I have to mention that it is crazy that this was a wetsuit legal race. They made plenty of unofficial announcements throughout the week, but the final word came as we were in the transition area earlier. Anyways, I lined up on the far right so I could stand on the north shore instead of treading water for 15 minutes until the cannon went off. I joined a fairly large group of people who had the same idea. When I finally reached a spot where I could touch, I started looking for Ashley. I spotted her pretty immediately, but there was one of those plastic netted fences that made it difficult for her to see me. I moved to the left and up front so I was in her direct line of sight and started waving my arms. She was taking pictures, so I was sure that even if she didn’t see me she would capture me on camera. After a few minutes without any acknowledgement, I decided to conserve my energy and went back to where I could stand. Things were pretty crowded, and the time seemed to go by pretty quickly. Before I knew it, Mike Reilly told the kayakers to get out of the way. There wasn't an official countdown over the loud speaker, but there was a guy on the north shore that gave the 2 minute warning as well as a 10 second countdown. At the 2 minute warning I moved towards the front and ended up a 2-3 people deep.

I tried not to freak out and go out crazy hard when the cannon sounded. Unfortunately, not everyone had my same plan of attack. I fully anticipated it to be rough - elbows flying, feet kicking, hands pulling... but this was ridiculous. I read race reports saying that it would thin out a few hundred meters into it, and then get a little more congested once you hit the canal. This was NOT the case. It never let up! With the exception of one little part of the course (that I'll discuss later), I was fighting people the entire time! My plan in lining up to on the right was to try and cut the course a little. With the slight bend in the buoy line, I was going hug the west shoreline on the way out. This plan was shot to crap when within the first 200 meters or so I was kicked not once, not twice, but 3 times! With the third blow, my right lens popped off. I decided it was worth the extra time to try and fix it. I turned on my back to keep kicking, emptied the water out and tried to reseal the goggle. When I did this, it sealed my right eye shut! I'm not exactly sure how this happened. I should have kept trying to fix it, but I got impatient and decided to just go. Sighting with that many people is hard enough (sighting is essentially poking your head out of the water to make sure you're headed in the right direction). It proved to be fairly ineffective to try and sight with one eye when I realized that I had made my way from the right side of the pack all the way to the left! I was now hugging the buoy line, which was SUPER crowded. Still with all the chaos going on, I really tried to focus on the mantra, "slow is smooth, smooth is fast".

I didn't notice it getting any more or less congested once we finally reached the turn buoys. There were swimmers everywhere. It was REALLY hard to sight to the second turn buoy because we were headed right into the sun. I couldn't really latch on to one person's feet because: 1 - the water was SO murky you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face; and 2 - once I found feet, they were too slow! Sighting continued to be an issue as we headed north. My plan was to hug the buoys until we passed a bay area that was off to the right, and then hug the shoreline. I wasn't as close to the buoys as I wanted to be, but I felt I was still in a good spot. Once we passed the bay area, I saw some spectators lining the water cheering us on, so I thought it was time to start heading east into the canal. Well, there are two little cutouts before the turn - meaning if you follow the shoreline you are adding distance and time. I followed the shoreline. This was about the only relief I had from the crazy swimmers. The lack of elbows and kicking feet got me a little worried. Before I got too far, I pulled up to get my bearings and realized I had cut right too early! There were a couple stand up paddle boards there, so I was a little ticked they didn't warn me earlier of my veering off course. Well, I got back into the thick of things and finally made it to the canal. This was a super cool experience having all the spectators so close lined up on both sides of the water. I don't think I was able to appreciate it as much with my impaired vision, but it was still so neat to hear all the cheering right on top of you. The narrow canal made the waters pretty choppy, but it wasn't that much different from swimming in the crowd of people. I got a couple mouths full of lake water, but nothing I couldn't handle.


- Avoided peoples' feet
- Take time to fix goggles properly
- Sight more
- Stick to planned course route

The steps out of the water were pretty backed up, so I had to wait a little before getting out. I stopped my watch and was shocked to see the time. I didn't think I swam that fast! I didn't let it distract me, though. I pulled down the top half of my wetsuit as I approached the wetsuit strippers. They were all lined up on the left side of the chute with a big mat for us to lay down on. I pointed to one and laid down in front of him. He did his best to rip off my suit, but had some difficulties getting it off my around my ankles. This went a lot faster than if I had tried to take it off myself. As I went to get up, some dude tripped over me. He was trying to jump over me while I was getting my wetsuit off.

