Non wet-suit legal, unfortunately. Started off nice and saw a few guys from the wave ahead of me holding on to a kayak 200 yards from the start. Knew it was going to be a bad day for them. Swim went pretty well and found my own water, but did get kicked in the head a few hundred yards in. Didn't hurt too bad and didn't hit my goggles. The back stretch was hard to sight because the rising sun was right in our eyes. Every time a cloud went over I made sure I got a really good look. The way back in to the finish went nicely, but you could feel the waves more.

A few hundred yards from the finish a guy kept zig-zagging in front of me. That was pretty annoying, as I had to stop from running in to him. Finally as he started swimming back towards me (again), I held my line and let him know I was there, and that straightened him out. I thought my time was pretty slow, and did hear the course was a little long. I figured I'd be around :38 without a wetsuit, so :42 was a little surprising.

Dried off a little and put on my tri-top. Loaded up with a cliff bar and salt tabs and headed out. Pretty standard transition, but just took my time instead of rushing it.

The course has some rough patches to it, but nothing TOO horrible I don't think. There are a few stretches that are bad though. I'd say about 75% of the roads didn't have any lines on them, so that tells you how rural of a route it was. But I really liked the course. I didn't think the wind was too bad at all either.
I grabbed a fresh Gatorade Endurance at each aid station, took 4 gels and 4 salt tabs on the bike, as well as a few bites of a Cliff Bar. Tried to make sure to thank all the police officers blocking off all the intersections. When we registered they gave us a "you made my day" bracelet to give to a volunteer. I was able to get mine off on the bike and tossed it to a police officer at about mile 22. At around Mile 30, I got passed by 3 racers all drafting off each other. one guy was drafting the badly, and never stopped. As they SLOWLY pulled away from me, every time I looked up he was right on the wheel of one of the other two riders that he was with. This was frustrating, but justice would be given (or so I thought). At about mile 45 a course official passed me. When he got to those 3, he slowed down and followed them for several miles. I was waiting in anticipation for him to pull at least ONE OF THEM over and give them a penalty. But much to my disappointment, it never happened! I later passed the worst offender about a mile into the run (with much contempt I might add).
The course was very flat. I'd actually prefer a hillier course. Although I was ready to get off the bike at about Mile 40, my legs held on fine to the finish. I remember thinking about 45 miles in, "Do I really want to do another Ironman and have to bike 112?" At the time, the answer is "No way!", but afterwards it's "heck yes!". I just don't learn.
All in all, the bike was fine, and about as I expected, although it did only measure 55.1 miles on my computer.

My bike split was slower than I'd like, but I knew it would be coming in, with less training this year.

Ran inside Selby Stadium, which was cool to see all the bikes in the stadium on the artificial turf. Took some time to put on socks and headed out on the run. Stopped to get sun screen put on. They sprayed it on instead of rubbing it on. I'd MUCH rather have them rub it on, as you get covered much better.

Left the stadium, waved to my step-dad, and was on my way. Started off feeling really good. Looked down and saw I was averaging 7:00 pace, and knew I had to lay off, so I slowed to around 7:30 for the first mile. As I progressed, my pace gradually fell to the high 7's, and then into the low 8's. I walked every aid station and did have to stop to pee once. I had a salt tab at every aid station (except one). Those things save my life. I didn't cramp up at all. Legs were hurting bad by mile 8, but pushed through and ran the entire way. A lot of people walking, and I only got passed by 1 person (a girl, good for her!). Saw a female police officer with a few miles to go and said to her "you know what today is? Hug a cop day!". She said "Come on over, I'll take a sweaty hug!". ha ha, that was probably the highlight of my day, besides finishing.

A sore hip prevented me from running very much in July, which really hurt my run training in general.

Wasn't too hungry, but ate a little bit before getting my bike and heading out for the short drive back to the Hotel in Columbus.


Lack of training. After IMWI last year, I think I wanted a little bit of a down year, and that's what I did.


For it being the first year for this race, there wasn't any issues that I could see. It would be nice if the run course could go past T2/finish area mid race ( I think spectators would like this too), but I thought it was a well put on race with great volunteers. I'd like to make the 13 hour trip again in a few years to give it another shot. I've never once been disappointed in an Ironman event, and this was no exception.