Despite the super fast swim time for an IM swim, I wasn't thrilled with my swim. It was a mass start and I started in the front row on the right side. There was buoy not far out that you needed to go to the left of. However, like many others, I ran down the beach a little bit before entering the water. Looking back, I should have ran a little further down the beach before getting in.

I spent the majority of the swim very confused about where I should be going. They had buoys out there and I had a general idea, but for most of them, it didn't matter which side you were on, which I wasn't sure about. As a result, I kept weaving back and forth across the channel. Not a ton, but definitely didn't stick to straight line like I should have.

Even with the strong current, I didn't feel like I was going that fast. As usual, I did take it easy effort wise during the swim and I'm glad I did. When I got out of the water and saw about 42 minutes on my watch, I was happy because I wasn't sure what it was going to be.

Know the course better. I had looked at the course map quite a few times before the race, but with all the turns and the buoys I just never felt like I knew where I was on the course.

Pretty happy with my T1. It was a long run from the water to transition and I did run pretty hard. I was able to find my bag relatively quickly and sat down in a chair to take my wetsuit off and put my socks on. Unlike IM's, you could leave your shoes on the bike, which was awesome and I took advantage of that.

Ended up with the 3rd overall T1.


The only mishap I had was I planned to at least start the ride with gloves on. I was planning to put them on while I was running to my bike, but I looked down and I only had one glove. So I just dropped it and headed on my way.

It was a long day on the bike. When I got started, I felt good and didn't think I was going to be cold. However, after only about 20-25 miles, my hands really started to hurt and I felt like I had arthritis. This continued throughout the day.
First half of the ride was good and I really focused on getting my HR down. I did have issues with my HR monitor displaying crazy numbers all day on the bike so maybe that was part of it, but HR was around 170 when I was getting started, which is way too high for this early in the race. Nonetheless, I was able to get it down pretty quickly. The only issue I had during the first part of the ride was when I cop let a car go right in front of me and I had to slam on my brakes! I was pretty steamed that happened, but calmed down pretty quickly.

My buddy Chris actually beat me out of the water, which was a little surprising, but I caught/passed him in transition. I was expecting he and Nate to pass me relatively early on. They both ended up passing me at around miles 30-35 I think. They both looked good and we very quickly chatted as they passed.

The headwind was tough the whole way, but I was expecting it. I knew I just need to stay disciplined and focus on my power and cadence. I did a really good job at that.

About 10 miles after Chris passed me, I ended up passing him back. He was all over the road and I got really nervous. I asked him everything was alright and he said he was freezing. Nonetheless, he battled through it and we played cat and mouse up until around mile 75 or so.

The only issue I had on the day was aid stations. First off, there should have been more aid stations. IM has them every 10 miles and its nice to know when they're coming. When I went through the 3rd aid station, I dropped two bottles and didn't end up getting any fluids. As a result, I ran out of Heed for about 15 miles! At the next aid station, I stopped and tried to fill up my speedfill. However, I didn't take the top all the way off and apparently not much of the fluids were getting in. I poured 4 bottles in and thought it was full only two run out of fluids again like 5 miles later! Damn! So luckily the next aid station was much closed and I stopped again to get fluids. This time, I top the speedfill top all the way off and poured 2 bottles in and filled it all the way up. This was right around mile 75. I was sure to take it pretty of fluids over the rest of the course.

At mile 75, the course finally went from a headwind to a tailwind and it was awesome. I think I averaged around 25 mph if not more over the last 32 miles. I felt really strong and this was my first IM bike where my legs weren't really hurting for the last 20-25 miles. I pushed all the way to end.

Despite running out of fluids a couple times, I think my nutrition was really good. I ended up peeing 5 or 6 times through the ride.

Not let my hands get so cold that I couldn't grab bottles from the volunteers and make sure I don't run out of fluids. Definitely should have had warmer clothes on.

T2 started off great, but it changed very quickly when I looked down and realized I FORGOT my watch on my bike!!! I told a volunteer I forgot it and I asked if he could go get it, which he attempted to do. However, I finished up putting my shoes on and headed out. I yelled out to the bike area and looked that way to see if he was on his way, but I couldn't see him. As a result, I decided to just head out.

Did end up with the 2nd fastest T2 overall.

NOT FORGET MY WATCH!!!

Well the run didn't start out too well. My legs felt great as I headed out, but I was flustered to say the least when I knew I was going to have to run without my watch. However, as I was heading out, Kate, Nate's wife, was taking some video of me. As I ran by her, I told her I had forgot my watch and asked her if there is anyway she could try to get it for me. I assumed she would stay where she was and if she was able to get it then at least I could have it for the second half of the run.

