I want to be super upfront that I am not an expert around IRONMAN nor a particularly good triathlete 🙂 At time of writing I’ve completed 13 full distance IRONMAN events over the past 5 years and am participating in two more in 2019 (Canada and Maryland) this year and am privileged to be going to Kona in 2020 as part of the Legacy program (and will also be doing Texas, St George, Tulsa and Mont-Treblant before it in 2020) . I’ve never DNF’d (and have been part of some IRONMAN events that had high DNF rates) but am also pretty slow compared to most (my PR is 12:41 ish) but I get a little better each year. I’m the turtle that gets there in the end. Over the events I’ve learnt lessons (some painful) and wanted to try and share as much as I can in the same way many people shared with me and helped me. Lets begin:

Preparation

• Read the Athlete Guide and go to an athlete briefing. You can read the previous years athlete guide for an idea.
• Understand nutrition that will be on the course and if you plan to use that then train with it. NOTHING NEW ON RACE DAY!!!
• Don’t use new gear or anything new without fully testing.  I learnt this lesson the hard way. On my second IRONMAN I had a mobile bike vendor tune my bike and they put on bigger tires as they said would make me go faster. They had to Dremel down some of my back break assembly to make it fit and in the end still didn’t fit but left the bigger on my front tier. Well the morning of the IRONMAN you pump up the tires to 100 psi (you don’t leave them pumped up during day before/night for fear of popping). Well when this bigger tire was pumped up to 100 PSI it no longer turned as it rubbed on the frame. I tried pushing the wheel down a little but it moved back up and in the end had to let a lot of air out my tire to enable it to spin. This was horrible. The year later they changed inner tubes but they won’t compatible with the valve extenders so couldn’t actually pump up the tires. Luckily I found this before the day of the IRONMAN!
• Remove unnecessary moving parts eg valve extenders 🙂 They have inner tubes with long valves so use those!
• Read race reports for ideas. I try and post race reports for my events on this blog, https://theironbrit.com.
• Make a gear checklist and check off as pack suitcase, lay out for the event and put in transition bags. I have one I use that is linked in the main menu.
• Train with others if you can. I’ve never done this but definitely would be more fun 🙂
• A bad training session won’t ruin your ironman. Accept it and move on.
• If something doesn’t go your way on the day it sucks but it’s ok. The only real failure is to not try.
• Remove unnecessary stress points. If you are on your own don’t worry about car keys. Things are safe in morning clothes bag or simply stay near the finish line.
• I place a backpack in morning clothes bag to help carry transition bags when pick them up after the IRONMAN.
• Take a thick sharpie pen with you and write your number on all the transition bags in case the stickers come off. I also take a colored one and draw logos on them so I can spot them easier (but the volunteers get them for you at transitions anyway). Some people use tape with patterns!
• If it may rain people take a plastic cup and make a small hole in the bottom and place it upside down over the top of the big with the string going through the hole. This helps water proof the opening at the top of the bag.
• An alternative to the plastic cup and something that can always apply is to put the gear into a jumbo zip lock bag or tied up trash bag inside each transition bag. This protects from rain but also if its humid etc. I actually like this better than the plastic cup idea.
• Take a towel for the T1 bag to help dry off after swim. There are separate male/female changing tents so you can change if you want.
• If the transition area may be muddy use trash bags or shoe covers (the plastic things that cover the shoe like a shower cap 🙂 ) so when you go through the mud it does not get in your bike cleats.
• I also often use valet service so can get bike and bags the next day, $40 well spent!
• Lose a bit of excess weight if you can. This makes it easier for the run and bike (swimming potentially harder as will sink!). I lost 30 lbs between my 2nd and 3rd IRONMANs and found the runs much easier and my joints thanked me!
• Stick to routine, have a good breakfast (same one during training!)
• Enjoy the pre-race meals 🙂 Again stick with how you train but a cheese pizza the night before and frozen yogurt does the trick for me!
• Do something relaxing the day before, I always go see a movie the afternoon before if I can.
• I like to use TriTats instead of having numbers written on me 🙂 Makes me feel more like a pro so I’m sure that will translate to faster times 😀

Race Day

• Make sure you eat enough and drink enough during training and on the day. During the bike a good guide is to need to pee twice indicating drinking enough.
• Don’t shave morning of the IRONMAN. For men the bike helmet strap just rubs and ouchy
• Take a headlamp for the morning. Often it’s dark and you may be walking over fields or just when you’re in the porta-potties. Also helps pumping up tires and other setup on the bike in the morning
• On race morning after you pump up tires (they have people to do it or lots of pumps around, the head lamp comes in useful here!) you can go check your transition bags are still there and mentally picture the route.

Swim

• Enjoy it, everything will be OK but everyone is nervous. Once you get in the water everything will be fine.
• If it’s wetsuit optional and you are not a good swimmer wear it. Many others will. You can’t age group place for Kona and a set 1000 points towards All World Athlete (AWA) status but still get full 17 hours and everything else. I sink like a stone and while I’m training towards no wetsuit I wear it if it’s optional as today I need the added buoyancy (I’m 190 lbs and 8% body fat).
• Bring a plastic bag to help put on the wetsuit. You put your foot in the plastic bag then slide that into the legs. Goes in very easily then just pull the bag through and use on the next foot!
• Put lubricant round your neck for the wetsuit to stop it rubbing and cutting (if you wear one).
• Make sure you have googles that don’t leak. Look for good suction when you put them on. If they leak a little during the swim I try to leave them alone as generally I make it worse. if its really bad stop at a buoy or canoe to adjust then continue on. I use a little bit of liquid around the seals of the googles to help them get a good seal. Also keep a neutral face during the swim which helps avoid stretching the face breaking the seal.
• The swim is a rolling, self-seed start (apart from Kona). Place yourself roughly in the right time or you’ll get stuck behind slow people and swam over by fast people. Also drafting by having your head roughly at waist level of person to your side can save energy! Not so close as you are touching them! For most age groupers drafting is not a big deal 🙂
• In the swim if nervous swim on the outside away from people. Adding even 20 meters additional distance is not going to make any real difference to your overall time.
• Consider having a mini mouthwash available if swimming in a dirty lake in your T1 bag just to rinse away some of the yucky 🙂

