EagleMan Ironman 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

After finally getting the suit on (hard to do when you are sweaty, even with a two piece suit!) I went accross the timing mat and out into the water. Found a spot away from others to take care of some hydration business (if you have to ask, you just don't get it) then went up towards the line. The start buoys were pretty spread out so there was no real place where it was more than 5 or 6 people deep. I started on the left side of the field and instead of wading waiting for the crowd to get ahead like the last two years I started swimming right from the horn this year.

I stayed on course well, focused on being long and not crossing my center line, tried to use other people for sighting as much as possible and even worked on catching some feet for a draft. It was not as hectic of a swim compared to others and I did not have any real incidents of getting pummeled. I only breast stroked for at most 3 strokes at a time every couple of hundred yards to sight and then it was right back to freestyle.

The course was different this year then it was last year (and also that was different then the year before) so not sure what to expect. Last year's time of 38 minutes (mostly breast stroked) was definitely and indicator that the course was short, but I had hopes of coming close to that at this race because I was being smooth and solid the whole time.

Rounding the last real turn I checked my watch and it was at 28 minutes ..... and there was definitely more than 500 yards to go. Damnit!! Not going to beat last year's time. Oh well, I still felt good about my stroke and was not falling off that much in pace at all.

I swam all the way into the boat ramp where as the other times I would try and stand as soon as possible to give myself a break. Out of the water and looked at my time. Oh well.

I don't know? Maybe just swim more?? I thought I had a great swim and this was the first time at Eagleman I swam freestyle the entire thing. I stayed on course, grabbed some feet when I could and was always within my abilities. I'm just frickin' slow in the water .....

At this time last year I had almost 120k yards in the pool. This year I'm barely over 50k. But based on my 1,000 yard TT I did earlier in the week in my wetsuit I thought I would be faster than this. Honestly I had the best swim of any race I've done other than IMFL if you look at it from a confidence and effort perspective, but the time just doesn't reflect it to me.

Not a bad transition, but not the speediest. 566th overall for T1 time. Could I have been faster?? Sure. But it was not really a priority for me to get out quickly. I just wanted to make sure I was relaxed and not rushing since this was just a planned hard training day for me. Did my ceremonial "clearing of the throat and hacking a big azz loogie" that I do after each tri swim. Otherwise I end up gagging when I start to drink on the bike. Took a drink, got going.

Shoes on the bike maybe, hussle a little bit faster. I had a long distance to get to my bike from the water, so that ate up a lot of time.

Onto the course I get up to speed relatively quickly but kept my effort really easy putting no pressures on the legs. I was still a little off kilter from the swim and just wanted to give myself a chance to settle in. I took another drink and got comfortable in the bars.

First 10 miles were fairly uneventful. They tweaked the course again over the last few years so the first portion through Cambridge was different. Passed plenty of people, had one or two pass me in that early portion. At the first bottle swap I tossed my bottle and got a Gatorade Endurance bottle and sipped on that. So far, so good and nothing too hard about my efforts. Averaging in the 23.5 range very easily since we had a little bit of wind helping us.

At the next leg when we turned onto Rt. 16 the wind hit us and you really had to work to keep pace. Luckily I was back far enough in the overall field from the waves that swam ahead of us that there was a pretty good contingent of people on the course spaced out nicely. So I got to use the slingshot draft to keep my pace going well and not get stuck in the wind alone a lot. When I did filter through everyone and was in the wind alone I just stayed very aero and kept my effort and cadence wher it should be. Still maintaining a solid average but did have to work a bit harder. Another one or two guys passed me in this stretch and I passed one of them back as he realized the wind really did suck to ride into!!

The next 20 miles or so were continuing the effort and trying to avoid drafting or crossing the yellow line going around people. At one point I was making a pass on a guy and he decided to make a pass on another who more towards the middle of the lane. To avoid getting into an accident I had to go left a bit and crossed the yellow lines. Made the pass, and kept on motoring. About 30 secodns later ...... boom ..... marshall pulls up next to me and I get a yellow card for crossing the yellow line. I try to explain that I had to cross a few inches to avoid an accident and to finish my pass since I started it already. He said I did not have to pass for safety. But I would have then been right in the dude's draft and probably would have gotten nailed for that!

