As soon as I hit the water, all doubts, nagging pains, anxiousness, and nerves were all gone. It was all focus at this point. The first 500 or so meters were hectic as expected. I had no choice but to swim over people as others did the same to me. I was kicked by this one guy doing a very powerful breaststroke so I did everything I could to get away from him. After a few hundred meters, I found a small open area and got into an ok grove and made it out to the turn buoy. At that point, people were pinched in and it became very crowded. A guy in front of me completely stopped and I had no choice but to swim over him as I was being pushed from behind. It was a bit scary and i wasted a lot of energy at this point but I made it past the turn around and was very excited to be swimming towards the finish. The closer I got to the finish, the more excited I became and by the time I got out, I probably had more energy than when i first started! I had a peeler rip off my suit which was awesome, then i ran the 400 meters to T1. I saw my family and I knew they were happy to see me after hearing about all the recent tragedies during Ironman swims.

Not much I could have done other than train more and become a faster swimmer. I swam very conservatively and was fully energized coming out of the lake! Just as I hoped..

Transition 1 was very crowded. I made sure I took my time and didn't forget anything. A bit slow but 2-3 minutes of that were the 400 meter run from the swim to T1

I couldn't wait for this ride! I knew my bike fitness was good and couldn't wait to put it to the test. It was very crowded for the first 20 miles or so. I was taking the first 20 miles very easy. My plan was to stay in my zone 2 HR (131 bpm) the entire ride. I trained for 30 weeks and hardly ever rode without my HR monitor so I knew staying in the zone would get me to the run start feeling good. Anyway, about 45 minutes into the ride, my HR monitor stopped working. Not sure why but I began to panic a bit. I quickly made the decision to ride based on effort but wasn't happy or comfortable with it. I really didn't have much of a choice. So I continued riding at what I thought was an easy pace and finished the first loop with ease! What a beautiful course. The roads were smooth, the forests were swarming with evergreens and the air smelt amazing! The first loop took me 2:51 minutes which I was very happy with being how good I felt. I said to myself, "i'll keep the same effort and when I reach the hills in lac superior, I will slow down even more". I wanted to save my legs as much as possible for this. For the last 30 miles, I started passing a lot of people which felt great. However, as I got closer to the end of the bike, I had some soreness in my knees which had me concerned. I tried to not think about the run and focus only on how I was feeling at that moment. It seemed to work but every now and then, the Jaws theme song began playing over and over in my head knowing the run was coming. My second loop was just under 3 hours and I felt pretty good at this point. I saw my family again which was very motivating, my bike was taken by a volunteer, and I ran into T2. Wow! I just finished the Ironman bike! Although my legs were a bit tight, I was still full of energy!!!

Get a better HR monitor. I can't believe it stopped working early on in the bike. I went very easy the entire ride. Maybe I could have pushed it a bit more but wanted to enjoy the ride and save my legs for the run..

My bike was grabbed by a volunteer and I ran into T2. A volunteer grabbed my run bag, took my bike shoes off, put on my running sneakers, and cleaned up my bike stuff. What service! I can't remember the last time someone put sneakers on for me...maybe when I was 4? Anyway, the volunteers were amazing and I thanked them all day long!

Not much. I only took 2 minutes in T2 because it seemed way to easy to get comfortable in there....

I run out of transition and see my family right away. I kissed my wife and kids quickly, told them I feel good and off I went. Toward the end of the first mile, my legs got a little crampy and I quickly stopped, stretched them out a bit, then continued running. Luckily, they went away as I slowed my pace and took in some nutrition. My plan for this run was to run and not let my heart rate get above 143 but had to run by feel being that my HR monitor was dead. Anyway, the first 3 miles, I felt great. I was running slow, many were passing me but i was running and had no issues. I set a goal for myself to try and run 13 miles without stopping. If I could run 13 miles in around 2 hours, then even if I walked the last 13, I would finish around 12:30 and that would be awesome! A 12:30 ironman for my first one! That would be awesome! So I continued running, grabbing perform at each stop along with some orange slices. I get to mile 10 and remember saying to myself, "I got this...I can make it 3 more miles and get to mile 13 without stopping"... I came up on mile 12.5 and entered the village which was swarmed with people cheering. It was incredible. I kept trying to scan the crowds in hopes to find my family until all of a sudden I heard them screaming my name. "GO BRIAN GOOOO!!!!!" At that point in the race, I yelled to them, "I feel great!" and didn't stop. I gave them a high five but didn't stop. Running through the pedestrian village, hearing all those people cheering, and seeing my family totally energized me. I did it! I ran 13 miles, haven't stopped, and I feel pretty good still. Now what...? When I left the village towards mile 14, I started to feel pretty uncomfortable. My legs at this point were extremely tight, my feet were really sore, and hip flexors felt like they were going to snap. I started doing some math at this point and realized that if I can keep running at this pace, I would finish with around a 4 hour marathon and a 11:25ish Ironman! So that was my new goal. I knew it would be nearly impossible but I was going for it...I continue running past mile 15, then mile 16, 17, 18, 19, all the way to mile 23 until I had a complete system shut down. My pace had slowed down to much at this point to meet my 4 hour marathon goal but I hadn't stopped running yet. At around the last 5k, my hip flexors couldn't lift my knees high enough to run up hills so I had to walk up them, my quads were cramping which caused me to walk down hills as well. The only time I could run, or more like hobble, was when it was flat. My hamstrings felt like rocks. I have never felt them so hard in my life. I was concerned one would pop and that could be the reason I don't finish. Even at this point, mile 24ish, I still wasn't celebrating in my head. I remained very focused and did everything possible to keep moving forward. My stomach also shut down to a point where I couldn't take in any more fluids or nutrition. I felt thirsty, but I knew if I tried to drink, it would come right back up. By mile 25, I was ready to be done. Pretty much every joint in my body was screaming and it wasn't even easy to walk. At this point, I was trying to run for 1 minutes, then walk a bit, run a min, walk a bit. At this point, I started to hear the music and crowds as I got closer to the village. As I'm suffering up a hill, some guy said to me, "smile, your going to be an Ironman in less than 10 min!". I got a chill throughout my entire body when he said this and from that point on, I knew I had it! I entered the village towards the finish line and the place was just exploding with energy. It was a slight downhill through the town to the finish line and somehow, I was able to run down it. For a few moments, I had no more pain. I was giving high fives, fist pumping, and cheering with the crowds!! It was incredible! My family saw me and were screaming their @#$% off!!!! Then I heard those magical words. The words I trained so hard to hear. BRIAN ZAUG.... YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!! I ran through the finish line and wanted to collapse but those damn amazing volunteers wouldn't allow that. They kept me moving, asked me questions, escorted me through the crowds, got me my medal and hat then helped me get some food.

Wouldn't do a whole lot different. Went out pretty slow and conservative which enabled me to run for 23 miles. I did shut down at mile 23, but I was very pleased to finish the run in 4:10. I would blame the shut down on my muscular endurance but at that point in the race, somethings going to happen. I bet if I do a few more of these, I would build up enough endurance to run the entire marathon. That wouldn't be a bad goal for IRONMAN LAKE TAHOE IN 2014...hmmm

I held back the entire swim and bike ride. I'm not sure if I went a bit faster, how much it would have effected my run. For me, running almost the entire marathon is better than a really fast bike split and walking a lot of the marathon.