Tag: Ironman

My first IRONMAN was in 2015 which was IRONMAN Texas. I finished but it was a brutal day during which I got second degree sunburn. That evening I called my wife and said never again. The next day I decided I could do better. The next year I did Texas and Chattanooga and then learnt that if I did 12, I could go to Kona and take part in the world championship via the Legacy program which then became the end game, take part in the world championship. This was originally supposed to be 2020 but Covid pushed it to 2021 and then 2022. During that time, I did other events making Kona my 22nd full IRONMAN and the 4th of 2022 after Texas, St George and Alaska. St George was the 2021 delayed World Championship being relocated out of Hawaii for the first time meaning I would take part in two world championships in the same year! Kona was also to be a big family vacation and from day one the plan was for my family to have the IRONMAN VIP treatment where they could place the kukui nut lei round my neck at the end and get to go out on a boat and see the swim up close.

We arrived on the Saturday, giving us a full week before the event to acclimatize and have some fun. It was a very long day, 3-hour flight from DFW to LAX, 3-hour layover then 6-hour flight to Kona but all flights were on time and our luggage made it with no problems! I had shipped my bike with TriBike Transport a few weeks earlier. The Kona airport is very small and all open air. The bags took some time to arrive, but we then hopped on the shuttle to Budget, got our SUV and were on our way to the condo we had rented on the Ocean front. There had been some jumping around where we were going to stay. Originally, we were staying at the Westin but that was about 45 minutes North of the main IRONMAN location, and we heard horror stories about how busy everything would be and wondered how race day logistics would work being so far away. A few weeks before we found the great condo that would enable us to eat at home, was 1-mile from the IRONMAN start so we switched!

Sunday, I woke up at midnight (because of the 5-hour time difference) so I went for an 8-mile run up to the main town then North up the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway for 3 miles then back again. I showered and then my daughter was also awake, so we went to the 24-hour Safeway to buy essential supplies. $500 later we had vital supplies like Oreo O’s, garlic knots and a lot of other useless stuff that we didn’t end up using most of.

You had to book your check-in time in advance, and I had booked the first available, 9am on the Sunday, and they were extremely strict checking your booking. There was a line forming at 8:45 and after a brief ceremony they opened on time at 9am. I was delighted to be given a coin for the event then all the other goodies; backpack, towel, poster, bib (x2 so you could keep one), cool bike sticker, regular bag and bike stickers. You didn’t get your chip yet; you would get that at bike check-in. Remember, this was a 2-day event. Women and older men were Thursday, rest of men were Saturday.

You also got ANOTHER coin at the finish which is the coin on the right in the pictures.

There were a LOT of things in the store and I decided to buy a lot of T-shirts, T-shirts and hats for family, I bought the event tri-shorts, bike shirt, running shirt, socks. A lot of cookies were spent (the word used for money with the kids). We then took some pictures around the event posters and participant names.

I went and joined Fitness Forever to enable me to train still while on the island which offered a 2-week membership and then at the request of the children we dined on traditional Hawaiian cuisine for our first meal, McDonalds. We went to the beach next to our condo, wandered round the town and then had another local favorite for dinner, Kona Crust New York Style pizza. I took it as a win as at least it had the word Kona in the restaurant title. It was great pizza!

Monday, I woke up early but had to wait until 4am until the gym opened. I trained till 6:30 and loved it. This is the first time I had trained in a gym for 2.5 years since Covid started. I have been training at home but having all the equipment was amazing. When we got home, I started training at Lifetime Fitness again 🙂 I went to the gym every morning except Friday and Sunday.

At 8am there was a Legacy function and I got to meet several legends of the sport! Dave Scott was very chatty and it was great. We talked a lot about weight lifting after he commented I was a big guy and didn’t look like a normal triathlete. He is very much in favor of strength conditioning.

My family had VIP check-in at the host King Kamehameha hotel. We had the boat package which meant they were taken out onto the water during the swim portion of the Ironman, then given great viewing, meals and then would be on the finish line to put the lei round my neck. They each got AWESOME stuff. Full backpack (the same as mine as an athlete), same towel I got but also got cup, USB power charger, an amazing satchel type small bag (which I stole and you see in the gear picture above), polo shirt, pin (shown in coin picture) and more!

For the rest of the day we once again explored the local town but everyone was pretty tired so we took it easy as that night we had the manta ray snorkel night trip. On the way out we saw the most amazing complete rainbow ever! We saw 14 manta rays and they came up so close to us. This was the kids favorite part of the entire trip and I have a great gopro video of the key moments and have linked to a little 5 minute version of some highlights.

On Tuesday my wife and daughter went for a half day horse trail ride while Ben and I found some great scenic areas and messed around.

Wednesday was beach day. We all messed around in the Ocean and I got sunburnt which was obviously a mistake. In the afternoon we met a photographer at a different beach and had a great set of family pictures taken and then some of me swimming and running. When we got back Julie took a few pictures of me in my bike gear. I had to cut the arms off the XXL bike shirt as it cut the blood off to my arms (money well spent). We also discovered Ultimate Burger at lunch which was probably the best burger I’d ever had.

