I started off with my white cap competition, all tightly packed for maybe less than 30 sec. So I'm stroking and breathing and stroking and breathing and then I sight! Quickly looking to the right and in front I barely saw any white caps next to me. They were all in front of me. I just thought damn they guys are fast. I felt very very slow. Slower than usual. Seeing purple caps and then dark red caps start passing me made me feel even slower. Damn I suck at swimming. Anyways, the current definitely made a difference. I wasn't as slow as I thought. Fastest swim for that kind of distance. Thanks current :)

I still don't know how I feel about wetsuits. Not training/racing in a wetsuit for several months to using one for my A race didn't feel right but I guess it helped. I need more time in a suit. Heck, I just need more time in the water. I guess I feel the suit tires out my shoulders quicker then not having on a suit.

Like I said more suit time and water time.

Running up to transition was great, I felt strong. Used the suit strippers and got out pretty quick. Got to my bike and did my thing. At this time it was raining so I thought twice about grabbing my sunglasses. I chose not bring them, started taking 4 to 5 steps to head out and then looked back to my TA and changed my mind on the glasses. Ran back grabbed them and headed back out.

Thought this went well. Maybe move a little faster. I learned I'll always take my sun glasses on the bike, rain or shine.

Started the bike with some good amount of rain. I knew it would be interesting and it definitely was. The bike is my strongest sport so I knew I had to kick ass. Before the race I told my self I would not pound on the bike so I could leave some for the run but as soon as I got on the bike that mentality went right out the window. I just wanted to pound. I hit it pretty hard for the first 20 miles. During those first miles I had my bento box annoying the heck outta me. My first time using it (i know, big no no for race day) and I made the mistake of not securing it tight enough. So as a result it would slant to the right and it would hit my inner knee every time i brought it up. AAAHH it was driving me nuts, i couldn't adjust the straps with all the rain and all that speed and I was most certainly not going to stop so I just kept moving it back to the center until I guess I got use to it. Ok so back to the milage, at the 20 mile mark I pulled back a bit on the effort, assessed how I felt, breathing, core and legs were on point. I went back to pounding. I told myself I would reassess at the half way mark. I was passing quite a few people. Though I had some bad ass females and males passing me too. The rain was fun, I don't think it affected me much, I really did enjoy it. OK mile mark 28. Legs?, Core? Breathing? All effing stronger than ever! I was so surprised, that meant keep on pounding, Alan :) I was pumped. Hills, flats down hills, I was busting them all out. I kept reassessing every 10 miles till the end, strong till the end.

Loved the course, rain was fun and nutrition was on point. Popped a gel every 30 min and drank 1-1.5 Gatorade bottles per hour, water was mixed in there in between.

Postion the bento box better.
Buy some kind of race wheels and aero helmet :-)

Got in and moved as fast as I could

You'll read soon, i didn't tie my right shoe good enough. So next time I have to pay more attention to that.

As I start heading out of transition I hear scottie yell out at me. I thought damn, i caught up. A little more into the run I catch up to him and see him stretching his right calf against the street curb. He starts back up with me and we continue running side by side. He then drops the news that he got a flat on the bike. I was shocked but glad he got through it. We continue bit longer when Scottie suddenly slows down and tells me to keep going. I yelled to keep going to stay strong but he said he had his bad cramp again. Ok, so now I was alone again and was feeling great. Mile 1 at 9:02...woah, didn't expect that after 56 miles of biking. Thats usually my pace for when i'm training just in running. I kept at it, mile 2 at 9:14...still strong, again I'm very surprised. Kept at it, mile 3 at 9:34...ok now im slowing down. Mile 4 dropped drastically to 10:13, I was still ok with that. Still felt strong with a lot of energy to finish. I also had to quickly stop and retie my right shoe. I told my self to keep every mile from here on out under 11min. Again, surprisingly I kept that goal. I never got back to my 9ish min mile but felt great for several miles. Passing all the spectators was great motivation. At about mile 10 i started to feel like my legs wanted to cramp up. I stopped 4 times throughout the run for about 30 secs or less, which did help me keep going. Mile 12 and 13 were the hardest. I gave it everything I had left. Looked down at my watch and saw I was going to finish under 2:15. I was extremely happy with that time.

Seeing that finish line was amazing, crossed that finish feeling like a champ!

I need to lose some more weight and run a lot more

Right after I crossed the finish I got light headed and nauseous. I pushed too hard at the end but I had to do it. This was race time, no time to be a wuss. Grabbed a water bottle and a gatorade, got sugar in me and headed straight to the food tent for some food. Ate pizza and some cookies and started to feel a bit better. Met up with Scottie, exchanged stories and signed up for the free massage. Oh what a great way to finish a race. That massage was awesome.


lack of swim and run strength/skills.


This was my first half and ironman race. Thought it was very well put.