Ironman Lake Tahoe - Triathlon

When I first heard this swim was going to be a rolling start I was a bit disappointed. I have always been of the opinion that the mass start at an Ironman was part of the experience. I did IM Texas in 2012 and really enjoyed the mass start. I do have to say that after this race I have completely changed my mind.

I made my way down to the swim start and positioned myself in the 1:10 to 1:20 group and waited for the gun to go off. While waiting in the chute I wore a pair of socks and shoes to keep my feet as warm as possible before jumping in the water. The sand on the beach was absolutely freezing cold and a majority of people at the swim start were wearing socks and or shoes while in the chute. The water was beautiful and the backdrop of the snow covered mountains were incredible.

The gun went off for the pros at 6:30 and the first age group athletes went off at 6:40. The rolling start was great and my group entered the water at about 6:50 (Give or take). I walked under the chute and into the water and immediately felt the chill of the water on my feet. I dove in to get my head wet and after the first couple of seconds the cold did not seem to be to bad. My goal was to take the swim easy based on the altitude until I got into a groove. I quickly got on the feet of a swimmer and got into a pretty good groove right away. It was very difficult to sight on this course based on the fog and steam coming from the water so I had to completely stop a couple of times to make sure I was headed in the right direction. My lines seemed to be pretty good and before I knew it I was making the first turn. After making the second turn and heading back to the shore for the second lap, it was nearly impossible to see any of the bouy's until you were right on top of them. As we made our way towards the third turn buoy I could not find it. There were at least 20 people around me that stopped swimming while trying to find the third turn bouy. There were multiple people asking the volunteers were the bouy was located. I saw the volunteer point to which I just started swimming in that general area until I found the bouy. I made the turn and realized it was only about 4 feet deep. There were multiple people walking but I figured I would be able to swim faster then walk so I just decided to stick with swimming. I made the turn to start my second loop and was able to take a glance at my watch and saw my first lap was around 38:00. My goal was 1:20 so I felt pretty good about the first lap. I started my second lap and was again able to find the feet of a swimmer in front of me. The sun was completely up by the time I started the second lap which nearly blinded me. Now the fog and steam were gone, however now I couldn't see the bouy's because of the sun. I started noticing I seemed to be swallowing alot of water during the second loop and started to feel a bit bloated. Nothing to be concerned about at that point just noticable. The second loop was pretty uneventful and I made it out of the water in 1:17:19. During the last 100 meters or so I started mentally preparing myself to exit the water and be absoultely freezing until I was able to get out of my wetsuit and into my bike clothes. I felt pretty good in the water and in the back of my mind I really just wanted to stay in the water and keep swimming. I did not want to get out and deal with the freezing weather conditions. Well I came to my senses and exited the water and headed toward transition. Immediately upon exiting the water it was freezing. I immediately started shivering and did not know how I was going to be able to change my clothes.

Try not to swallow so much water. Overall I thought my swim was pretty good and I felt good coming out of the water.

I was given my gear bag and went to the wetsuit strippers to help with wetsuit removal. The two volunteers that took my wetsuit off were great and super helpful. Once my wetsuit was off I was only in a pair of wet tri shorts and really cold. I made my way over to the changing tent and was absoultely not ready for what awaited me in there. The changing tent was absolutely insane. It was madness trying to get inside the tent and once inside there were hundreds of naked, wet, cold and shivering men trying to change their clothes on top of one another. There was no room inside the tent and I had nearly a one by one area to try and change. It was nearly impossible to move let alone trying to manipulate my frozen hands to change my clothes. People were falling over one another, people were losing some of the gear, people were putting on other people's stuff. It was a huge mess. Once I was able to find a spot (Very very small spot) in the tent I had difficulty in opening my gear bag because my hands were frozen. Because I get cold very easily my plan was to wear alot of warm clothes on the bike that I could discard if I wanted. I kept my tri shorts on and put on a second pair of dry Desoto 400 mile tri shorts, compression socks, a tri top, arm warmers, a long sleeve nike shirt, an under armour sweater, a beanie, gloves and hand warmers. I was really hoping that was going to be enough to keep me warm. I did not care how long it took me in transition at this point, I just wanted to make sure I was dry and warm before I started the bike.

