Ironman 70.3 Florida - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I still have a lot to improve on open water swimming, but it is encouraging to see that my ranking on this swim really beat my ranking on the whole event. I will choose to look at this as very good swimming rather than very poor biking and running.

I need to calm down in the water and focus on just keeping a natural stride going.

I spent too much time in T1. It seemed like it was about half a mile from the swim finish.

Things that slowed me down: being pretty tired from the swim, my HR monitor taking about a minute to start working (which scared the poop out of me), walking instead of running.

I just didn't want to eat on this ride. It was a forced effort because I realized early on that my body wasn't going to tell me when it needed food, maybe because it didn't know I was going to exercise it longer than it ever had. Either way, it took my literally 30 minutes to eat a Clif bar from mile 10 to 18. From then on I had gels and gatorade and water.

I ate a banana at the last aid station (45 miles in) and I think that hurt my stomach a little bit for the run. I need to bring my own Powerbars next time because the ones they had there were cut in half. It was too hard to grab two of them in a ride-by. Plus, they were chocolate so I didn't want one. I also wouldn't bring Clif Shot Bloks because they taste like boogers. I ate two of them and couldn't stomach another one.

I refused to stop to go number one for the entire bike ride (I'm not sure who I was racing against), so for the last 10 miles, I coudn't ride in the aero position because of the pressure on my bladder.

The other thing I need to work on is gear shifting. I stayed on the big ring in the front the entire ride, which meant that for some of the hills my cadence dropped to about 10 and I would rock back and forth on the bike like I did climbing that little hill onto the bike path off Oak Hill Drive to the park.

I had to pee so bad at T2 that I went for almost an entire minute. Then I knocked the bike next to me over trying to rack mine. Besides that, this transition was smoother.

Pee in an orange grove.

Ran into Josh at mile 4 and it saved me from lying down in the grass hoping I'd just pass out before I died. This was literally the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. The last mile took us 18 minutes to complete and I was going with all I had. God bless Josh for sticking by me when my legs began to seize. He really got some bad cramps (left hamstring mainly) at mile 6 and mine set in hardcore at about mile 10 till the end. For the last mile both quads, both hamstrings and worst off all both calves were just about to go at any moment. The muscles in my calves were just fasciculating waiting for a bad step. With half a mile to go my right calf cramped hard followed by my left hamstring and right quad. Josh jogged slower for me while I tried to walk them off. I was able to start jogging again, but I knew my legs were time bomb. When I saw the finish line, both my calves locked up hard and I jogged the last hundred yards hobbling and looking like a challenged athlete becase my forearms and hands started to contract uncontrollably. I paid to do this.

Part of the problem is I don't know if I drank too much, not enough, the wrong stuff, or just the right amount. I ate two salt tablets during the run. I was about 30/70 on water and gatorade. I kept thinking the gatorade would give me more energy. I at three gels during the race at mile 4, mile 8, and mile 10. I need to do more research into what to eat and drink when.

Not enough training. I would like to say that I blew it all on the swim or the bike, but I did them both about how I thought I would. I underestimated the amount of aerobic endurance required by this race. I ran 12:45 miles and gave it every ounce I had to give. We pushed to the absolute limit on this run thanks to Josh telling me we were going to do this for the last 9 miles.


This race was super well done. I have no complaints.