Ironman Austria - TriathlonFull Ironman

The start caught most of us by surprise. I was probably too far back.

We started between peirs. Fo rsome reason there was a traffic jam at the end of the piers. Once I got past that, the crowd was not too bad until the canal. It was about 20 feet wide. Made for an interesting finish to the swim.

Start closer to the front. They had us broken up into 3 groups - pros, under 1:10, and over 1:10. Each group started on a different part of the beach and then met up about 100 meters out.

There was about a mile of sidewalk riding included in T1.

I tried a flying mount and let's just say I am glad I already have children.

Not try a flying mount!

About 4 hoursd into the ride I got behind on nutrition. My shorts had alot of salt deposits. It was hot.

I rode within myslef on loop one and I tried to open it up a bit on loop 2.

Stay on top of my nutrition. Wait until further into the bike to see if I can pick up my pace.

There was probably close to 1/2 mile from the bike dismount to the run timing mat.

If I had better paced the bike, I oculd have shuffled a little quicker through the transition.

The first 1/2 mile went OK and then the wheels fell off.
Nausea kicked in big time. I tried Coke as that worked on previous IMs.
However my stomach was not please with hot, defizzed Coke. Nausea got worse.
Infinit was supposed to be on the run course so I figured I'd switch to it.

I asked for soem and was greeted with "Iso?" I think that is a local energy drink in Austria. Whatever, I needed it.

About mile 5 I knew I was waaay behind. I grabbed a full cup of Iso and a full cup of water and found a bench along the run course. I sat for about 5 minutes and made myself drink all of the drinks. Then it was back to the IM death shuffle.

And then a miracle happened - a cold thunder shower broke loose. I could feel my heartrate coming back down. My shuffle turned into a bit of a jog.

Too bad that did not last long enough.

The beer gardens along the course were awesome. I also appreciated teh neighbors who hosed us down.

I got a kick out of the pig fountain. The water the pig was spitting was refreshing.

Teh drink stations had a bizzarre spacing. Sometiems you'd have 2 in less than a mile and sometimes you'd almost have 2 miles in between.


Make sure I pace better on the bike and stay on top of my nutrition.

Sat on a bench at the finish. After a few minutes stumbled over to the finisher's tent and tried to choke down a cold piece of pizza that makes prison food seem tasty.

teh goulash was pretty good as was teh Radler (beer mixed with lemonade).


Got behind on nutrition on the bike.
Need to figure out how to manage heat better. Ironic since I live in Texas.


I did shave a bunch of time off of my previous PR. However I was over 2 hours slower than my goal.

Overall, Austria was a great place to race. The scenery was awesome. You ride and run through beer gardens. Drunken Austrians are cool.