Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

Ironman mass swim starts are like putting all your running shoes in the washing machine and turning it on "agitate". Lots of bumping, grabbing, kicking, and losing your line. Once out of the blender, I swam to the outside, which made for easier everything, just meant I had to swim an extra 25 yards on the turns. Came out of the water feeling great.

Still need to work on my sighting and swimming straight versus zig zag.

Ran past the first couple of wetsuit strippers and got mine off pretty quickly...one leg caught on my ankle, but that was minor. At T1, they had my bag waiting. Instead of going into the changing tent, I stayed on the outside since I wasn't changing shorts. Took a couple of deep breaths, put on a dry jersey (since my jersey was not skin tight, it was not difficult, plus already had 3 gels, advil, and a bar in the pocket). Shoes and helmet on and c'ya!

Nothing

1st...rented Zipp 808's, wise choice. Easy 2 mph faster. On the bike I had a plan...no faster than 18 mph for the first lap, between 18-20 mph on the second lap, and hammer with what ever left on the last lap. Goal was sub 6:30. First lap I was averaging about 20 mph...caught up in the moment and just felt good. Fortunately, I was able to hold the pace. The only reason my average dipped was because I stopped to pee (4 times) and on lap two, I stopped to help a 70 yr old lady that crashed (really who was taken out by knuckleheads passing on the right side). Once I knew she was attended to by medical, I had to fix my bottle cage (kicked it off my seat) and I was gone. Figure I lost 15 minutes.
The bike was a blast. The wheels I had were definitely noticeble. There were a ton of people out there and you'd get into groups that you'd pass, and then 10 minutes later they would pass you, and then you'd pass, and then 10 minutes later they'd pass you. Just when I thought I'd dropped them (cause some of them were definitely drafting off of me), I'd stop for a pee break and have to pass them again.
The last lap was really cool (although hard) because with every peddle stroke I was setting PR's for time and distance. In training, I never went over 80 miles, so this was cool.
End result was great, just think I ate an drank too much (worried about the heat which wasn't a factor).

Maybe throttle back a little bit on the first lap and a half...depends on training.
Work on my nutrition plan...think I ate/drank too much.

Its pretty nice not have to rack your bike. Volunteers were great. Running in cycling shoes with speedplay cleat blows.
Think I took a calm approach to T2. Got my shoes and socks on and was ready to roll.

Take the advil and endurolytes in a zip lock vs. the plastic container...too loud.

Where the wheels fell off. Started the run excited because I had 4 hours to make 11 and 5 hours to make 12. First three miles went well, sub 10 minute miles. Then all the gatorade and gels started to catch up to me. I didn't have lower GI distress, but I felt like I had a big gut bomb just sitting there. Made it very difficult to take on more nutrition (couldn't look at gatorade, couldn't even think about gels.) Tried to hit the port a potty, thinking I'd "squirt" something out, but only had to pee. I lap an a half into it, I found a garbage can an forced myself to puke. At first I was worried that I'd have stomach spasms the rest of the way, but I settled down pretty quickly. I came to the resolution that I'd just have to run/walk the rest of the way. Sometimes I'd walk a lot, sometimes I'd run a bit more than the last time I ran. My feet were sore from the pounding and I knew I had a blister, but I wasn't stopping for it. Basically, I knew I just had to keep moving. It was nice to know that I had lots of time to work with. On the last lap I stopped at special needs and pulled out a long sleeve shirt. Once the sun went down I'd go from hot to cool, especially when a breeze would blow over the lake on the back side. Glad I had it (wish I would have been finished before I needed it.)

This was the chink in my armor. I knew that I under trained on the run out of fear for my knee. The funny thing is that post race I don't have any knee pain. Next time, I'll have to incorporate more long bricks (or a couple of Olympic distance races) into my training.

Sat on my can...fell asleep on the ride home.


Run training and dialing in the nutrition plan.


Great race...what can I say, I'm an Ironman now!