Considering that there were more participants this year than last, I figured I could find me a set of feet to draft off. But no such luck, everyone took off so fast. Felt good throughout, wanted to keep the laps below 30 min. each. No saltwater ingestion this year. :)

Rounding the last buoy, I passed some guy and he got a good draft for a while, and then I sped up a bit to get to T1 before him. Weird thing...I left T1 and started riding before him and he never passed me on the bike (only 38 participants overall, so it's easy to tell), but he was a lap ahead when I got to the run. An important turn on the bike was not properly marked, so I'm assuming he "missed" it and cut his ride about 20km short, without any officials actually taking note. He'll always know, however.

In the race, probably nothing. In training, however, I'll start mixing it up a bit by adding a little more speed work. I felt fresh and was close to 10 mins. faster than last year, but I'd love to be sub 2min/100m during the race.

This was a good swim, close to my goal and my current ability.

Drank a can of Ensure as soon as I got in, was feeling excellent throughout.

Before taking my bike of the rack, I saw Mayde's bike still there (she had planned to do only two laps of the swim for training). I knew she was swimming strong, so she should have been out of the water by then.

Looking back, I probably could have been a bit faster in T1. But, a minute here or there doesn't really count in an Ironman (at least for me).

I headed out and, unlike last year where I was alone most of the time, actually saw some competitors on the course. Early in the ride, I was shocked and proud to see Mayde, who was in for a dress rehearsal; she had swum the full 3 laps (her only previous long swim ever was 3k, in a pool!) and was behind me by only about 20 minutes.

On the way out, I felt great, started following my hydration/nutrition plan. Got passed by a guy who'd end up doing a sub-6 ride. Then another guy around the 45k mark. Did some very focused riding, concentrating on keeping heart rate in check, never letting my cadence fall below 85 rpms and having a magnificent picnic throughout.

About the 65k mark another rider flew by me, a true local. It was exciting to see he had so much support. 10k after that, I got passed again by a guy in blue Hawaiian baggy shorts...who would later in the day become my new best friend!

I reached the 95k special needs spot one minute before last year's time, but rode possibly at 10 hearbeats less per minute this time around. Had a can of Ensure, replaced my two Powerbar Endurance bottles and left behind one of the guys who had passed me earlier.

In my mind, because I'd ridden this course before and knew how gnarly the hills and SPECIALLY the wind would be for the remainder of the ride, this was the beginning of the race.

I left a Powerbar and two Powergels in my special needs bags with instructions to the volunteers to be delivered to #22, Mayde, just in case she also decided to do the whole ride. She'd already done the unexpected by completing the swim!

Then I set off to ride into the wind, trying to stay aero the whole time and standing on the pedals for 10 to 20 secs. if my HR ever got below 150bpms. That strategy worked for the remainder of the ride and allowed me to keep a constant effort. I managed to repass Hawaiian-shorts guy, who seemed like he was suffering.

6hrs into the ride, I was on a mental high. I couldn't believe everything was going so smoothly. I was thinking that I was actually going to have the best ironman that was in me. I had nailed nutrition so far, swam as expected, was about to complete the bike almost an hour faster than last year and only had about 20km to go.

Then, right in the middle of those happy thoughts, it happened ...DISASTER...I started to feel a bump in my rear wheel and figured I would ride it off like that. About 10 seconds later, my rear tire explodes. Not just the tube, but the whole tire.

I was there, with no spare tire, thinking what I would do next. I started to remove it, my options at the time being either to attempt to place a Powerbar wrapper around a new tube and see if it held (it's worked marginally on my MTB) or ride out the last 20k on my rim.

As I contemplated my shitty options, a car with bikes on its rack passed. Out of desperation, I nearly jumped out into traffic to get their attention. It was some local guys who had no idea there was even a race going on. I practically begged them to sell me a tire, offering to pay them three times the price once the race ended (I had no money on me). After some discussion amongst themselves, they decided to remove one of the tires from their bikes and give it to me. I don't know if I thanked them enough and I don't even know if this would be allowed in an M-dot race, but I was ready to go. The tire was a bit small for my rim, so I didn't dare to inflate it that much. Then, as I started to ride, I realized my rim was bent and hitting the brakes. I was so eager to go that I just kept riding. To add insult to injury, my bike computer fell off its base before I could check the exact distance remaining and my aerobottle had emptied when I turned the bike sideways to remove the wheel.

Hawaii dude stopped before I started riding again, told me he hadn't sent his Special Needs bags and was out of food. I thought to myself that if I was helped, why shouldn't I help him and gave him my last Powergel.

I was off. It got a bit emotional for me. I had lost about 20 minutes or so, but I knew I would finish no matter what. I started to get some minor cramps, but nothing serious.

First of all, I'll carry one of those folding tires with me in every long ride, specially if it's a race!!!!

In training, I hadn't felt this good on the bike. I tapered properly and ate/drank pretty well. I know I'm slow and had a freak event take place, but this was probably my best ride ever on a road bike.

Changed into running clothes. Had another can of Ensure, some more Endurolytes and was off. Mayde was sitting close to the transition area; she had swum 3.8, ridden 112 and run 12k. Awesome! It was great to see her there...I actually wanted to stop and tell her everything that had happened over the last hour or so. But I guess a had a little running to do!

Next time, I'll try to run with some jammers or something like that to prevent chaffing.

Started the run with the plan to keep HR between 155 and 160. That went smooth for about a total of 1 lap. Then on the second and third laps, I had a hard time trying to stay above 145rpm's, so that became my new goal.

No walking, except for aid stations. Not that I ran faster than some walked, but it was a matter of silly South American macho pride. "No walking unless at aid stations".

I saw Hawaii 5.0 man again, and cheered the hell out of him every time. I also encouraged all the few others still out there on the course to finish.

21k (2:41)/ 42K (2:43)

In the third lap, my right quadricep locked up for a while. It wasn't really a cramp; I just couldn't bend my leg much.

For the fourth lap, I took some Ibuprofen, more Endurolytes, a gel, some coke and was off.

It didn't seem endless this time around. Lots of good thoughts. Mayde, my dad and my little brother were there for the last lap and finish.

Maybe run a little longer in training. Possibly run a marathon a month or two before the race. My longest run had been 28k this year. I still think I held my pace throughout; I just wish that pace would be faster.

Got in, stuck around for a while and went to catch a Margarita Island special: Seafood Pizza. Then came back to cheer on the last finishers. I was dead last in 2005 and kind of knew what they were going through. It was a relief to see my record for slowest race ever go down. I think the last finisher, a girl, came in at 16.5 hours.


I'm going to keep getting better, even if it's a snail's pace. I'll take any marginal improvement.

I believed in my training and taper and figured out race-day nutrition. I will definitely need to improve overall nutritional habits and do some tweaking to my training (speed in the swim, distance/speed on the run).

For now, I'm taking about a month off from racing and will focus on helping Mayde to her first official triathlon on June 11, a Half IM also on Margarita Island.


I love this race. However, there's a couple of things that need to be worked out if they want to apply for an M-Dot license. More race officials at crucial points on the bike.

And the finish line: We dream about it for months, sacrifice and suffer for it. The organizers could have made it look much nicer and had more staff to receive the last few.