IRONHEAD DALLAS TRIATHLON - TriathlonOlympic

I am a poor swimmer, so I didn't expect too much here. I started breathing every 3 to 4 strokes, then went to every two after about 500m or so. I had never swam this far in open water before, so my goal was just to finish. I swam a slow pace, so I would make it. I managed to stroke the entire distance with floating or resting. I breast stroked to sight along the course. I was in the first wave, so I got ran over quite a bit by stronger swimmers in the later waves. I feel bad about getting in their way, but not much I could do about that.

I have only been swimming for 8 months or so, so just the fact that I completed 1500m in open water feels like an accomplishment. For future races, I need more open water swim practice and focus my training on getting faster. The conditioning is there to finish, now I just need to get better.

I had a little trouble getting into my shoes. My legs didnt want to work too well after the swim

I need to learn to keep shoes on the bike and get into them while riding

Started out well on the bike. I felt good after the swim so I didnt have to catch my breath. For the first 15 to 20 miles, I was averaging 22 mph or so. I wasn't having any difficulty. Shortly after my 2nd GU, I began to feel some stomach discomfort again that I had felt before the race. It worsended towards the end of the bike and my speed slowed.

My nutrition plan may have been wrong. I drank a bottle of Gatorade and had 3 GU's from before swim through the bike. My stomach pain ended up being a real problem on the run, so nutrition on before and during bike needs to be worked out.

First riding dismount. I managed to get my shoes off before reaching transition.

Get a little faster

What is usually my best of the 3 turned out to be very difficult. I started out at an 8 minute pace, with some stomach pain. On the last half of the run, the pain in my stomach got so bad that I had to walk some. I took water and gatorade at every station, and that may have made it worse. In the last 2 miles, I couldn't run more that 1/4 mile or so before it felt like someone was stabbing me in the gut. My breathing and heart rate were ok, so I'm not sure my conditioning was the problem. I've been training with bike/run bricks and can usually run sub 7 minute paces, so a 9 minute pace is real disappointing.

Obviously handle my nutrition better.

Sat down and pured water on my head


I think nutrition limited me some, but my own conditioning needs work. I want to be competitive, but also need to remember that I've only been doing this for 3 months. It wasn't too long ago that I couldn't do this distance at all. I've come a long way, but have further to go.


Very well organized race. I will definitely do more Ironhead races.