Ironman 70.3 Kansas - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

More chop than I was expecting. Made it difficult for the out portion of the swim. Had to do a lot of sighting and wasn't able to draft off of anyone.

I knew it was going to be difficult with the buoys on left, so I just did the best I could with having to sight so often.

Went on the wrong side of my rack and passed my bike by about 50 feet. Oh well, at least i didn't get TOO lost. Everything after that was standard.

There were a lot more hills than I was expecting, which probably helped me overall even though it made it more difficult. I was amazed at how many flats I saw. There was a thunderstorm the night before and I think this might have put a bunch of gravel on the road that was causing the flats, so I tried to not ride all the way on the right, but rather where a cars right tires would be and was lucky I didn't flat. Having a tailwind on the way home was nice.

On the last big hill on with about 5 miles left my left hamstring started wanting to cramp up a little bit. I knew this was a bad sign, especially as I had pushed it harder on the bike than I would have liked. I was rewarded with a great time (for me) on a hilly course, but knew this might make my run more difficult. I gave it solid efforts on the up hills and coasted down most of the downhills to give the legs some rest.

I tried taking in as much nutrition as possible, but might have tried taking in even more.

Had a fresh pair of socks in T2 but wasn't sure if I was going to put them on. But then I had to run through some water in the grass on my way to my rack, so then I knew i was going to put new socks on, which I probably would have done either way. Grabbed an extra Powerbar Gel and took off.

Started out at a comfortable pace that I thought I could maintain. Took a salt tablet just past mile 3 (which I almost lost before I got there) and then tried taking some fluid at every aid station. Also took the rest of my Bonk Breaker bar at mile 1.5. I felt great till mile 6, then my legs started to really feel it and I noticed I had stopped sweating. Even though my stomach didn't want anything I was able to keep forcing nutrition down it. By mile 8 I thought the wheels were going to start falling off as my legs felt like they wanted to start cramping.

I slowed down my pace and my legs kept moving forward. I was pretty spent by mile 10 but knew if I kept running my time would be good. I only had to stop once for cramps (left hamstring) with about a half mile left. I walked most of the aid stations. I was lucky enough to have the finish chute all to myself. That was awesome, with all the people there cheering. I put my arms out like airplane wings and "glided" to the finish line, which I'm going to do from now on!

I tried joking around with the spectators and volunteers on the first lap. Giving people high fives and joking around with the volunteers what was fun. But by the time I hit the 2nd lap I was just trying to plug forward and didn't have much energy for "fun". still had a blast tough.

My nutrition plan was better than in the past, but I still have some work to do on it. Otherwise I was quite happy with my race and my performance on the run. I know I can go faster with better nutrition, but I was happy to put together a decent run finally.

I knew I was pretty dehydrated (but not as bad as my last 70.3) so I headed to the med tent. As i was sitting there drinking Perform, my right hamstring cramped up badly and my tingling fingers got worse so they laid me down on a bed and put some cold wraps on my legs and forehead. They tried starting an IV 3 times but my veins wouldn't take fluid so I had to rehydrate with just perform. After resting for awhile and cooling down and drinking I started to feel better and was OK from then on. Thanks again to the hot nursing student!


As usual all of the volunteers were amazing. God granted us a beautiful day. The course challenged me but wasn't too difficult. I'm extremely glad I did this race.