Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This sucked. Water was choppy and rough. Lost sight of buoys multiple times. Sunk into breaststroke for about 45 seconds perhaps 200 yards in just to drop my pace, acclimate to the rhythm of the waves, and try to sight the course.

On the way back, kept aiming towards a lit light post. Treated it like a light house and followed it in.

Relax. On a smooth water day, rushing into the water and taking off fast would have made sense. In these conditions, I should have went in slow and eased into the swim.

Use the wetsuit strippers.

Felt like everyone passed me. Truly disheartening. Then I see from the results I placed in the bottom 1/3 of all racers. That's just awful.

And seriously -- I really looked at some of the people who passed me. Young thin people with 5% body fat, ok. But there really were some larger folks whizzing by me. How in the world can they go that fast?

Ride ride ride and then ride some more in training. My bike was working well, so I can't blame my poor performance on equipment issues.

I just have to devote some serious time to riding.

I guess I'm most peeved at the bike segment time because I felt like I was riding well.

Not sure why this took so long. Although I did spend perhaps 20 seconds putting socks on, and then another 15 seconds when I took off and then went back to tear off my long sleeve shirt. Thank God I did, too. The run was hot.

Died, died, died. But I ran College Hill both times. At mile 9, I just wanted to quit, and at mile 11, I almost did.

Sponges are great. Never used them before, and I ended up soaking mine a total of 3 times over the course.

Did I die because of nutrition? Or was I just tired because I'd been up since 2:30? I just did not want to run anymore, but my ego would not allow me to walk it in.

My first 2 miles were at 8:16s, then I dropped my 3rd to an 8:45, and then ran the remaining 3 of the first loop at a 9, which was my goal. For 6 miles, I thought I was going to finish this race in 5:45.

Then I did the second hill, and lost steam.

Should I have conserved energy and walked the hill? But then would I always wonder if I could have run the hill?

Unsure of how to look at this one.

This was a poor race for me. I had aimed to break the 6-hour mark, which would have been huge psychologically. And then when it looked like I might make 5:45, I was feeling awesome. Then I crashed, and now the race is bittersweet.

I finished, which is always good. I did reasonably well in the swim. I got creamed on the bike and run.

I'm still wondering if I would have finished stronger with a different nutrition plan. Perhaps relying on Perpetuem and then gels was unwise.

I want a re-match with this distance.

As for the race itself: no swag except for a lip balm, few exhibitors at the Expo, and just cookies, bagels, oranges and bananas at the finish. I was too slow for the pizza. But I did notice the VIP booth, which you literally passed on the way to the normal athlete finishing area, was full of tasty treats including shish kebabs.

No finisher's shirt.

I would not do this race again.

It's been 3 years since I ran an IM-branded race. This one was definitely not the standard I expected.