Bike and Run

• When applying butt cream before the bike ride be generous and apply where you really need it (not so much over the butt cheeks but more under if you’re a guy).
• Wear sunscreen. I got second degree sunburn on my first IRONMAN (Texas 2015) during the bike ride. I had sunscreen on but it sucked and then had to basically walk a very painful marathon.
• Go at your training intensity or things won’t work, for example you won’t be able to absorb calories etc as you could in training. Stress will already mess with this so you’ve trained at a certain intensity, do this on the day (just for longer).
• On the bike focus on low to mid RPMs which helps for long rides. You should practice this way.
• If not a great runner or maybe bike took it out of you don’t be afraid of run-walk intervals. For Texas 2019 I hadn’t been able to run for over 3 months and my first run was 2 weeks before the IRONMAN. I decided to use 2 minute intervals of run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes and was able to do that the entire marathon finishing the marathon in 5:15. Not great but worked and was better than running for some then having to walk for 2-3 hours which is just miserable. By intervaling at the start the walks were a nice recovery I enjoyed and my muscles and repository system never got to the point of failure.
• Use water bottles to squirt water on your body/shorts to cool. Try to be careful of shoulders/arms as may wash off sunscreen then get burnt. Throwing cups of water on yourself during run can also help! Ice down your shirt, why not!
• Use salt in training and on the day. This is a huge problem I see. I take a lick of salt every mile during the run. Never found needed it during the bike.
• You don’t get special needs bags back so if you don’t collect them make sure you don’t have anything you care about in them.
• Have two spare inner tubes, mini pump and gas. Know how to change tire so not a source of dread. Be self sufficient.
• Smile for pictures at the end and whenever you can.

Post Completion!

• Encourage others and thank the volunteers who are awesome.
• Once you finish eat soon after and have some protein. I have protein powder in the room I have when I get back.
• When you finish you may start shaking or feel tingling, it’ll pass. Don’t panic. Your body is just a bit upset with you for what you put it through 🙂 Eat and drink. I actually try to avoid sitting down until I get back to my room as once I sit down problems start. I find I just need to lay down for 15 minutes before tingling etc goes away.
• You may not sleep the night after the IRONMAN. It’s normal. I think the caffeine, sugar, adreline etc just stops you sleeping.
• People start queueing at the store next day at 6 :).
• Brag the next day. Wear those finisher items and medals with pride.
• The results site has a downloadable certificate.

My final IRONMAN event of the year! Number 5 for 2018 and the magical number 12 that allows me to apply for a Kona Legacy spot. There is never a dull IRONMAN experience and this was not an exception! Also being the last of the year I also wanted to try and raise money for a good cause so asked for donations for Cure Childhood Cancer. With company matching we managed to raise over $2000 which was awesome and I appreciate everyone’s generosity!

I’m actually starting to write this Friday night and then will add to it over the next few days.

On Thursday I arrived at DFW airport around lunch time for my flight. I was wearing my Lake Placid 20th Anniversary IRONMAN T-Shirt and someone stopped me. “Are you doing Chattanooga?” The gentleman asked, I replied in the affirmative. “They have cancelled the swim!” He told me. Sure enough I jumped to facebook and there was a tiny post gaining lots of comments and reactions very quickly.

For those that may have seen one of my other reports, swimming for me is the worst. Although physically its the easiest it’s also the most stressful with hundreds of arms and legs seemingly having the single goal of smashing you in the face. An IRONMAN event without the swim, how do I feel about that (note it still counts officially as an IRONMAN and towards the Kona legacy program)? Of course I should be very disappointed it was no longer a “proper” IRONMAN however my brain was doing this (video credit The Simpsons – Bart the Fink):

I’m kidding obviously I was very disappointed (video credit Eddie Izzard – Dress to Kill):

As I spoke to some people apparently the swim was cancelled for two reasons:

1. There had been a lot of rain and flooding so the river flow as 8 times that of last year. Note I normally swim a 90 minute IRONMAN whereas in Chattanooga I swim a 60 so that gives you some idea of the normal flow. 8 times that would have been impossible to get out at the finish line although it would have been cool do swim a 20 minute 2.4 mile 🙂
2. There had been a lot of sewage and waste water released into the river so the e.coli were 20 times above the safe swimming limit

So yeah, cancelling the swim absolutely the right call. There were lots of people complaining about them cancelling the swim, how they should get refunds etc. Reality is the refund policy is very clear and its an outdoor sport. Things happen. I fully believe the race directors do everything they can. They don’t want to make last minute changes but it’s to protect the athletes. I also don’t want to swim in poo water 🙂

As the people round the airport were talking, many were lamenting how much swim training they had done, how much it sucked. I had done almost no swim training for the past few months as it aggravates my knee problems and so while I nodded and tried to make an effort to share their disappointment, well:

If it was any other IRONMAN it would bother me more however the Chattanooga swim is so easy anyway and you have 4 extra miles on the bike so you are still doing 140.6+ 🙂 (142.2 to be exact without the swim). When the plane landed some people were meeting people who had been to an athlete briefing and talked about the changes:

• Would be a bike – run event (no swim, we knew that but no run first for 2.4 miles just straight to bike)
• Transition would open at 6:30
• Pros would start at 8:00 (only male pros for this event)
• Age groupers would start at 8:30 and would be released 2 at a time every 5 seconds (like a time trial start). Athletes would be released based on bib number, lowest first (I’m 356 which is super early thanks to AWA so I would be heading out pretty early. I felt bad for people in the 2000’s who would not be starting till close till 10:00!)
• Everyone would still have the full time for the bike and run

Essentially skipping the swim and the first transition. You would just start on the bike. It was such a big change it totally messed with my whole thought process. The full statement was released to Facebook around the time of landing.

I got my taxi to the hotel (tried the Westin this year which is nice) then had a burger and fries from the room service menu which was awesome.

Friday I walked down and checked in. They still gave you a swim cap but didn’t write your number on it so I now have a pristine swim cap for Chattanooga. Everything else was the same and I was in and out in about 10 minutes including the store. I walked over the bridge to the Walgreens to buy water and sports drinks, walked back over the bridge, got my bike from TriBike and went back to the hotel for 30 minutes. I then went out to a few stores then lunch at Community Pies for spaghetti with meat sauce before heading back to the hotel room where I just relaxed and had room service burger and fries again. I laid out my gear on the bed as usual but its so strange without the swim gear and of course only one transition bag now (the run). I figured I’d wear my donut bike shirt this time instead of the pizza one 🙂 I also have a run shirt with my little IronBrit logo on it however even though I bought XL it’s tiny so may end up running the marathon in a crop top. We’ll see.