Thursday was the women’s event and we watched most of the day. During the swim we could see them swim past the condo and on the run, they ran past the condo. We were on the TV from an aerial shot. We even picked up cups Lucy and Daniella dropped :D. I also applied lots of sunburn cream as I was pretty burnt from Wednesday. This would prove to be a problem 😀

Friday, I prepared my bags and also went to the IRONMAN village and bought a hat for my Omius cooling blocks (which required me to buy a complete set again) and a race belt with a small pouch. They also had the finisher gear so bought the jacket and t-shirt but didn’t allow myself to look at it until I had earned it.

My registered check-in spot was from 12-1 but they were not checking and a HUGE line in the sun had formed which took about 30 minutes.

Your helmet had to go on the bike then hang up your bags (which were under a shade). You got your chip on way out after being weighed. I had actually lost weight over the past 5 days, also not good.

It was pasta for lunch then Kona Crust pizza for dinner. I had bought a swim skin just for Kona (not wetsuit legal as too warm) but decided against it because of the sun burn and it was cutting into me anyway. I was worried when you added the salt water it would basically just chaff really badly and cause pain. I showered, applied numbers and a layer of sunscreen. I went to bed at 7am with an alarm for 2:30 but as usual slept terribly.

My family had to be at the VIP check-in for 5am and I had 7:20 start so we left at 4:30 for the one mile walk down from the condo. On the walk down I commented on how tired and achy I felt. I’m not sure if it was just the sunburn, had been a busy week or was starting to come down with the cold I’ve been fighting ever since we left Kona on Tuesday.

I had just got an Apple Watch Ultra and decided to test it at this event. I put it in low battery mode and turned off cellular. In my tests it would lose about 5% power an hour during exercise which meant it should handle even the worst day!

Once we hit the village we separated, and I went to transition. You had no access to your gear bags but could put nutrition on your bike (a Gatorade and water for me) and I pumped up my tires to 80psi. I switched to tubeless 25’s which means they run at a lower pressure. I also noticed everyone else had a swim skin, boooooo.

There were huge lines for the toilets but I figured the hotel would have urinals in their bathroom which they did and could bypass the lines so that was a great time saver. At 6am I joined the corral to start lining up. I saw Robert who had participated Thursday who advised to get up near the start as with such big waves may not even get to the start line on time in the water so followed that advice.

At about 7:10 they got my wave into the water where you swam about 100 yards to what is the starting point in the ocean with people on surf boards making sure you hold the line. I went to the far left and back a bit as I knew everyone else would be faster than me. I saw my family in one of the boats, which was really cool and we waved and blew kisses! You trod water for about 10 minutes until it was go time via the air horn. My wife took these pictures of me.

My legs felt pretty heavy, and it was a tough swim. This was my first ever 2.4 without a wet suit and the salt water was not as buoyant as I had hoped. There were also two waves starting after me which as a slow swimmer I knew would catch me about halfway. Sure enough at the turnaround point that caught me and for 5 minutes I was thrown around, punched in the face, kicked and generally abused. I like to think by accident. The water was clear but I didn’t get to see that many cool underwater things because I was too busy trying to sight the buoys (which I struggled with in the choppy waves) and generally focusing on how miserable I was and how much longer would I be miserable 😀

Remember this is the world championship. Nearly everyone there is there because they won age group events and the older men and all women (most also faster than me) were Thursday. The only people that would be slower than me would be other legacy athletes and even among them I was likely slower. My expectation is I would be last out the water and maybe last on the day. I wasn’t but was pretty close to last out the water as the empty bike transition attested. The swim was VERY slow, 1 hour and 42 minutes. My worst ever by a lot. The swim skin may have helped slightly if I had had it on, but that wetsuit clearly helps me a lot normally (as I’m normally 90 minutes)!

I would like to say this is how I looked exiting.

But it was not. These were from the Wednesday photo day. What I actually looked like was:

At the transition I saw my family again as I got my gear bag which was awesome. I put on more sunscreen, shirt, nutrition and grabbed my bike and out I went. As I exited the tent the sun came out. Grr.

There was some wind outbound against you, but I just felt tired. The swim took a lot out of me and honestly with the sunburn, lots of activity all week I was just a bit spent and first few hours were tough. It was very lonely since nearly everyone was in front and as very high caliber athletes I was not catching many people.

On the plus side I only stopped to pee twice 😀 All the aid stations had lots of supplies and even though they were every 15ish miles because of a lack of volunteers (an issue this year because of the 2-day event) it was not an issue and I changed water and Gatorade at every aid station and got a new gel when needed.

The headwind became a tailwind on the way back and I started to feel some strength coming back. The view of the ocean was great but you were basically on a highway for 112 miles surrounded by volcanic rock.

Total time was 6:11 which I was OK with but my average power was very low, around 160 which I think was just a function of how lousy I felt for the first half.

T2 was very slow as I knew my hands had got burnt on the bike as had my legs and was trying to apply lots of sunscreen which at this point could not do much. I had tried to apply more sunscreen during the bike but it did nothing.

