No wetsuit this year because of the water temp, and I'm assuming because of the heat. My game plan was to take it easy on the swim and not try to swim at my max potential since this was my first HIM. Draft, swim easy, keep breathing nominal and come out fresh which is exactly what I did. Passed my buddy Chris coming out of the water who just hit over an hour for the swim and didn't look too happy about it.

One other side note, I felt like the swim was long. They said over the loudspeaker that the buoys were drifting so who know how long we actually swam out there. I was anticipating a 30 min swim so a 5+ min differential, not a big deal.

Sight a little better, maybe swim a little faster but overall it's exactly what I wanted.

Good T1 for me. No suit to come off so grabbed all my gear and ran my bike out.

Nothing.

Came out of T1, hopped on my bike and realized I had lost an aero pad somewhere when I was running with my bike. Great start, had to ride on the metal part of my aero bar underneath my left forearm.

I couldn't get a handle of which way the wind was coming from. Crosswinds, headwinds, tailwinds, it was all over the place. Since I was in the last AG wave I spent the majority of my day on the left side passing people. About 15 miles in I pulled to the right to sit up, stretch, and get some gel and as I pull over I look to my left and there's 5 people riding my draft about 2" off each others wheel. I don't know how long they were there but it seriously pissed me off. I don't know why this irritated me so badly because for the most part everyone seemed to be respecting the draft zone so far. They pulled ahead of me and dipped down in the 17/18 range so now I was sitting in the draft zone. I slowed down to about 17mph to get out of the zone, popped it in my big ring and dropped the hammer. I was hitting about 28mph for a good two minutes to make sure they weren't going to sit on my wheel again. Never saw them the rest of the day.

Mile 30 I pass my friend Catherine and she looks in tough shape. I wave and say hi, and she give me a "ugghhhhh...hi" and I zip by. Found out later she DNF'd, didn't even start the run. She said she hadn't trained as well this year and wasn't ready for the ride.

About mile 42 I noticed we were getting into some areas with a headwind as I've read about before. Between 42 and 50 were tough (18+/-) but I pushed through. Decided to prep my legs for the run by spinning high cadence for the final two miles. Slowed to about 18mph, coasted and eased my way back into transition. Legs felt less jello-e than I expected.

Nutrition:

700cal bottle of Infinit
4 shots of Hammer gel

Maybe push a little harder. I definitely had some in the tank but with the heat on the run coming up, I knew I was going to need everything I could muster to get through it.

Could have gone faster but at this point why rush it? Ran my bike in but walked out of T2 to get my heart rate in check.

Run out of transition.

BRUTALLY hot. I saw lots of people really struggling out there. I ran through every sprinkler I could find and survived off ice/ice water/gatorade. My legs felt better than expected but the heat was already getting to me within the first mile.

My strategy was to run in between every aid station and walk every aid station for a duration of :30 - 1:00. I found quickly that getting one cup of water and one cup of ice worked really well. I drank half the water, poured the ice into the rest of the water and slowly poured it on my head and down my back. The ice kept for about 2:00 on my lower back inside my tri top and it felt FANTASTIC, so it was a matter of surviving for about another 6:00 to the next aid station. Slushie machine at the turnaround was about the best thing ever.

Overall I was doing a really good job of keeping cool, legs felt ok until about mile 10. I remember the feeling from running the MCM last fall @ mile 20 that my thighs started to burn with every step. Slowed my pace down a little, had to walk some extra spots but my mindset was to just keep moving forward because the more you walk, the longer it'll take to get to the aid station and the longer it would take to get to the sprinklers and hoses.

First half was 55:00, second half was 1:03. I was anticipating running between a 1:40 and a 1:50 but after mile 2 I changed my expectation and just ran by feel. Got inside the final .25 mile and picked up the pace. Saw my family and friends running down the chute, huge smile on my face, came across the finish line and gave my wife a huge hug and kiss.

I wish I had figured out the water/ice technique a little earlier because it took until about mile 3 before I figured it out. I haven't been able to train in heat like this so this was about all I could expect.

Walked around, got some food from the food pavilion, drank some gatorade and went and sat under the pop up. We were right along the road right before the final chute, and all I can say is I felt so bad for the people that were still going OUT for the run by the time I was under the pop up (2:00ish).


The heat was a huge factor on the run, but overall I was just about where I expected. Decent swim, good bike split and survived the run.


I would do this race again if it wasn't so darn hot =) I'd probably still do it again regardless, but for my first HIM it's a PR so I can't complain!!!!!!