Saturday I woke up early, packed my run back and headed out at 9:30 to drop my things of at the transition point. It’s interesting how much stress was removed by removing the swim and the first transition. I felt so much calmer however also I felt thrown off as the normal flow didn’t apply 🙂 Saturday I had pizza for lunch and then spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner. On my walk back from lunch a gentleman stopped me looking nervous. He was probably in his sixties and this was his first IRONMAN event. He said I looked like someone who had done these before and what should he put in his run bag. I went through what I put in and just gave the advice of visualizing what you will be wearing head to toes and don’t forget race belt, bib, nutrition etc. Wished him good luck. Hope he did OK! Went to bed about 8 and managed to sleep till about 3am which was good. My target time to get up was 4am

Once up I had a quick shower (helps wake me up), and put on my race tattoos. Normally I put them on the night before which I think is better as they seemed to come off easier during the IRONMAN so in future I’ll go back to the night before application. I got dressed into my bike gear (still felt so weird), drank a protein shake, ate an apple sauce and a bagel. I then just lay around the room until 6:15 when I walked down to transition (which opened at 6:30).

As usual there were plenty of people to help pump up the tires, I put on my drink bottles and then waited 🙂 There was nothing to do. I wandered around, no lines at the port-a-potties as I guess many people knew roughly what time they would start and were now close to their hotels rather than miles away at a remote swim start so relaxed there instead of at the start. Because there was no swim the bike was going to be a time trial start. The pros started at 8:00 with about a 30 second gap between them. The age groupers started at about 8:20 I think with 2 going every 5 seconds. They got us to line up in an odd and even line. About a hundred yards from the start you clipped in one foot and then they had the little beep machine. Beep beep beep beeeeeppppppp and you were off.

This was a bike experience and overall IRONMAN experience unlike any other for me because of my early number and time trial bike start. I’m not a good swimmer. I normally start near the back in the 1:30 group and finish in about 1:30 (except for Chattanooga where I normally do 1:00 because of the current). This means I’m normally finishing in the bottom. For example my previous IRONMAN (Wisconsin 2018) I finished number 1550 out of 2407 registered (although only 1912 actually finished so I can’t tell how many actually started) but let’s say bottom 1/3. I’m a stronger cyclist and so normally the first transition tent is packed and the bike course is super busy as I’m generally catching people up.

I was number 356. I started about 8:30. I’m guessing maybe 250 ish people started before me (they don’t fill up 0-100 etc). Out on the bike course it was empty! Very few people were catching me up and overtaking me, I caught a few people but especially as the course went on there were times I could not even see another cyclist. It was just me and was just very, very strange. Removing the swim and its effect on where I was made a huge difference. I guess bottom line is I should swim more to get it up to closer to my biking to have a more spacious bike experience!

This was my 3rd year doing Chattanooga. The course is hilly but as soon as you go up there is normally a downhill to give back. The first half of each loop (its two loops) is generally slightly up hill while the second half is more downhill. The course support was great (as always) with lots of people cheering you on. There were some pot holes on the roads but they were well marked.

Because I had not done the swim I decided to really just go for it on the bike (which is 116 miles instead of the normal 112 for an IRONMAN. I think to try and make up for the downstream swim 🙂 ). With my new power meter pedals I’ve been focusing more on trying to maintain power so my goal was 180 (which is typically what I do on the bike at Lifetime Fitness for my Saturday training). Well my numbers are below.

Basically I averaged 189 and if you look at power over time it didn’t really even dip towards the end however you’ll notice my speed did even though it was more downhill. Weird right? Well at about mile 90 I noticed that any bumps I went over were hard on my back wheel like there was no cushioning, i.e. low tire pressure. Every bump jolted through my man parts up through my teeth 🙂 Ouch. I didn’t want to stop though and was still able to ride forward but I had to put in more effort to try and maintain speed. When I finished the bike I pinched my bike back tire and it was super soft, basically had a slow leak however I’m grateful that still managed to get till the end but it did take more out of me putting in the extra effort because of greater resistance.

The bike conditions were awesome. Very cloudy stopping the sun hitting you directly and around 70 degrees for most of it warming up to 75 towards the last couple of hours. It’s a nice scenic course and I enjoyed it. Bike support was every 10 miles with drinks and food as normal. It was very peaceful and the miles went by quickly except the last 16 which somehow seemed to imply there was a blackhole somewhere as time slowed to a near stop 🙂

Overall though I was happy with the bike. Sub 6 hours (exact time 5:54:17) on a 116 mile course with good power and felt OK getting off the bike. Into the transition tent (which was nearly empty so lots of support from the volunteers) and was in and out in less than 10 minutes (9:46).

The start of the run was on a little bit of grass but they put a mat on it. This was a change and I think required because of some flooding so not a big deal. The run was hilly. Hillier than I remember. It’s two loops with two very big hills you have to go up (and down) towards the end of each loop. Also the clouds had now gone and the sun was pretty strong. Temperature was only around 80 but it felt hot when there was no shade. The first hour I managed to maintain a pretty good pace but slowed after that. I would walk up the hills then try and run when it was flat/downhill however it seemed more and more to be just up hill (which is of course impossible 🙂 ). The physical effort was not the worst part though of the marathon. I have young children who when they like a movie will watch it over and over again. They have been watching the My Little Pony movie. There is a song in this movie “We Got This Together” (you can hear a part of it via https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075KPXXLG/ref=dm_ws_tlw_trk1). I’ve been hearing this song over and over the past couple of weeks. Well on the course are many signs saying “You’ve got this” and many people would shout out “You’ve got this”. That is the starting line of the chorus to the song. The horrible, horrible song. Every time I read the line or someone said it my brain would proceed to play the chorus for about 2 minutes. It would then stop at which point I would see the next sign or the next person would shout it out where the playback would proceed again. This would continue for the entire 5 hour and 25 minute marathon. The mental pain was worse than the physical pain I think 🙂

My total time for the marathon was 5:24:43 so average pace around 12:24 min/mile so a bit slower than I hoped but given my bike time I was OK with it.

With the single transition my times were:

• Bike – 5:53:53
• Transition 2 (well 1 really) – 9:56
• Run – 5:24:43

My total time was therefore 11:28:31.

Obviously this would be a PR but does not count since there was no swim or transition 1. If I took my average swim time and transition 1 time for the previous 2 years of Chattanooga would give 1:05 for swim and 11 minutes for transition so add a total of 1:16. That would be a total time of 12:44:31 and would be even less if I took just last years time (59 minute swim and 10 minute transition). 12:44:30 would be a new PR. I still can’t count it 🙂 The physical effort of the swim is missing and even though I never find the swim physically hard it still would impact my physically (including just not drinking liquids for an hour, burning calories, stress) but interesting data.