I really would not have done anything differently. It took a long time for me to get dressed but I do have to say I was warm and OK with the way things went in transition. The tent was crazy but it made things interesting.

I have never been a strong climber so when I signed up for IMLT I decided I was going to change that. For the past 9 months or so I have pretty much exclusively tried to ride as many hills as possible. I rode all types of hills ranging in ascent all the way up to 17-18% grades. I started out training for this race with a compact and 12-25 cassette. I soon realized that if I actually wanted to finish this race I was going to have to run at least an 11-28 so I purchased the 11-28 and came to realy like it. I started to really like riding hills and was looking forward to the challenge of this course.

The course started off fast and flat coming out of Kings Beach. There were some small rollers before you hit the first hll known as Dollar hill. Dollar hill was about a mile in length with an approximate 7% grade. My plan was to spin up all the hills the best I could to save my legs for the run. I wanted to keep my heartrate down and keep my cadence high while riding this course. The first time up Dollar hill I enjoyed it. I was able to spin up it and had no trouble at all. After riding the whole course I soon realized Dollar hill should not even be considered a hill compared to the rest of the course. The top of Dollar hill brought a fast descent into Squaw Valley and then to the City of Truckee. The ride through Truckee was nothing short of spectacular. There were hundreds of people lined along the street with hilarious signs that made me laugh. The town of Truckee brought some short steep hills that led to a small bike path that was a no pass zone. The bike path led a major rode that led to the infamous Martis Camp section of this bike course. Martis Camp was beautiful but a major pain in the ass. Since nobody could preride this section nobody really knew what to expect. There were long steep switchbacks that never seemed to end. I changed to the granny gear and spun up the entire Martis Camp section. The first time up everybody was talking to one another about how beautiful the course was and how crazy this section of the ride turned out to be. Just when you thought there was an end in sight, the course changed direction and there was another 11 to 12% ascent. This portion of the course was pretty similar to what I trained on so I really enjoyed it the first time through. I would not allow myself to think about the fact I had to do it twice. The top of Martis brought a quick descent that led directly to the Brockway Summit climb. Now there has been some debate over which section of the course was more difficult. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Brockway was definitively more difficult than Martis. There was no breaks on Brockway and it seemed to be straight up. The Brockway Summit climb absolutely sucked ASS and I would not mind if I never heard the word Brockway Summit again. The climb started off relatively easy and quickly changed to steep, brutal and agonizing. I was able to stay positive the first time through and kept pretty good conversations with some pretty amazing athletes along the way. With about 400 to 500 meters to go until the summit, I felt like I was riding in the Tour de France. There were tons of people along the side of the rode wearing great costumes and running along side of us cheering us on. This was an incredible experience. When I got to the top of Brockway I could not believe I had to do the whole thing over again. I kept thinking about the fact I tried to take the first lap easy because of the hills and soon realized it didn't really F....ING matter because my legs were shot anyways. There was a super fast descent to Kings Beach were the secon loop started. The second lap was much of the same until the second time up Dollar hill. The second time up was a little more difficult but still not terrible. I still felt fairly descent considering I had one and a half loops left on this damn bike course. I noticed a headwind during the descent into Squaw Valley that dropped my average speed. I realized after the first loop that my bike goal of around 7 hours was not going to be met and that I was just going