Lined up center of row 2. After the horn I found that the guys in front of me were not too fast but while trying to go through I had to deal with some jerks trying to grab my legs and pull me backwards. Got free after a bit and had a smooth swim the rest of the way. Since I was in one of the last waves there was constant traffic from previous waves to navigate around the whole swim, but that really wasn't a problem.

Pace was a little slower than my last race. Some have said that the swim was long; I really don't know. I did consciously dial back my effort a few times since the water was so warm so that may be it too.

Long run up the hill from the lake to T1. Everything went smooth and pretty fast with the exception of putting on my aero helmet... first try was a failure and had to take it off and try again.

One of these days I need to get tri shoes so I don't have to sit down and put on my cycling shoes in T1.

Due to the heat today and my run performance at Rev3 Knoxville I decided my average HR had to be under 160 for the bike. I spent the first 5 miles slowly bringing it down from where it was after the swim, and then dialed up the effort again. Average HR came in at 159, which was right where I wanted it!

The course had two u-turns for the out and back, and a few 90 degree turns towards the end, but the rest had very minimal elevation changes and nice smooth pavement.

Just like the swim, since I was in a late wave I had a lot of traffic ahead of me. I think this worked out great, as I could ride up behind someone in their (legal) draft and then swing out to make the pass. My Garmin 305 had my average MPH at 24.5 but race results show >25. Either way this is my best average bike pace in any race, including sprints. It felt awesome!

Even though it was still early in the day the heat was present. I made a deliberate effort to drink; carried the Ironman Perform and water from the aid stations which seemed to be at least every 5 miles. I know I didn't drink enough on the bike at Rev3, so didn't want to make that mistake in the heat again.

Kept waiting for the uphill section, or headwind section, or anything to drop the pace before the finish but amazingly I flew all the way in to T2. I've put in a huge amount of work this year on the bike and I think it's starting to pay off. Really surprising that I picked up places on the bike rather than losing them as usual!

For me, this bike leg was about as close to perfect as it can get!!!

Surprised this transition was less than 3 minutes, as I did more than usual before heading out for the run. I brought a small lunch cooler filled with ice, a large Camelbak water bottle, and my new Desoto Cool Wings. After changing shoes etc. I wrestled with the Cool Wings for what felt like at least 1 minute to get them on over my sweaty arms. I need to find a better way to do this.

Figure out a better way to put on Cool Wings in transition.

I drove the course the night before, so I was prepared for the rollers. I also have been testing out my hot weather run strategy for a couple weeks... I wore Desoto Cool Wings and ran with a full size water bottle filled with ice and water. Every couple minutes I would squirt the top of my head, my arms, and my shoulders. I unscrewed the top of the bottle and grabbed as many ice cups and waters at the aid stations as I could and dumped them all in the bottle.

The aid stations had icy sponges and ice. I grabbed these at every opportunity and stuffed them in the front and back of my tri top, and ice down the front of my tri shorts.

Overall, I think my cooling strategy made a huge difference in my run time. I picked up additional AG spots on the run, and saw a ton of people slowing way down towards the end due to the heat. Not saying that the heat didn't affect me, but without the additional measures I took I feel pretty strongly that I would have baked under the sun.

Huge thank you to the volunteer at mile 3.5 with the ice. Due to a big group of runners I wasn't able to get his bag of ice and just kept on going, thinking I would grab one at the next aid station. I'm running along sub 7:00mm and next thing I know this man runs up next to me with his bag of ice and says "I haven't missed a handoff yet today, and I don't plan on missing one!" That was awesome. And that nice cool bag of ice went in the back of my tri top and stayed cold all the way until the finish line. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

The run went well for me, but training on more hills probably would have helped me get a little faster.

Pushed hard up the final hill and through the finishing chute. The catchers caught me and then I basically wobbled around for 15 minutes to warm down.


The heat. Shortly after I left the race my car thermometer said it was 107 degrees. Cooler water temp and less heat on the run would have netted a faster finishing time, but overall I really can't complain and had a great race.


Viva Las Vegas! Time to start getting serious about hill training!