I seeded myself with Flying Tiger and we got pumped for the race. I didn't jump out of the gate and i am a notoriously slow starter. This was a big mistake. I was caught for most of the race with people slower than I am. I swam a 28 minute lap two days before the race and for IMFL I spent WAY to much energy resighting, fixing goggles, choking on water from other folks etc. I never found a good rhythm.
I did swim a negative split (40/35) and my time is not that bad overall, but I was hoping on a 1:05 or so.

Get out ahead and have confidence in my swimming.

My shirt and shoes were bound up. I struggled with all of the eq I was wearing. Run shorts/shirt/cammelback/arm warmers. Too much gear wasted five minutes easy.

Practice and trim down all of the crap I thought I needed.

I felt like I was going easy on the bike. I felt great until about mile 70 when my energy dropped and I started to keep down less food. I kept my goo schedule and drinking water. My camelback from the first half lost it's valve and I needed to bite the tube and blow into the bag to keep the fluid from leaking all over.

More long rides. No camelback. More long rides. Lose weight.

I took my time here.

Be better trained so that shaving two minutes off this time didn't matter.

i stopped processing fluids about 4 miles into the run. I felt great and I was walking the aide stations and running the rest. Suddenly at mile 4 I started to feel really bad. My stomach felt bloated and I had to slow down. By the time I got to the first turn around I felt very poor. I still ran much more than I walked. I was just surviving at that point. I was hoping on the bike to make 13:00. But it was becoming clear very fast that this was not realistic. By the last 6 miles I was light headed and had stomach cramps. I wanted to make 13:00 so I paced on people who passed me. The last mile I ran most of it.

Train more on the bike so my stomach doesn't shut down.

I felt bad and went to the Medical tent. BP was OK and I was 8 lbs down from my prerace weight. I chatted with Flying Tiger, Katiefrog, their family and my GF, Amy. They were all supportive.


I was much better trained this time around, and I met my time goal of <13:30. I missed two long rides when I was sick and when I went on vacation with my son. I didn't have a good enough ruin base. I need to lose more weight.


I really wanted to race this IM, not just survive it. I walked so much of the darn run and I'm disappointed in myself for that. Next year is going to be a sprint year and trying to blow away Augusta HIM in my home town. In 2010 I'll do another IM and I'm going to cut another 2:20 off like I did between IMAZ and IMFL in a year and a half. 13:26-2:20=11:06. Knock of 10 minutes more maybe for a 10:56.
Thanks to Flying Tiger, Katiefrog, Mom, my GF Amy and my son Nicholas. I'm glad I'm a two time Ironman and that I knocked off over two hours from my PR. But I'm not satisfied. There is more in here.