Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

I was very pleased with the swim. I finished a minute under my goal and 7 minutes faster then last time. I stayed on a line within 20 feet of the buyos for pretty much the entire swim. I probably was hit in the face 5-6 times and swam into or was swum into a dozen times, but considering the masses, it wasn't that bad at all. I stayed relaxed and never pushed it the whole way.

The wetsuit strippers did a great job. I don't think my wetsuit has ever come off so easily. Walked about half the way to the changing tent, then did a very slow jog the rest of the way. Half way through changing I look over just as the guy next to me does, it was my brother in law, we had come out of the water within a minute of each other and hadn't noticed we were sitting next to each other until that moment. So I didn't end up needing to use the sunscreen volunteers because I had my training partner there to rub me down.

Felt good on the first loop avg pace at the turn around was below 14 but knew it was going to average out on the way back. Loved the tail wind and going 30 with minimal effort all the way back on the Beeline, and then 23-25 the rest of the way. Tried to drink and eat at least every 1/2 hr like I had trained but I just wasn't able to drink very much. I knew was in trouble and started feeling the effects physically and mentally around mile 50. I slowed my pace down and hoped my special needs would help me out. I was able to drink of my ice cold gatorades and snickers bar from my special needs which gave me a boost for the next 20 miles, but after that I wasn't able to put down more than proably about one bottle of water. On the third lap I stopped twice to lay in the shade at aid stations for 15 minutes each and poured as much water on me as I could, but by the time I finally got of the bike I still couldn't drink anything and I was spent. In 06 I DNF after suffering from the heat and throwing up 5 times on the run course. I wasn't as dehydrated as before, but I think the memory of 06 hurt me mentally as much as this race because it was all to familiar, and in my attempt to recover and hydrate before getting to the unconrollable nausious stage, I took too long resting in the shade and was never able to get my head straight and break the run down in to managable distances.

Laid down in the changing tent for 20 minutes, until they started saying there was 10 min left before the run closed. Decided to get changed and entered the run 4 seconds before the 10:30 cutoff.

Stay in the changing tent with the other 10-15 racers so I would have missed the cutoff.

My plan was to walk until the sun went down and see if I could get myself going after that, but it wasn't happening. I ended up walking the first 2-1/2 miles until I found some shade, laid down for about 20 minutes, then walked across the bridge, ran(if you can call it that) through the crowd and made it until just past the special needs area. Sat down on the grass with my mom and sister and knew I was done. I thought my biggest problem was hydration at the time, which physically it was, and I was feeling it, but after a couple of days and replaying it in my head, Mentally I just wasn't prepared to repeat my previous experience in 06 and ultimatly was not able to break the run down in to managable sections. I got outside of the box and couldn't get back in.

I've got to find a way to stay hydrated on the bike, and be better prepared mentally to battle it out when things didn't go as well as planned.

After sitting on the grass for about an hour at mile 4, we went up to the finish line and watched racers finish, until my brother in law came in at 13:50. By that time I felt good enough to have a piece of pizza, get my stuff and head back to the hotel room.


Nutrition did me in. I just wasn't able to drink much from the get go. Started feeling it at about mile 50 on the bike. All attempts to slow my pace, cool down, and hydrate were unsuccessful. After nutrition I need to have a better mental preperation and battle strategy for when things go south.


I put not enough drink stations only because the first bike station had run out of water on the third loop, and when we asked them if the race organizers knew they said yes, but they weren't going to bring anymore out because there were not enough racers left to worry about.