Once again I would like to say these were pictures of me during the run.

But once again these were from Wednesday. Most pictures from the actual event would be me jogging, power walking lol.

I saw my family outside our condo on the way out at about mile 1.3 and again at about 5 and they made little signs and it was awesome seeing them.

If the bike seemed lonely the run was even more lonely. At about 6pm it got dark and many of the roads were not lit so I was running alone and in pitch black for large sections. They did warn us up front to have a headlamp if would be finishing late which I ignored although it was OK. You could see the white road line and the roads were in good condition so no tripping up etc. They had started to collapse the aid stations towards the end but still had all the supplies.

I jogged/walked at the start but the day just took its toll and had to power walk most of the last 16 miles but about 10 of those were with someone else power walking so that was nice!

My legs sunburn hurt, my feet hurt and I felt horrible and just tired but at mile 25 that all went away which was all downhill. I just started running and that final stretch down Ali’i Drive with everyone cheering made all the pain go away. Soon would get to see my family again and realize a huge goal.

Hearing Mike call out my name was amazing and then seeing my family waiting to place the beads round my neck was just the best.

You then went and got your morning clothes bag, finisher shirt, hat, medal and athlete finish coin.

You got your picture taken and then food was available in the recovery area but I skipped that to rejoin my family and grab my bike and gear bags. We hobbled to Tri Bike (which was on way to the condo), dropped off the bike then made it back where I collapsed into the chair begging for chocolate milk and pizza.

The Ultra watch was at 19% and for the last mile I turned on cellular so my family got better tracking on me. The only issue I had with the watch was at one point it asked me to confirm I was still training (rude) and at the end the screen was locked stopping me ending the workout. I think it was a mix of water and sleep lock. Holding down the crown eventually fixed it. I had it in manual mode between elements of the triathlon and not automatic as I worried if you paused on the bike it would think you entered T2. You can’t end workout with the action button which I think is a mistake but you do use the action button to switch between phases and to start. Overall, even if it took 17 hours to complete the battery would have lasted. The only other thing I don’t like is the activity details are only available on the phone and not via PC which is why all the detail shots are phone screenshots.

As usual I got no sleep that night and at 12:30 got out of bed and watched the recording of the pro race. My legs were not that bad Sunday mainly because I just didn’t stress them during the marathon as I just felt so crappy. For the next 2 days we took it pretty easy and headed home Tuesday. Kona airport was fine if pretty minimal. We made our connecting flight even though we were a little late and had to run between the terminals and somehow even our bags still made it!!! The LAX to DFW flight was a bigger plane and we had little mini cabins each with fold flat seats like international business class so that was awesome and the kids thought was the greatest thing ever. It was on this flight I really started to feel pretty sick which is why only posting this race report so late, been feeling under the weather since been back.

Did I have the day I wanted? No, not at all. I had done quite a bit of running ahead of this Kona to condition my legs. I had done a lot of cycling and was in great shape. I hadn’t swum enough but I was OK with that. I had hoped to PR at Kona but was obviously far from it. It was just not my day. Whether it was just an off day, the sunburn, the fact it had been a hectic week and I just started the day tired, the start of my cold, maybe everything it was far from my dream day. But I finished like many other of my past IRONMANs. I toughed it out and completed the goal, to take part in Kona and finish number 22. 8 years in the making and definitely once in a lifetime.

And with that this was my swan song for Ironman. I have achieved the goal and I think now it’s time to focus on a different set of challenges. I want to spend some time focusing more on my weightlifting. I want to do the Leadville 100 trail run in 2023. I’ll always find some other crazy thing but my desire to swim-bike-run was completed with Kona.

As always I couldn’t have done this without the support of my amazing wife Julie and it was great she and the kids were there for this one and medaled me at the end. Thank you!! Xoxo

🤙 Mahalo

This is the inaugural year of Ironman Alaska, being held in the capital Juneau. This would be my third Ironman of 2022 (after Texas and St George) and my 21st overall. I’ve never been to Alaska so was excited to be traveling somewhere new. Leading up to the event there had been some stress from participants related to lodging (some limited hotel space but in the end many locals rented out rooms or entire homes) and bike transport (I used TriBike Transport which was awesome as always) but I think it worked out well for nearly everyone.

As it turned out there was another stress, temperature, specifically of the swim :). As we got closer the weather reports were getting worse. Lots of talk of cold temperatures and something called an “atmospheric river” which conjured up visions of solid walls of water falling from the sky but the locals said “we call that rain”. The real concern was the swim was looking like it could be close to 55 degrees with even colder air temperatures.

I had planned to use my sleeveless wetsuit with the extra arm sleeves like for St George however that was 63 degrees. I panicked so on the Tuesday before leaving I rented a sleeved wetsuit from PlayTri and also had an O’Neil thermal shirt. Obviously hugely breaking the “nothing new on race day” but worth it. I already had thermal booties, extra under cap and silicon ear plugs. I had to get an XXL as when I tried on the XL at the store the seam on the arm ripped 😦 They were very nice about it and only commented “you are not built for triathlon and you are not built for our wetsuits”. I also bought a Gore-Tex very light jacket and gloves for the bike and potentially the run.

