Ironman Florida - Triathlon

Lined up to the right of the 1:00-1:10 corral. Wrong move. Was 25 people deep at this point, and the crashing wave made the first 300 yard just a dog paddle. Bodies everywhere. Ended up heading straight for the Red buoy (not the turn buoy), so probably swam an extra 200 yards right there.

Both loops were bodes, elbows, legs, feet, arms everywhere, no clean water to swim almost the entire swim. When I could swim, i would always swim right up to someone and there would be 4-5 people wide, and no way to get around them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwYwUPVPLnM&sns=em

Start wide right at the front. Any open water and I'm sure I would have swim a 1:05-1:09.

Long run up to get the T1 bag. Skipped the strippers, and shouted my number out while I got out of the wetsuit. I had to grab my bag, they didn't see it until I had reached for it. Had a decent transition in the changing room, ran out with my shoes in hand and put them on about 50 yards before getting my bike handed to me in front of the rack.

Nothing, the only thing that slowed me down was getting the Tracker belt on.

Except for the 10 mile stretch of the out/back at SN, I guess I did what I wanted to. I thought that I held back enough to do a good run (guess not), but was pretty steady. Goal #1 was to average 20.5 mph and just missed that. Stretch was 21 mph, which I think is reasonable, just not with a run afterwards :)

Need to figure my nutrition out a little better, I was dehydrated and loopy coming off the bike. My head was spinning a little bit.

Short run to pick up my bad and into the building for T2. Got most everything going good, a volunteer put my shoes and helmet in my bags.

It was good for today.

Can write a book here, but I guess this being my first, I will not be too harsh on myself. Ran out of T1 and saw Kim and was good, but 1/2 mile later I was searching for the first aid station, I needed fluids BAD. I was totally out of it and could not think straight. Wanted to walk, walk walk and QUIT, but tried to shuffle along as best as possible. Was so gassy and felt like I needed to take a dump. Stopped at a port-a-john and all that would come out was a ton of gas. Dropped on of my EFS shots in the john and then chucked the other one about 1/2 mile later, so my nutrition plan was OUT THE WINDOW. I kept the Salt Tabs with me and started taking those. I was so crusty with salt all over my Tri kit.

Didn't start to feel better until about mile 15 or so. Coke and broth helped out and it cooled down the air temp when it started getting dark. Saw my team-mates several time on the course and at the turn-around which really uplifted my spirits.

Trudged on and on, and finally around mile 24 could hear the finish line and picked up the pace as best I could. Floated on air the last mile and stopped to hug and kiss Kim before crossing the finish line. Hammed it up a little coming down the chute, it was VERY COOL.

Figure out the nutrition plan and do more Brick runs (for real this time). I think I could do a stand-alone 4 hour marathon about now, so a 5 1/2 hour one was way below expectations.

Found Kim and got a massage. Talked to Lance and my parents and that was cool. Kim really took care of me all night, GRATEFUL !!!


Just get the bike plan down a little better to be able to run off the bike. LOL, classic example of a great bike and suck run.


I had every reason to believe this would be a sub 12 race for me. In the back of my mind I was even thinking a 11:15 was do-able. It was a awesome feeling going over the finish line and becoming an Ironman, something that I can take with me the rest of my life..