Ironman St. George - TriathlonFull Ironman

This was the hardest swim of my entire life. The first 500-700 yrds went good with full drafting and good bilateral breathing. But then for some reason I got a uneasy as I was getting close to the turn buoy and actually had to talk myself through some nerves (now I wonder if it was due to a sense of what was to come). Took turn and chop rolled in with waves breaking on my left. So instead of bilateral breathing went to breathing on the right. Had my goggles knocked off and quickly fixed. Then got to next turn buoy and the waves went from bad to worse. 4-5ft waves head on and people were panicking all over the place. After a couple of minutes of trying to figure out how to swim in this I decided to try for 10 strokes then dive under the waves/ tread / breast stroke for a count of 10. At times I made it to 15 strokes but very rarely 20. My arms were often thrown back by the waves. The wind was so high it was blowing the tops off the top of the waves, which made it feel like rain. I saw a canoe flipped over and a kayak flipped. Rarely saw any other swimmers in my vicinity and could barely see the marks. After about 500 yrds from buoy never again saw a safety boat until I was on land. Had a couple of panic moments myself during this time when I thought I saw a pink swim cap below me in the water. After stopping and refocusing I realized it was just my pink tinted googles causing a reflection in the water. Also had to add water to my wetsuit several times as I was starting to get hot while I was swimming.

Focused on the island we needed to round and just used it to site off of. Some buoys had drifted off course. but I was sure to round the furthest yellows and reds as I came around the far end of the island. Never looked at watch since I was doing what I could to get around the course and stay as calm as possible. When I saw the clock at 1:37 I was disappointed but happy to make it out of the water.

I need to swim in rough conditions to learn how to swim in waves. Also need to develop alternate strokes to allow me to keep forward progress without having to do the 3 steps forward 2 steps back dance I did.

I was a bit out of it when I got up to wetsuit strippers. But made it to tent and the volunteers were the best ever. I had 4 women helping me with everything. I had not taken off my cap and googles so they did that as I put on my shorts. Then had put on my race belt for me while I put on my socks and shoes. They dried my with warm towels as I sat finishing my prep.

I was a little out of it due to the swim, so maybe be a bit more focused.

This course by nature is hard and I had reserved myself that this was going to be a challenging bike. But then add the 40+ mph gust, headwinds and crosswinds to the mix, and it becomes a tough course. I started out and just wanted to make sure to stay on top of nutrition and keep hr down. The first 23 miles were head winds and climbing out of the swim to the main loop of the course. Then starting the first loop the head and cross winds really started to whip up. I was blown across the road several times and rarely felt I could stay in aero for more then a couple of minutes at a time. Had to stop at the water stops as I could not fill aero bottle on the go with the cross winds. Had a couple moments were I questioned how we could have to do this same thing all over again for the second look. Not due to the course, but due to the wind. Made it up the climbs and started the downhill with the tailwind, this was AWESOME!!!! Started the second loop with a new desire to start picking it up. But just after mile 75 I ended up getting 2 flats (1 right after the other). This added about 20mins to my time and made me really nervous as now I had no more spares. Fortunately the wind had died down slightly for this second loop. I was very pleased with my climbing on both loops and then once again thrilled to be on the downhill flying back to town.

Train more hills and wind. This was an early season race and hard to get out for long rides. The rides I did, it should have done on more challenging and at race pace.

Just happy to be off bike. Ran to bag, then right to portopot before going into tent. Once again great volunteers. Ended up standing up to run out right when K ran in. I made my decision to stay and run with her. The day was mentally tough and I was no longer prepared/willing to go have a mentally tough run.

nothing

This was the best part of the day as K and I stayed together the entire time. Brad was on his 2nd loop and ended up staying with us for his 2nd and 3rd. We ran the downhills and flats and walked the uphills. This worked out great for us and we really enjoyed ourselves.

nothing on this day. another day I would have wanted to run the whole thing. But I had given a lot on the swim and bike and just wanted to enjoy the event.

walk around, massage, food and back to the condo for much needed sleep


training, mental preparedness


This course is the most beautiful course of all that I have done. It is challenging, but not so bad they should stop hosting the full ironman. The volunteers and spectators were also the best I have ever met. There was not one angry driver on the course. The gear bag and finisher gear was awesome. The athletes breakfast on Sunday was fabulous also.