I flew out on Thursday (for the Sunday event) using Alaska Air which I’d never flown before but they were AWESOME. The food was great, pancakes with sausage at breakfast and a great chicken sandwich at lunch. The view as we approached Juneau was amazing and as we were landing it felt like the mountains were right next to you.

I’d arranged for a car to pick me up from the airport and they were kind enough to quickly take me to the athlete village which was at the high school so I could check-in, collect my race packet, chip and backpack before heading downtown (about 10 miles South) where I was staying at the Baranof hotel. It was in the car where I learnt that Juneau had a temperate rainforest which is why it rained so much there. I also learnt it was in 4 different climate systems which is why you never know what the weather is actually going to be. What it was predicting as I arrived on Thursday was heavy rain (the atmospheric river) for Friday and Saturday and maybe into Sunday. The water temperature for the swim was around 60 but was dropping.

The hotel was basic but clean. Everyone was very friendly which would continue for the entire trip. The locals were amazing. The nicest and most welcoming people you will ever meet. The room was very small but quiet. It didn’t have a fridge which was a disappointment and the reception said they didn’t have any. No chocolate milk for John. I headed to the grocery store which was only 1/2 mile walk away. Grabbed water, sports drinks and a few other things. On the walk back I grabbed a cheeseburger from a street truck, had a little wander around the local stores (where weed was very popular) and back to the room where I went to sleep at 6pm. Remember Juneau is 3 hours behind Texas and I wanted to try and stay as close to Texas time as I could.

Slept great. Got up about 2am and went down to the little gym. Did some running and biking then lifted what weights they had then went for a little walk outside and took a picture of the scenery which was great. During the day there was about 3 big cruise ships where the people would tour Juneau for the day.

I had nothing to really do on Friday since I’d already checked in at registration and bike and bag drop off was Saturday (since a Sunday race). All I wanted to do was go to transition to check my bike had arrived safely. The start, T1, T2 and finish were all at the University campus next to Auke lake which was away from the athlete village (which was unusual) however IRONMAN were running shuttles every 15 minutes from downtown both to the athlete village and then to the transition. This was very well run and I barely ever had to wait. I grabbed the shuttle to transition which dropped you off at the end of a very long road. From the shuttle drop off it was 1/2 mile to the actual transition area. It was raining but I handled it like a champ (not). This would not be the last time I would be in the rain.

My bigger concern was doing this walk AFTER the IRONMAN on Sunday but oh well. Got to the transition. TriBike Transport had my bike, I quickly peddled it around to test the brakes (which barely worked in the rain) and could change gear then gave it back to them (since I had no way of getting it back downtown). I then walked down to the swim start (which was about 1/3 mile walk downhill which clearly meant would be 1/3 mile uphill after the swim to transition). Many people were doing test swims and most were saying “It’s cold when you get in but after 100 yards really not bad”. My preparation consisted of putting my hand in the water at the edge and going “brrrrr”. I also stuck my head under the cold shower in the hotel for about 3 seconds but decided that sucked and why punish myself multiple times. I’d just suffer on the day. 🙂 I figured with my long sleeve wetsuit, thermal shirt under I’d be fine. I walked back up to transition then back to the shuttle where a shuttle was waiting and back to downtown.

For lunch I went to Salt where I had amazing French Onion Soup then cheeseburger and fries. Not my normal diet pre IRONMAN but my options were limited and I could find no where to get pasta. Back to the hotel where I did a little bit of work, recorded my weekly Azure update while sitting on the bed as my room had no usable desk then Dominos pizza for dinner. Then to sleep at 5pm which was glorious.

Didn’t wake up till about 4am which was just fantastic as I knew I’d get little sleep for the next 2 nights. I went for a little walk then packed my bike and run transition bags. It was looking very likely the swim would be around 55 and was going to be raining for most of the day. My focus was on finishing the event and didn’t really care about transition times. I therefore was going to wear swim trunks under the wetsuit, I would then change into tri shorts and bike shirt and then at the run would change again into run shorts, thermal long sleeve shirt, fresh socks. I packed my transition bags accordingly. My bike bag also had my gore-Tex rain jacket and gloves and planned to continue the gore-Tex jacket onto the run as well. No food was allowed in the bags overnight as they would attract Yogi and Boo Boo so the food would be added the next morning where we would have access to bike and bags.

I walked to the shuttle, headed to transition, got my bike from TriBike transport (which was soaking wet), put my bike stickers on (forgot a towel so was not great) and dropped everything off. As usual I wrote my number on all my transition bags in addition to the sticker which was especially critical as most likely the stickers would be falling off with the non-stop rain.

After dropping everything off I walked back to the shuttle for downtown. Then Salt again for onion soup and cheeseburger (yes, still terrible as pre IRONMAN food but still limited options), watched some movies then Domino’s pizza again for dinner. Went to sleep at 6. I planned to get up at 2am and leave the room at 4am however I woke up about 11pm and never really went back to sleep.

