Buffalo Springs Lake Ironman 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Course: Counter clockwise rectangle but you left from a beach in a little lagoon. You had to swim around a little land mass before you hit the main course.


Although my time was much higher than in training I was very happy with the swim execution and how felt in the water. Too, most folks I spoke with about the swim thought it was a bit longer than 1.2.

After my last OWS in training, I decided to put my top on in transition instead of wearing it under my suit. For this distance I just wanted to make sure my suit felt as good as it could in the shoulders.

Steve (BT Mentor) and I talked about my starting position. Oddly enough it seemed inside left was the place to be because of that point at 200m you had to swim around to get to the first buoy. So that's where I started. I was in the back and just waded on out until it was deep enough to not walk anymore. I didn't understand why people were swimming around me in 3 feet of water.

The pack wasn't that tight where I was. Got kicked a few times and ran into a few folks but I never got uptight! Pretty much got my rhythm early and went.

My plan was to stay wide at the turns and it worked out. At the first turn on the main course the fish in the wave behind caught me. As I was rounding the first buoy (~10 yds off it) I could see it getting real crowded.

The rest was pretty good except the back stretch. I'm not sure if the intermediate buoys were inside the line but I felt like I had a good bead on the last buoy. I could see the main pack 20yds inside me but every time I spotted the buoy I felt I was good. Finally a kayak came up and asked me to move left. hmmmm.

At ~mile was the only time I felt a little tired. But it only lasted a minute or so. I got plenty of good day dreaming time in throughout the swim. Wonder if that affected my time. :-)

Get a little more aggressive at the start.

Not good out of the water. I couldn't get my zipper down. Then when I finally did I took my arms out and laid down for the stripper. As soon as I did I realized I didn't take the suit down far enough so I had to stand up again and pull it down more. I had used strippers before so this was a dumb mistake.

Walked and ran to my TA. I took my time in transition because I didn't want to forget anything. I was most concerned about putting my race belt on. (WTC event requires race number behind you on the bike.) I got my belt out, went to put it on and the buckle broke! Thankfully I packed my spare. I switched the bib over and the rest went OK.

Off I went out of transition. Got to the mount line, saw the porto potty's and realized how bad I had to pee. WHY DIDN'T I GO IN THE WATER? Dumb ass. After spending a good 30 seconds trying to figure out what to do with my bike, I just leaned it up against a few other porto potties and did my thing.

Pee in the water and pull suit down farther for strippers

Course: bitch

A 9% ~ 460 yard uphill coming out of transition! That's just wrong man.

8 major hills with a few small ones mixed in. The hills were in and out of canyons. So you would go down as fast as you could, in some cases not very fast at all because of switch-backs or just very hard turns at the bottom. Plus it was wet in some parts. Then it would be flat for a half mile or so then backup the other side of the canyon. Now think about that. A "normal" hill you go up then go down and if you are lazy like me you use the downhill to rest. Not here, you go up then you hit the flats or even a false flat. Really the toughest climb was the one out of transition because my heart was already racing from the swim.

The RD talked about a section aptly named the Spiral Staircase during the meeting and told everyone to take it easy on that decent because the last turn has a decreasing radius. Sure enough when I arrived at the bottom to climb out, the ambulance was there treating 3 people, one pretty bad.



Everyone and their mother said to take it fairly easy on the bike because the run is tough. I was able to for the most part which was part of the reason my time was low. I purposely had my watch on stopwatch for nutrition but around mile 40 I couldn't take it anymore and had to look at the time. Uh-OH. I was on course for almost three hours and I wanted to be leaving T2 a 5 hours latest. SO for the last 15 miles I pushed it. Luckily it was mostly flat with just one big climb. I have never been so happy to run in my life.

I did pass a tarantula on the road. Hey at least I passed something living in instead of being passed. And there were only like 10 trees along the course outside of the canyon. But in the trees were these damn birds that whistled really loud. So every time I went by one I hear this whistle and expect someone to come by me. After a few seconds I realize there is nobody there and it was the freaking birds.

I got chicked a lot, but that's cool because it was the only scenery out on the course. My favorite person to pass me was the woman who won the 70-74 year old AG. It happened somewhere around mile 35. So I had a 15-30 minute head start on her and she passed me just over the 1/2 point on the bike. Good for her. I think I cheered for her the loudest at the awards dinner when she got her Kona slot.

My nutrition worked perfectly. I was a little concerned about this but now I know I pretty much had it dialed in. I never cramped, felt nauseous, hungry, or thirsty. I quit taking everything in at mile 50.

Funny, last night I hated that course. Now, the next day, I'm already thinking about how I'm going to attack it next time.

I can't believe I just wrote that.

