim and definitely regretted wearing the wetsuit. The dehydration from it outweighed the actual benefits of buoyancy, as I consider myself a somewhat decent swimmer. Despite having new goggles and using anti-fog wipes the night before, my goggles still fogged up! It made it extremely difficult to see even the next buoy. At the start of the swim, I panicked a little and along with adrenaline went out far too fast. After the 2nd buoy, I settled into a decent pace and just relaxed and remembered to have fun. I was extremely happy there wasn't any chop like a few weeks ago when I did a practice swim and the tide was in our favor during the swim out. Sighting has always been an issue for me, so instead of pulling my head up and looking ahead while swimming, I had to stop and do a couple breaststrokes and then continue. This definitely messed up my rhythm and is something I need to work on in the future. After hitting the buoy to come back to shore, I started catching some people from the waves in front of me. I went off course a little bit and actually ran into one of the kayaks. I thought my swim was awful, but saw my time afterwards and was pretty content.

I need to practice sighting a lot more. After every 20-25 strokes I had to stop and sight with breaststroke. I also need to work on swimming in a straight line. I always swim off to the right and I end up zig-zagging along the swim.

Coming into T1 from the swim I am always dizzy. I always get disoriented. After running in and turning in the transition area, I completely whipped out. I twisted my ankle and my calf tightened up, but I could only laugh at myself. After getting out of the water, I unzipped my wetsuit and pulled it to my waist, and then got my cap and goggles off. I struggled to get my suit off my wrists and ankles, despite the body glide. I finally got it off, got my bike shoes on, then put my glasses, goggles, and Garmin on. I took extra time to get a drink of water and take in a Hammer Gel before going off on the bike. I got to the dismount line and was off.

The only issue I had was getting my wetsuit off. Otherwise, I was pretty happy with this transition. My T1 is always slow.

My bike was an absolute disaster! Going into the bike, I felt great! I was averaging about 22 MPH in the beginning of the race for about the first 20 miles. That's when the race went completely downhill (despite the fact there are no hills on this course!!). I guess I got a little to excited and ambitious. I was going way faster than what I wanted to, but I thought in the back of my mind that maybe it's just my day! There was a bit of a tailwind for the first 30 miles so that may have helped me as well. At mile 25, I got really bad cramping in my calfs and quads. It was to the point where I had to stop by the side of the road and stretch. I felt awful. I took in a Hammer Gel and a good amount of fluid. I walked around a little bit until my legs loosened, then jumped back on my bike. After this, I was very conservative on the bike. I was pedaling at about 18 MPH and felt terrible. Every time I tried to stand up to change my saddle position or to "loosen up my legs", I would feel my legs cramping. I thought maybe it was because I had low electrolytes or fluids, so I took in water, and went through 3 water bottles before the 40 mile mark. This was a huge mistake, as I had to go the last 16 miles without and fluid or gels. At about mile 30-35, we had somewhat of a headwind and I slowed down significantly. Everyone I had passed earlier in the race passed me back. I couldn't stay in my aero bars because it would cause me to cramp in my legs. At this point, I just wanted to finish the race and knew I had another 13.1 miles to run afterwards, so I slowed down even more to conserve a little for the run. Coming back into town and transition, I was able to strap out of my shoes, and ran barefoot into transition.

I know that I need to work on my bike a lot more. My bike trainer and I will become great friends this offseason/winter! I also need to relax a bit more and not get too ambitious and go out too fast in the beginning of the bike. 56 miles is still a long way to go! I also should be smarter about my fluid/caloric intake.

Coming into transition, my legs were cramped. It's always nice seeing pretty much every bike already racked by the time you get back! Luckily, running is my strength (or so I thought!). I got my bike racked and got my shoes on. My new zip-up laces were awesome! I got my helmet off and grabbed a bottle of Perpetuem for the run and I was off.

So, in training I was always a good runner off the bike. Well, not today. As soon as I got onto the run course, my quads cramped up worse then ever! After a half mile, I stopped to walk and had to stop and stretch on the side of the road. I then walked the first 1.5 miles to loosen my legs and get some fluids in. After that, I told myself I would run to each aid station and walk the aid station. After the first 1.5 miles, I got my cadence back as my legs loosened up. I ran to each aid station, then stopped to pour water on my head, put ice into my tri-suit, and take in some Gatorade. After about 3 miles, I felt really good and my cadence picked up to about 7:30/mile. This is great, I thought. The run to each aid station then walk pattern was working well until about mile 9. At this point, every muscle in my leg was cramping and the heat was definitely starting to take it's toll. I would take about 3 steps, then have to walk from cramping. I was throwing up everything I tried to put in my body and started getting stomach cramps. I ran/walked the last 3 miles. Despite that, I still had a somewhat decent run, although no where near where I wanted it to be. Looking at the results, it seems like a lot of people had some trouble with the run, and I made up for lost time on the bike.

I think a lot of the issues I had on the run are from going too hard on the bike. So I would change more on my bike than my run.

After the race, I stretched and got some food. Then headed to the bar for a drink.


I went out too fast on both the swim and the bike. My sighting during my swim hindered my swim performance and my lack of training on the bike hindered my performance there.


This is only my 3rd triathlon ever (2 sprints previously) and my first 70.3, so I was very happy just to finish! My goal time was 5:30.00, although I really just wanted to cross that finish line! I beat my goal time by about 7 minutes, so I was very happy.

This event was amazing. The support of the community and volunteers is like nothing I've ever seen! The cola and snow cones were great on the run and the VT party house on the run definitely gave me a good laugh. Great race and I am looking forward to coming back again next year!