This was my very first Ironman. In fact this is the first year I have ever done an actual triathlon. I did some sprint and olympic distance triathlons earlier this year but nothing of this magnitude. Swimming 2.4 miles in the pool is one thing, swimming that distance in the open water where you have to sight is completely different. I learned to swim a little bit when I was a child but had never been taught freestyle, breaststroke, etc, so I have been teaching myself since November of 2010 whne I signed up for the Ironman. I still can not do the side breathing thing so luckily snorkels are allowed.

I dropped off my special needs bags and was in line by 5:15am. At that time the end of the line was already 3/4 mile away from the start at the U of L rowing club. Luckily once they started condensing the line we were able to be close enough to see the pro's go off at 6:50am. I was in the water by 7:10am.

I've heard a lot of people say this swim was easy but for me it was fairly difficult ... at least mentally. It was soooooooo boring. I didn't think I was ever going to get to the turnaround buoy. My time to the turn around buoy was about 45 minutes according to my watch. So the rest of the swim was a lot faster. Luckily near the end of the island I found the sand barge as I got water in my goggles and had to adjust. I think I actually walked faster than I swam. How pathetic is that? I tried swimming freestyle as much as I could but whenever I did, I would go wide right. Since the sighting was not working too well when I swam freestyle I ended up doing the breastroke (or at least my version of it) for probably 90% of the swim. I found it a little difficult to keep my mind occupied during the swim. My wife was biting her knuckles the whole time I was in the water. I was a very happy camper at the exit.


Maybe hire a swim coach. Work harder to get over my fear of drowning ... eventually become comfortable enough in the water to be able to swim without the use of a snorkel ... this may take a long time.

The volunteers were great. I was able to easily get my back in was into the changing tent in no time. I'm not surprised at my transition time as I kept forgetting things. I got my shirt on and realized I forgot my heart rate monitor ... I put on my socks and shoes and realized I forgot some mole skin for my feet ... I was just about out of the tent when I realized I forgot my bike garmen so I had to find my bag.

Calm down and practice, practice, practice.

These hills are not as bad as what I have trained on here in Georgia but they seemed to be never ending. I don't have a tri bike like the vast majority of people in the race. I just have a road bike. The outside of my feet (especially the left) was hurting like something fierce and my left big toe would feel like it was on fire for a bit and then the pain would stop. This kept coming and going probably after the half way point. Toward the last 20 miles I was getting a little sick to my stomach. The last 5 miles were brutal on my butt. It took everything I had to keep pedalling. When I finally got off the bike I had to hobble to the changing tent.

I may need to look into getting some larger shoes so my feet have more room to expand. Not sure if that would help or not. If I do another Ironman, also look into getting a nice tri bike.

At least this transition was a little faster than the first one. I had to sit down for a few minutes to let my body recover and downed some Ibuprofen to help with the pain in the feet.

Try to get to the changing tent faster.

At this point I knew I needded to maintain roughly a 15 minute per mile pace in order to finish by midnight. The run course was nice and flat for the most part. Spectators and other athletes heading in the opposite direction would keep saying encouraging words. For the first mile or so my feet were killing me. Coming off the bridge I heard my name being called and when I found the source I saw that my friends, Bryan and Joe, had come down to cheer me on. It was pure luck that they found me. They had just parked the car and were trying to figure out where they might go to be able to see me when I starting down the hill on the bridge. I talked to them for a few seconds as I ran and then I was on my own again.

Doing the breastroke for the swim took a lot out of my legs so when you add 112 on top of that, my legs were feeling like lead at the start of the run. I was able to keep a 1 minute run and 1 minute walk routione for the first half of the run. After the half way point my legs didn't want to move at all, nevertheless run. I didn't know if I had it in me to finish. Luckily Joe and Bryan found me again at the beginning of the second lap and stayed with me. They kept my mind occupied and forced me to maintain a slightly faster than 15 minute walk. We would try to run from cone to cone every so often to make up some time. At that time of night, the street got pretty depressing. All you could see were the remaining stragglers doing everything they could to reach the finish.

With about 6 miles to go my back was starting to spasm a bit when I took a deep breath. But still my friends would not let me stop. They kept telling me I could do it, that I was the Little Train Who Could.

Their words of encouragement helped me to fight through the pain. One of the volunteers near the finish line told us we had a little less than 6 minutes to go about 1/3 of a mile. At this point I had to suck it up and run as fast as I could. Every part of my body was hurting but I left it all on the course. I crossed the line when the clock read 16:57:45 and then I collapsed. A couple of the volunteers helped me to my feet and then to a seat. After a few minutes of sitting and several bottles of water my volunteer led me to my finisher shirt and hat and handed me off to my family and friends waiting for me at the end of the chute. The best words I have heard in a long time are "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!"



Try to go faster on the bike to give myself as much room as possible on the run.

I tried to get a massage after the race but the massage station had already closed. The only food they had left were some cookies, pretzels, etc.


I am a weak swimmer and the pain in my feet / butt on the bike ride.


This race pushed me to my limits both mentally and physically but I had a great time. I would recommend this race to anyone. Hopefully they will also catch a break with the heat as we did.