Not wreck my bike two months before the biggest race of my life.

Ride a lot more.

Ride a lot more in hills.

I think this went well. Not much to T2 though. Put your shoes and go run.

I guess I can learn to get out of my shoes before I get in. Other than that I was happy with my performance here.

Course: This was a good tough course that if just running, not combined with the other two before it, I would have really enjoyed.

It's an out and back. The first three miles are pretty flat. You make a tight left turn just past the mile three aid station and you are looking up at a nasty climb out of the canyon. Once up it, you run to the park exit then dive right back into the canyon. Nice long downhill until you realize you have to run back up it later.

Then the run gets a little cruel. You run back out of the canyon and hang a right onto what they call the Energy Lab II. It was a 3 mile out and back on the flattest road. Then you dive back in, then back up the other side, look up in the sky and thank the Good Lord for making that the last damn hill on the course.



Typing this up I just realized I picked up 30 position's on the run. That's good.

I'm also now seeing my results for the first time overall and cannot believe how slow this was. I mean I was thinking worst case in the 12 minute / mile range. Never would I even guessed I would be above 13. WOW!



The run itself: You head out on the run adjacent to the finish. As I was going out I thought I recognized another BT'er that I met at Lone Star coming down the chute. So I gave him a high five and as I was moving on I bent an ear to the finish to hear his name being called. Sure enough it was triritter.

The first three miles were a little hard but not too bad. I never ever walk a run but I knew going in I would allow myself to walk the aid stations. That worked well until the first hill. No way could I run that thing. It was at this point that some lady behind me says, "at least its overcast". I could have choked her.

Sure enough, half way up that hill the clouds parted and the sun started doing it s thing. That hurt. I mean hurt. And so for the next 10 miles it was a nice sun shiny day. I finally got to the top and headed out of the park.

I was able to run the flat area out of the park and down the next hill. But the look on the peoples faces walking back up gave a glimpse of what was coming. And now we had the sun. I'm still cursing that lady...

I ran through the bottom of the canyon. By now a group of maybe 10-12 of us were more or less keeping the same pace and were hanging out within a couple hundred yards of each other. Sometimes I would pass them all, other times I was in the rear. As we started heading back up I decided I was going to be the last one to start walking. So it was probably a 1/4 of the way up the hill before the last guy started walking. As I went by him he asked if I was going to run the hill. I told him nope, and that I picked out a sign about 20 yards up that I have to get to before I woul walk. A few of the racers in the group cheered for me when I got to the sign.

At the top we turned to the long out and back and it was getting really warm. I started walking even on the flats. Just brutal.

I did get burst of energy at mile seven and actually had a decent pace for a bit. Cruised back down the hill and walked back up it. I walked past a hand cyclist. God bless her she is amazing.

The hills were done! Amen.

At 10 miles I started to hurt pretty good and had to do a lot of walking. By mile 12 it was starting to get to my head so I really had to focus. I'd get going and someone in front of me would stop running and walk. So did I. It was really weird. Finally I had enough walking and just kept on going.

At ~12 miles I could begin to hear the finish line. That got me amped. This is also the point where the spectators really began cheering for us. Seeing other racers with their medals really charged me up.

Coming around the corner with about 200 to go was something special, something I will never forget. People were really yelling. I had some space in between me and the guy behind me so it was all about 591, my bib number, the rest of the way in, just amazing. About 50 yards from the line a bunch of folks from the Houston Tri Club were there waiting for me and another racer. They went ballistic, very cool.

Mike Reilly, "Voice of Ironman", brought me across the line which was cool. I was wondering what he was going to say because obviously this wasn't a full distance. He basically said our names and town and something like c'mon down. But then just after the wonderful volunteers put my medal around my neck I looked over at him and we caught eyes. He said good job John over the PA. I don't know why but I thought that was really cool.

A couple of buddies walked over and asked if I wanted a beer. I just took Rachel's out of her hand and pounded it.



I know I was slow as could be but how do you say you want to change anything about your first time and especially those last few hundred yards.

What would I do differently? Not a damn thing.

Drank beer and ate Jelly Belly's.


The bike wreck for sure.

I followed BT's beginner plan fairly well but I think I would have added two or three more long runs (12-13 miles)

If SWBKRUN Mentor Group was there in person, I would have crossed the line in 4:52:36. They weren't, so they better be at Lone Star_____________.


The organization was great and the volunteers were amazing. They were everywhere, like ants but good ants.

You really need to have a great support network around you in order to be successful at events of this nature. I am so fortunate to have a wonderful family, network of tri friends that I can actually touch, and a simply amazing group of friends here on BT that I do hope to drink a beer with one day.

Thanks everyone!