Beach to Battleship HIM - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Man I really need to work on swimming. I felt like I was working hard the whole time but felt ok. Breathing was ok but sighting was terrible. I just went for the boat with bingo man and turned left, from there I was all over the place.

Swim more. Learn to sight! Winter practice!

The 400 yard run was painful on my bare feet with continued plantar fasciitis. At 200 yards I was tip toeing. Once i got to my bike i grabbed the wrong bag and could not figure who tied it in a knot. It was not mine but was on my bike, go figure. The extent of time consumption was getting the arm warrmers on while my ares were cold and wet. I struggled for 3 minutes at least! Was it worth having them on, not really.

I did the best I could, there is nothing different I could have done.

Starting out within 1 mile I had to stop as it felt like my chain dropped but once I looked at it that was not the case, my legs were just rubber. at the two mile mark there was tons of traffic backed up on the left lane while we had the right lane marked off heading towards Military cutoff. A lady, about 150 y/o decides to get in my lane just in front of me and behind the other biker. I could not get around her unless I wanted to go between her and left hand lane traffic that was stopped, she held 1 inch off the right curb so I was stuck, once I got my chance to shoot around to the right then what does she do, oh yes, decides to turn right when Im about her rear left door, she ran me into the ditch after i slammed the brakes, I rode through the ditch, up the bank and jumped back on the rode....I felt Lance Armstongish, for a mere second, then I was me again. I was not rattled I just kept pumping. I felt strong the whole ride out except over the bridge, I still struggle with hills. On the way back there was a headwind and it didn't help me. In fact I felt like I was riding a slight upgrade out and back. I thought riding back to the beach would be slightly down, but not that I felt.

This being my first year, you name it. Work on aero position, endurance, cadence, HILS HILLS HILLS. Speed work. Lots of work this winter for the bike as well.

A guy took the bike and that was nice! All I had to do was find my rack and taht took a minute. Changed quickly, took a drink, and was off.

Practice T2 more.

The culmination of 4 races w/i 40 days came to a head right at the moment I started over the first bridge. My legs did not want to work and I struggled mentally to move forward. at time I ran ok and I had to stop and walk over the bridge, then a 2 m mark to go #1, ran to mile 4, walk break and started back but from Mile 6 back to downtown Mile 8 I walked 4x for about 2 minutes each. Ran from Mile 8 to Mile 10 then walked up the hills on the 2 bridges. from downhill last bridge I ran at an easy pace but said i wanted to finish on a positive note so I ran hardged and passed as many people as I could catch and would not allow one guy to pass me, not by force but I kkelp picking up the pace as I could feel him getting closer. Still, 2:45 was terrible when just 6 days before I ran at 90% 13.1 miles in 2:05 at City of Oaks Half Marathon. I finished and Pam was there to give me the medal, she waited past her time and still wanted to hang it on me. I was grateful my friend was there to do that! My wife and her frind april were at the finish along with Maria and her friend from Fayetteville. It was a great feeling to see friendly faces at the finish.

NOT BOOK 2 HIM, 1 OLY, and 1 13.1 HALF MARY ALL WITHIN 40 DAYS OF EACH OTHER! My weakness this year has been running due to getting past 5 years of plantar fasciitis in both feet and losing 30 pounds. I'm still 40 pounds over weight and my goal is to drop 30 w/i 9 months and focus on the running. I find that runners carry the strength of this sport since the utilize their best skill at the end to their advantage. SO, I intend to beef up my running endurance and speed along with losing the weight. I want to be like Mike, no wait, I want to be like Daryn Lambooy, and run like a bat out of hell, on crack may I add!

I had to sit down, I felt sick from all the sugar - gels that day! I felt awesome at augusta but here I just felt bad and it showed.


I took on to much being my first year in this sport and it came to a head on the run. My body was just worn out.


It was well done from an overall perspective but I could not find pizza at the end, I was looking for water (it was there but I was in a daze). But my pet peev is caution on the bike course. In town there needed more people to manage traffic. I heard of and saw several potential run ins with bikes and cars and I was one of them. Drivers were not paying atteention and some came in the right lane to go around the stopped traffic, only to wait to get back into the left lane, which then blocked the biker lanes. this may have happend since I was near the last wave and by that point drivers may have been upset at the wait? I'd also suggest wilmington Ports renting ferrie boats from other port cities to carry spectators back and forth. BUT, I could not even imagine what all it takes to set one of these up, so it must be hard work!