What is more interesting is my placing. The results site (www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ironman/chattanooga/results.aspx
) shows 2,605 athletes (people registered). Out of that it seems like 1891 actually finished (those 700 delta would be a mix of people who didn’t even start (DNS) and those that started but didn’t finish (DNF)).

• Bike 518th overall
• Run 658th overall
• Total IRONMAN 658th overall

This put me in the top third (maybe even top quarter if I knew how many started) which is much better than normal. Normally I’m around mid point.

The swim, although a very small part has a massive hit on me. For this IRONMAN I got 2,708 points. I’ve never got more than 2000 for any other race! Looks like I really should work on my swimming which I NEED TO DO BECAUSE NOW I’VE HIT 12!!! I can apply for the Legacy Program and my Kona slot where it’s a non wetsuit ocean swim so I need to be better anyway. Time in the pool is in my future 🙂

My medals getting to 12 🙂

Overall this was a great IRONMAN and managed to raise some great money for an awesome cause. I understand those people who were disappointed that there was no swim but it was a tough day and if you finished it YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!

Also known as 14 and a half hours of hell but lets step back.

Six weeks previously I had completed IRONMAN Texas and set a new PR of 12:47. The marathon had not gone great but was still happy with the time and was IRONMAN 1 of 5 scheduled for 2018 to get me to the magical 12 total which will enable me to apply for the legacy program and a chance at Kona. I had maintained my training however I had done little to account for the 6000 feet altitude. I also didn’t swim at all between Texas and Boulder as I was having knee problems and swimming aggravates it but swimming is always the warmup for me at IRONMAN and not super concerned about it.

To help adjust for the altitude we (my wife and 2 youngest kids came with me) set out on Tuesday driving from Texas. We drove nearly 11 hours and stopped at Colorado Springs which is about 90 minutes from Boulder and the same altitude. We booked into a cool hotel called the Mining Exchange that still had the safe from when the hotel was an actual exchange location!

I got up early Wednesday and went to the hotel gym where I ran 12 miles on the treadmill (in the 68 degree air conditioned gym) and felt totally fine. No signs of any difference because of the altitude which was awesome and gave me a lot of confidence that the altitude would not be an issue. How naïve of me 🙂 We headed out and completed the final miles to get to Boulder where we checked in at the Boulder Marriott which was about one mile from the High School which was the location of the athlete village and shuttle pickup/finishing line. The hotel was going through a modernization which meant multiple times the elevators were not working and our room was actually kind of dirty (chewing gum on the floor under the desk, loads of other dirt on the floor) and the bathroom had a glass door with no blind for the massive window in the bathroom. This becomes an issue when you have young kids that want to go to bed at 7:30 and the sun does not set until 8:30 meaning there is a blaring light for a full hour and when you have an IRONMAN the next day and want to go to bed early.

Thursday morning we went and did a whitewater rafting trip which was fun (although my wife and son could not do it as he broke his arm 2 weeks previously) and then went to the IRONMAN village to check-in. I have AWA status so you had a separate check-in however even the regular line had no wait and was super fast as I’ve found all my IRONMAN check-ins (except Florida 2017 which was a complete cluster). You tell them your number (or name), show an ID, they give you the forms in which you just check its all correct, write in your hotel and phone number, give them back then grab your rack packet which has your bib, stickers and swim cap. They put on your bracelet then you go grab your race bags and timing chip. For the backpack you head over to the store where they give it to you. All done in less than 10 minutes. TriBike Transport was also right there so I grabbed my bike and took to the car. Meanwhile my family checked in to the VIP area so they would have a good view at the finish. About half mile North of the village are a lot of restaurants serving all types of food. There was a Cheesecake Factory we went to quite a few times. Also an awesome ice cream shop which we frequented often which would actually prove to be a problem as there was also a great candy store which we also visited but it was a family vacation so that’s OK right!?

Friday was quiet and I just kept an eye on the weather forecast which was showing Sunday at 95 degrees. Ouch, but I’d done Texas and other IRONMANs at that temperature so was not super concerned. I trained Thursday and Friday morning lightly but rested Saturday. I did not participate in a practice swim, with hindsight a mistake because of the altitude! I packed my bags up Friday and checked them multiple times. As usual I would recheck the bags constantly. I always lay everything out on the bed head to foot and visualize what I need and compare the equipment list in the athlete guide. Additions this year was a headlamp in my morning bag (awesome when pumping up tires and when using the port-a-potties), a plastic grocery bag to help put on the wetsuit (put on your foot as you slide into the suit to avoid friction) and a lubricant to spray on the back of my neck to stop my neck being cut by the wetsuit.

Saturday morning we got up and drove to the reservoir to drop off my bike and morning clothes bags. TriBike did offer a bike shuttle where they would take your bike but I preferred to see my bike on the bike stand and put it there myself. There was plenty of parking at the reservoir and the whole drop off of the kit went super smooth and like the check-in was fast and event free. We then went and had lunch, didn’t really do much then ordered Cosmos pizza for dinner (which was awesome). I went to bed the same time as the kids and had a raging headache (which I never get). This was because of all the ice cream and candy which I’m just not used to anymore. Damn you delicious sugar. I eventually fell asleep but woke up multiple times checking the clock.

I set an alarm for 2:30 at which point I got up ate my apple sauce, protein shake and bagel. At 3:30 I walked down to the high school (took about 20 minutes) where I dropped off the bike special needs bag (which had a single spare inner tube) then boarded the bus (which were all already there) at 4am for transport to the Boulder Reservoir. The headlamp came in handy here as well as we walked from the bus drop off to the transition area.

We arrived a little before 4:30 (the time of transition opening) but they started the body marking and then headed in to the bikes. I put on my drinks (I decided to try without an aero bottle for this IRONMAN as always found it a pain filling it up during the event and instead just use bottles since that is what they provide at the aid station on the bike course anyway), took my bike to the mechanics where they inflated to 100 and then headed over to check my bike and run bags were still there 🙂 At that point I just settled in at the bike area since the actual swim start had no port-a-potties and knew I’d want to use the bathroom before starting. I had my last drink at 5:30 along with a 5 hour energy, put on my wetsuit (water was 70.9 so wetsuit legal) along with sunscreen then dropped off my morning clothes bag. It was a rolling start where you self seeded so I put myself at the back of the 1:20 to 1:30 section.

