Ironman 70.3 Florida - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

There was not as many people in my wave as I would have thought. Got out pretty good and was going well until some idiot cut me off, then did it again. Got into open water but lost the big group in front of me. At one point realized I was pulling a group of people and said screw this and took off. Was out in the open by myself, but working hard. Saw a guy with the same color cap and tried to catch him. Was still doing well and then got into traffic with the waves in front of me. Never able to catch him because of the traffic. Passed each buoy within 3ft so I navigated very well. Came out and saw 39' on my watch and was disappointed. I was shooting for between 30-35'.

Nothing, was happy with the swim, just not the time. I personally think the course was about 300yds long or so. But I was still top 25% overall in the swim.

It was a long run from the water to the transition area. Plus my bike was right by the swim in/run out so I had a long way to go with my bike. Hate the fact that people don't stay to there right if they are walking and that they just don't pay attention.

Nothing

Started out with my goal to stay between 20-21mph until mile 20. Was doing great through this point. Everything felt comfortable, was taking nutrtion as planned (expect for the fact I got out of the water later then planned). My plan was 35min or less swim, then at 45' race time I'd take a gel. This would give me at least 10mins to let me body change from swim gear to bike gear. Only bad part about the first 20 miles was I kept thinking about how poor my swim was. I kept thinking, wow, I thought I had a really good swim, but 39mins is much slower then I thought.

From mile 20-40 I wanted to push around 21mph. Started doing this very well and knew that the hills would slow me down a bit. Hills go from about mile 25-35 on the bike. And of course these are only Florida hills, so none were really that tough, but I blow by people like it was nothing. At mile 31 I took a Gatorade Endurance from the aid station as my aero bottle was running low. Shortly after this aid station I realized I was out of water and wished I would have taken water instead since I still had a gatorade bottle on my seat. Nothing exciting happened in this section of the race. So on we go...

Mile 40-56 I really just wanted to push the bike as hard as I could without blowing up on the run. At mile 43 hit the aid station and got a water. Nutrition was still going well. But by about mile 45-50 I just didn't feel like I had any get up and go in my legs. My pace had come down to about 18-19mph and I just wasn't feeling it. I could push harder and I'd go faster, my legs just didn't want too. We also started hitting the busier traffic roads with cars and there were times it was hard to pass because of cars and bikes being right next to each other. At this point my right butt was also starting to hurt so I was sitting up more and stretching more. By mile 56 I was glad to be off the bike.

Not sure, but wasn't exactly happy with the bike, or at least the 16 miles of the bike. Also I think the course was long. My bike computer read 57 miles as I entered T2 and I didn't start it until a couple tenths out onto the course.

Once you dismount it is still a little bit before you enter transition and like I said, I was by the run exit so I had a long way to go with my bike. There was some lady walking right down the middle of the isle and I passed her on the left and as I did she turned right into me and I ran over her leg with my bike. I apologized, but if you are not paying attention to what is going on you are just asking for trouble.
Finally got to my spot and racked the bike, took the helmet off and started putting on the socks/shoes. Had some trouble so I had to sit down. Took me a bit longer then usual, but still not bad.

Nothing

This is really where the wheels came off. I've missed a lot of run training because of random injuries, so I knee I just need to keep a nice steady slow pace and I'd be fine. Coming out of T2 my butt was a little tight but that started to loosen up in the 1st mile. At mile 1 both my quads starts to spasm (specificaly the VMOs) and I though this was going to suck. Then went away rather fast and I finished mile 1 in 8:40, so right where I need to be. Didn't see the mile 2 marker but think I passed it at about 17:45. So I'd slowed a bit but this was not my worry. At this point my right knee start hurting on the outside. Same place my left knee was hurting before St A's. By mile 3 it was hurting so back I decided I need a walk break. Crossed mile 3 at 27mins. Figure if I could walk a little bit, then run 3 miles it wouldn't be too bad. Started running again and got less then a mile before I had to stop again because of the pain. From here on out the walk breaks got longer and the run session got shorter. The pain was so bad that I couldn't run more then 100yds without severe knee pain. So I ended up walking about 9 miles of the run. Still tried to do some running but knew it wasn't going to happen. Finally got into the finish chute after lap 3 and ran in. Again the knee pain was so severe I was limping/running in but got some really big cheers. :)

Not be hurt, not get hurt so much during training.

Got some ice on my knee and talked to friends.


Injuries.


The swim was long and there is no reason for it to be. I think the bike was long and again, with as many out and backs as they have, no reason to be and the run course just sucks donkey balls. Not sure I will ever do this race again if they don't change the run course. However I would like to come back and prove I can do it. I really liked the bike course. The little hills made it more of a challange.