Was able to get into the water and over to where I wanted to be with about 2 mins to spear. The water felt good and I was surprised how calm I was before the gun going off. I guess it hadn't sunk in that it was all really about to happen. 18 months of dreaming and 6 months of hard training was about to pay off. I expected more contact than I experienced for sure. I just kept my cool when contact happened and swam towards open water. I keep to the buoy side and ran the inside of the course. I was worried about having room in the channel, but I was just slow enough I avoided the majority of the traffic

Nothing other than move faster

I purposely took my time...what's the hurry? I did hadn't paid attention to where the strippers would be and wasn't prepared by the time I got to them. They were great and helped get my zipper down and pulled the suit right off

Unzipped and get it around my waste before getting to the strippers

I knew what certain parts looked like because of the in-laws living so close, so I wasn't surprised by much other than just how quiet some parts of the course are. The aid stations were great! I knew I was in for a long day so I just spun the hills and took my time on the downs. I also picked out a couple of fast women to follow. My thinking was that women are more consistent at keeping to a preset speed, and by following them I would keep from going out too hard. I followed "Pink socks" for about 40 miles until she dropped her chain. She was a great pacer because she had nothing to prove when someone passed her, and thus kept me from overdoing it. From mile 60 to 90 I followed "Blue Shirt" and help keep my mind off being tired. By mile 100 I was mentally ready to get off the bike, but still feeling strong.

Learn to pee off the bike

Happened across two volunteers from my pool back home who took my bike and gave me high 5's. That really lifted me and woke me up to making sure I was ready to run the 26.2

Nothing

It is Houston... It is May... no surprise... it was HOT!! I knew I would not set a PB so my ONLY goal was to finish. When I left T2 I knew I could walk the entire run and still finish in under 17 hours, so I was in no hurry to jeopardize that! I decided that I would walk the hills and jog the rest until I just couldn't manage my body temp. There were a few times that stayed back a little to visit with other runners, but mostly I was just trying to enjoy the day.

Run it in October?

Free Bird chicken burrito...didn't want to stay down but I managed. Walked over to get the bike and went home to enjoy my tasty frosty beer in my Ironman Texas glass.


The heat/humidity wasn't going to let anyone go fast!


I do feel that it should be either earlier or later in the year. I understand why it is May, but I will do a different race before doing IMTX again!