As you round the corner to head up to the changing tent, all the transition 1 bags are lined up in the chute. I was yelling my number, but nobody got my bag for me. Probably cause there was so many of us. I grabbed what I thought was my bag, ran to the changing tent, sat down and tried opening my bag... They had tied my strings in a knot! I was so mad! I ripped the bag open only to discover...I had grabbed the wrong bag! Son of a...!!! I fought the incoming traffic, ran down and placed the shredded transition bag as nicely as possible in its proper place and then quickly found my bag. I didn't sit down when I reached the changing tent. I just threw on my helmet, glasses, and shoes, and then dropped everything else. A volunteer told me he would take care of my stuff and to just go... so I did. MAN, my T1 would have been awesome without that mess up. Finding my bike was pretty easy, so that was pretty quick. As I left transition, I caught a glimpse of the time, and my heart sank. It read 1:30 and counting. Right away I thought, "I knew I didn't swim that fast!". I realized later during the bike that that was the running time for the Pros (they started 15 minutes ahead of everyone else).


- Make sure I have the right bag
- Don't need a towel
- Don't sit down. Just drop your stuff and go

I ran past the mounting line to avoid some traffic, and I got clipped in pretty quick. I stayed out of my aero bars for the first couple blocks because there were just so many people. Once we hit the first long stretch on Woodlands Parkway, I was passing people like crazy! I felt really smooth and I was able to get my HR down pretty quickly from the spike during transition. I was able to keep a pretty steady effort that kept my HR around 150, which is right where I wanted it. This course was awesome! So beautiful! It was so helpful to drive the course on Tuesday. Yes, it is pretty flat, but it’s a beast in its own right. There were some climbs on the second half of the course, but I thought it was a nice break to come out of aero. The winds here are no joke, and the wind couldn't really make up its mind the entire time I was on the bike. It was swirling around - pushing me one minute and the next its right in my face. Still, there were only a few times when I had to come out of aero to do some "climbing". I tried to stay in aero as much as possible - no real set system of when to come in and out of it. If the wind was in my face, I'd really focus on my position. I really could feel a difference with my Evade and Nate's aerojacket. Definitely need to build up more strength in my neck and back, because I was pretty toast by the end.

I had planned with Ashley ahead of time when she should be at certain parts of the course. She was going to try and see me at miles 20, 28, and 40. She had to time it just right so she wouldn’t miss me. Well, I was going a lot faster than I had anticipated! When I hit mile 20 and did see her, I was sure I wasn’t going to see her the rest of the course. Mile 28 came and went, and still no Ashley. I just kept hammering away, though. As I approached mile 40, I could see a huge cut out of my face in the distance. They made it! Ash and the entire crew were there screaming and waving signs. It was right at turn, and I almost crashed I was so excited! I know it was only a few seconds, but seeing them gave me a real boost.

Let's talk about my demise in triathlon... nutrition. I really don't know how to fuel myself on the bike. I'm not exactly sure how to experiment, but I think I would be a force to be reckoned with if I ironed this out. The funny thing is, I was feeling pretty good about things considering the lessons I learned from the Rage Half Ironman back in April. I had a really regimented plan with how I would rotate through my bottles and what nutrition I would pick up at different aid stations throughout the course. Right as I got onto the bike, I was going to pound a full bottle of Perform (essentially salty Gatorade) within the first 10 miles, toss that at the first aid station and pick up some water. I would sip on water for the next 10 miles and then toss that and bring 1 of my 2 bottles of perform from my rear cages up front. Well... I hit a bump in the road and launched one of my bottles within the first 10 minutes on the bike! Nothing I couldn't recover from, right? I just made sure to keep eating and drinking as close to what I had planned. After launching ANOTHER bottle, I was starting to get frustrated. Then I had to drop a Bonk Breaker bar... Yes, these things are offered on the course, but this really messed up my timing and I wasn't getting as much fluids as I would have with my original bottles. Every single bottle I grabbed and put in my aero cage would start to leak. My legs and the entire front half of my bike was sticky from all the Perform that was leaking all over. It was a mess...literally.