Shuttles were due to start at 4:15 to transition which opened at 4:30 but I left the room at 3:50 and when I got to the shuttle stop at 4 the shuttles were already there and I got to transition at 4:20 ish. The little 5 minute walk and then time to get ready for the planned 6am start.

Pumped my tires up to 90 PSI based on the expected wet roads. Put some drinks on my bike and added nutrition to my bike and run bags. The transition tent was open so I went in and boy was it heated. Must have been 110 degrees. I put on my booties and wetsuit (I was already wearing swimming trunks and thermal shirt). I walked down to the swim start where I put in my silicon ear plugs, double cap and put Vaseline on my face and hands as I had read that while it would rinse off it would lessen any initial cold water shock. There was also talk of pouring water down the suit before entering but didn’t do that. They were obviously very concerned about people panicking in the cold as they kept announcing “take your time starting”, “exhale as you first put head in the water”.

At around 5:45 Mike Reilly made an announcement “This is an important announcement for the athletes. The water temperature is the coldest measured all week, 56 degrees, and with guidance from our governing body the swim will be a single loop of 1.2 miles. We will start at 6:30 instead of 6:00 and total time available for the Ironman will be 15:50”. Not going to lie, I was pretty relieved as I had been very concerned about the cold. Some around were disappointed but most seemed to agree it was the right call. After the event I heard the volunteers state that the last 1/3 of the people getting out would never have made another lap.

The 15:50 adjusted total time was because the swim normally has 2:20 to complete so when halved you remove 1:10 from the normal 17 hours. Later on they actually changed their minds and the time allowed was the full 17 hours which caused a fair amount of confusion. I’m assuming they extended it because the transition times were so long because of the cold and rain and didn’t want a DNF of 50%.

At the delayed 6:30 they started to get people into the water. They let in 2 people every 5 seconds. That is very spread out compared to the regular 4-5 every 3 seconds. I think this was to give people more time to adjust to the cold and not feel pressured. Also it was a fairly small amount of participants giving them more flexibility. Out of the 914 that checked in only 832 actually started the swim. A typical IRONMAN may easily have 1,500 or more.

People self seeded based on their estimated swim time. I got in the 1:30 group. As I entered the water I quickly got my face in and yes it was cold, but honestly not that bad. My body never got cold for the entire swim and even my face and hands were fine. I was slow, took me 49 minutes compared to my normal 45 based on 90 minute full. I swam a very different line than normal. I did start out on the outside but somehow I found myself quickly on the inside of the buoys (yes I was that idiot that swam across everyone) and quickly had to adjust but I then just swam directly between the buoys which made sighting very easy. The visibility above water was great, under water you couldn’t see much however the water tasted like bottled water but I was careful not to drink much knowing that many in front of me had peed in it! The swim was very easy. A few people bumped into me but less than normal and was no biggy at all. The second half of the swim felt very fast and ended in no time. I think I would have been OK if it had been the normal 2 loops given I didn’t feel cold at all after the 1 loop but who knows. Could have gone down hill and I also had the thermal shirt etc so many would have been in a worse position.

Then the about 1/3 mile run uphill to transition. I didn’t take my wetsuit off at water edge, instead stayed in it to avoid getting cold during the hike to transition. The tent was PACKED but still very warm and I was pretty slow, I think total was 23 minutes which included the hike and then just getting the wetsuit off, getting dressed in bike kit then grabbing bike and heading out. The bike was two loops along the highway.

I think it started to rain nearly straight away as I got on the bike. Lucky I had purchased a gore-Tex rain jacket and gloves which were awesome. The rain didn’t cause many problems as the route was completely straight with only the turnaround for the two loops meaning minimal braking or turning. That part was great. The course itself was tough. It was never flat. It was up or down. About 1/3 of each loop was this chip seal road which made it tougher. Couple with rain and wind made for a tough bike ride. You often shared the road with cars that while considerate was a little close at times.

At about mile 25 I felt like I was sinking and soon was nearly kneeing myself in the face. Yep, saddle had fallen down. I just had it serviced so thanks a lot for that 🙂 I stopped and about 5 minutes later had raised it and off I went but had not raised it enough so shortly after stopped again and had to move it. Also my left shoe was having trouble clipping in which was causing issues and snapped out a few times. Time for new cleats on my shoes I think! Had to stop to pee a bunch of times (no clue what is going on) but overall I found the ride fine. There were a lot of false flats/declines but really didn’t find the ride particularly hard. It was hard to maintain power as was always up or down but my normalized power was around 217 I think. The rain made it a little miserable and you were really focusing on the road so I missed a lot of the amazing scenery. The aid stations were always well stocked and the volunteers were fantastic. Off the charts energy from everyone.

