Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake - Triathlon

Best sighting ever. Start was a tad delayed due to overnight storms messing with the buoys. No biggie there. I felt sore and tired in my shoulders and kinda just figured I would do my best to focus on form while I was out there and do the things I had practiced in the pool (hands down for the catch and pulling with my lats) and getting through it. I was VERY happy with a 35:31 time as that's my best ever. My Garmin 910 said it was 1.16 miles, so if it was short, that's because of my extreme skill (again, a BEST ever) of rounding the buoys. I swear I was on the inside and touched up against every single one.

Nothing. This was a huge confidence boost for me as the swim is not my strong suit and I was happy to have this result. Well...I guess I should have not had a GU 15 minutes before my swim start and then spit in my goggles for anti-fog...it kinda GU'ed up the inside of the goggles and I was constantly washing them out. I un-gu'ed enough to see through.

The shoot out of T1 was WAAAAY TOO narrow and was extremely congested. I also ran with my shoes on (mistake) because I thought the hill was closer than it was and didn't want my first experience in a race of using rubber bands to end up looking like a moron walking up that hill. I could have done it with enough room and time. Running in my SIDI T3 shoes is NOT a good idea. Way too unstable. My old road shoes were better to run in...I will jump and rubber band next time.

See shoe story above. Maybe not yell at a person who cut directly in front of me before the U-turn to start the bike...he was a complete moron who had nothing ready and was just clogging up the entire race. I was impatient. Ooops.

I think I overcooked the bike a little. I was pumped to be on my brand new P5-Three and was putting it through it's paces. I dropped a chain at the top of the first long hill out on the course. How did I do that? I have no idea, but it took a little over 3 minutes to get it back on the small gear and around the chain catcher (that's right, a chain catcher...really?). I was full of chain grease on my hands, arms, and legs, and laughing about it. I mean, I was hit by a car 25 days ago, so this wouldn't bother me.

No dropping of chains and start a wee bit slower and build into the course. The more I get familiar with my new bike, the better I will get at what it (holy crap it's fast) and I can do together.

The pavement was really rough, so running in socks was painful. Again, the entrance chute (same chute as the out chute) was painfully narrow. My first time having my feet on top of my shoes...that works like a friggin dream.

Nothing. Maybe pee in transition instead of on mile 3.

HIlls. I peed on mile 3. The volunteers were AMAZING. I walked/ran with no apparent plan on that, just when I felt like it as my back was seizing up, making it incredible difficult to breath. I kind of bonked as well, as I quit fueling after mile 6, but I wasn't "into" fueling at that point, which was a mistake. Being difficult to breath, based on the accident back muscle issues, really made it hard. I walked pretty much the last 2.5 miles. I am disappointed in that.

Train more and not get smashed off my bike by a car in training. :)

The event was really unorganized at the finish. Some girl in a bikini top had trouble getting the medal over my visor so I think my face was 1" away from her boobs for about 30 seconds. I felt bad for her and really didn't want to look like a pervie old man, but she kept wrestling with it and giggling. She was a good sport and I joked about the motivation she provided and it was a good laugh. The med tent was full and I just grabbed my shirt, got my stuff, and then was forced to walk UP a 8 degree hill to the parking area. That was brutal. I was glad I was done.


My accident 25 days before the race just killed my training. I think I was satisfied with making it to the event and participating in it and that kind of gave me an "out" if I performed poorly.


The volunteers were the bomb. Plenty of stuff on the course. Wetsuit strippers rocked it, and all the drink givers were amazing. The course is a bit cramped and not too good for spectators. This is only my 2nd IRONMAN (logo) race and comparing it to Oceanside is just not right as O'side just kills it in the fun factor. The finish chute had participants dragging their families down the chute (one dude did it right in front of me, which is cool, but geez, I thought that was against the rules), the finisher shirts were just layed on a table and the volunteers there were just talking and ignoring athletes as they walked by. I did not see any food or drink after. Maybe they hid it or it was all gone as I was too slow. I understand the area to have the Transition and end of event area is cramped, but it was so small, I missed it I guess. There needs to be people herding athletes around to where they need to go (like O'side) as we aren't really paying attention to what we should be doing. Oh well, it was fun and overall, I was lucky to even show up at this race.