I was pretty pissed after that and knew I had to stop at the next penalty tent. So I picked up the pace a bit. I came up on a pretty sizable group that was a borderline draft pack and the marshall had hovered a bit around them and moved on. So they went right back to drafting. Even more pizzed off I went harder and weaved trough them to be ahead of them. They latched on pretty much as I could see a shadow not far off of me. So I f-cking rode them off my wheel .......... catch me if you can.

One guy did and he stayed back there for a while. Then I came up to a penalty tent and had to pull off and he had to go on. I thoguht I had to serve a timed penalty but it turned out it was just a stop and go after signing my name and them getting my number logged. Sweet!! Made me feel a little better. This was at about the 35 mile mark or so I think and my average on my speedo still said a bit over 23. The wind was picking up though and would hound us for the rest of the ride pretty much.

The best part was coming up on the wheelsucker as he was struggling along in the wind by himself. I took great pleasure at standing up and hammering by him at a speed that there was not any way he could latch on. Then I settled back into my gear and went on.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Had to work harder into the wind and my speed was forced down into the 20 - 22 range for most of that portion. Passed by another few people as we got closer to Cambridge and passed a bunch more. Got into own, pulled the feet out of the shoes and rode into the transition.

Not push the pace as much in the 10 - 20 mile leg since that was into the wind. That probably took some out of the legs. Blasting away the small pack of guys probably didn't help either. Make sure the damn Gatorade bottle is open before leaving the water stop because one I picked up wasn't open!

Also, my tri suit never really dried from the swim and my hands were wet the whole time. Not only hot out, but humid as well! Ugh.

Took my time here. Sat down to put on socks and my shoes. No real sense of urgency as it was getting way hotter and I knew things were not as chipper as I would like. Rockin' the number of the beast for overall T2 time!! 666th!!

Nothing really. Same sort of no-need-to-hurry effort here. If I was "racing" this it would have been a bit faster.

After only a few hundred meters I knew this was going to be a suffer fest. Both sets of quads were cramping so I stopped around the 3/4 of a mile mark to stretch them and at that point one my left hamstring said uh uh ..... locked up to.

Right then I said screw it ...... I know myself well enough to know that even if I wanted to slowly jog the run I would still end up walking a lot. It was hot, my legs were cooked and the motivation just totally wasn't there. I turned around and started to walk back towards the transition area.

After about 50 feet I said to myself. No quitting, no quitting, turn around and get your azz moving! As I got back the point I was before I completely threw in the towel.

After gritting and suffering through 3 out of my 6 marathon finishes, my first race at this course in '06 and through the run portion of IMFL I said right then and there, "I don't have a damn thing I need to prove to anyone. I've got more HTFU than most people I deal with and have shown that in tons of occassions. Screw this, I've got nothing to prove just to get another damn medal and risk a long recovery or worse an injury."

With that I had no problem turning around and walking back to transition and didn't regret it one bit.

Train more, pure and simple. There is no other excuse for the performance. I am simply way too far undertrained right now.

Sat around and watched people finishing the bike and slogging out onto the run. It was amazing how many fit people were already walking as soon as they left the transition area. There was going to be a lot of hurt on the course this race! Watched the first finishers coming in as well then went to the transition area to get my stuff.


Training, lack of more specifically. I've only ridden 500 miles for the year, I swam only 50k and I've had two disappointing marathons in the last few months.

I made conscious decisions to take care of my family more than training and while I love them to no end, it is a bit frustrating to know I have so much more potential in me that even a moderate level of consistency in training could really make a difference. I can still go fast for periods on the bike, but without mileage in my legs there is no way I can utilize my other strength with my running to push the times. And this does not bode well at all for my Ironman I'm registered for in a month's time.

Oh well, I neglected my training to take care of life. I don't necessarily like that, but my family will be around a lot longer than racing fast will be so there are priorities and sacrifices that have to be made by everyone for the long haul .....


Hot and humid as hell, but still the CTA puts on a great race and so very well supported by the community and volunteers. And it was nice to not have to fight waves and chop in the swim for once!