The age groups started getting in the water at 6:20 and I think I was in around 6:35. The water felt good but visibility was only a couple of feet. I started to swim and took my first breath, head into the water and OH MY GOD I NEED AIR is all that went through my head. I’M DROWNING. It was the sensation when you hold your breath and you’re at the end and need to gasp. The altitude seemed to have had no impact on me at all in the training since I’d been in Boulder however with the swim where you take a big breath was a huge difference. People had warned me about the swim but I really didn’t think it would impact me but it was super unsettling. I just had to keep telling myself it was OK, breath deep and slowly exhale. After a couple of hundred yards I got used to it and it was OK. The swim was one big loop but it seemed to take forever! Final swim time was 1:31:25 which is pretty typical for me. A quick run out and they helped you out of the wetsuit (sit on your butt on the floor and they yank it off), grabbed bike bag and into the change tent.

It was already getting hot! On with more sunscreen, bike top, nutrition etc and out to the bike where I hopped on. The bike course was two loops. Now I had been warned (by the manager at Papa Brothers funnily enough who had done a single IRONMAN which was Boulder) that the course was deceptive. If you were going towards the mountains you were going uphill even if it looked like a downhill which made no sense to me and I assumed he was crazy. HE WAS RIGHT. No matter how it looked if you are going towards the mountains you were peddling and going slow. There were sections I would swear were a fairly big downhill gradient but you were peddling hard and going 12mph. There were times I was going 5mph and I saw many people just walk their bikes up the hill which I’d never seen on an IRONMAN before. It was insane. On the other hand if you were going away from the mountain it was the opposite and you were going downhill. There were sections I got up to 41mph which was awesome. If you were parallel to the mountains then the visual of the gradient was accurate. It was hard. The first loop was not too bad however for the second loop the sun was out in force, there was a headwind as you approached the mountain and you were just tired. There were aid stations roughly every 10 miles which had as usual bottles of Gatorade Endurance, bottles of water and some gels.

The official temperature was 95 however I read that people say when you add the lack of shade, the radiation from the road, the altitude the “feels like” was 103. Who knows but it was tough! As I rode I kept hearing a weird crushing sound which I later realized was my soul as I was mercilessly beat down. Along the ride I saw multiple people just veer off onto the side of the road and crash where they had blacked out while riding! Fortunately none of those people I saw were seriously hurt. The road condition itself was great, it was really just very hot, high altitude and was a pretty tough course. Total time was 6:28:49 which is slow for me.

I got to transition and really didn’t feel great. I grabbed my run bag, changed and headed out which was about a 6 mile run (at a slight up hill gradient) with no shade to the town where you would then complete 2 loops for the 26.2 mile total distance. My goal was 3 minutes run and 1 minute walk. After one interval that changed to 2 minute run and 1 minute walk until it flipped round to 1 minute run and 2 minute walk. Then there were periods where I just walked. It was just hot hot hot and horrible. The sun would not go down (well it did at 8:30 just as I was finishing). The course was basically flat with the occasional up or down and there were aid stations every mile with cups of Gatorade, water, coke and various things to eat. Once you got to the two loop run along the creek there was shade so that helped a bit but by that point I was just burnt out. In the end I limped in for a 6:06:48 marathon which is my slowest ever (apart from my first IRONMAN where I had second degree sunburn by the time I got to the marathon 🙂 ). Total time of 14:30:37 which is nearly 1 hour 45 minutes slower than Texas which was 6 weeks previous! So obviously disappointed but at least I finished. I understand it was an 18% DNF (did not finish) and I saw a lot of people on the run that had passed out, being sick so consider myself very fortunate was not in that position and hopefully everyone is OK. I’m also pretty sure some of the mile markers were wrong as once I passed mile 25 it seemed to be about 2 more miles to the finish or my mind was just playing tricks on me but others I spoke to said the same thing 🙂

One great thing was seeing my family at the finish line which is why I have the big smile on my face but also made me feel guilty for taking so long and making them wait! Couldn’t do it without their support and was so grateful they waited for me to finish. Hopefully I can make it up to them at Lake Placid in 5 weeks and not make them wait so long!

A HUGE call out to the volunteers. It was tough being out there competing but there were also all the volunteers who were out there in the same sun helping us and really just can’t thank them enough as without them it would not be possible at all.

Thankfully my wife drove so didn’t have to walk back to the hotel where I showered, ate some pizza and couldn’t sleep a wink all night. I got up early, had McDonalds which opened up at 5 then walked to the village where I was second in line to the store to buy all my finisher goodies 🙂

Boulder is an awesome IRONMAN. It was well organized, very pretty scenery and a great host town. I think the altitude obviously is tough and we were just unlucky with the heat. The next day the high was 82, a full 13 degrees cooler! Oh well. Definitely recommend it but try and get there early to acclimatize and do a practice swim so you don’t freak out on the actual day!

Good luck!

28th of April 2018 was my first IRONMAN of 2018 and the forth time of participating in the IRONMAN Texas event. As usual it was a great event and had good conditions, if a little on the bright sunny side (which we’ll get to). As a recap my history with Texas:

• 2015 – First ever IRONMAN. It was about 95 degrees and near 100% humidity. I got second degree sun burn on the bike and pretty much had to walk/drag the entire marathon. My time was around 15:30
• 2016 – Second IRONMAN. It was cooler but the bike course was cut short to about 96 miles (if I remember correctly) and we had a hail storm during the marathon. Time is meaningless because bike was so much shorter than normal and was stopped for a period of time during the marathon
• 2017 – My forth IRONMAN. Good conditions, managed to run non-stop the first 13 miles and finished in around 13:02. It was the new bike course on the toll-road but we had strong wind which meant in one direction of the toll-road loop (you did two loops) your speed dropped a LOT
• 2018 – My eighth IRONMAN (I did a total of 4 in 2017, Texas, Santa Rosa, Florida and Chattanooga). Also got AWA silver status for this year.

For this year I decided to stay at the Westin which is basically at the finish line. In previous years I always stayed somewhere that required me to drive and it was always a little bit of extra stress worrying my car key would survive morning clothes bag etc. This year I just decided to remove that stress completely and just treat myself 🙂

I drove down to Houston Thursday morning and arrived around 10:00. I went straight to athlete check-in which never seems to have a long wait (the AWA express line was longer than the regular 🙂 ), check the forms, sign, grab bags, duffle bag, timing chip, buy some things at the store and you are done in 10 minutes. From there I was able to check-in early so that was great. I would then begin my standard eating pattern for Houston. Macaroni Grill for lunch and dinner on Thursday (pasta with marinara and chicken breast), lunch again on Friday followed by Grimaldi’s Pizza Friday night 🙂 There are lots of things to do around the Woodlands and no end of food options.