to have to give it my best shot and see what happens. I rode the IM Texas course in about 6:15 and figured giving myself an extra 45 minutes on this course was good enough (YEA RIGHT... ONCE AGAIN...WRONG). Although I was starting to seriously wonder if I was going to be able to make the bike cut-off I found a way to stay positive and kept smiling. The second time through Truckee was just as great as the first and I suddenly felt really good about starting the second climb through Martis Camp. This may sound weird but the second time up Martis I really enjoyed it. The second time seemed easier for some reason. Maybe its because I knew what to expect this time around. I was actually looking forward to the steep sections of the climb and found myself feeling really good. I got to the top of Martis and started thinking about Brockway. I made the descent that led to Brockway and started up the last long climb of the day. I suddenly felt like I got hit by a bus. About five minuttes into the Brockway climb I realized I forgot to eat my second Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich on the way down from Martis. I started to struggle and kept telling myself it was all going to be over soon and I would be at the top before I knew it. The climb just never seemed to end. I was spinning the best I could and realiized I was only going 3 MPH. I was going to to slow to take in any foods to make me feel better and I soon felt light headed and like I was going to pass out. I absolutely did not want to stop and rest in fear I would not want to continue up to the top. Everything inside me kept telling me to just stop and rest for 1 minute and I would feel better. I refused to stop and kept willing myself to keep going. The only thing that kept me from stopping to rest was the vision of my five year old daughter during my llast IM wearing a t-shirt that said "Go daddy go your my hero". I did not want to let my daughter down and I tried to fight through the fatigue and light headedness. I knew if I could just make it to the top of Brockway I would be able to eat and feel instantly better. I finally made it to the last couple hundred meters and saw the summit sign. With about 50 meters to go I nearly threw up and started getting a couple cramps in my right quad. The thought of my daughters again rushed through my head and I was finally able to make it to the top. Once at the top I was shaking so bad from lack of energy and food I had a difficult time opening my bento box for food. I finally got it opened and had a PB&J sandwich and two granola bars which instantly made me feel better. I was so happy that I finished both climbs (TWICE) without having to stop or rest and felt a sudden urge of accomplishment. That may sound stupid considering I still had another half a lap to go on the bike and a full marathon but I knew if I could complete both of those climbs (TWICE) I would be able to get through anything else the day would throw at me. The last time through Kings Beach I noticed a stronger head wind and I had mixed emotions about the third climb up dollar hill. I knew it was going to suck but at the same time once I made it to the top it was all down hill to the transition and Squaw Valley. The third time up dollar hill it was miserable. This small inconvience of a hill now seemed to be absolutely brutal. I was finally able to make it to the top and very happy to be headed downhill into transition. During the descent into Squaw Valley we were fighting a headwind but at least there were no more hills that needed to be ridden. I cannot tell you how happy I was to be nearly done with this damn bike course. I made the final turn into transition and saw my family which gave me another surge of adrenaline. I did not know how I was going to be able to run the marathon but I didn't really care at that point at least I was off the bike. I finally got off my bike and handed it to one of the great volunteers. When I handed my bike to the volunteer I didn't really care if I ever saw my bike again. He could have given it away and I would not have cared at that point. My bike goal was around 7 hours and I finished in 7:32. Based on the course and way things were going I knew I was not going to be able to meet my overall goal time and I altered my goal to just finish in one piece.

