Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake - Triathlon

No warm up. Start was a lot of contact until the 2nd turn buoy. After that a rookie mistake, thought I had sighted for the next turn buoy and thought it was next to a sailboat, turned out the sailboat was about ¼ mile into the race course. A kayak was coming over to me to tell me that I was way off course. Somehow I was able to get back to the buoy and still PR the swim by 5 minutes over my past PR at 35:10

Sight for the buoy not the sail boat.

Wet Suit Strippers!!!!

Had to use the porta potty as I was late getting to the transition, didn't have enough time. Also put on gloves for riding on the chip seal. Added more sunscreen too. Ran into a line of folks exiting at the same time and ran out into the front of the mounting zone.

Get to the race venue earlier to do my business

The hill out of transition is a 4.4% grade ¾ of a mile long. Nasty start to the bike race. Luckily I knew about it, lots of folks were cranking up the hill, went slow. 7 major hills on the race, didn’t want to use it all on the 1st. Once we got up on the prairie things where OK, or so I thought. I didn’t know until later that I had a tailwind. Mile 15 headwind, & stronger than I expected, head to gear way down. Headwind lasted until mile 28. Then I got the cross wind, then the tailwind, then the back to the headwind. Yup it was windy.
Hills where bigger than I expected, but climbable nothing like Chelanman, mostly like Lake Stevens.. Got behind on my nutrition, didn’t finish it as after about mile 25 or so stomach wasn’t liking the perpetuim. As I came back I wanted to be under the 3 hour mark, but with a 9% hill right before the finish, didn’t want to burn myself out. Time: 3:02:27, felt pretty strong for the run for the 1st time. 4 minutes faster than my previous PR!


Go a little harder on the flats in the headwind maybe, over very happy with it.

Uneventful Bathroom stop. Forgot my gels

Remember my power bar gels.

1st 4 miles actually had to slow down to the pace that Jill had planned. 1st big hill, walked up it. Ran down the next mile no issues. 2nd big hill walked up, started running out the energy lab; it’s a stretch with no shade and a false flat. I was doing great until mile 6, when things started to go south. Mentally I wasn’t happy, so I hit the gu at the run turnaround, mile 7 more gu. Stomach wasn’t happy, but it stayed down. Was able to get back in the mile 6 ½ to mile 7 ½ run a telephone pole walk a telephone pole. Mile 8 & 9 was able to run again. Mile 10 BIG hill, walk. Mile 11 run again! Had to walk a bunch of mile 12 as I was cooked. Not my worst run, but not my best either. Still need to work on this. Had some IT band issues beginning about mile 8 that when I pushed it, I could feel the tug. Overall need work here for the distance.

Work more before the race on running? Remember my gels.

Nothing eventful. The watermelon was really good. Laying in the lake was nice.


IT band, heat, Central time zone vs. pacific has it's challenges too.


Really like the Hawaiian aid station on the run, it was very cool. Overall a very good experience and I may do it again, but it doesn't have the same vibe as lets say Boise, but better than Lake Stevens.