Vineman Triathlon - TriathlonFull Ironman

The swim started off great. I was feeling really good until rounding the first bouy. My left leg then started to cramp up. I thought it was weird (I rarely cramp when swimming), but I had been having night cramps in my legs for about 3 weeks, but hadn't had any problem for the last week or so of training. It went away pretty quickly, but about a mile later my right leg knotted up real tight. I worked that one out and was able to still finish with a really good swim.

I wish I could have figured out why I was cramping up at night and fixed things. I tried electrolytes and fluids and they went away, but they still showed up during the race.

Good Transition, but it was on a rocky beach an I got small pebbles in my socks. I didn't realize it on the bike, but I did on the run.

Made sure the bottoms of my feet were clean

First off, I (and a few other people I talked to) think the course was closer to 114. This year they had to alter the course because of some construction, and I think it ended up a bit long.
The first lap was great. I fellt really good and was holding about 20 MPH. The second I definitely slowed down, but still felt good. My bike odometer read 114 by the time I was off the bike and my average speed was right around 19 MPH.

I pushed a bit hard on the first lap, but it felt so good at the time. I'm pretty sure that it hurt me for the rest of the race

Good Transition, but it was here that I began to realize how painful the run was going to be. My legs were really starting to cramp and my back was doing the same. I was afraid I was going to have to walk the entire marathon.

Refering back to the rocks in my socks from T1. I would have changed my socks and cleaned my feet.

Well it wasn't as bad as I feared when I got off my bike. I walked about 1/2 of it and ran the rest (usually ran on the flatter sections and downhills, walked the steep uphills and the aid stations). My back loosened up and my legs, while still cramping, weren't as bad as I thought. I actaully got faster with each lap.


I should have tried to run a bit more. I should have gone easier on the bike

Walked a lot and finally got into a really cold shower. Got a nice massage afterwards that really helped. I couldn't eat for about an hour afterwards, but finally got some soup down. By midnight I had been through a huge plate of eggs and hashbrowns


The leg cramps obviously were the biggest problem. I wish I could have figured that out. I also think I pushed to hard on the bike and really paid for it on the run.
All in all I am happy with everything considering it was my first full length race.


Really liked the layout and the race. Because it it not an M-Dot event, this tends to be a bit smaller than other full length races. There was a bit of a shortage of volunteers (I think because it is a smaller event, and they just ran the 70.3 race here two weeks ago). The vols who were there though were great. Lots of suppport and lots of cheering people. I'd definitely run it again.