Never been to a rougher swim start, although mass starts thin out after 500 yards or so, this one was carnage until the first buoy, at least 1000 yards into the swim. My guess is that Florida has a large amount of first timers and many positioned themselves on the front.
The swell was incredible, but there was no chop. This made sighting very difficult so I had to trust the pack, there was no way to see the buoys, they were also spaced unusually far in between.

If I ever do FL again, I'll go to the very front and to the right.

A long transition area, but executed flawlessly. No feeling of disorientation at all.

Nothing.

Started somewhat bloated with some saltwater in my stomach so started the calorie intake later than usual and slowly. Once I got that going I started drinking my usual IM mix of three scoops of Perpetuem and two of Heed per big bottle and got some Perform from the aid stations, also consumed three caffeinated gels (Stinger).
Cadence was higher at the beginning, I didn't shift to the big chainring until an hour into the bike, just like I did in my other IMs, no need to change what isn't broken, right? The smooth surface, the terrains flatness and the almost non existing turns coupled with a windless start made for a quick and comfortable race pace. Draft packs started to zoom by at insane speeds of well over 26mph. The nice part was to see the penalty tents FULL of people, very comforting; there was a lot of motorcycles on the course and they took pics of drafters and issued red cards like I have never seen before. I guess WTC is trying to clean up their act at least in IMFL, which is an infamous race for drafting.
Hydration was on the spot as evidenced by the amount of times I peed on myself, I even peed on a girl that was sucking my wheel (this already happened in IMTX) and she cussed me out. LOL.
As always, after three and a half hours on the bike all you can think about is the run, my butt was sore, chafed, I felt tired of the same scenery and was ready to dismount. When I finally did I turned my bike to a volunteer and yelled "put it on eBay, I don't wanna see it anymore", the poor guy was dumbfounded at least by judging his expression.
I didn't go with a power output goal in mind since it the first time that I raced with a power meter, but the gauging was done with the HRM. The power info though, will be of extreme importance for the next two races.
Pushed 155W average (not normalized) for the first half and finished at 158W average, therefore it was a negative split regardless of speed. The second half was slower because the wind picked up a little from the SW.
Normalized power was 172W, obviously the gap between average and normalized is narrow because such a flat course is not good for coasting.
Nutrition and hydration during the bike: 2 bottles with three scoops of Perpetuem each and two scoops of Heed. Grabbed two bottles of perform and three waters. Three caffeinated Honey Stinger gels. Total 2100 calories.
Felt aerobic at all times, very settled into a pace starting at mile 30 and all the way to the end, I believe nutrition had a lot to do with this. Never ran out of fuel or felt low. Didn't do what I had done in the past of waiting until hungry or thirsty, I took the calories before it happened, if I felt bloated I watered down and waited.

Absolutely nothing, perfectly executed bike leg.

Uneventful transition, flawless. Grabbed a volunteer and had him help to put the stuff away.

Nothing.

I felt so good coming out of T2 that not even looking at the Garmin I was running 7:30s, as soon as I noticed I backed off but not enough, for the entire first loop I was running around 8:10/mile and this was a poor decision. By mile eleven, the monster started creeping in, that monster inviting you to walk beyond and in between aid stations, the one that feels so easy to listen to... So the mental battle begun, I did something that Victor told me to try and it worked, when it was very painful I closed my eyes briefly and thought about my form, and told myself that the pain was just a friend that comes to visit when big rewards await.
Mile after mile I dug deep, breaking the race into one mile repeats and not thinking about the road ahead. The most difficult part was heading out of the park during the last loop, those five or so miles felt eternal, but the last half was like in heaven, I started tasting the finish line and a big smile was back on my face, people saw it and the cheers were louder, it's funny to see how good energy brings more back from people.
The finisher's chute was the longest I have ran in Ironman, which made it even better, I gave a ton of high fives and ran it slow and took a bow when I reached the finish line in 10:47 and change. WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!
Nutrition during the run:
Only simple sugars, just the thought of something like Perpetuem or Infinit would make me throw up. Kept pretty fueled, taking in water, perform, grapes, oranges and gels.

Run the entire thing starting at 9/miles, it would have saved me a good ten minutes and a lot of pain.

Kissed my wife and Veronica, went to the massage building and got a great one.


Bad decision making in the initial stages of the marathon.


Ironman Florida is an Ironman designed for the novice Ironman, this doesn't make it easy anyway. The challenge in this course is demanding work from the same muscles non stop for a long time. If well executed, IMFL is a PR course.
I had tons of fun, pain, elation, agony, etc. The roller coaster in Ironman is not for the faint of heart.