Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

Started very near the inside buoy line and it was surprisingly sparsely populated. Swim was very uneventful for me. Had the occasional zig-zag swimmer plow into me, but not bad at all. I'm just so damn slow that most of the pack seems to ditch me pretty quick, so there isn't much contact back where I hang.

Other than more pool and open water training, I don't know what else I would change. I was secretly hoping to go 1:25, but my 1:30 was a 3 minute improvement over April, so I'll take it.

Since I was going to wear the tri shorts all day, no need to go into the tent-o-chaos to change, I just sat down on the grass outside and changed. Time was slow due to my obsession with thorough sunscreen application and a porta-john stop.

Not much.

My plan was to go out easy and stay easy the whole ride. Things were going good on the first lap, I was trying not to pass people and was doing pretty good at that. But then just like in April, on the return leg of the first lap, my stomach started to go bad. At that point I'd only had 2 powergels and 2 bottles of water. I know from experience that you can't finish one of these things if you stop drinking this early in the race, so I kept hydrating and taking endurolytes, but stopped the gels. I eased up on the effort even more just to be safe. (According to my powertap I was pushing around 90-130 watts most of the time depending upon the wind) My stomach finally came back around and I finished the ride feeling pretty good. I knew I was going to have a tough time on the run because the only calories I'd had were 2 gels, a couple dozen almonds and one little package of powergel blasts.

I still need to get my nutrition dialed, but I'm happy that I was at least able to stay well hydrated and got off the bike feeling pretty good. I had no legitimate long rides in training, my longest 2 being the bike leg at Soma and a 4-hour trainer ride, so I kinda got what I deserved on the bike.

Saved a little time by staying with the same tri shorts for the run. Applied plenty of body glide to the feet and between the toes, plenty of sunscreen and another potty break.

This transition was slow, but I don't feel like I was jacking around too much. Probably spent too much time on the body glide and sunscreen application. However I had no blisters...not even a hot spot on the run so I think it was worth it.

The first two miles were rough. My legs were not happy about the idea of a marathon. Took some advil at the second aid station. Started to feel better and began a legitimate run at mile 2. Ran everything from mile 2 to 20 except walked every aid station to try to get something down. Started with gatorade and water, then moved to water and pretzels, then to coke. Stomach turned on me again around mile 20 and I walked Miles 21-25. I did the calculations figuring I could walk at a 14-15 minute pace and my "running" at best was going to be 11-minute pace. I decided that an extra 15-20 minutes on my finish time was not going to bother me nearly as much as my stomach was. Got a blast of energy after the last aid station and ran from there to the finish. This was definitely my fastest mile all day, I felt like I was sprinting....guess I left something in the tank.

Broke 8 years of vegetarian diet during the last 6 miles taking the chicken broth....it was sooooo good. I guess I now have to add a qualifier to my vegetarian title that states I will drink chicken broth during endurance events lasting over 11 hours. Vegetable bullion would work great if you're listening NAS!

Ate pizza (pulled the pepperoni off) and fries


I still need to dial in the nutrition, this limited my entire "race".


I don't plan on doing another IM for a few years. I'll definitely do some more in the future, but I need a break and my family really needs a break. I would like to get to a place in my life where I could train to be able to actually race an IM rather than just finish one, and this point in my life is not that place.

I'm looking forward to volunteering next year and returning the support that so many of my friends on this site showed me this past weekend.

Special thanks to Sally (riorio) for helping me find my bag in transition, Tanya (StandsWithFist) for catching me (and my bike) coming into T2, Jen (sportyj), Josh (robot) and Tanya again for nutrition, family communication logistics and moral support at the run aid station, Astrid (SauseEnte) for moral support and personal photography on the run and at the finish, Rick (azstaterick) for finish line high-fives and Chris (cordova61) and Kerri (Ktriathlete) for support and some laughs after the finish.