Even with all these hiccups, I thought I was still doing a decent job staying fueled, but at around mile 70 my heart rate started to drop. At first, it was just a little dip - still hanging in the z2 region, but lower than I wanted to be. Then it sank to 110s... This scared me. This has never really happened to me on the bike before, so I wasn't really sure what to do. I don't know how I kept my pace as high as I did because I was hurting pretty bad. Plus the wind really started to pick up on the way in, so it was pretty rough. I was so depressed and started thinking about ending up in the medical tent with a big fat DNF (did not finish) next to my name. I was worried about being able to finish the bike, and wanted to cry when thinking about what this meant for my run. NOBODY passed me for the first 70-75 miles, but then I started getting passed up by quite a few people. This did not help with my mental state. I was caught in between aid stations, and I had eaten all of my nutrition and only had a water bottle. I started having a hard time breathing, so it was getting ugly fast. I wasn't exactly sure what to do, but I felt like I should ease up on the pace and prayed the next aid station would come soon. This was the longest stretch by far on the bike (mile 70 to ~85). Finally! I reached an aid station! I was sure to go extra slow to load up on everything I could. I got a banana, Gu Chomps (energy gummies), Perform, and a water. I think bananas are my go-to, cause I started feeling better right after I finished it. I chugged the perform and chased it with water. I ate half the Chomps and then started to make my come back. I just put my head down and cranked away in aero trying not to think about how far I had to go. We finally reached the last section of the course where I had done my 40min z1 ride the day prior, so I knew I was close. I pushed it a little harder and passed a couple more people that were lingering in front of me. By the time I reached the end of the bike, I think my body had recovered fairly well!


- Figure out nutrition
- Build stamina in aero position

After dismounting, I handed my bike off to a volunteer and ran through transition to grab my T2 bag (I made sure I had the right one). Ashley was right there encouraging me and telling me what a great job I was doing. There were very few people in the changing tent, so I had a few volunteers helping me. They didn't take my shoes off or anything, but they gave me something to drink and poured water on me to cool me off. Once I had everything on, they took all my stuff, so things went pretty quick. It was pretty muddy in the tent, so I had to be careful not to get my feet/socks all muddy while putting my shoes on. Also had to be cautious not to slip and fall. Nothing too crazy going through T2.

- Vaseline on crotch
- Just go faster

I seriously loved every part of this run course. SO cool to run along the waterway with all the fans right there high-fiving and cheering you on. I loved every single leg of this race, but I was REALLY looking forward to the run. I was surprised at how good I felt at the start of the run. The first loop went pretty darn well, but I think some residual effects from my bike nutrition came back to haunt me on the second loop. My HR dropped out of z2 and the breathing troubles came back. Not as severely as on the bike, but still it was scary. I started walking at every aid station to take in coke, perform, water and even an occasional banana. I tried the pretzels, but they caked up my mouth too much. Similar to the bike, my HR started to come back about a quarter of the way through the third loop. The only problem was getting my pace up. Ashley was placed perfectly! She and the fam saw me 3-4 times on every loop! It was awesome! I couldn't help myself from stopping to kiss them with each loop. Everyone complains about how hot the run is with the humidity and the heat of the afternoon. I thought race conditions were pretty close to perfect, but it was pretty warm. I kept dumping ice down the shorts and down my shirt, which I think really helped in keeping me cool. I tried not to walk through the aid stations - just grabbed my stuff on the go. The only problem with this is my shoes got soaked. It wasn't too terrible for the first loop, but the second and third my feet were drenched and squishing with every step. I was SO lucky I didn't blister. I need to figure that one out.

I wanted to push it in the last 10k, but it was tough. I tried catching people, but that became too easy after a while. I finally latched on to one guy that was really pushing it in with about 3 miles to go. It was even more motivating because he was in my age group. I just stayed on his heels. He finally got tired of me and let me pass, but I was able to keep up the swifter pace. He had a huge fan base (local triathlon club) and they were going crazy yelling at him to catch me. I loved it! It fueled my fire and I pushed it in even harder. I pulled away and had a sizable lead going into the final stretch. Coming into the finisher's chute, I saw Ash and my cheer section going crazy. A part of me feels bad that I didn't stop to hug them and whatnot, but I was in the zone and I wanted to finish strong. Nothing really can describe the feelings that come when you hear your name followed by, "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!" Mike Reilly's voice was sent from heaven. Time seemed to slow way down. I had thought about all the training that led up to this race quite a bit throughout the day, but it hit me especially hard right then. I thought about all the reading, research, YouTube videos, online forums, and discussions I had had with other athletes… I didn’t just think about how Ironman consumed my life for past 6 months, but also about all the sacrifices that had been made on my behalf so I could get here. It was overwhelming and amazing.

Right as I crossed the finish line, a volunteer was there to award me my finisher's medal and give me my t-shirt and hat, a water bottle, and a cold towel for the back of my neck. I lucked out with the sweetest gal taking care of me. She walked and talked with me to make sure I was doing okay. Then she held my things as I got my official picture taken. Ashley was anxiously waiting for me along the fence. I went and held her for a long time. It was pretty emotional for both of us. I realized, now more than ever, I couldn't have done any of this without her.


- Push pace earlier
- Figure out nutrition
- Figure out how to keep feet dry

Tried to keep walking. Got a massage. I had a hard time eating right after, so I tried to drink my calories.


Nutrition