Ironman 70.3 Branson - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I thought I had been through some rough starts before, but I got thoroughly beat up for the first 5 min. of this swim. Not sure how it happened with only about 110 in our wave, I must have been in the worst spot possible. Once we got out of the initial pounding, the swim wasn't too bad. I swam too far out left on the return leg and lost my draft buddy. I was hoping to swim around 32 min. but cant really complain since I have swam less than 25k yards this year total.

Pretty long transition area. Felt pretty solid. I did leave my wetsuit on until I got to my spot just for the warmth.

I had 4 training rides on this course over the summer and have ridden the highroad multiple times the last few years, so I fully knew what to expect here. I swapped to an 11-28 cassette to go w/ my standard crank for the race, which was a great idea. I pushed this ride fairly hard knowing that my run was going to be a bit slow due to an achilles issue from earlier in the week. I could feel a bit of fatigue creeping in on the last two climbs on the highroad, but felt pretty much exactly how I had planned. I was good to go by the time I hit the landing. Nutrition: 4 Gels / Water

The no passing bike path portion sucks.

Probably push even harder on the bike.

This is a blazing transition for me. Found my spot, racked my bike, changed shoes, removed helmet, gone. Pretty simple.

Goal was to run 7:15s for as long as I could. First mile was 6:30 of course. I always feel like I am crawling when I get off the bike, so I always run the first mile too fast. Hit mile 2 at 13:30, so I knew I was settling in. Felt really good through about the halfway point, but my achilles was really starting to ache. Drank coke and water from every other aid station. Other than the aid stations, I didn't do any walking out there which is a first for me. Goal time pre-injury was 1:38, so I am happy with my 1:42. I can't really say the injury slowed me down much, but it was on my mind the whole run.
Nutrition - ~6 cups coke / Water / ~2 cups gatorade

I need to learn how to pace the beginning of these runs.

Got a big fat hot dog at the finish which was DELISH and exactly what I needed. Went and found the family and waited for others that I knew to finish.


I love this race. The lake is clean, the bike course is challenging and beautiful, and the run course going through the landing and by the river is fantastic. When I did this race in 2010, I completely blew up on the bike ride and never got it back. I said I would come back for redemption and I feel like I got it. 6:25 in 2010 to 5:17 in 2012. Also set HIM PR which was previously 5:25 at Kansas. Very proud of that given how much more difficult this race is.