I really just relaxed Thursday and laid everything out on the bed that I would need to pack in the transition bags and for race morning. I would later unpack and recheck multiple times including when I actually drop off the bags 🙂

Friday I woke up early, watched some TV, ate a bagel and rechecked the bags. The transition is just over half a mile walk from the IRONMAN village so I decided to walk my bike and bags to the transition which had a 10am open time. I had already let air out my tires to avoid any risk of popping over night. The check-in is very smooth. Essentially as you walk in they take a picture of your bike, they will direct you to where you mount your bike (by the seat) and then you go drop off your run and bike transition bags in the designated areas. There are lots of volunteers to help direct you. You can also access the bags on race morning if you happen to forget anything. And that’s it for Friday! I went and had lunch, saw Avengers Infinity War (which was great), ate pizza and went to bed early and actually had a good nights sleep which is rare for me before an IRONMAN. I was more relaxed than usual.

Saturday morning I set an alarm for 3am. Ate an apple sauce, protein drink with milk and a bagel along with some Gatorade. I got ready and headed out about 4:40 as transition opened at 5am to check your bike, drop off drinks, pump up tires etc. I had my morning clothes bag with me with wetsuit, googles, cap and drinks etc. I had my tri-suit on and my timing chip already round my ankle. Remember to take a drink with you to drink while you wait and I take an extra bagel as well as I like to keep eating 🙂

I arrived a little before 5am but they were already letting people in. One thing I didn’t bring which I will in future was a head lamp as it was a pain trying to check bike, pump tires etc. You can take your bike up to the technicians who will pump up your tires for you but normally I just borrow a pump from someone around me which is what I did this time. I filled up my aero bottle, put an extra bottle of water on the bike and went and checked my gear bags were still there 🙂

From transition its about a mile walk to the swim start. It was about 55 degrees so I had a long sleeve shirt over the tri-suit and was a nice walk down. Once you arrive at the swim start you get the body markings done and you can also drop off the bike and run special needs bags if you choose to use them. This is also where you drop off your morning clothes bag before the swim start. There are quite a lot of port-a-potties however the queues get big very quickly so use them early!

The age groupers start at 6:40 and for the first time in Texas IRONMAN history it was WET SUIT LEGAL!!! This was great news for me. About 6:10 I put on layers of suntan spray, some glide around my neck then put on my wetsuit, dropped off my morning clothes bag (which would be waiting for me at the finish) and took my place in the 1:30 to 1:40 self-seed location for the swim. I was in the water just before 7am. The water gives basically zero visibility (it’s gross) and I tend to stay on the outside of the pack to minimize getting kicked! I maintained a steady pace and its a basic out, back, then down a canal to the finish line. The visibility out of the water was pretty good so when you poke up your head you could see the buoys to stay on track. As always lots of helpers to get you out the water, help get out the wetsuit, short run and then grab the bike gear bag and into the changing tent. I did a 1:31 swim which was good for me so very happy there.

I grabbed my bike and off I went. There was very little wind and the temperature was not too bad. About every 10 miles there are aid stations which bottles of water, bottles of orange Gatorade, gels and some food. I had my own food which was a gel every hour and at 20 minutes and 40 minutes past the hour half a waffle. The bike course is about 30 miles on regular roads and 80 miles on the toll road (two loops). It’s basically flat the entire time with some minimal rolling hills. Now this year there was a bit of controversy, packs of cyclists that were drafting at a massive level. Below are a few pictures I grabbed off social media.

There were multiple packs of 50 riders that caused numerous accidents, drove people off the road and were breaking the rules of IRONMAN where there should be NO drafting. Now I was lucky. I saw the packs but they were on the opposite side of the road (benefit of me being slow) but I was not impacted by them but there are a lots of stories about them causing accidents where people were hurt and ultimately they are just cheating themselves. How did this happen? Why did the officials not break them up and send them to the penalty tent as in every other year there are lots of motorbikes with officials that would stop this type of thing.

Based on various threads it appears the officials were all pulled off the course for athlete safety. There are 3 lanes on the toll road. The middle lane was supposed to be used for the outbound, the inner most lane (by the median) for the inbound with the outer lane for support vehicles. It seems as soon as the age groupers got on the course they/we all used the outer most lane in addition to middle lane at which point it was considered unsafe to have the officials out on the course as they may hit cyclists. The bike support vehicles were still out though so not 100% clear on the difference.

The peloton aside, the bike was uneventful and fast (except for the fact for some reason I had to stop to pee 3 times in the first 2 hours, I think I drank too much 🙂 ). At mile 80 one of my aero pads flew off so the last 30 miles sucked as I had to rest my arm on Velcro but not that big of a deal. It was also 110 miles as they had to shorten the course by 2 miles for athlete safety. I think the original turn point on the tollway was a tight turn which if you went too fast would end with a 40 foot drop so they felt that was not the best idea 🙂 I’m fine with safety first there! Bike was 5:40:40 which again was pretty good for me (especially considering all the pee breaks 🙂 ).

I felt good running to the run transition except when I took a deep breath it made me cough. This had happened to me on previous IRONMANs. As I realized yesterday its the swim. I don’t swim much and when you swim you take short, deep breaths. I’m just not used to it so I need to focus on that more in my training as that inability to take deep breaths caused me challenges on the run! I got changed and headed out. Note at every transition I reapply sun screen AND let the volunteers add their own layer as well. Better safe than sorry.

The run is 3 laps. There are areas with lots of crowd support and areas that are very quiet but its super flat and a pleasant run.

I started a steady run at about 10 minute mile pace which included 20 second walk at each mile to drink from the aid station (which are every mile and had water, lime Gatorade, red bull, coke, some food and later in the night chicken broth however I actually finished this year before that was available 🙂 ). I had my own gels which I wanted to take every 30 minutes. I managed this for the first 2 hours but after that had trouble eating.

