The water was warmer than I thought and I did a fairly good job of keeping up with the back of the pack of my Blue cap wave. Just before the turn the Orange caps caught up to me. That made sighting on the way back a lil difficult. I couldn’t see much due to the glare of the sun but I suddenly had a dozen or so orange buoys to sight on. It was good because whenever I looked up I was heading directly for an orange buoy. It was bad because even though I thought it was buoy it was usually an orange cap that had passed me by. I went off course a couple of times and I figure I actually swam 1.3 miles. Maybe more. (not sure if I mentioned this yet but I passed my coach on the bike course like he was standing still)

After IMLP I am going to learn how to breathe to my left.
It was a twenty minute PR over My last HIM. (Montauk Last Year)So i was happy.

Horrible. I couldn't bring myself to pee in my wetsuit so when I got out off the water I took off my wetsuit and there was a line for Both sets of Poirt a johns so I had to wait.

Learn to pee in the water?

I felt good on the bike. I left my Garmin bike computer on all night and the battery died so I had no idea what my cadence was. Luckily, my watch also picks up the cadence so after the race I found out it was 86. For me that’s great especially for going up those hills. My nutrition plan has been going well since I’ve switched to Infinit. It’s easy on my stomach and I am taking in a lot more calories.

A couple of miles into the race I had one of those moments you dream about as an athlete. I am not a competitive person. I am not and never have been much of an athlete. I marvel at the abilities of my coaches. I look up to the coaches and wish I had a percentage of their capabilities. I can not believe how much I have improved since joining the TriLife team and I owe it all to them. But there comes a time in a young man’s life when he will exceed all expectations. A time when the student will rise above his physical limitations and pass yes, I said pass, his teacher.

I was comfortably in my aero position, my cadence was high, my heart rate was low, there was pace booty a plenty, I was picking off victims one at a time as my favorite coach likes to say and then it happened. I passed my Coach on the Bike course. All those early morning training sessions and hundreds of hours on the bike had paid off. It was a time of mixed emotions for me. I was ecstatic at the fact that I had improved so much on the bike that I actually was able to catch up and pass one of the coaches. Yet at the same time it was very sad because I knew things would never be the same. A small tear trickled down my face and rested on my cheek for a second before the wind caused it to evaporate.

I continued on the bike and at the turn around I saw a young kid struggling to fix a flat. As I went by he asked for help and I decided to put forth some good karma in the world so I stopped to help him. I changed the flat for him and then jumped back onto my bike and continued on my way. Why? He wasn’t on my team. He should have been better prepared. But he was struggling and he asked me for help. I knew a few minutes wouldn’t hurt me at all and would help him tremendously.

** OK, OK so my coach WAS standing still on the side of the road fixing a flat when I passed him. And he caught up and dropped me like a hot rock 3 minutes later. The fact remains for all time that I can honestly say I passed my coach on the bike course. :)


Nothing really. It wasn't an A race. I was going at what I hope will be my Ironman Pace.

Evidently, I cant bring myself to pee on myself on the bike either. I can live with that.

Both of my transitions were about 2 minutes. It was the Port a john times that killed me.

As I started out on the run course I ran into one of my coaches and he ran over and kind of palmed my behind << this is a setup for a private joke>> in an odd caressing type manner. Not a pinch like with his wife Vickie but not a slap either. It was weird but he said it would make me run faster. lol

I felt good being out on the run course and it helps so much when you see the team uniform out there. I was shooting for 1:59 right up until I saw that hill at mile 2 that went on forever. I immediately reevaluated my run goal and figured I could finsh in 2:10. I was wearing the TriLife tri shorts which totally chewed me up on the bike and they don’t have pockets. My usual Tri shorts (DESOTO)have pockets where I can stick my powergels so that I don’t have to use the pockets in the back of the jersey. I don’t like to have things bouncing around back there while I run. I saw the coach that I passed on the bike course (he was on his way back in) and he said “Think Smooth.” I like that. In my world slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I don’t think he knows what that phrase means to me but it helped a lot. I ran with a tiny Russian voice (Yes My coach is Russian)in my head saying “Drop your shoulders, drive your knees, I’m not asking you to run faster, I’m asking you to pick up your cadence”. I finished up in 2:01. That’s a 19 minute PR for me.


I would have picked up my pace a little after the first big hill and finished in 1:59 like I had originnally planned.

Walked around a little


Overall, I felt good through out the race. I never bonked and I never felt miserable. The only issue I had was with having to pee. I can honestly say that in three marathons, dozens of half marathons, 3 – Olympics, and in one other Half ironman I have only had to stop and pee ONCE! Saturday, I was emulating the proverbial race

Lessons learned;
- I didn’t panic like usual when surrounded by other swimmers.
- I know what 90 rpm feels like cause I rode pretty close to it with no cadence monitor on my bike.
- Running like the coach is behind you helps your form. (I’m gonna try that on the bike)
- Something about The coach touching your hiney makes you run faster.




I was disappointed that for the 25th anniversary of the race they ordered too many of the wrong medals. I think just about everyone got the Tinman sprint medal. It's a minor thing but it bothered me. I only do these things for the tshirts and medals.:)