Ironman 70.3 Hawaii - Triathlon

The new course set up was ok in concept but it was confusing and resulted in large pile ups at the turns. The first 200 yards was a complete brawl. Saw a jet ski pick a guy out with a broken nose. Guys were grabbing my timing chip, arms, legs. etc. Saw about 100 men ignore the first turn and head directly to the second. I had to veer about 25 yds to catch the first turn. I was feeling ok at this point so I dove under everyone and popped up on the other side of the mass. My back stretch was good and felt I was finally managing close to my typical avg 1:40/100yd. My turn home was good and was all alone the whole way in as I ignored the course markers where everyone else was piled up.

Started either deeper or shallower instead of mixing it up in the middle. There was no Aloha swimming going on in this area.

I was planning to walk the long hill into transition but due to the slow swim I decided to run it. Felt like I fumbled with my arm sleves a bit and the bike mount is on a steep incline that was pretty clogged.

Left my arm coolers balled up on my wrists and rolled them up my arms later.

Bike was kind of ho-hum ok for the windy conditions. I bike in worse but was trying to stay within myself and keep my desent speeds reasonable due to the gusts. My fastest section was 38mph and right at that peak had a hard gust that made me feather the brakes a bit.

Ridden a bit harder back down from Hawi despite the gusty winds. My avg speed on this course during training is 18.6 mph and was thinking my race pace would be closer to 20 but it's all abut the conditions on race day.

My neighbor and I arrvied at exactly the same time....as luck would have it. He went left and I took a gap to the right so it worked out. I took a bit more time getting my socks smooth given that it was going to be a wet run.

I started out with quad cramps when I hit the grass...ok, as Macca says, "embrace the suck." I took a salt tab and started on my Gu Roctane drink and they abated by about mi 3. Everytime I hit the rough on the course I cramped. Since everyone had the same course I sucked it up and schuffled along. On the long cul-de-sac and the road to nowhere I was able to push my pace back to around 9min. At this point I was pushing my training partner who was struggling to keep it together. Since my day was all about embracing the suck I decided that I would have fun and run it in to the finish together.

Know that I could have pushed harder to get through the cramps as it was more managable than it felt at the tmie.

Drink, eat, sit in the shade on the grass and chill.


Swim start positioning, cramps on run, wind.


This was my first HIM and I jumped right into the deep end with the winds and difficult course. I've raced the Lavaman two other times, swum Hapuna numerous time, and ridden to Hawi several times so I knew what to expect. I may have to return next year just to redeem a relatively poor day.