Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas - Triathlon

Lined up at front behind yellow kayak and tread water for 10min to hold my spot. In the last few minutes it became increasing hard to keep people from getting in front of me. Once the cannon fired I hammered out of there into clear water. There was minimal contact like in 2011 and I was off feeling good. Early on my right goggle lens fill with water but it was not a huge issue since i only breath to my left. I did well to sight and stayed close to the buoy line. It felt like it took forever to round the first buoy and as we approached it that was the first time my space got a little crowded. On the way back after the turnaround I felt like my pace was dropping off some so I worked hard to find feet and stay in a groove. As we entered the canal I started to get the usual shoulder fatigue in my right arm so a altered my stroke a little to ease up on the force in my stroke. Near the end one of my straps for my goggles popped off and it completely threw me off. I switched quickly to the back stroke and tried to put them back on. The l few last few minutes i saw with my goggles crooked on my face.

I felt this was my best IM swim to date. I have swam right at 1hr twice in wetsuit swims at IMAZ and St George and last time in IMTX and in Kona I swam 1:04. Only issue was not using some body glide under my arms. By the midpoint the speedsuit had rubbed some serious tender spots under my armpit area and it irritated me the rest of the day.

Could have gone a little faster but needed to get some vaseline on the raw spots on my arms.

I did 2 rides outside of 4hrs each to prep this year and then knocked out another handful of rides on the trainer that were 2.5-3.5hrs. I have had some disc issues in my back which has affected my ability to stay aero so I was a little nervous about how the bike would go. the plan was to pedal very easy the first 2 hrs and then play it by ear.

Once on the bike it was awesome outside. Warm morning by not uncomfortable. We rolled out with a nice tailwind and just cruised on lots of solid roads. I think I used my small ring a bunch in the first hour. Lots of people zoomed by and the pedaling was almost too easy but I didnt want to upset my back early so i just cruised along. It didnt take long before the sun started to smack us down with some heat and the winds started to shift around. It is also around the midpoint where you start to hit some hills that test you after cruising for so long. I did well to manage any hills or wind and did a great job to stay aero most of the bike. I was happy to see special needs as I had my replacement bottle for nutrition waiting. I froze if overnight in a camelbak podium big chill bottle and wrapped it in some foil. It requires me so stop for a minute to unwrap it but the first swag was golden as it was still slushy and very cold. My biggest issue on the bike was getting the nutrition in as the bike went on. One can only handle so much sports drink, water, and gels. i ate half a powerbar but that was it for the solids. I blew thru about 15 salt tabs and some sports legs by the four hour mark and the last hour was long! Winding back thru the woodlands at the end went on forever and by then it was an oven out. I was passing lots of people and felt some good power in the legs from starting slow. I hammered on home to T2 knowing I was mentally cooked from the first 6+ hours. I started to have doubts about wanting to run in the heat for another 3-4hrs.

Needed a few more long rides in the legs but very happy with the effort and it seemed to come easy for this pace.

This was one of the longest transitions of my life. I was mentally cooked which tends to happen to me after riding the bike for so long. I sat in the tent feeling like I was cooking. I volunteer was nice enough to dump cold water on me and then help unwrap a few bandaids i needed for my feet. We then reapplied vaseline under my arms because the sweat and salt was burning me so bad. I then slowly walked to the porta potty for my first piss of the day. I was dreading the run for the first time in a long time.

Pick up the pace. The longer i stayed in the tent to less I wanted to leave.

I knew in the first mile this was going to be a huge mental battle. Running is my strength but today it was going to be my downfall. Once again, I really skimmed on my training and the run suffered the most. I ran a run of 15miles, 13miles, and 11miles 2 times and that was it in 2013 for long runs. I felt I could fake my way to a decent time of 3:30-3:40 but that was not to be. The mix of the sun, my upset stomach, and poor run training kicked my ass almost immediately. I was shuffling from aid station to aid station and once I got there I didnt want to leave. As I would run it wasnt awful on the first loop but walking was just so damn easy. By the 2nd loop was was stopping before I reached to aid station to walk up to it and then walk another 1min or so after leaving. My feet were really starting to ache on the second loop and I was struggling mentally to walk. I did have a few austinites pick me up to run at times and when I did I would drop them and take off only to walk at the next aid station. Once I hit the riverwalk on the 2nd loop I was really running fast to the point I was easily at 7min pace or less but once again I would hit the aid station at the anadark building and it would kill my running buzz. I repeated this tread on loop 3 and by then the feet hurt with every step. My feet were just not ready to run long after 2hrs so this was becoming torture. Once I hit the finish chute its crazy how good your suddenly feel and then after you cross the line you realize again how bad you truly feel.

Run train way more and HTFU. I ran a 3:40 here 2yrs prior to qualify for kona and then ran 3:22 in kona the same year. that year a run trained for the Austin marathon for 3-4months with several weeks of running 50-60miles. All that run training make the 2011 IMs way more manageable.

training


The athlete area after the race had no seating or shade and all they had were rows of tables with no chairs out in the blazing sun. This to me after an IM is unacceptable. We pay lots of money for a race that should have the post race details covered. Seems later that night after many complaints the chairs surfaced. I also think burritos are a poor choice of food after a race. To me pizza is cheap and easy and it really hits the spot. Just my preference. Last rant is to give out cold IM perform drinks at the finish and not just water and cokes.