6:43:17 was my bike time which I was happy with given the toughness of the course and the mechanical issues. My bike was just caked in mud. They had cloths in transition but could do little against the muck all over my legs 🙂 Into completely dry kit and put my jacket back on (but not the gloves). As soon as I started running I had a pretty bad pain in my quad making me limp. I quickly applied some deep heat (had 2 little sachets with me) and after a few minutes it went away. My plan was to jog the downhills and some flat but walk the uphills. I figured this would nicely mix up running and walking but that was not the case. This run course was some kind of mystical MC Escher course and it seemed like you were always going downhill or flat so i was always jogging. This was of course impossible.

After a couple of miles I came across another runner doing the same as me, Matthew, and we ran together for much of the first 16 miles which was great to have someone to talk to. It rained on and off for the entire run. When it stopped running I would take off the jacket and tie round my waist.

The run was two loops and 2 of those miles each loop were through an enchanted forest which was beautiful. There was not aid during that portion but it warned you ahead of time so you could grab extra drink etc. There was even a rainbow at one point during the run. I think Mike Reilly was at the end of it.

After running much of the first 16 miles I walk/jogged the next 10. In the end my run time was just under 5:45 and was happy with that. Like the bike course the run had great aid support and had equally awesome volunteers.

Mike Reilly was there to call me over the line and I even gave him a fist bump as I crossed the line. The medal was huge and awesome and then they gave you your finisher shirt and hat. My total time was 13:51:48 and it felt great to finish. I came in the top half of my division, gender and overall but I never care that much about that. I felt I gave a good effort and am proud of the accomplishment. They had pizza and other food available. I grabbed my morning clothes bag, my gear bags and bike. I dropped the bike at TriBike then took the long walk to the shuttle where one was waiting, to downtown, walk to hotel then into the shower to try and clean off the dirt caked all over me. Had a bagel for dinner as nothing else was open and a bunch of protein bars.

As usual I couldn’t sleep. I think I drifted off around 1:30 and was woken up by my alarm at 2am as a taxi was picking me up at 3am for my 5:20 flight home!

In the end 725 finished out of the 839 who actually started. Which is a pretty normal DNF rate I think. If they had not halved the swim and not increased the time available to 17 hours likely would have been much lower number of finishers which would not have looked good for the inaugural event. I know some people are grumbling about the change to 17 hours not being clear mid way through but ultimately the “standard” time would have been 15:50 given the shortened swim so anything above that would be a bonus that should not be relied upon.

Overall it was an amazing event. Juneau is a small town but it really got behind the event and I really can’t think of an IRONMAN I have done that had better support. Huge congrats to the entire team, volunteers and town. Thank you for having us!

I booked this when it was just IRONMAN St George and then it became the World Championship as once again Corona virus blocked Kona (which I was supposed to be at 2020 and 2021 for my legacy slot). When it became the World Championship you were given the option to stay or transfer. I of course stayed! This is the first time ever the World Championship was outside of Hawaii and the course at St George is tougher with 7500 feet of elevation gain on the bike and 1500 on the run. Add to that the heat and the wind, wow. In for a treat!

St George Utah sits at about 3000 feet so a little altitude but really not too bad and its super dry with very little humidity which makes it easy to dehydrate. My uber driver on the way from the airport said “electrolytes, lots of electrolytes”. The weather forecast was around 90 degrees and windy. Great, sounded just like Ironman Texas I had completed 2 weeks earlier (so yes was still a bit fatigued from that!). The practice swim was cancelled because of high wind so something everyone kept an eye on.

I stayed at the Advenire hotel which was 5-minute walk from the IRONMAN village and finish line and it was a great hotel. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon for the Saturday race to give me a buffer from any travel issues.

I quickly checked in and went to the village for athlete check-in and to buy stuff. The Athlete store was at the entrance of the village and only once you went through the store could you walk through the rest of the village and to athlete check-in. It was grander in scale than any regular IRONMAN I had done and it was exciting to be in the midst of it but I suspect Kona will be another level completely. I bought some event swag like t-shirts, water bottles, name towels then headed to athlete check-in.

You were given your number ahead of the event unlike other events where your number is allocated at check-in. It was all digital and very fast. As you entered check-in YOU GOT A COIN!! Yay.

You were given your bracelet, packet with two bibs (one to keep, one to use on run), extra event sticker and then went and picked up the backpack which had all the other gear bags and goodies in it including towel, luggage tag and poster (but no flag). You did NOT get your chip, that would be at bike check-in Friday.

I walked over to TriBike Transport and picked up my bike then back to the hotel. I walked over to Pizza Factory, had dinner then back to the room. There was a huge amount of talk on Facebook about the cold water of the swim, the 60-degree temperature and I started to panic. On Amazon I quickly ordered a second swim cap (so could double cap) and silicon ear plugs which I overnighted to the hotel. Thank you Amazon! Then to sleep.

Thursday was an easy day as I really had nothing to do. I had a great breakfast of egg whites and pancakes, I had a burger at the hotel for lunch and baked ziti at Pasta Factory for dinner. I was playing loose with my normal plan of pasta and chicken for my meals. I would regret this Saturday! I did take some pictures around the M-dot statue.

