Ironman 70.3 Pocono Mountains - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This is the best 70.3 swim I've ever done (though based on the times I would guess it was a little short). I did try to push myself a little harder than normal and not let myself just coast through it though. I was happy with my performance.

I didn't sight great. Because of the air and water temperatures there was some fog over the water which made it a little hard to sight. I should probably have sighted a little more often than I did.

I was really light headed coming out of the water. I've had that happen before, but I was really dizzy taking my suit off. I had to stand there for 30 seconds and regain my composure.

This course is very suited to me. It is rolling the whole way, but you can really power over most of the little hills. It is really technical with a lot of tight roads and sharp turns. You can't lose focus at all. It would have been nice to be in an early wave so the roads would've been less crowded. My swim wave was third from the end, so I had a lot of passing to do. I crushed the out and back section to try to get as many people out of the way before the narrow, twisty roads, but it was still pretty congested in some spots. The last 15 miles or so I would say I finally had some room. People were really bad about riding to the right and I got blocked in a few times. That was frustrating.

Not much.

The end of the bike snuck up on me. I was at transition before I realized it, so I only had time to get one foot out of my shoe. The other one I had to unclip and take off after I dismounted. I must've looked ridiculous. Yea, I remember my first race.... Oh well.

Clearly, start the shoe removed process about 15 seconds earlier.

Not a good run at all. I think my legs had a mixture of a hard bike split and racing Ironman Louisville only a month ago. They were heavy right from the first couple of miles. If I was fresh and could've put even a decent run together I could've locked up my Vegas spot, but sadly I just missed out.

I gave it what I had in the tank. Sometimes you roll the dice and crap out. No regrets.

Eat and put warm clothes on.


Ironman Louisville was probably still in my legs a little bit.


This was a really good race. The area was beautiful and the post race festivities were fantastic. It was a challenging course, but very fun too. Logistically it is a hard race though. The race started late because the shuttles bringing athletes in were running behind and the last one didn't get there until 6:50am. I felt bad for those people who had to rush around to get their stuff set up. Also, there is really limited parking for spectators at the swim start and since it's a point to point bike, you may not see your family/friends until T2. There were a few people out on the bike course, but not a ton. However, the finish in Stroudsburg was great. There were tons of fans and people out cheering us on. The bike course was probably the most fun course I've ever ridden. Very technical and pretty fast. I would recommend this race if you want beautiful scenery and a fun, challenging course.