Ironman 70.3 Kansas - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swim was pretty choppy and barely not wetsuit legal. I heard there was a 20 - 30 mph crosswind by the time my wave started. I have done this swim distance both in the pool and open water many times and was expecting to swim a 33 (best) to 37 (worst). The swim out was ok, I dealt with the waves best I could but kept having to adjust course as the wind was pushing me away from the course. After the first turn we were swimming straight into the wind and hitting the waves head on. After the second turn the wind was really whipping up and I lost sight of the next buoy and ended up swimming toward the center of the course with a bunch of other swimmers. Finally got back on course and finished though it was rough.

Not sure what went wrong for me here other than the wind and chop making it rough and slow. Maybe better drafting, I only drafted for around 500 meters.

Decent transition. I was pissed about my swim time. Took a little to get to my bike and a bit the run it out of the long skinny transition area, which accounts for probably 2 minutes of T1 time. Also took the extra 10 seconds to stuff all of my swim stuff into my transition bag to be transported to the finish for me.

Not much really.

The wind was killer with heavy cross and head winds at times. The bike went pretty well until mile 42. The aid stations went smoothly. I passed many people lumbering up the hills. I felt comfortable thought I was doing well. I was following my nutrition plan to a T and felt good. At mile 42 I realized I had a slow leak in my front tire. I stopped and thought I could add some air to get me back to T2. As soon as I started to bleed in the CO2, the tube blew out. I popped the tube out and tore half my thumb nail off while doing so. Checked for sharp things in the tire, put my spare tube in and used my second CO2. Total time burned... 5 minutes. Started rolling again and made it 100 yards and the tube blew out. There just happened to be an official truck going by and he stopped to help. I inspected my tire and found a dime sized chunk missing. I patched my tire with an empty GU packet, got a new tube from the truck,and the guy pumped my tire up. Total time wasted... 7 minutes. After I got going again I finished the bike at a comfortable pace.

Flats happen... but I should have checked my tire better after the first flat. I also should have eaten more... read on.

T2 went well other than I ran into the wrong isle and had to go around which slowed me down. I took a little time to spray myself down with sunscreen. When I looked at my total elapsed time I knew I would need to come close to a PR on the run to make my goal.

This is where I fell apart. It was 90 degrees when I started the run. My first mile was 8:39, 2nd was 9:39, 3rd mile was 13:12. I hit the wall and was bonking. I walked into an aid station and started eating whatever they had. My planned GU at that moment tasted like the worst thing in the world. I started shoving ice down my shirt and slowly run/walking to avoid my muscles cramping up. I slowly started to come back and felt a little better by mile 8. While running through the campground, there were people spraying runners down with hoses which was heaven. Unfortunately one of them was not paying attention and sprayed my foot which filled my shoe with water around mile 4, I did not want to stop for fear of cramping up. I ended up running around 11 minute miles. I was not going to quit.

I would train better for the heat which I was not ready for. Even though I followed my nutrition plan to a T, it was not enough by the time I hit the run. I should have eaten more pre-race and on the bike.

Not much... ate some food and sat there feeling pretty good I had finished.


The heat and strong winds really got to me in this race. The run frankly broke me, the bad run was pretty demoralizing. By the end I was very dehydrated.


The conditions in KS this time of the year can make for a really tough race. But the organization was wonderful. I would do it again with better training.