I was worried about the shoulder, it was a bit stiff but held for the swim. I just really need some coaching.

If I had a sleeveless wetsuit that would have been nice.

Went to the portapotty because it was convienent.

Hair wet before putting cap on.

I was solid through mile 85, but lost time into the strong headwind on the bigger hills on the rougher road the last 30 miles.

Just need to be faster on the bike.

T2 was really long, 100 yards running bike in and anothe 50 yards getting out of t2

Not really anything.

Ok So race prep, mixed all my Infinit and such, put race numbers on bike and helmet, got everything in the correct bag, etc the night before. Woke up at 2:15 am... nope too early still. Alarm went off at 4:15 am and got dressed, put on a base layer of sunscreen on my face, neck etc, place were I wouldn't have body markings and body glide around waiste, ankles, thighs (forgot underarms darn, but it was 4:15 am). Drove to the race, nowhere to park... but I have my bike so I can cover the 1 mile to the beach np.

The race start is chaos, they were running the IM, a women only HIM, an IM relay and an aquabike all at the same time. And although my race started first, it appeared everyone was there at 5:30 am. So I setup my bike transition, went to give my wife the clothes I had for the morning... she wasn't there. Race starts in 10 minutes. I run back and toss my bag back near my bike and then run back to the beach, get a random person to help me with my wetsuit zipper with a good 3 minutes to spare. Then we are in the water and bam its off we go. I was worried about the shoulders and they were a little tight for the first 1000 yards, so I just kept at it. The swim wasn't awsome, I just stayed steady, loosened up a little after 2000 yards, fell into a rythm for the next 1000 yards and pulled a little harder for the last 3000 yards. The swim was generally uneventful except for the usual bumping and such except for 1 headon with a guy who crossed over into oncoming traffic. I wished I had had a sleavless wetsuit, arms were a bit heavy. But finished feeling strong, hit the potty in T1 as there was one open right where you come in from the water and I knew there would only be 2 porta potties at the first aid stations and like 30 people wanting to use it, so t1 was a bit longer.

No problems in t1 except that it was really narrow getting out of t1 and folks were walking slowly, no real room to get past them. I ended up with 1 rock under my right big too and one on under my heal in my biking shoes (resulted in a blister or two for the run later). The bike was pretty congested, with a lot of passing and manovering for the first oh 30 miles or so. The road was in really bad shape with potholes everywhere. I saw about 30 flats, but I am sure there were more. I ignored distance and speed and focused on cadence for the first half. Everything was going great on the bike all the way through mile 85 where I took my first bathroom break. (ya 4 yours on the bike or so). I was really feeling good about the bike time until around mile 85 where we turned into a stiff wind for the next 27 miles. It was discouraging, maybe 15 mph headwind the whole way. I watched my pace drifting down and was having a harder time staying in areo because my neck and back were getting sore. Also though this part of the road is in the worst shape and it has the biggest hills. From around mile 95 + I just wanted to be off the bike. At mile 100 I topped the really big hill and avoided the 20 potholes on the sharp corner at the bottom of that hill. I finally got to smoother pavement at around mile 105 and was able to regain aero and hold it until the end, finishing somewhat stronger, but with a lot of 90 degree turns. I was happy to be off the bike, but you had to run with your bike to t2 about 100 yards (= longer t2 time).

