There was a mass start for this race with all competitors for both the half and full IM. This swim felt good. I'm kind of slow on the swim anyway, but I felt strong and fast (for me) on this swim. I never got tired or had problems breathing. I focused on my technique and tried to speed up my turnover. My navigation was very good and the swim was enjoyable. A little tedious, but nice.

Nothing. I need to swim more, work on my technique and strength, but for where I'm at, I think the swim went very well.

T1 was more like an Ironman T1 than I have experienced before. They had wetsuit strippers (I offered to tip them), which was new. I also had to pack up my wet bag and dry bag to be transported to the finish line later, so that took a little extra time. I knew it was going to be a long day, so I took my time. I put on bike shorts over my jammers, put on my camel back, rinsed my feet off with a squirt bottle, put on my headband and sunglasses, etc.

Move faster and not "take my time" so much.

I kept my HR around 140 for the entire course. At first, it seemed too easy, but towards the end, it was plenty difficult. I'm not used to getting passed so much on the bike -- I'm usually the one doing all the passing. The end result was what I wanted which was to start the run feeling fresh. There wasn't much technical about the course, the only real difficulty was the distance. My legs felt pretty good throughout, but my arms and neck got pretty tired. I took a couple of 3-minute breaks, getting off the bike and stretching, and got off my seat for a few seconds every once in a while. I had a hard time eating and drinking as much as I had planned because of nausea. I don't know if it was what I was eating/drinking (the same as I had trained with), or nerves, or exhaustion or what, but it had significant effects later on. What I had read from Gordo/Going Long regarding nutrition strategy turned out to be true for me -- eat and drink as much as you can on the bike to "put it in the bank" for later.

I obviously needed to eat and drink more. I think having adequate training sessions (like 5-6+ hour bricks and 60-70mi rides) could help simulate the race situation and I could practice my hydration and fueling strategy (yes, it is that important), as well as build up cycling endurance.

A much different T2 than I'm used to. No T-area. As I came into the T2 area, a volunteer took my bike and they handed me my bike-to-run transition bag. I went into the men's tent and changed, putting my bike stuff back into the bag. Because I hadn't planned out how it would go, I was a little disorganized and took more time than I needed to. I forgot a couple things (my HRM which I had strapped to my handlebars, and to take off my bike shorts, which I did and went back to put in my bag). I did take my hydration belt, which I'm glad I had. I peed at T2 for the first time, and not very much, which was an indication of my low hydration level.

Move faster. Be more organized. Put my HRM back on before getting off the bike.

I felt fresh coming off the bike and was running ~10min/mile at the start. I was progressively slower but it didn't start to get "hard" until about half way through. I drank all 4 of my 8oz belt bottles, had 1 PowerShot, and had water at a number of aid stations, but it turned out that this wasn't enough. At mile 12, I started to get dizzy and lightheaded, so I started walking. I was able to jog in to the finish line, but it seemed like a good idea to stop by the med tent just to make sure I was OK. I was seriously dehydrated. They laid me down on a cot and checked me out. My blood pressure was very low, and I started to shiver. I drank some but it wasn't enough to stabilize my blood pressure so they started an IV. They did all kinds of tests on me, but didn't have the resources to do the chem panel that the head doctor wanted to do on me, so they transported me via ambulance to the emergency room. I got a second liter of IV fluid, got my blood drawn, and waited around until they got the results and I finally had to pee again (a positive sign). Everything checked out OK and I was finally cleared to leave.

HYDRATE. Run the race distance a couple of times in training before the race.

My warm-down was on my back in the med tent with an IV in my arm and afterwards in the emergency room.


Swim: technique, strength. Bike: endurance, nutrition strategy. Run: endurance, nutrition strategy. I think I started feeling the effects of low hydration at the halfway point on the run. By then, it was probably too late unless I was really aggressive with my hydration, which I wasn't. I really needed to drink more on the bike in order to get a head start on the sweat loss on the run.


Overall, a very good race. The course itself is not that challenging, so it comes down to the distance and the racers own limiters. We got pretty lucky in terms of wind and temperature because it can get very hot and very windy in that area. But the high was probably 78-80 and there were some winds, but mostly cross winds and it wasn't bad. I think this race director is the best in the greater Sacramento area, and Brad Kearns is a good announcer and hella funny.

I probably wasn't adequately prepared, but with better hydration/fueling and quicker transitions, I'm pretty confident I could have easily gotten in under 7 hours.