Buffalo Springs Lake Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Wow. My wave didn't look like there were that many guys, but is sure was crowded to that first buoy! I'm usually around the top 10% of my AG in the swim, but very clearly mid pack or slower at the first buoy and swimming in a crowd. It got messy after that next turn since I think a lot of guys couldn't seen the next buoy and were swimming all over the place!

Still quite crowded by the 2nd buoy though not in a bad way. My HR was too high and breathing a bit out of control. I was near a kayak so I shamelessly stopped and held on to rest. Hey, since I was fairly sure I'd be dropping out on the bike, why not just DNF on the swim first? I asked the kayaker what I needed to do if I was going to drop out on the swim. She just needed my number. I told her not to write it down yet. Another guy came up and grabbed a rest also. I'm not sure how long I was there, maybe 1 or 2 minutes, and my HR and breathing were back down to normal. So I took off again.

Unfortunately at that point I was catching up to and passing slews of swimmers. No drafting opportunities at this point. I swim fairly straight and don't sight often so I ended up bumping into lots of swimmers. Got kicked in the face hard once, presumably by a breaststroker. There weren't a lot of buoys to sight off of so I felt like I was swimming blind most of the time. Just following and catching up to people who I presume knew where they were going. My swim cap fell of at one point near the end of the swim. The cooler water on my head felt good.

I figured that with the kayak rest I'd finish in about 35 minutes. Getting out of the water my watch said over 38 minutes. WTF?? Maybe I rested 5 minutes or more. Maybe the course was long. Maybe the wind caused currents.... Not a good way to start the day. :(

Must have been tough for everyone since I still ended up in the top 20% of my AG. Go figure...

Swim easier until breathing is under control, then pick up the pace. I'm not sure why my HR went up so early this time since I didn't feel like I was working all that hard.

Scope out the swim course well before the race. Not being able to see the buoys and not knowing how many there were or distance between them surely contributed to being anxious on the swim.

13 of 69.

Before the race I didn't scope out the location of the swim entrance of T1. Unfortuantely it wasn't where I thought it was. I was confused by where I was and where my bike was. I chose the wrong row and ran around more than I should have trying to find it.

I had skipped the wetsuit strippers. My wetsuit came off easily and quickly so it was probably a good decision. The rest went smoothly. I'm surprised I was 13th since I felt fairly slow.

Scope out the T1 swim entrance before the race. A rookie mistake.

There's a steep hill right out of T1. I was fully prepared to drop out at the top if I felt knee pain. But no pain -- hooray!! So I figured I had another 15 miles or so to the next major hills to see if my knee would be OK. As it turned out my knee handled all those nasty hills just fine. I had a burning sensation at times, but nowhere near pain. In spite of all the worries and expectations of a DNF it turns out that my knee wasn't even a factor on the hills or overall bike speed.

The course was quite windy but I didn't let it bothered me. No worse than the winds I train in. At one point I was going about 30 mph on a flat road thinking I was a stud and that my training had really paid off. Then came the turnaround and my 16 mph reality set in! By mile 40 or so I started having some butt pain so I rode standing for fairly long stretches. Felt good but not particularly aero on a windy and somewhat rainy day.

As it turns out, more worrisome than my knee was that I dropped my entire nutrition, a bag of cut-up Cliff bars, at about mile 3 just after the park exit. They were in a plastic sandwich bag in my Bento box. I had wisely zip closed the bag the night before to keep the bars from drying out, but unzipping the bag at 20 mph with one hand and my front teeth didn't work too well.... I felt bad about the littering but the idea of trying to pick up a little bag off the road with a bunch of cyclist zooming at me seemed worse.

My Plan B for nutrition (which I made up at the moment) was to drink more Gatorade to make up for the lack of solid calories. I read that there would be food on the course so I figured I coule pick up something on the way. I didn't see any food at the first to aid stations so I continued to drink more than normal. Didn't see any at the second either. The weather was unusually cool and overcast for a Texas summer morning and I really wasn't thirsty... At the 3rd aid station (about mile 30) I didn't see any food either, but figured I'd ask. Nobody had any food or gels ready to hand out, but one volunteer and a few in his pocket. Thank you! I had to stop momentarily for him to catch up to me. Got a couple more around mile 40 and I knew I was good to go.

Around mile 50 I noticed that my aerobars were loose. Not a problem -- if I wasn't careful they'd move a bit when hitting bumps. They got looser and looser and finally, just before the last downhill I was worried enouth about safety that I stopped and tightened them. Felt a lot safer and lost only about 2 minutes.

I got into T2 at about 3 hours. I had hoped to be closer to 2:50. In retrospect it was probably too aggressive a goal given the hills and wind. Overall it felt like a good effort in spite of a tough course and a mentally exausting ride. I knew I was behind on nutrition but I don't think it affected the bike and probably not the run either.

Remember to open up that nutrition bag before the race, not during!

On a couple of the hills I wished I had another gear to use. Maybe go with a 12-27 next time instead of the 12-25. I may have worked harder than necessary with my gearing.

30 of 69. Transition includes a much needed bathroom break.

I'm surprised I placed this high! The smart thing I did (about the only smart thing all day!) is that I had put my socks in a plastic sandwich bag in case of rain. I was one of few that started out the run with dry socks! Even smarter is that I loaded them with foot powder before leaving home so they actually went on my wet feet fairly easily!

The first three miles of the run are farily flat. Given the surprisingly cool weather I wanted to start running at about 8 minutes miles (I was planning for 8:30 in the heat). My legs didn't feel like bricks at all, though not particularly swift. I usually run too fast the first mile so I consciously kept the pace under control. 1st mile: 8:25. 2nd mile: 8:34. Unfortunately I didn't have it in me to pick up the pace. 3rd mile: 8:47. Then the first major hill came. I decided to walk up (it wasn't much slower than running!). 10:09. I figured I was in for a long day!

In the end I could run steady, just not fast. I walked the three major hills but not the aid stations. I was never huffing and puffing so maybe I just didn't push myself enough. It started getting hot and sunny the last three miles which maybe is why my pace slowed down a bit more. I don't think that getting behind on nutrition on the bike affected my run, but who knows.

While I thought I trained well on the bike, I'm thinking that the bike course just took too much out of me for a decent run. My goal of 1:50 on the run was doable with fresher legs, I think.

Iced my knee and got some ibuprophen in the med tent. My knee didn't hurt at all -- I just thought it might be a good precaution. I was surprised how many people were in the med tent given that it really wasn't a hot day!


I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to be a much better cyclist to compete at this distance. Train, train, train!


A tough but enjoyable course. Need to be prepared for hills on the bike and run! Well organized and great volunteers. Parking was surprising easy given that there is only one road coming into the park and only one parking lot. Post-race food pretty skimpy. No port-o-potties in the bike course! The course really got the best of me this time, but I'll be back to get revenge!