Ironman USA - TriathlonFull Ironman

Started out hard and fast to separate myself from everyone. This worked and for the first 300 or so yards I had open water to swim in. Then chaos broke out and the violence started.

Everyone up front was trying to get to the white line and there was tons of pushing, bumping elbows, etc. I stayed 2 people right of the white line and just tried to draft off of the peron in front of me. No matter what I did, I had people on both sides of me pushing in. The first bouy had a little bit of a back up and it looked like 2 guys had stopped swimming and were shoving each other. I wanted no part of it and just went under them. I came out of the other side and had a little bit of clear water and a good pair of feet to drag off of. Nice. The way back on the first loop was uneventful and I was in the middle of the first big pack back.

Exited the water and in for the second lap ahead of the pack for the first 500 or so. Some guy kept touching my feet. At this point I was at the front of the pack pulling, so I backed off a bit, let someone else go first and then jumped back on to draft. Same dude was still hitting my feet every stroke which was annoying and I was still getting pushed in from both sides.

Made it to the turn around and the guy was still hitting my feet. Enough already...I slowed down a bit, put my foot on his cap and shoved him back. I did not do it hard and made sure not to knock off his goggles but there was no way I was going to let him continue to hit me. That got him off my feet. Also passed a pro on the way back in which was pretty cool.

Not much - easy effort and a solid pace. I thought I would be done between 53-55 minutes and I was.

Nice and fast T1. I was out ahead of the guys I came in with.

Nothing.

I thought I would finish the bike between 5:30-6:15 based on my long training rides.

I knew that I would be passed by tons of people and sure enough it started right away. Everyone would fly by me uphill and I would make up some ground or repass them on the downhills. It was pouring the entire time but I had ridden 2 100+ rides on a hillier course with similar conditions so I felt confident riding in these conditions. The Keene decent was fine and I hit 42 mph on the first loop and passed a bunch a people.

HR was in check the entire lap (low 140's) and I felt good. I did pee 3 times on the first loop.

Team OConnell (mom, dad, sister, b.i.l. neice, sister, sister's bf, Dom and Ally), sporting thier blue tshirts, were incredibly loud every time I saw them and were out in the rain the entire day cheering for me.

About 5 miles in on the second loop Fred passed me and we chatted for a while - he had put 14 minutes on me in the first loop so I knew he was having a great race and I told him to go and not wait for me.

About mile 65ish I started to feel really strong on the bike. My HR was still right where it was supposed to be and a lot of people that passed me earlier were slowing down. Sure enough by the time we hit the out and back I was flying. I saw Fred at the turn around and was behind him a few miles later. At this point my stomach started to feel off and I was having to pee every 15-20 minutes. I backed off the pace a bit and slowed down my drinking a bunch but my stomach was still upset and by the time I was done with lap 2 I had peed 6 more times.

Adjust my fluid intake. All told I had 190 oz of fluid which is fine for a normal day but not smart for a day where it is mid 60s and raining.

Good transition other than the fact that I had to pee again.

Take shoes off before running to transition. Normally I never had a problem with this but the bottom of my left foot hurt from running with my bike shoes on.

Started off the run limping from where my bike shoe was irriatating my foot in transition but this quickly faded. I was shocked at just how good my legs actually felt but could tell that my stomach was not doing well. First few miles were fine - HR was in Z1 and pace was around 8:00-8:15 per mile but stomach was progressively getting worse. I tried a little bit of everything (soda, water, GE, orange, pretzels, cookie, etc) but nothing was settling my stomach down. I even went a few miles with nothing and that did not work at all. At this point I knew it was going to be a long long run. Pace kept getting slower and slower but other than a few more bathroom breaks (surprise surprise) I was running and never walking. This continued until mile 15ish. There I grabbed a soda and drank it...unfortunately it was not flat and immediately came right back up. Sure enough from then on I had the hick-ups and was dry heaving and getting sick. I was still trying to run but had to go off the side of the road every few minutes. At this point the goal went from running the marathon to finishing the race and not get pulled off the course.

Rick came by and he and I walked together for 4-5 miles. Around mile 22 we started to jog again but I did not make it very far and told him to keep going as I knew I was going to get sick again, which I did 2x.

Even though I had snagged a plastic sheet to keep warm, I was starting to get very cold and 2 miles out of the finish I was not sure I was actually going to finish the race. I was having a hard time not getting sick walking up even small hills.

1/2 mile out I got sick again and a volunteer told me she was pulling me off the course as I was pale (I explained to her I am irish and therefore always pale, she did not find it funny) and looked awful. I did convince her to let me finish. I was worried I would get sick in the finishers shoot and could just imagine everyone on line watching and seeing that.

Fortunately I had a great run through the finishers shoot - team OConnell had front row seats and I slapped thier hands and made my way to the finish line. I was so so happy to be done.

Race smarter on the bike and signifantly cut back on the fluid intake on a day like today.

Medical tent for an hour - I had lost 7lbs and my temp had dropped "signifcantly" as the doctor put it. 2 bags of IVs, multiple heating pads and blankets and I started to feel better. Later it was pizza and cookies.


Really a fantastic race - great course. Wonderful volunteers and town really caters to the athletes.

I hope to be back to LP to both train and race.