Rev3 Cedar Point - Full Rev - TriathlonFull Ironman

Mass swim start. Didn't have experience with that, so actually decided to start near the back. I have a lot of confidence in my swimming these days and don't get worked up at all at the swim starts anymore. i actually look forward to them. Not saying I;m fast at all, very MOP. I wanted to see how this would go. We started in the water at the bouy. Water is waste deep for about 100 yards, so thinned us out. I started moving in and around the pack trying to find space. Found it. Got a few hits to the head but no issues. 1500 yards in my left shoulder started to hurt as it has in training for the last 7 weeks. Forced me to do 50/50 breathing even though i like to breath right in races. No matter. beginning of 2nd loop for the first 400 yards, water kept getting in my goggles. More annoying than anyting. Fixed and moved along until it stopped. The last 500 yards, my right calf cramped hard. This has happend in training a bit lately as well. Was a sign of what was to come. 2nd loop was 3 minutes slower because of shoulder and goggle issues

Started further up. Ended MOP. Should have started there, could have saved some time.

Not sure what i was doing here. I felt fine, but my changing felt like it was in slow motion. Made sure i was dried of as it was chilly. Put on sunscreen then left. Dropped a lot of overall spots during T1

move faster. but it was fine. not upset about this.

Went out a bit strong, but that's ok. I felt good. Held good pace and started to slowly but consistantly pass people. I went from 182 overall after T1 to 111 after the bike. The right calf cramp i got in the swim was nagging me the entire ride. Drank a lot (partly to over compensate because i never seem to on the bike) and kept up with salt tabs. Downside was i had to pee a lot, which cost me some time.. My left inner thigh was strained during ride. Again, didnt affect my ride in my mind, but would come back on me during the run.
after mile 40, i couldn't tell where the wind was coming from. Some stretches it was in our face, some parts it was a cross wind. Never really felt behind us. Overall, i was fine with the ride. Wanted to be under 6 and i did. Nutrition was good.

nothing on the ride would have changed. My legs were having issues the week leading up. Even got sports massages that week to help, but it is what it is.

much better in T2. seemed much smoother

nothing

where do i begin. tale of two races and this will weigh on me until i do another IM. The first 13.1 were what i thought, even if a little slow. I did what I thought I had to through the first loop to give myself a shot to finish good, somewhere in the 12:15 area. Sub 12 was the goal, but I knew that was a best case, and realistically 12:30 would be the time. I felt my training was good at preparing for running after these long bike efforts. Walked aid stations so i could stay as "fresh" as posible for as long as possible. But kept the run up on the first loop, even though it was not fast. Turn around hit me mentally and i was not happy to turn around near the finish. This derailed me for a bit, but i got it together and stayed with it. Drank some coke and gatorade out of T2, which upset my stomach and had to let it settle down. kept srategy to run and then walk aid stations to mile 16...and that;s when it happened.
I had ITB issues in my right leg. It used to manifest very acutely at the knee and it would be so bad I could not carry on with runs in training. I have worked hard to control them for the last two years and got to a really good point where it would not even bother me on long runs for the most part,l and if it did, the pain would disperse throughout the leg and i could handle it for as long as neccesary. THIS time it showed up as the former, right in my knee. at first i thought it was disperse, but it didn't. This changed my race strategy. For the next 5-6 mile, I would start running 4-7 times every mile and would last 30 seconds before my knee would almost give out and then i'd walk until it felt a little looser, then repeat. At mile 20, i said F this, this has to be mental and i started running and did not stop for 3 minutes trying to ignore the pain, but that was a mistake. This attempt made things worse. I could not keep running after that. I actually had to stop even walking for a few minutes. writing this now is bringing back the memories of the race as if i'm going through it again. I WANTED TO RUN this race at this point or go down trying, and i couldn't, at least in the vacuum of the world I was in at that point. i was there mentally. My legs were hurting in general, but at a level where I could block it mentally. I wanted this and I am frustrstrated. Nothing in my training of the last 5 months told me this was going to happen. things happen and i accept that, but that does not cover my frustration of not finishing the way i wanted to.

maybe if this had not happened and i was able to keep running and test the limits of my cardio fitness, something else might have happened to slow me down. who knows. My legs were hurting a lot aside from the knee issue. but i could deal with that.

not sure how to answer this one. I should be able to accept anything that happened to me given this was my first IM and first marathon, but I just didn't see this coming...but again, I shouldn't be surprised by anything this late into this race.

hugged the family and friends that were there. So happy to see my kids. It was great to be at the culmination of all my training. Ate some food. Got really cold at one point so went to the med tent to warm up.


my knee in the run. that's it. I developed exercise induced Asthma during my training some how. Have been on an inhaler during long training for almomst 6 weeks. That didn't limit my abilities today in my mind. I managed it. I also got a sinus infection the week before and was on antibiotics up until race day. Didnt bother me, except having to shoot a lot of snot on the bike.

I loved doing an IM. I executed the plan i wanted through 136 miles of the race. BUT i will not do another 140.6 unless i know that issue will not pop up again. And if that never happens, that's ok because i'm not dealing with that again.


I loved doing the half last year so i came back to do my first IM here. Everything was good in general. Lots of volunteers, crowd into the finish was great. Something was missing though and i can't put my finger on it. It felt different than last year. My wife said as much as well. it was still great and recommend to anyone. Love the location and activities. Will be back to do half again next year most likely.