The only thing I had to do Thursday was to put on my bike stickers and drop back off at TriBike Transport. They were providing a T1 shuttle where they would take your bike to T1 and then have a bus Friday to take you there to do the actual bike and bike gear bag check-in. I did lay out all my gear and put in the clear gear bags. The bags were smaller than the regular bags for other events so was a bit of a squeeze for my bike gear!

Friday was bike, and gear bag check-in. You already selected times in advance online but they never enforced them. I had picked 7am run bag check-in and 8am bike and bike gear check-in. The bike was point-to-point so T1 and T2 were different locations.

I walked to T2 to drop off my run bag at 7am then walked to tri bike transport for the shuttle at 7:30 which arrived at 8am at T2. I got my bike from TriBike then dropped off at T2 and bag in the transition tent. The swim looked like a really nice location.

Then 8:30 shuttle back for lazyish day with just a few work calls. What was nice is both T1 and T2 were in tents so your gear bags were in the shade.

Lunch was ziti again then pizza for dinner. That evening I showered, put on sunscreen then my tri-tats and tried to sleep. I didn’t sleep well at all.

Saturday was the big day. The shuttles were based on swim time based on age. I was the last wave for males so 4:30 bus boarding for 7:30 swim start. I left the room at 4:15 so got up at 2:30. There were lots of school buses and it took about 40 minutes to get to the start/T1. Once there you did not have access to transition bags but you could access the bikes. I pumped them up to 95 psi then just relaxed. I chatted to a few people about random Ironman things. As usual I stopped sipping the Powerade 90 minutes before start time and had my gel and 5-hour energy 60 minutes before along with a final potty visit 🙂 This routine seems to work well for me.

Straying from my pasta and chicken for 2 days prior for lunch and dinner and pizza for final dinner taught me a lesson. My stomach was a little dodgy at the start of the day and some during but not too bad. Live and learn. Back to my strict eating in future!

Much talk had been made of the swim and how cold it was, 59 degrees leading up. On the morning it was 64 degrees, still cold. I only have a sleeveless wetsuit but had purchased extra neoprene partial arm covers and as mentioned had my double gap and ear plugs. I also put on my neoprene booties.

The swim was in waves based on gender and age. Within those waves which started at set times 6 people were let in every 10 seconds. I was in the last male wave and seated myself in the middle. As I got in the water it was a little shock of cold but not too bad, at least not initially. The swim course was basically an out and back with a turn but you swam to the left of the buoys except for the final part. This was hard for me as I always breath to the left so it meant I had to constantly sight lifting up my head making my neck get sore. Also the wind started to pick up so was pretty choppy water. Near the start of the swim I thought a boat went past me as something very fast went past creating a wake. Nope, was a human being!!! It was insane! Aquaman does IRONMAN apparently.

As the swim progressed my wetsuit clearly is not very well fitting as cold water kept flooding in so I never got warm and was steadily getting colder. Near the end my body was shivering and I kept trying to bunch my fingers to try and warm them up a little. I didn’t work and when I eventually finished at 1:38 I was shuddering. On the plus side the double cap and ear plugs worked great. Normally I swim 90 minutes so I was a lot slower. Not sure if that’s the booties, my body just not doing as well in the cold, not swimming straight because of sighting issues. There were wet suit strippers as you exited to help and then into the transition tents where there were lots of volunteers. They had to help me tighten my shoes as I didn’t have control of my frozen hands 🙂 I was looking forward to the bike just to warm up.

At the start of the bike I had my usual challenge of having to overtake people as I’m much stronger bike than swim AND I started last in the men however not as bad as usual as it was overall a high standard of athlete given the world championship status and most were age group winners of other events. There were a few people just riding the left and I’d have to shout out “on your left” however this was only the first 10 miles. One disappointment was the gel at aid stations. Aid station 1 only had only with caffeine and stations 2 and 3 had NONE! Pretty bad but luckily I carried a few for just this type of situation but I was panicking a little. Later aid stations DID have the gels still.

The bike had crazy elevation gain, 7500 feet. It was always up or down, you were constantly changing gears but really got brutal once you hit around mile 65 ish. I knew this so was holding back at the start to ensure I had energy for the hills. On the big ascents I would drop to my lowest gear but kept pushing the button hoping that if I pushed enough times another secret, emergency only gear would appear and help. It didn’t. Many people were pushing their bikes up the hills, many others were zig-zagging across the road (to reduce the slope) and to the credit of the marshals those people were given penalties for dangerous behavior, at least some of them. I was able to ascend fairly comfortably though in the bottom gear. I would stand occasionally for maybe 30 seconds just to stretch my legs.

A big part of the elevation gain were two huge ascents. On the first huge ascent there was someone in front of me with “Don’t Give Up” written on the back of their shirt vertically. As he was bent over as I was approaching him all I could see was “Give Up”. Tempting 🙂 I had not driven the course (I never do) nor really studied it so I was never sure when the ascent part was finished and I kept thinking “this must be the end” but nope, little flat bit then up again. It seemed to last forever!

