So this was kind of funny. I was standing on the beach looking at the course, and pretty much all I heard everyone saying was "Wow that looks far" and "look at the waves" I had to agree. There were almost white caps it was so rough. Very impressive looking. Lots of wind and a lot of waves.

My goal with this whole 1/2 was to try to negative split everything. So for the swim I had to make myself not go out hard. I really had to concentrate to just cruise it. I did not want to go out really hard and be dead on the bike. So that is what I did. I made myself go at a nice easy pace, after the last buoy, I picked it up just a bit, but was passing so many in the previous waves, I still just took it easy. This was my first 1/2 ironman, so I really was not sure about the pacing. I think I did ok in the swim. I was in the top 10 percent overall, so felt ok about that. The time includes a pretty long run into T1, so overall happy. I enjoyed the swim, I was about 1/2 way through and just kept telling myself "wow, here we are, this is what I've been training for, enjoy it!!" So I did!

On the swim, really nothing, I came out placed well, I felt good, I was tired, felt like I had worked pretty good, but also felt ready to hit the bike. so I was really happy with the swim.

Pretty good, I could always be faster, but this was a huge transition area. I mean there were almost 700 bikes in there!!

Nothing, I just need some more practice

So ok, just like before I wanted to negative split this thing. I had my nutrition figured out, used hammer stuff. I gotta say, I hit the nutrition on the bike perfectly. I was soooo happy about that. I felt great. I know I am slow on the bike, but I was happy with how I did. I wanted to do it in 3 hours or less and hit that goal. Plus, I am not even kidding, the wind was 20-30 mph, cross winds, pushing everyone all over, then came the rain, or monsoon, would be a better word. Yeah, poured. Still I had a smile on my face the whole bike. I drank perpetuam every 15 min, plus had my own mixture of water and endurolytes, and that worked perfect. I had no stomach issues on the bike, felt great. At the turn around, I put it in the big ring and passed back a lot of people that had passed me. I really was happy with this segment. I am going to work really hard this winter, I want this over 20mph next year.

Just go faster, but my legs are not there yet. This is my first year for cycling, so I just have to work hard to get better.

Fairly ok I guess. My running shoes were soaked, I covered them with a trash bag, and no joke the wind was so bad it didn't matter, they were soaked.

Get faster, get some yank laces or something.

And here is where I hit the wall. lol. So I guess I am going to make my own nutrition from now on. All they had was gatorade. So I take off, and my plan was to drink every other station. They had them at every mile. So I figured every other would be between 15-18 min. I thought that would be perfect. So I put my plan into motion. Mile 2 drank gatorade. Mile 4, sick. Ha!! My stomach does not like sweet stuff when I am working. So I ran through it, not bad enough to make me stop, but still annoying. Anyway, I was doing well and passing quite a few people until about mile 5, my left leg on the outside of my knee started hurting a little. I kept running. I was doing well, like I said, my plan was negative split it. Well, at the turn around, my knee really decided to start hurting. Huh, weird. So I plugged along until mile 7, then my knee decided to not work anymore. I could not extend my left leg correctly, it wouldn't keep up. So unfortunately I had no choice but to walk a little. One of my goals for this thing was to NOT walk any of the run. However, my knee had other plans. So I walked a little, then tried to run again. Ehh, not really happening. So unfortunately, I had to walk alot of the run from mile 8ish to mile 12, I would run when I could, and I got sooo much encouragement from other racers!! Some would pass and say "come on, lets run this thing out together" I mean this sport is great. Even though I was struggling on this part, everyone who passed had something positive to say. Really cool. So finally at mile 12, I told myself, no way am I walking the finish! So I started running again, blocked it out best I could, and ran across the finish line!! Yay me. Ha ha!!

Well obviously I need to run a ton more. I need to condition my legs to put up with this stuff.

Warm down? Uh yeah I couldn't walk, so I pretty much just stood there. Ate some noodles and an ice cream sandwich and went home. Iced my leg a ton.


My left knee just killed me. I still can not go up or down stairs, so this whole week should be fun. I finished it though!


The race itself was awesome!! I still had a ton of fun, even though I was in pain after the run. (or walk) I will definatley be doing this again. I have learned a ton this year about this stuff, now I will put all that to use in the off season to get way better.