Ironman Florida - Triathlon

So the race was non-wet suit (for the first time, so I'm told) and I wanted to get started as soon as possible so I opted to not wear one and start at the regular time.

This was also the first year of the non-mass start. They had corrals set up for self-seeding based on your expected finish time. Although in all honesty it was more of a mass-rolling start in that once you corralled up they just let everyone walk down to the water's edge and jump in. There was no delay between groups or anything like that, we were just a bunch of lemmings being funneled nonstop into the water through a 20 foot wide chute.

Once in the water there were a bunch of folks trying to run/walk/wade out into deeper water but I decided that wasn't the best plan. The waves were pretty big and strong so walking out you didn't get too far in shin-deep water before being met with a crashing wave that was chest high. My plan was to get into the water and then dive though the waves and dolphin kick as long as I could. This got me out into swim-able water fairly easily and I didn't have to "fight" the waves as much.

Once I was swimming I just kept telling myself to stick to the plan, swim easy and don't let the rest of the day get away. It was a bit more of a challenge than I had hoped but I was able to swim out and make the turn on the first lap without much in the way of "issues"... no water polo action, took in some salt water but not too much, and I stayed fairly well on course. Overall a win! After the short length going parallel to shore we made the next turn and headed back to shore. This is where I figured I'd make up time and/or conserve some energy. For all the fighting against the surf going out we had it now pushing us back into shore. I came back up on the beach to start my second lap and grabbed a bit of water.

The second lap went much like the first, except it was slower by about 6 minutes. I heard others say that the conditions got progressively worse so that may have something to do with it, plus I'm sure that I was just more worn out as well. After the second lap I got out of the water and took to the shower to get the salt and sand off. I did pay extra attention to rinsing off my tri shorts, since I wouldn't be changing clothes this time and I didn't want to risk getting any sandpaper effect from salt and/or sand once on the bike.

Not too much really. I had my race plan set with a 1:30 swim. Given the surf conditions, and the lack of wet suit I was pretty happy with a 1:32. I will place here, my usual comment about my lack of swimming ability, how I need to swim more, how I need to get some real coaching, yada, yada, yada.

Transition was fairly easy. It was a bit of a jog off the beach and through the parking lot to get to the tent. I didn't change clothes this time so I knew that I'd save a bit of time in transition. My time was still fairly slow but for this distance race, I'm more concerned with forgetting something than I am with shaving off 60 seconds.

My bike was racked a bit of a ways from the tent and I didn't get a volunteer until I was just about to my rack, so I had to trot along in my bike shoes pretty much the whole way. This cost me some time as well, but no big deal.

Not much, I can speed things up I'm sure but overall I'm fine with 10 minutes.

It felt nice to be out of the water and I was looking forward to a nice ride. I knew that after the swim being pretty much spot on to my race plan, I had a real shot at going sub 11:30 (at least I though that, more later). The swim was, in my mind, the biggest crap shoot. My bike isn't great but I was very comfortable with turning in a 5:45 unless I had some mechanical issues.

The first few miles on the bike were the usual effort getting settled in and shaking the legs out. Once we made the turn onto 79 I was pretty settled, I had had my first Bonkbreaker bar and I was ready to get to work. The road was fairly open and I didn't see too much in the way of the infamous IMFL draft packs. I saw a bit of clustering along the way but nothing that was major or what I would consider intentional.

At the last aid station before SN, I decided to stop to pee. I figured that the SN stop would be crowded so I wanted to avoid as much of a delay as I could. When I stopped the port-o-lets were full but no line so I used the time to stretch out a bit. This stop in total cost me ~3:30, but it was worth it.

All in all the bike was fairly uneventful for me so there isn't much to say. The last couple miles back to the beach on 79 and the 6 or 7 miles along Front Beach were a bit tough. Mentally I was done with ridding, I wanted to get to the run. Additionally the breeze had picked up some and I found that my same effort output resulted in about 2 MPH slower speed so that didn't help things much.

Again, not too much. I had planned on a 5:45 bike split and I pretty well nailed that. In fact my "moving time" according to my Garmin was 5:43:32 so if not for the port-o-let break I would've come in under goal. Maybe I should just let it fly on the bike. But then again, no. At ~ 12 hours, I'll just stop and take the few minute penalty of peeing like a human being.

Surprisingly, this was comparatively much slower than I thought it would be. My plan had me putting in a 5-7 minute T2. Some things that cost me: 1) I spent some time cleaning up. the roads got wet from the rain and I had a bunch of dirt and grit on my legs and since I was putting on my compression socks I wanted to clean up. 2) I put my first sock on upside down (I roll them to aid in getting them on) so I had to pull it off and put it back on again.3) since I rinsed off my legs my feet and legs were now wet which made the donning of the socks a bit more difficult.

Eh, not much other than move faster I guess. The sock issue was my own fault and cleaning up my legs was time well spent since the irritation would have likely driven me nuts for the next 26.2 miles.

So I figured that coming out of T2 I was golden for my 11:30, I pretty much hit all my plan goals and only used up 9 minutes of my 15 minute padding. That meant that in reality my planned 3:45 run only had to be around a 3:50 and I would hit my goal. No problem, I'm a runner before everything else... this was in the bag! Or so I thought.

Straight out of T2 my diaphragm was hurting. This happens to me on occasion, but it is usually in shorter races where I'm going balls to the wall. I knew from experience that I could manage the pain while running 8:30s but it wouldn't be fun. I clocked my first mile in exactly 8:30 but mentally this was an issue. Normally I have to hold myself back in the first mile or so and even then I end up running faster than I want to... this time the first mile hurt the whole way and "only" made my target pace. Uh oh.

The next few miles went much the same way... the diaphragm hurt and I struggled to keep my race pace. It was in these few miles that I was also feeling the effect of the heat and humidity, it was really tough going and I took on ice whenever I could to try to stay cool. By mile 5 or so I was really struggling and by this point high 8 minute miles were the norm. Mile 6 clocked in at a 9:21. With only 1 leg of the 2 out and back loops done, I knew that my remaining time cushion wouldn't be enough.

At this point I changed into do the best you can mode, with the revised goal of making sure I came in under 12 hours. I slogged though the next 20.2 miles; taking ice, water, BASE, and sponges whenever I could. It was tough going for me but I kept on keeping on and put out as much effort as I could.

Coming in at 4:15 was pretty disappointing, seeing as I was looking for a 3:45. The course was pancake flat, but the heat and humidity were the biggest "hills" on the course for me.

Don't really know. The heat hurt, the humidity hurt, the diaphragm hurt, not too much I could've done about any of that.

Walked for a bit, got a space blanket, and had some cold pizza and warm soda.


I think that the heat and humidity were the biggest challenge, with a sprinkling of some red-tide breathing issues.


Overall this was a fun race and I really enjoyed things. I would do it again, but only after I get a few other ones done that I'd like to do. The volunteers were awesome, as always, and I enjoyed the "town" as race-cation location.