Ironman 70.3 Eagleman Triathlon - Triathlon

This was the best OWS I've ever had. The toughest part was that 5 minutes before my wave started, the strap on my goggle snapped. I flipped out for about 3 minutes, and finally found a race volunteer by the start who had a whole box full of spare goggles, which looked like they were left at previous events. I grabbed a pair, tried them on, and they felt ok, so I hit the water. Thankfully they didn't leak. I was the last person in my wave to line up and had about 30 seconds in the water before the horn, but it at least got my adrenaline going.

I'm a weak swimmer, and didn't finish particularly well in my AG, but this is the first time I've at least kept up with the pack and swum continuously. Usually I stop 6 or 7 times to have panic attacks. This time I just kept my head down, took 6 strokes and sighted, and repeated for 45 minutes. The water was perfectly calm, and the salt helped me float even without a wetsuit. There wasn't much contact, and I felt confident the whole swim. I was really happy that I had done a practice OWS last week, to work out the kinks.

I wasn't thrilled with my time, as it's a bit slower than my training in the pool. But I read that most of the swim was against the current. I also was holding back a bit since I wasn't sure what the bike and run would feel like. And I was one of the few swimmers without a wetsuit. Overall, a great start to the race.

Have a spare pair of goggles. Maybe push a little harder.

Took it easy through both transitions, but kept moving. The run out of the bike was a mud pit, so everyone was moving pretty slowly. I figured a few extra seconds in T1 was better than a sprained ankle.

Nothing.

The bike was my biggest question mark of the day. I've had very inconsistent bike training this year. I probably trained on 6 different bikes, and bought the bike I was racing on last week after the frame cracked on my racing bike. The longest ride I'd done was about 45 miles, and lots of my training was on a mountain bike towing my son in a trailer. I felt fit, but didn't know if I could push it for 56 miles. I also forgot to hook up my bike computer on my new bike, so I had to rely on my garmin for pace info, but had it set for min/mile rather than mph.

With that said, I had a great ride. I was shooting for sub 3:00, and beat that by 13 minutes. I think that not constantly focusing on my pace and cadence helped me ride faster. When I got the the halfway point and realized my pace (20.7 mph) I decided to slow down a bit, but felt good for the whole ride. Stayed in aero position for probably 75% of the time, took in lots of fluids, and ate 2 Gu's an hour. I felt a little drained for the middle third, but kicked it into gear for the last third and finished strong.

Train more consistently, but nothing else.

Running is definitely my strongest event. As I started off I knew I'd easy make my goal time of sub 6 hours, but that if I had a good run I'd be under my reach goal of 5:30. The first few kms were at close to 5:00 / km, which is about as fast as I can maintain for a half marathon. By about 7 kms I started getting intense side stitches and stomach cramps, which made me walk for portions. I decided it was probably due to poor hydration, so I made sure to walk each aid station and drink lots of water. I think this was probably the problem, because by the end of the race I was feeling great again. For about the middle 10k I walked way too much, however, and I missed my goal split of sub 2:00 by 14 seconds.

Still, the last 4 miles of the race were some of the best I've had in any race. The crowd was supportive, the course was nice and flat, everyone was excited, and I knew by then that I would finish my first HIM.

Hydrate better and run more bricks.

Played with my son on the little beach, laying down in the beautiful, cool water. Then lots of crabs and beer.


This was my first HIM, and first MDot event, and I was very impressed on all fronts. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.