Best. Swim. EVER.

concentrated on three things. 1. keep the goggle line just below water, 2. pulling underwater and 3. staying in bubbles.

also stayed away from the "thumpers" as i figured there are two types of them. type 1 is the thumper that has that strong swimming background and i knew i had no chance of staying with them so just let them go and tried to stay out of their way. tyep 2 is the thumper that thinks they are good and would just swim for about 100 meters and then just stop........so stayed away from the thumpers. worked out well. second loop i ended up further away from the bouy line than i wanted to be (first lap i stayed just inside the line) and just could not get back over. definitely felt the pull of the whirlpool created by all the swimmers.

N A D D A zilch, zippo, nothing. um, did i mention BEST SWIM EVER??

2008 = 1:40:14
2009 = 1:27:44

wetsuit peeler pulled wetsuit off and right leg got stuck on the heel, went to assist a bit and HELLO MAJOR CALF CRAMP!!! gimped up the helix until it loosened up. felt like i was moving in slow motion in the changing room. felt way longer than what it was.

not get a calf cramp?

got going and was riding with fellow donkey cweninger for the stick and almost to mt. horeb. was great riding with him and hope he had as much fun as i did!! thanks donkeywolf! came around from behind the alliant center and right next to the clarion where i was staying and yelled out that my wife and son were up on one of the floors there and low and behold, there they were curbside so got a great kick out of that!!! was spot on with my nutrition for the whole ride. took good sips of my ironman perform bottle and also my water bottle every 15 mins. also had a gel every 45 mins. in addition i was taking endurolytes every 1 hour and 45 mins. and was also munching on slimfast protein snack bars thru out the ride (ended up having 2.5 of them). grabbed three banana's on the ride and also grabbed bottles of water and ironman perform on the second loop and the return stick. seemed like the wind picked up on the second loop some and also felt the temp rising as well....

nothing. sure i wouldve liked to go faster on parts of the course (second bike split was 16.09 mph) but im happy with it.

2008 = 6:27:24
2009 = DNF @ mile marker 101. flipped that spot off as i rode right on past.

now this one i was TOTALLY surprised at when i saw the split. no way in hell would i have thought this was going to be under 10 mins much less faster than T1.

nothing

decided to walk the aide stations and just run comfy and controlled inbetween. if i came upon a donk i would stop and say hi and walk with them for abit then mosey on down the road. skipped the final three aide stations as i pushed pace into the finish.

nothing.

2008 = 4:31:28
2009 = N/A

thru the chute, love to the family and chatter, food tent then back out the the square to cheer in the rest of the donkeys and all the other ironman finishers!!!

i have tons of people to thank and this part will get long so bear with me. first off, thank you to my family. most important to my wife for all the support she offered this year and the occassional call back to reality as well as the kick in the butt when needed. also to my son tobias who has turned out to be quite the character and a source of comic relief!!! to all the babysitters for toby who allowed me to get post work workouts in. also, this year i had core group of people that i trained with. thanks tho them, Heather, Jeremy, Patrick...you guys are awesome and part of my journey goes to you! to the breakfast club (kimk, sbsmann, akakatrina, shwimmycoacher, JLT, joerunner and patrick). you guys made my swim what it is. to the awesome group/community simply known as DCS. man, you crazy mofo's on that hill were amazing. i was both ticked off and very much appreciated at the same time!!! to the entire Donkey Nation, like i said in the forum....donkeys simply fukkin rock. 'nuff said there. its been a great two years of redemption and im totally satisfied with going out like this, but here is some things i learned on my two year odyssey, take them for what they are worth:

however much training you do or dont do on your path to the starting is neither good, nor is it bad. ironman is very unique in the way that each and every raceday will be different and at some point in the day it will heavily suck. once it does suck it becomes a quest of sorts to find the right combination of nutrition to get you back to not sucking. here's the rub of it tho, each race day that combination will be different, meaning what worked at that last race, might not work at the present one. in 2008, there were parts that sucked, i cant remember what i had tho to make it not suck. in 2009 it sucked and i didnt try to adapt from what i was doing to prevent the suckage from getting worse and boom, out i went. this go around, i was able to find that the coke at the first two aide stations helped but when it sucked later on and the coke didnt work, the remedy for me was the powerade and ice combined along with a two chip/cookie/two chip sandwich. the result, boom, no suckage and a sub 21 last 5K and a sprint to the finish. the other rub is that what worked for me, probably wont work for you, but the commonality of it is, when the pain cave arrives, and it will, does one have the courage to go thru it and come out the other side? and again tho, each race that answer will be different. make sense? the ironman isnt about finishing really. think about it. yes it is one long day for sure, but look at it this way, think of all the time committed to getting thru that one day, all the hours of training and nutrition, all the sacrifices made of family events and family time. for one to make it to the starting line and onto the course, regardless of finishing or not, is a great source of pride. \

so ends my triathlon "career" not onto ultras and duathlons!!! anyone wanna buy a wetsuit??

DJ out!!