Just as I left t2 a guy sprayed me with water which although nice, kept me from getting my garmin up as the controls don't work well when wet. Finally at about a quarter mile I get it up and running and look at the pace... way too fast, first mile is in 7:15! Alright so I try to ease down a bit, but my pace is still hot for the first lap. I am passing folks all over the place and this course is way hillier than I remembered it. I get to the turn around and back into town still going faster, but settling in to a more reasonable pace, lap 1 down, feeling strong. On the 2nd out my pace continues to drop a bit, but it is more uphill than down and I wanted to be closer to 8:30 anyway. It has been 90 ish most of the run and I was dousing with cold water every mile. Eventually I found cold water down the front of the shirt was most cooling as it went all the way down to my bike chamise (The water was COLD). I was good at mile 13, but then I started feeling mildly natious. Nothing serious just not a good sign. I also started bleading time. I wanted to hold 8:30, but after mile 15, that wasn't going to happen. I settled in around a 9:00 mpm pace, varrying between 8:45 and 9:00 ish. Doing the math after the first loop I had 3 hours to finish exactly at 12 hours. So 45 minutes per leg. I broke it down and tried to just hit those marks, bank a few minutes here and there. 3rd leg 42 minutes, good enough 3 minutes in the bank. 4th leg 42 minutes, pretty even banked another 3 minutes. On the 5th leg I took a GU out, but was a little concerned about eating it as my stomach was still iffy. I tossed it and shifted to gatoraid (less solid). It had a few less calories, but oh well. The 5th leg was hard, a lot of uphills and the downhills were starting to burn my thighs. The blister on my right toe was a little annoying, but I just only had what I had left. I usualy try to start to kick around mile 20, but didn't have much left to kick with. I told myself I would pick up the pace after the last big down hill around mile 23 and did so. Took in my last gatoraid at mile 24, hit mile 25 at 8:44 and then just gave it everything... I glanced down at my watch at 25.5 and I was at a 7:30 pace, I picked it up more and just flew into the last quarter mile. The crowd appreciated the strong kick and cheared me on. The announcer said I was going to set a new chute record and made me smile. As I crossed the line the time on the clock was 11:45 (minus 6 minutes for my swim start). WOOT! I did it. Not perfect, but the shoulder held for the swim and I had no leg muscle issues from training.

One sad thing about an IM is they have great food at the finish, but after 3400 calories of GU and Infinit you just can't eat much of it. The other bad thing for me is that my body temperature drops pretty quickly in the wet clothes after I stop even in 90F temps. So I ate some watermellon, had 12 oz of water and a soda and started looking for my wife to get something dry on. I couldn't belive it. 1 hour faster than last year, 36 minutes faster than the previous year on the same course. I made up 6 minutes on the bike, but 30 minutes on the run from the same course previous, swim was a wash.

You guys have the stats, I was 14 of 119 age group and 137 of 879 overall. The top 5 finishers were all sub 9:30 with the winner sub 9:00 so there was some good competition there. I was first in age group on the run with a pace of 8:37 and 42 of 879 on the run (I think this doesn't include the DNF guys). So I was really happy with the race. Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes. Dennis, you are a major information hound, amazing.

Take-aways. I was able to get faster working around my injuries, resting when I needed to, adding distance and avoiding intensity on iffy muscles to allow them to heal if slowly. The hard work and steady distances allowed me to stay strong throughout the race.

Areas of improvement. Eventually I will need a swim coach. I need to pick up the bike speed, especialy in the 85 mile + range. And although I was stoked with my run, I know I can cut 15 minutes off that in a year or two.

Ok so its not the cliff notes version, perhaps the full race report will be shorter. But there is my money where my mouth is. Slow build up, longer safer miles, easing off to let injuries heal, walk lots when you need to because of injuries and pray regularly. Faith is a big part of training for me, though I don't always emphasize it. Thanks for your prayers on race da, Yay no flats!


Maybe start a little slower, I think there is still some room to improve here. It would have been great if I could have just held at a slightly faster pace from mile 13 to 23.

I got some fluids and picked at some food, wasn't really hungry. My body temp started to drop after about 5-10 min as it usually does so I went looking for dry clothes. Just drove to campsite and went to sleep.


Need coaching for the swim and just a lot more bike speed. I did the best I could with what I had.


Well run race, never any confusion about where to go, plenty of aid stations on bike and run. This race would be so awsome if they ever fix the roads. I saw maybe 30 flats, I am sure there were more.