Overall the swim felt pretty smooth. I did get a mouthful of water twice, and had to pause for 15sec or so each time to recover. I had a hard time getting good drafts. Sighting was pretty good, and it was cloudy so the sun wasn’t an issue.
I breathed mostly on the right due to comfort, and it also made sighting off the ‘walls’ of the Tempe Town lake easier.
I felt like I did a good job rotating and using back muscles, especially on the last 1/3rd of the swim.

I was very surprised when I got out of the water that my time was ~1h30m. I was expecting something more like 1h15m-1h20m from the way it felt.

Be a stronger swimmer, and get better drafts.

I somehow missed the wetsuit strippers, so took suit off myself, which wasn't a problem.
Changing tent was a little muddy, but nonetheless was a smooth transition. I knew what to do, so pretty much just did that. Put on helmet first, then sunglasses. Then had to take off sunglasses as it was too dark to see in the tent. Then dried off feet, put on socks and shoes. Put on shammy cream. Didn't put on sunblock - oh well. Put nutrition and salt into pockets, and went. I was originally planning to carry my bike shoes and put them on at my bike, but changed my mind because it was a little muddy, so just ran in the bike shoes.

Not much

127 in AG
1055 in males
1274 overall

Mostly focused on cadence and nutrition/hydration. My power was crazy low. I'm not sure I believe the values. Average power was 110W, which is absurdly low. A hard 50-60 mile ride at home would be 165-175W.

Surprisingly, my back was not really an issue. I think it helped that I took the time to ensure the bike adjustments were good in my pre-race ride. Also took several opportunities to stretch out, especially on laps 2 and 3.

Other notes:

Lap 1: Cadence was good / high. I had to stop to pee about mile 30. From data I can see cadence slowed a good bit on the 'back' section of this lap.

Lap 2: This might have been the hardest part of the bike. I could feel my quads, somewhere at only mile ~40 or so. I had a couple salt chews then, which maybe helped. Finished the last bit of perpetuem, and used gel from gel flask.
Again stopped to pee, at mile 63 / special needs.

Lap 3: Felt generally better on this lap. Did take a few moments to enjoy the race, enjoy the fact that I was in the midst of doing the hardest thing I might ever do in my life. Also it was quieter on this lap as the faster atheetes were done with the course.

NUTRITION:
Overall, I felt like I was often on the verge of too much fuel in my stomach. Felt a slight urge to vomit once. I feel like I was riding the line between consuming carbs but not over-doing it, but think I managed it fairly well. I think this is part of the 'game' for a race of this duration. I think I generally took my nutrition by feel, consuming what I felt
Lap 1 nutrition: ~1.5 bottles of Perpetuem mix, plus 3-4 shot blocks. Estimate 34*1.5 + 30 = 81g carbs
Lap 2 nutrition: 0.5 bottles Perpetuem, ~2 shot blocks, ~4 hammer gel. 2 salt tabs (100mg Na)
Lap 3 nutrition: 1 chocolate gel, 2 Maurten gels, ~2 hammer gel, 2 salt tabs (100mg Na)
Hydration / salt I think were generally good. There were a couple times when I realized "it's been too long since I've had fluids", but otherwise

Decided not to take feet out of shoes on the bike. They had bike catchers, and the distance to run in shoes was quite short, just to the changing tent.
Overall, it was smooth. I forget the exact order, but executed on the plan:
- Changed socks and added blistershield to socks.
- Changed shorts and body-glided key areas.
- Grabbed baggie with all nutrition, salt, etc. Grabbed race belt with timer watch and sweatband, and got going. Sorted out all the stuff on the run.


Not much, really.

RUN STRATEGY:
- I think the most critical thing for the run, and likely the whole race, was my run strategy, which I'm very happy with. I did a 5:1 run:walk ratio. I had a small index card with about 20 little mental foci written on it (e.g. cadence, use glutes, lead with knees, extend stride to rear). For each 5 minute section, I just picked one of those foci, and thought about that one thing for 5 minutes. I also had a second watch with a 6 minute repeating timer on it. So I would walk for 1 minute until the timer reached 5 minutes, then run until the watched started beeping. Otherwise I didn't really look at my watch, except to check in on my heart rate, or to check my cadence if I was doing a cadence-focused segment.
- Heart rate was getting to about 160 during the run sessions, which I was comfortable with (that's mid zone 2), and also it was routinely coming down during the walk sessions. It was overall a comfortable pace
- I was pretty much in an absolute zone for a lot of the run. I was looking 10 or so yards ahead, and just repeating my 5-minute mantra in my head. There were a good number of spectator comments to that effect, how I was in a zone, locked in, etc.
- I did walk three or so, I think, of those 5 minute segments, all on the 3rd lap. I knew that I needed it, and also that my run pace wasn't going to be much faster than my fast-walk pace. One of those was up the hill in Papago park.
- I had to hit the port-a-potties 3 or maybe 4 times. Definitely was well hydrated. I felt like I might have some diarrhea, so stopped once for that, but it wasn't the case.

NUTRITION: (This is my best guess, I don't really remember)
- Took a total of 1-2 servings of shot blocks.
- Used 3 'special' (chocolate-flavored) gels. I think all on the 3rd lap - but the first might have been towards the end of lap 2. I had the last gel at mile ~25.8 or something. I felt a little shaky and my fingers were tingling, so figured I'd down one more to ensure I made it across the finish line.
- I had several Maurten gels from aid stations, I'm going to guess 4 in total. I tried to average 2 gels per hour, but it ended up being more based on feel. I know that's not necessarily recommended, but one of the main things I did during each 1 minute walk session was to assess fuel and salt status.
- Took 2 cups of ice at aid stations in the earlier part of the run when it was hot/sunny. Would hold an ice chip in my hand to cool off.
- Had 1-2 cups of broth at the last couple aid stations

HYDRATION / SALT:
- I had 1-2 cups of electrolyte (Mortal hydration) at each aid station.
- Started using coke at about mile 11 or 12. I was going to start later, but inadvertently took a cup of coke at an aid station, and then just kept with it.
- I certainly think I had enough fluids on the run. At least one cup at each aid station and often two.
- Took 5 servings of salt tabs (500mg Na) plus about 2 servings of hammer endurolytes (240mg Na) over the course of the run.

- Used a towel I had in run special needs to dry off and put it around my neck for the last lap of the run, to keep warm. I maybe should have put on my long-sleeve shirt, but I think the towel was key. Used it to wipe off sweat and keep neck warm.

I would do very little differently. I think it was an incredible race. I was absolutely locked in mentally on the run. I had no idea what my finish time might be until about 2 miles from the end. Then I knew I could be under 14 hours, and just kept going, wanting to ensure I was solidly under 14.

Got a pro-active ice pack for my L knee.

Then, got white clothes bag, dried off my torso and put on dry shirt. Unfortunately I should have had more warm clothes. Then sat for a bit and face-timed the family.

Almost broke down in tears I was so happy / overwhelmed. I still had on my race/tri shorts, so my bottom half was cold and I was basically getting hypothermic. I was not in a good position, so went back to the med tent, got help to change my shorts, got warm, got warm broth, and was then much better.

Food: Got more broth, some tacos, and had my recovery mix (Hammer Recoverite).

Then, got a ride back to the hotel with bike, bags, etc.

Did a few leg drains, but otherwise then just chilled out, worked on getting things cleaned up, packed up, and had a couple beers while doing that.


Clearly, I was undertrained for a full IM. I had not run longer than 13.1 miles since 2007. Surprisingly, my legs have felt great in the days after the race.


Ironman Arizona, 2025!