I did my best on the bike course and that is all I could have asked for on this course. I was not fast, it was not easy and I wanted to say forget this many times but I made it and that is all that matters to me. I was able to stay in the moment and overcome many moments of doubt. So it may not have been the best bike time, I got off the bike happy with my time and extremely happy with my experience.

I did not know how I was going to be able to run at all after that bike ride, but after transition I realized my legs pretty OK. I ran out of transition and onto the run path and still felt pretty good. My legs were not hurting and I was able to stick with my run plan of a 10 minute run and 1 minute walk while walking through the aid stations. I was able to stick with this plan until about mile 15 or 16. This is where the whells fell off. My stomach had not been feeling great all day but as soon as I got to mile 15/16 I instantly felt like I was going to throw up. I don't know if it was all the water I drank during the swim or if I consumed too many liquids on the bike but it didn't matter at this point. It was only a matter of time before I puked. It started getting really cold on the run as the sun was going down so I grabbed my long sleeve cycling jacket and gloves from my special needs bag which made me feel a little better. I soon realized that I was not going to be able to run as my stomach was causing me too many issues. I spent the last 2 to 2.5 hours trying not to throw up. Anytime I tried to run after mile 16 or so I was going to throw up. I finally realized that I was going to be forced to walk and I soon became OK with it. Although I was having a difficult time thinking straight, I was able to calculate in my head that even if I were to walk a remainder of the course I would still finish. So I set off walking as fast as I could and saw my family around mile 21 or so. I stopped to tell them that I was only able to walk at this point and that I was undoubtedly going to throw up at some point. My family was so encouraging and they kept saying how good I looked and how good I was doing and that I was almost done. I knew they were lying and that I really looked like total shit, felt like shit and just wanted to be done, but you know what it made me feel better. I saw my daughters which put a huge smile on my face and realized how difficult this race must have been for my family. My family braved the frigid conditions at the swim start in the morning and have been out there all day in the freezing cold just to support me and see me run by a couple of times. I can't tell you how appreciative I am for my family and things they do to support me. I told my family it was going to take awhile for me to get to the finish but that I would eventually get there. So off I went for the remainder of my second lap. The second lap was miserable. I was so cold I was shivering and just taking one step at a time. I could not feel my toes or my fingers and I just wanted to be done. The air was so cold that I did not know how I was going to be able to make it back to the finish line without hypothermia. I was FREEZING. All I wanted to do was jump in a hot bath or spa and go to sleep. Looking around I saw that everybody was in the same boat and everybody was cold. Everybody was miserable, everybody was tired, everybody was freezing and everybody just wanted to be done, but you know what everybody kept on moving. I clicked off the last couple of miles and as soon as I got to the mile 25 marker I finally threw up. I knew it was coming so to be honest it was kind of a relief. I stopped for a couple of minutes and threw up. There was not much in my system so alot of the time I spent dry heaving but it did make me feel better. A couple people stopped to ask if I was OK before I was able to continue on. I stopped throwing up, cleaned myself up and continued towards the finish. I felt better and was actually able to run a little bit of the last mile. I made my way through the parking lot where I could hear the music from the finish line. I made the left turn up over the brick road and began giving high fives to the spectators. I made that final left turn into the finishing chute and immediately felt incredible. I saw my family, gave some high fives and finally crossed the finish line. The finishing chute was incredible. One of the volunteers handed me a space blanket and made sure I was OK before I was given my medal and finishing hat and shirt. I immediately had to sit down because I was going to throw up again but I was so happy to be done. I could not believe I actually finished the race.

Once again I did the best I could given the conditions and course and I was happy with my effort. Wish I would not have felt sick but it was just another obstacle that needed to be overcome.

Sat down in a chair and tried not to throw up again. I was absolutely freezing at this point and I could not stop shaking or shivering. I found my family who handed me a pair of pants, two sweatshirts, a beanie, gloves and a huge blanket which felt incredible, but I was still not able to stop shivering. I was hurting and all I wanted to do was be warm. I thought about going to medical to be checked out but I decided against it and just delt with it. I was having a difficult time doing liittle things and needed help getting to our car. The heater in the car felt incredible and I am forever greatful to my family for everything they did for me before, during and after this race.


While I did not have to deal with some of the things other athletes had to overcome to complete this race I am proud to say that I finished and proud of the way I handled some of the adversity throughout the day. This was by far the most difficult race I have ever done and although my time was no where near my projected time, I am significantly more proud to have finished this race then my first IM in Texas last year or any other race for that matter My time was better in Texas but the adversity, conditions and course were brutal during this race and the sense of accomplishment after this race is unparralled to any other race I have ever done. I don't care what my time was and I am so happy that I was able to be part of this truly unbelievable first time Ironman. Regardless what is done with this race in the future, anybody that even started this race this race knows how absolutely brutal it was. My respect and admiration to all of you and I highly recommend this race for anyone that wants to push themselves to places you have never been. Congrats to everybody who did this race you are all studs.