The sun was strong. It was only about 82 degrees but there was almost no shade and the sun was relentless. My goal was to run non-stop until at least mile 13 but at mile 10 when I stopped to drink I couldn’t get started again straight away and from that point on it was a mixture of run/walk until I got to the last couple of miles when I ran as best I could until reaching that final turn when everything goes out the window and you just run trying to fool everyone that you’d been doing that the entire previous 26 miles 🙂 I’m English and the sun just saps everything from me but also my inability to take deep breaths was an issue and my body just didn’t want to eat the gel so of course I was lacking energy. I think I needed to be drinking more, taking more salt and just forcing myself to eat the gels every 30 minutes. Lessons learned 🙂 Final run was 5:12:40 which was disappointing as I’ve done better than that on other IRONMANs but overall I set a PR as the swim and bike had been good. Final time 12:47:35!

Once done the amazing volunteers helped me grab a drink, get a picture, a slice of stone cold pizza (incentive to run faster for next time 🙂 ) then I walked straight to the Westin where I was unable to sleep the entire night but the day was done.

So I was happy and a little disappointed as I felt I could have done better on the run but still overall a new PR so I’ll take it 🙂 The next morning I got to the store at 6:15 where I grabbed a chair and joined the line ready to buy my finisher jacket, polo, hoodie and t-shirts 🙂 They were all awesome this year!

I know it was 2 miles shorter on the bike but even with an extra 6 minutes of bike I’d still have PR’d. Additionally I read some people saying because it was 2 miles shorter they are not a true IRONMAN. I disagree 100%. 2 miles makes zero difference. Some IRONMANs have 110 mile bike, some 111, some 116 (damn you Chattanooga), some have downstream swims, some are hilly, some are flat, some are really hot, some are cool. You can’t compare. You did 2.4 mile swim, 110 mile bike then a 26.2 mile marathon. YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!

Now on to Boulder!

 

Just got notification I got Silver All World Athlete status for 2018. That’s based on being in the top 5% of full Ironman event athletes in 2017 for the points gained (based on the time difference between you and the person that one) from your top 3 Ironman’s. Now lots of people don’t do 3 or more which limits how many points they can accrue but yay Silver and yay great benefits like separate event check-in, AWA bib and swim caps for 2018. The 1000 point one if when you wear a wetsuit if its wetsuit optional. In that case you can only get 1000 points.

IRONMAN Florida 2017

Sitting on the plane coming back from New York (will make sense by the end) and thought I’d spend some time writing up my IRONMAN Florida 2017 experience. This was a late addition for me which meant the only places left were the IRONMAN Foundation places which meant I got bib number 84 and slightly better bike/bag placement and an expedited check-in line which as it turns out saved my butt 🙂

Because I booked this late I stayed at the host hotel, the Boardwalk Beach Resort. After booking I looked at the reviews which were pretty terrible so I looked forward to my arrival with a little bit of dread. I arrived Thursday (as there was an early flight from DFW (via Atlanta) to the Panama City local airport) and after a 30 minute taxi ride arrived. The IRONMAN village and check-in were actually in the Boardwalk Beach Resort car park so that was super convenient. I couldn’t check-in to my room yet as it was only 12:30 and I was told check-in for the hotel would be around 2:30 so I just took my suitcase with me to IRONMAN registration and the line was ridiculous. I’d never seen such a long line. Now this was the last day of registration but there must have been 100 people ahead of me. Fortunately that IMF entry gave you different check-in so I got to basically cut out the entire line, fill in the paperwork, get my stuff, timing chip then out through the store where I bought some shirts and pins. It was about 1:15 so I thought I’d try my luck checking in and they let me. They were friendly and helpful. Grabbed a quick bite of pizza (which took 30 minutes!) then off to the room.

Is the hotel stellar? No. But it was fine. I’m guessing its a spring break type hotel. There were two double beds in the room and bunk beds. There was a fridge (which had orange rust up the side of it) and a microwave. The ceiling was cracking over the window but the actual room was clean. Sheets clean. Towels and bathroom clean. Maybe I got lucky but it was totally fine. The bed was a bit hard but really wasn’t that big of a deal and you had lots of space. I did put a spare sheet over the bottom bunk bed before I put my stuff on it as there were some stains that I didn’t want to identify or risk touching 🙂 Now there are nicer hotels but this being the actual host location had some big advantages that I’ll get to and if I did Florida again I would stay here again even though I’m sure there are nicer places to stay.

I unpacked and laid all my gear out on the spare bed as always. I use the gear list in the athlete guide and as always picture myself from feet to head of the gear I’ll need to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. Once I was all laid out I put it in the bags (only to take out again and recheck about 5 times before final drop off).

There were no stores super close so I walked to the Walmart to buy water, Gatorade etc. It was only about 3/4 of a mile I think up the road but it was hot then I had to carry it all back which I think was a mistake with hindsight. I ordered pizza and pasta from Hungry Howie’s which was tasty. Went to bed early.

Next day got up, rechecked contents of gear bags, walked up to Waffle House to have egg whites and a waffle (about 1 mile round trip and was nice and cool). I walked down to the sand and it was quite the view (this was basically right outside my room as well) and this is where the swim would take place the next day (Saturday). The waves seemed intimidating however there were some people out swimming and what I noticed was by the time you got to waist level walking out (which was quite a way) the waves stopped and from that point it was fairly calm so you didn’t actually swim in the wave crashing part.

I had a quick work call then off to gear drop off which was literally outside my door. Walked up to TriBike Transport (which was as close to bike drop-off as humanly possible, right next to it), they put on my pedals, quick ride around to ensure was OK, put on my bike stickers then dropped off my bike. I had a day to kill and this happened to be the day Thor Ragnarok came out. I had researched before hand and there was an IMAX in town so I’d already bought a DBOX 3D seat (the DBOX seat actually moves during the film). I ubered to town, had lunch at Olive Garden (pasta with marinara sauce and chicken breast along with some breadsticks and 5 cheese marinara dip) then walked to the movie where I snacked on some Buncha Crunch while enjoying an awesome movie. Then uber back to hotel where I had Hungry Howie pizza and went to bed.

I slept OK but work up around 2:30 am and this is where the Boardwalk really started to shine. Transition opened at 4:30. This was outside my room. I went out, got my numbers marked on me, put my drinks on my bike, pumped up tires to 100, checked my gear bags were still there and normally now I would spend 2.5 hours waiting sitting on the floor, queuing for the restroom (which I’ll pee 3 times normally as my body panics). Well, I just went back to my room. I stayed there for 1.5 hours, watched a bit of a movie on my iPad, used my bathroom, drank some Gatorade etc. It was awesome. I could even still hear the announcements! THIS is why I would stay here again. At 6 am I decided to wander out already in my wetsuit with a layer of sunscreen spray applied. Dropped of a morning clothes bag which literally just had a room key wrapped in a towel in it (I had also put a room key in my running belt the day before) then out to the beach where I had to walk on the sand (I HATE sand. HATE the feeling. don’t know why, I just do) and was chatting to people. I’m always amazed at how friendly everyone is. It’s awesome and while it was great being in the room obviously I missed out on some additional time talking to people.