As usual, I did want to take it easy for the first few miles. However, without my watch, I had no way of knowing what my pace or HR was. I spent the first mile or 2 contemplating what my plan of attack was going to be without my watch. I decided to just focus on keeping a short stride with a quick cadence. I also decided I would take a GU every 5 miles since I couldn't do one every 40 minutes or so like I had planned. This seemed to work out pretty well as after looking at my splits online after, I seemed to have held a pretty solid pace. The bridges had some decent climbs, but I felt great climbing them and was passing a ton of people because there were still people out there doing the half iron. However, I was still flustered because I had no way of knowing my pace. 2 guys from the full had past me during the first 6.5 miles and one of them looked very strong and serious (he ended up finished 3rd overall). However, the other one, seemed to be going just a little faster than me and seemed a bit more relaxed. I told him he looked good and asked him what is pace was. He said he was doing around 7:30-7:45s so I knew I was doing at least alright for pacing. I followed relatively close to him for a while until I got back into the center of town. At that point (I think around mile 9-10), I saw Kate, Nate's wife, yelling to me. As I passed her, she handed me my Edge (bike computer). It wasn't my Garmin 310XT, but it would do the trick as I could now track my mile splits, see my heart rate, and roughly calculate my total time! So as soon as I got to the next mile marker, I hit the lap button and I was totally rejuvenated! THANK YOU SO MUCH TO KATE FOR GETTING MY WATCH!

From that point on, it was game on! I think my pace improved a little, but it gave me confidence that I could monitor a few things. The wind was in your face coming across the bridges, but besides that, I was cruising. I ended up doing the first 2 lapped miles at around 7:30 pace and I passed the 2nd guy that had passed me back at the bottom of the last bridge.

The first half of the 2nd loop felt great. I did one mile at under 7 min and was keeping my heart rate relatively low. I drank coke at the majority of the aid stations and stuck to the GU every 5 miles plan for the whole race.

As I approached the turnaround on the 2nd lap, I saw the other guy that had passed me. I knew if I could keep up the pace I was running at, I could have a shot at him. However, I started to fade a bit around mile 21 or so. I still was doing well, but most miles were a little above 8 min. I did figure out that if I could hold roughly an 8 min pace, I should come in around 9:30 which was very uplifting.

I pushed through the center of town again and ended up catching up the guy wearing bib #1. I got to within about 10 feet of him and I really pushed to try to pass him. However, he saw me and didn't really like that idea. He pushed hard as well, but I stayed with him. Unfortunately, he eventually started to pull ahead. By the time we got to the bottom of the last bridge, he was probably 20-30 seconds ahead so I focused on myself again. From there, I just headed down to the finishing shoot. I actually had to pass a couple people doing the half towards the finish line because I didn't want to wait.

I will admit, the finish line was very anti climatic compared to an Ironman branded race. The announcer did announce my name, but I don't think he even knew if I was finishing the half or the full. Nonetheless, after I crossed the line, I asked someone what my time was and they told me a little over 9:27 and I was pumped!

Despite not having any kind of watch for the first 10 miles or so, I am extremely happy with this run. I goal was to do a sub 3:30 marathon so I was very happy to beat that by near 8 minutes. It was an IM marathon PR for me by about 18 minutes!

This is where my day got a little ugly. I chatted with the guy that finished right before me for a minute and he told me how I pushed him hard at the end. After that, I went to the massage tent and sat down. However, after taking a look at me, they said I needed to go to the warm up tent. When I got to the warm up tent, I laid down for a little bit. At this point, a couple people came over and they recommended I go to the medical tent. This was a first for me, but I was very cold and was open to it. They ended up putting me on a stretcher and bringing me over to the med tent. From there, they bundled me up with some blankets cause I was shivering pretty bad. They asked me some questions and they could see that I was pretty with it so they decided to have me try to take in fluids myself as opposed to doing an IV. This ended up working out fine. I stayed in there for a good 20 minutes or so warming up. At that point, they released me and I went to find Nate and Chris. They had both finished by then (both sub 10hrs in their first IMs!) so it was great to see them and they were doing well.


Not knowing the course didn't help, the heavy headwind the majority of the race, and leaving my Garmin on my bike.


Really happy about this race. My top priority for this race was to give myself the confidence of knowing I can do a sub 10hr Ironman so that hopefully I can qualify for Kona next year. The swim is abnormally fast with the current and the bike is super flat, but with such a heavy headwind, this was a very legitimate course.