Ford Ironman Florida - TriathlonLong Course

Most likely the best swim of my life. The start was everything it was made out to be. I set up about 4 people deep and slightly to the right. The cannon went off and I waded in intent on keeping the HR under control for to the first turn. It was a freaking fist fight and fun as hell. The water was cold at the shore, but about 75y out, it was perfect. Clear enough that I could see the fish swimming by underneath. Had a helicopter buzzing the swim course the entire time. You felt like a rock star.

The first lap was a huge draft fest. Whenever I couldn't get by a bunched up group, I sat on their feet and let them pull me along until things spread out. There were enough people around me, I rarely had to sight except at the turns. This was a two lap course, so you had to swim to shore, go through a timing mat and then swim a diagonal back out onto the course. At the end of the 1st lap, the time clock was reading 39 mins and I had a little panic. I realized it was the pro time on the clock and I had done the first loop at 29 mins and some change. I felt great and was breathing every 4 or 5 instead of every 3. 2nd lap things spread out and there were less people to sit in back of. I just enjoyed the moment the whole time. Started to focus on T1 and prepping for the bike with 500y to go.



Absolutely nothing. This swim was faster than any Oly or HIM swim I've ever done. I never had to breathe more than every 3rd stroke, and spent most of the time doing 4 or 5.

They have the hottest looking wetsuit strippers....at least mine was. :) Ran under the showers, and into the change tent. Moved through T1 slowly, but purposefully. Got my crap, wished the guy beside me a good race, and ran to find my bike. Beat the volunteer to it and headed toward the exit.

Both Sue and Cube Farm gave me a happy sendoff! Very cool! You guys rock!

Future races I'll turn the speed up in T1. For this first one, there's no worries.

My plan was to sit and spin for 50 miles at a Zone 1 heart rate of 135 bpm. It was hard to do for the first 5 miles. I was jacked up from having a great swim and the blood wasn't completely in the legs yet. 1 stopped about about the 1/2 mile mark when I realize I put my bib number on upside down and inside out. You look good, you ride good. heh.

Took only water for the first 30 mins of the ride, then started sipping my Perpeteum mixture every 15 mins thereafter. I carried a 3 hour bottle behind my seat, some Gatorade endurance on the seat tube, and water in the aerobottle. I had about 350 calories worth of sports beans in a plastic snack bag in my bento box and about 10 endurolytes in a seperate snack bag in there as well. Every water stop, I'd fill the aerobottle back up with water. That's all I took the entire ride from the aid stations - water only. If your thinking about doing IMFL next year and are reading this and plan on racing with aerobottle and bento bag, I highly recommend storing anything you don't want to get wet in baggies.

The course has 2 hills...I hit the first hill around the 10 mile mark - a bridge. Spun up it and coasted back down it. Max HR was about 153. We turned onto the long stretch on Highway 20. It was smooth riding for this entire section - although it was mind numbing in that there really is nothing...absolutely nothing besides pine trees to look at.

Rampant numbers of riders - both packs and solos went by me on the ride. One of the curses of being a decent swimmer and a MOP'er on the bike is the passing that you have to mentally deal with...and it was non stop until around mile 90 when I finally reached the middle of the pack. LOL. I cheered Stan as he went by me on the bike, and Rick as well, but I don't remember seeing many other BT'ers that I knew go by me.

My low point (and the point where I most heavily gobbled up BT vibes) was around mile 70. The headwind was kicking in. The road was rough. My knees really started to hurt which was totally unexpected to me. My Perpeteum was about as appealing to me as the previous port-a-john smelled and I kept getting those nasty soy smelling/tasting burps. It was at this point where I called an end to all future Perpeteum ingestion. I stopped eating for about 30 mins and prayed my stomach would calm down. With about 30 mins to go, I switched over to sports beans. Holy crap was that a good move. I starting feeling better over the next 15-20 mins and started thinking about T2. At one point, I pulled a Cube Farm - I reached into my bento and grabbed 4-5 sports beans. I forgot that I put an Aleve in there as well and took a good hearty chomp. Yummy.

Cool sightings - Jenneunc out on the bike course! Sandra (my coach's wife) in a red devil horned wig out on the bike course. Stan blowing by me around mile 20. Rick shortly after Stan. Two locals from Burlington around mile 50. And some dude that my mom talked to the night before who came riding up behind me and asked, "Are you Jeff Bostic from York, PA?" LOL!


The key to me getting faster at this distance is going to be working on this segment of the race. The bike is heavily weighted in these races. Its my major limiter. I've got to build the engine to be faster, stronger, better.

A volunteer kindly grabbed my bike. I wasn't sure whether we were allowed to take our feet out of our shoes and allow them to rack it with the shoes still on, so I jumped off with my shoes. I ran about 10 feet before I decided that I'm going barefoot. I found the bag and ran to the change tent.

God bless the volunteers. You guys all are so awesome. One helped me get my singlet over top of my head. Another smeared me with suntan lotion. A third racked my bike. A 4th found my bike to run bag. A 5th took my bag when I came back out of the change tent. (Although this last dude was a little dyslexic and put my bag in the 670 pile instead of the 760 pile which caused me a great deal of panic post race) Don't worry dude....I called myself by bib number 670 all weekend long too.



Wasn't racing for time, so I don't really much care about my time here. Could shave another couple of minutes here.

This was the most brilliant marathon or even long run I've ever attempted. The plan was to hover in the 9:30-10 min/mile pace for the first 5 before deciding whether to kick it up a notch. Even the jelly legs didn't really make an appearance. The first mile was way too fast. I pulled it back the 2nd mile and the rest was history. I ran even splits the whole way through. Each mile from 3 to 26 was right at 9:50 to 10:10 and the only difference was how long I walked through the aid station.