It was a self seed swim start. Volunteers where holding up signs for expected swim time so I put myself in the 1:30 slot. At 6:30 the pros went off and 6:40 the age groups started to go in. I think I hit the water about 7:00 and they had a timing mat as you went over so your time started as you went in the water (this is normal to me but some people said this had not always been the case). It was a two-loop swim and you got out after the first loop to run back round to the loop start. My wetsuit is armless but it was fine. I think the water was about 71 degrees. You waded in quite a way until you started swimming and the waves were gone at that point. There was a little chop but nothing really bad. I had a hard time seeing the buoys and found myself off course a few times but nothing too bad. I prefer to stay on the outside as I’ll sacrifice a few minutes to not get kicked in the face. The water was really clear and you could see the sand at the bottom. Was nice. The salt water was not. I’d never swam in the ocean before and the salt water sucked. I didn’t really feel it added buoyancy beyond the wet suit but who knows. My tongue was tingling and obviously just got worse as you continued swimming. As I finished loop 1 I was at 40 minutes which was great for me. Thankfully they had cups of water as you ran round to loop 2 so that helped. Loop 2 was more of the same (except the sun now blinded you after the first turn as you were swimming straight at it (however this is a short leg as you quickly turn again to head back to the beach)). I finished in 1:25 which I was pleased with and got help pulling off the wetsuit, stood under some hoses setup to help get sand and salt off then off to grab T1 bag and into a big conference room to get changed.

Then out to the bike. Its one big loop and its pretty flat. There are a few rollers in the middle but really nothing to bad. I never had to change my front gear. As always terrific support on the course about every 10 miles. I have my own nutrition (Gu every hour, then half waffle 20 minutes and 40 minutes) but use their Gatorade and occasionally swig of water. It was uneventful which is great! I set a PR on the bike of 5:52:37 so was super happy with that. I had a new bike computer, the Garmin Edge 520 which performed great. Was a nice big screen and showed everything I needed. As always my butt and neck were hurting but that’s just the norm now.

At transition they take your bike, helped grab my T2 bag and off I went to change. I was feeling pretty good. This feeling would not last. This was a two-loop run course.

Now my old PR was 12:54 ish. So far with the good swim and bike and my transitions I could do a 5 hour marathon and still come in at 12:40!!! This would be awesome. It was a completely flat marathon course and I’d done a 5 hour marathon in IRONMAN Texas which was similar flat course and temperature so my hopes were high. However as soon as I started running it felt tough. I’m not sure why. My legs had been aching a little on the previous day. I think maybe training during the week (Wednesday I did a sub 2 hour half marathon on the treadmill, Thursday elliptical before flight for an hour) then the walking Thursday in the heat had maybe taken it out of me a little but I was struggling. I managed to run for the first 8 miles but then had to start walking for a bit then running for the next 8 miles but at 16 miles my running was getting slower than my walking 🙂 My mouth was tingling and I just felt dead to the world. I was trying to eat a Gu every 30 minutes but as the run goes on that gets harder to do so I think I was not getting enough sugar. Also the Gatorade gets harder to drink and you just want water. At 16 miles I just had to walk. I grabbed a cookie and nibbled on that as I walked and drank water. I chatted with some fellow walkers for the next 4 miles. After an hour I felt better. Tingling had gone, felt like I had some gas in the tank. I looked at my watch. If I could maintain just over 5 miles an hour I could beat my old PR so off I went running again. It was run walk but managed to maintain for the next 3 miles until I just crashed again and this time pretty much for good. I felt like crap and really struggled to keep moving. As I got to the end I ran the last part and finished the marathon in 5:25:23. Ugh. Luckily because of the bike and swim my total time was 13:05:49 which I’m actually fine with but obviously disappointed as with this flat course I really should have been able to beat my Chattanooga time which was super hilly (BUT it had the super easy swim). Below are some pictures and I may stop buying them as I realize I look exactly the same in all the races 🙂 Same pained expressions, same happiness when its over 🙂

And the final split times.

After it was all done a quick pickup of the gear bags (Tribike had already took my bike which caused me confusion at first as I didn’t think I booked the valet service!) then the morning clothes bag had to be picked up from a different location (where you dropped it off). Went back to my room, had a protein drink and some pizza, showered then utterly failed to fall asleep like every other IRONMAN lately. I can only assume its because all day I’m eating nothing but sugar and caffeine then at the end of the day the brain says “nope, not turning off, you can just lay here all night”.

I got up the next morning not too sore (but it got worse as the day went on). At 5:30 walked past the store and there were already people waiting!! I went to Waffle House for egg whites and a waffle again then took place in the line at about 6 am. I was probably about 40 people back and I was the last person they let in in the first batch when it opened at 7am :-). I bought my finisher t-shirt, polo and jacket (I love the jackets this year).

Went back to the room and decided to just head to the airport since there was no Internet at the hotel (the entire time no Internet, that sucked!!!!!) and at least I would have Internet at the airport. I had to speak at a conference in New York on Monday so I took a flight to NYC (via Atlanta) where on the Monday I was speaking on the 10th floor of 7 World Trade Center (it was a Hybrid Identity Protection conference) and was actually hosted by the company that owns and is building the new World Trade Center and at lunch we had a talk by the CEO and owner, Larry Silverstein about the experiences which was amazing. The view was great and I also went and saw the Memorial Waterfall close up.

Now I’m on the flight home. That’s the end of 2017 IRONMAN for me. I’ve done Texas, Santa Rosa, Chattanooga and Florida this year. Next year I have 5 booked which will get me to 12 and I can apply for the Kona lottery! Overall a good year and I’m excited for 2018.

• Texas – 4/28 (done before 3 times)
• Boulder = 6/10 (I’m nervous about this one as everyone says the altitude is a killer)
• Lake Placid – 7/22 (hilly I hear)
• Wisconsin – 9/9 (apparently you should “love hills”, I don’t)
• Chattanooga 9/30 (done before twice and this is where I PR’d)

Up next is the Dopey in Disney World January 2018 🙂 but I can take a little break from training.