EagleMan Ironman 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

HOT! Wish I hadn't worn a wetsuit at all.
I felt good, but I wasn't moving as fast as I wanted. Drank WAY too much water from the river.
Dunno. Just not the swim I wanted.

No wetsuit.

Stupid f'ing wetsuit

Time off my watch.
Threw up a bit in the first few miles. Lovely! Pretty sure it was just reaction to the water I drank on the swim.
Was feeling really great for the first 30 miles. There was a water hand off every 10 miles, and I was doing good finishing all my fluids before each handoff...until mile 40 -- I realized I had almost all my water left. Shooooooooooot. I was really having a hard time stomaching the next gel, water was not appealing. I slowed it down and tried to drink and take in salt, nutrition. Got the gels down, but not happily. Ugh. Kept going but was feeling progressively worse. Bad headache, etc etc. I mentally shifted to think I was just going to aqua velo.

And THEN -- the world's most bogus drafting penalty. GRRR! I was caught in a pack and got dinged with the rest of em. Oh well -- I didn't care at that point. Stopped at the penalty tent, a mile and half from transition. Man, did that save me. 4 minutes in the shade, drinking, stretching. It was actually kind of awesome :) Was starting to waver on my plan to DNF and just do an aqua velo

Not sure how long. Very long though. Ran into Travis (Tri Club prez) and Patti (Steve and Marcy's coach) and said "I need help". I needed to cool down and take in some nutrition. Had to get my HR down. Rested for a few minutes while Patti hosed me down and made me drink water, take a gel, etc. Felt good enough to give it go and see what happened. I knew it would suck, but I was starting to think it would suck less than I orginially thought it would suck.

Hm. Well, my goal was to keep with 8:2 run walk intervals. I did pretty good at this for the first 5 miles. I was stopping at aid stations and being veeeerrrry generous with ice and water. Took salt or gel as appropriate (gel every 40 minutes, salt at the 20's). I was putting ice anywhere I could get it. I swear I spent so much time with my hands down my shorts getting ice there that it looked like I was on a date with myself! But the ice really helped, and I could tell a difference. On the run portions, when I was actually running, I felt pretty good. I mean, I was LIVING for those 2 minute walk intervals, but I was running to them. So that was good. More than I could really hope for after how crappy I felt on the bike. I did have a moment of clarity where it was like "Wow. I'm running. It sucks, but I'm running. I kind of thought if I was runnign strong I'd also feel good, but I feel crappy...and I'm running strong. Maybe it's just SUPPOSE to suck." That was actually kind of a cool moment, like I cracked a code or something -- you don't have to feel good to keep moving strongly. Good to know. :)

Speaking of suck ... .Started to feel the pace slow and the suck increase around mile 6, and then was really starting to have a hard time keeping water and gels in by mile 8. Tried some coke -- bad idea. Didn't sit well. Threw up, kept trudging to turn around. Missed ice at the next station, tried another gel, but really couldn't keep anything it -- water, gels, salt, coke etc was making me retch. The wheels were starting to come off :(

By mile 9 I was convinced I was pretty screwed. I had the worst headache that I couldn't shake, and my vision was going to get spotty. I wanted to cry and I was scared of passing out (historically for me, black spots in my vision plus nausea have led to passing out). I pulled over at mile 10 (or whatever tent that was that was close to 10) and told the peeps I was done. The volunteers were awesome (and had been the whole way), and someone called in, but I was told there was something up and it'd be awhile before they got to me. There was nothing wrong with the organization -- they did a fabulous job -- I was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time to be pulled off the course and it wouldn't be able to happen immediately. I have no doubt if I had chosen to wait I would have been well taken care of, but I was having a little hissy fit and just wanted to be cool, and I wanted that as quickly as possible. I was 3 miles from the finish and I mentally saw my my options as walk in the sun and bake or sit in the sun and bake, and so I decided to walk it in.

The last three miles sucked hard, but you know .. in retrospect... that's kind of the name of the game. Oh well. Now it seems a little funny to me that I was passing some people who were running while I was walking, but I was still walking a good clip. I tried to run at a few points, but the minute I'd start up, my head would start pounding and my vision would get funky. it'd been a while since I had any calories at that point, so I just said 'eff that' and walked it.

I did have a rocking finish kick though -- I don't like seeing people on the shoot in front of me :) I paid for it, however -- it took a really long time, lots of water and ice packs -- before I could get up and drink anything. It was hours before I could eat.

Dry heaving, retching, cool water from hose, ice packs


Lack of heat acclimation, general stupidity.


I cannot say enough good things about the voluneteers at this race. I have never been at such a well supported race. I didnt' enjoy a single second of this race day EXCEPT for the volunteers. The organization of this race is first class, all the way.

That being said, I don't know if I'd sign up for this race again. Mentally I found it really crushing -- flat, flat and flat. It has a certain beauty to it, but I missed the challenge and reward of hills, and longed for a bit more variety.