Nutrition - Gels every 30 mins, enduralytes every hour, water at every aid station, gatorade every now and then to break up the monotony. I used the same plan as I did at Myrtle Beach Mary. No GI issues!!!! Woo!!! The body fed off of this stuff. It was like magic. Any time I felt just a tinge of crampyness, I hit some electrolytes. Any time I felt just a tinge of fatigue I hit a gel.

I mentally broke the run up into 4 parts - 0 to 6 was stabilizing everything. 6 to 13.1 was finding a steady pace and chewing up miles. 13.1 to 18 was form focus, and 18 to the end I was expecting to suffer. When I hit the halfway point, I was feeling on top of the world and not hurting at all so I just kept on going enjoying the trip to 18. When I hit 18, holy crap...I still felt great. So, I kept running at the same pace with a big ass smile on my face. Run Forest Run. I swear that in the last half of the mary, I was in a place within myself. It was primal and focused and so incredible.

Some really cool things happened on the run -
The family cheered me out of T2!

Around mile 2-3, I saw the men's pro coming in. I saw cutie Janelle on a bike leading one of the male or female top 3. She gave me a wave. I saw Cube on a bike too. Sorry Sue...I know you were out there...I must not have been paying attention.

Around mile 4, I saw my coach heading in the opposite direction on his way to finishing his first loop. We slapped some skin and kept moving.

Around mile 5, Jess jumps in front of me and plants a huge kiss right smack on the lips. For the next tenth of a mile, I got to listen to the jealous athletes muttering around me. One even asked me if I paid a quarter. ROFL! I missed Q!!!

At the entrance to the park, there was a freaking deer standing there watching us. A buck - 6 pointer I believe. Sucker didn't move an inch. He just stood there watching us. He was probably checking out all the hotties out there.

Mile 11 - Saw my coach again. He was having some issues though and was walk/running because he was getting dizzy. I picked up a ton of ground on him from the first time I saw him.

13.1 - saw my whole family at the turn. I was running the mary of my life at this point and feeling AWESOME....saw Dad/stepmom, Mom/stepdad, Mother/Father in law, All my kids and wifey (except Emma who was taking a nap. :)) I stopped long enough to see if Gator Mike was off the bike yet and didn't like the answer I heard.

Somewhere between 14-16 - I finally caught back up to Stan/flyboy and walked with him for a few seconds. He passed me at like mile 20 or so on the bike. Somewhere in here I think I passed Rick/Daremo, but I didn't see him.

Mile 18 - I kept telling myself the whole run, "The race really starts here, the race really starts here". And I was feeling AWESOME! Somewhere in here, I passed over some sort of mat and a big screen in front of me showed a personal message that the gator family left me. Thanks Wendi and Mike. That meant more than you know. xxooxx :)

Mile 20 - I always change over from counting up the miles to counting down at this point. It makes it seem shorter. 6 to go, 5 to go, 4 to go...etc. And mile 25 to 26 is always the applause lap. Soak in as many memories as possible cause its almost over.

The last set of miles - I saw Ellasdad (Edde) in his kilt (way to go Ironman). I missed Ryan (way to go Ironman), and my heart nearly exploded in happiness when I saw Gator Mike starting his first loop (you're a freaking IRONMAN brother)

You know, given my race strategy and fitness level, and it being my first Ironman I wouldn't change a damn thing. I ran the perfect 26.2 on Saturday.

The finish line was a blur. I'm dying to replay it when the "Watch me finish" is available. I remember hearing my name. I remember hearing "You are an Ironman". I remember smiling the biggest smile and raising my arms to heaven as I broke the tape amidst screaming and cheering people. What a feeling. If you haven't done an IM, it truly is something that you must experience.

The catcher just kind of stood there an looked at me. I was really feeling good at this point. I got my chip taken off. She kept asking me if I felt ok. I kept saying, "Hell yeah". I got my silver blanket thingy that stayed on me all of 30 seconds before I started sweating profusely from teh heat. She lead me to get my T-shirt and medal and then wished me good luck. I completely missed the whole finisher area where you can get your pic taken. My only wish was that I could have had a snapshot of the whole Bostic clan taken in front of that. Its my only regret of the entire day.

I got hugged and kissed. My mother nearly killed me with a huge hug that hurt more than the entire race did. Pizza, Soda, Walking, Sitting, and then the massage from hell. The muscles started complaining when I stopped and I hobbled into the massage tent. Two girls rubbed me down. One of them brutalized my thigh and calf. I thought I was going to pass out. But once they were done, I walked out and felt AWESOME! (common theme here).

A whole bunch of people started calling my cell phone. Thanks SPOT! You're awesome. You sent tons of mojo my way this past week and I used ever last drop of it.

Went up to the condo to shower and then headed back out on the course to see the rest of the finishers close in on 17 hours. Mikey - you scared the shit out of me bro.


I'm a rookie at this sort of thing. I learned a lot about how to fuel your body and what sort of punishment you can dish out.


BT rocks. Thanks to all. Tons of inspires. 3500 volunteers for 2500 athletes. You guys are simply amazing. I had people calling my cell phone seconds after I finished. Hell - some called to wish me luck when I was out on the course! Hahaha (You know who you are!!!!) NC BTer's rock! Thanks guys! I can't wait to see you at the NCTS this year...and some of you in a couple of weeks in the woods. :)

I've got a wonderful family both near and far. Thanks for all your support, love, kindness, and sacrifice.