Walked on to dig me beach and immediately stepped on a rock. It hurt a little but I didn't think about it too much. Then it started to hurt more. I finally looked at the sole of my foot and there was a 1.5 inch long gash in the bottom of my foot, all of the way through the pad, down to the deep tissues with a moderate amount of blood leaking out. Holy cow! The race hasn't even started yet and I am in trouble. Made an executive decision that I could race on it and then ignored as much as possible for the rest of the day. It was amazingly social waiting for the gun. Cannon went off and I went with the crowd. I have swam almost 300,000 yards this year and I am still not fast but I am pretty comfortable in the water now. I just got with a group and kept swimming. My swim actually felt great. No issues. This was the easiest part of the day and before I knew it, it was over. I predicted 1:15-20 so I was right on.

Not step on the darn rock.

Almost forgot to take off swim skin.

Put on sunblock in T1.

Everybody talks about the heat and the wind. I didn't think the heat was too bad, but the wind was brutal. I guess it wasn't too bad because the pros had great bike splits but I found the wind to be pretty rough. The side winds/cross winds were not too bad but the head winds were really debilitating. The climb to Hawi was straight into the wind for the last six miles or so and I was barely moving. Luckily we got to come back down so we got six miles or so of really flying. At about mile 98 I was following a guy at what I thought was four bike lengths when a referee pulled up and called me for drafting. I didn't think I was drafting, but the ref's decision is law. It actually ticked me off and made me ride harder the last 12 miles. I probably should have been riding this hard the whole time but I was trying to conserve energy for the run.

I thought I could ride about a 5:45 for the 112 miles so I was almost 20 minutes off of what I predicted my time would be. Next time I will know I can push a little more. I also will need to continue to improve my bike fitness as this is clearly a weakness for me.

Ride another 4-5,000 miles in prep for this. Push a little harder on the bike (but this was my first one so I didn't know for sure how hard to go). Not get a drafting penalty.

The penalty tent is in T2 so the first 4 minutes of this is in the penalty tent. Standing there with my shoes off in the penalty tent I was really aware of the gaping wound in the bottom of my foot. This is whe first time it really bothered me after the swim. Otherwise ok transition for me.

Not have to spend four minutes in the penalty tent. Foot hurt with out the distraction of physical activity.

I started out feeling great and running 7:30ish miles. Really was able to keep up 7:30-8:00 pace for much of the race. About mile 14 I started to feel not so good. By the mile 15 aid station I knew a bathroom break was in order to avoid bad things. It looked like luck was on my side but just as I ran up to the port-a-john somebody ducked in in front of me and proceeded to take about three minutes. Frustrating but I didn't think I could make it to mile 16. Finally got in and took care of some moderately explosive "business." Felt much better after this but the five minutes or so of bathroom break really killed my pacing for this segment. Without the bathroom break I would have been well under 8 minute pace for the race.

Miles 15-19 were a pretty low point for me and I struggled to find the motivation to keep going. The whole time you are going down hill into the energy lab you know you have to come back up hill to get out. It also is a loooong way from Alii drive to the energy lab and you know that you have to run all of the way back. When I came out of the Energy Lab I know I was entering the last seven miles and decided to buckle down and finish strong. I was able to run well for this last stretch while counting down the miles.

Beat that guy to the port a john. Be just a little stronger mentally in that middle section. I thought I could run low 3:20s high 3:teens so some area to improve.

Felt really good. My feet were the worst part. Big cut on my foot plus several new blisters. No real issues. Found my family. Got my medal and t shirt. Happy to have survived my first IM.


This was my first one. I learned a lot. I really wanted to break 11 hours and without the penalty and the bathroom break I would have. I have a framework to improve upon now and after recovered a bit I will be ready to get back to work.


Volunteers were awesome. Race was awesome. Doing the world championship as my first IM will probably spoil me forever. Now it is time to get to work so I can come back again someday. Even if I never qualify again, I would come back as a volunteer just to immerse myself in this atmosphere again.