The benefit of huge ascents are huge descents however in addition to the hills it was hot (around 90) and also a lot of wind. This came into play during the descents as what goes up must come down. You had cross wind gusts that would try to push you over. I didn’t care. I worked for my uphill and was going to reap the reward of the downhill. I tucked into aero and tried to make myself as small as possible. I also willed myself to have all my weight going straight down to be impossible to knock over 🙂 It seemed to work as I bombed down both the huge two descents getting up to 46.5 mph. Weeeeeeee

The combination of the hills, elevation overall (3000 feet base), heat, lack of humidity and wind made it very tough. I was very happy with my 6:29 time but I think I was under hydrated by the end that would hit me on the run. My average power was low but its a function of times I was not peddling at all, then just hard to judge what to do with the unknowns. I was doing about 220-230 up the hills.

My huge fear was true when I got to the run transition tent. My hook was empty. Um. I looked on hooks around and found my gear. I assume someone picked up mine by mistake then found theirs and put mine back on theirs. Thanks for nothing 🙂

I had a stitch at start of the run so struggled to maintain any kind of run/walk. My mouth constantly felt dry, no matter what I drank I could not get quench it. Also I couldn’t get my heart rate where I wanted it. Tried to run/walk and then power walk with occasional runs. The entire run my stomach didn’t feel right and just complete dry mouth. I couldn’t stand the thought of Gatorade or gels in the later half. I think I got dehydrated during the bike and never could recover. I suspect the same for many people. During the run there were huge numbers of people vomiting, I assume it was the heat.

The bike course was hilly, so was the run course with 1500 feet of elevation gain. Most was not shaded and just hot for the entire first loop of the two-loop course. I made it through and had plenty of time so was not worried about not finishing in time.

There was some confusion about time people had. About 75 people got pulled off course during the last 6 miles of the run when they had plenty of time. To IRONMAN credit they made it right and adjusted them to a finish time and are sending them medal/swag.

I finished in 6:09:33 for a total of 14:41:24. Pretty slow but given how tough the course was and the conditions I was happy!

At the end you got your medal which was huge and awesome. It was so heavy it almost hurt my chest as it bounced when I walked. Then you got your t-shirt, hat, got your finisher picture taken and on your way.

There was a food tent but they had run out of cheese pizza and only had stone cold pepperoni. They also had some kind of chicken and rice. I threw the pizza away, got my morning clothes and T1 bag then was directed to pickup the T2 bag and bike from the T2 location. It was late, I was tired so just took my bike back to my room for drop off at Tri Bike Transport Sunday morning. The first thing I did in the hotel was go to the restaurant and order a cheeseburger and fries for room delivery which was awesome!

In the end the DNF rate was 21.9%. Very high compared to the normal DNF which is about 10% I think. Overall I’m happy with my bike time on such a tough course and even my overall time is not too bad for such a tough course on a tough day.

The amazing volunteers throughout the entire course really were the best and it was just an amazing event. The town was amazing, the people amazing. Just a great experience. THANK YOU EVERYONE and kudos to IRONMAN for organizing something so special.

As always I couldn’t sleep a wink. Combination of stress on the body, adrenaline, lots of caffeine and sugar. At 6:30 I left the room to get a medal picture by the M-dot statue then queued for the store to buy one of every finisher item. $500 later my shopping was complete.

I walked to a bakery to buy a sandwich for lunch as I knew the tiny airport had no food then went back to the room until I ubered to the airport. There my Uber driver was an amazing 84 year old. He was the baby in Gone with the Wind, was married to Raquel Welch and basically Ubers to get out the house now during his wife’s medical care. Amazing! He told stories about being friends with Fred Astaire and also when he was 11 Clark Gable drove him in a jaguar and noted they snuck the jaguar into the portrait at the very bottom in the middle!! You can see it.

So my first World Championship of the year! Now on to Alaska then Kona. Time to work on my swim and run.

The one with all the wind

Well, IRONMAN full distance number 19 done and overall I think it went well and enjoyed a fair amount of it despite what was a tough day during the bike portion.

This was my sixth time taking part in IRONMAN Texas (2015,16,17,18 and 19 done previously) so I felt very comfortable with the course and logistics (which are very simple) which helped minimize stress ahead of time. Leading up to the event the weather looked good in terms of temperature, maybe 85 high and no rain. It looked likely it would be wetsuit legal. All good. As the days got closer it was looking like it was going to be windy though. That is not good for the completely exposed 80 miles on the toll road. This would end up ruining the day for many people!

Prior to the event an athlete check-in time was selected online via the Active website. As normal the check-in was available on Wednesday and Thursday (3 and 2 days prior to the event day). You also received a QR code via email that you presented at the onsite check-in. You were not told your bib number ahead of time. Like 2021 they are allocated at athlete check-in which also means your name is not on the bib.

I arrived at the Woodlands about 10am and even though my scheduled check-in time was 1pm I checked in straight away and they didn’t say a word. It’s all digital now, no more paper forms. You show your QR code and ID and that’s it. If you had any waivers to sign you sign them on the iPads the volunteers have. First they gave you your chip. Then you walked to another table and they fetched a packet, I was 1004, just 3 away from my dream 1007 (Bond, James Bond) and they were going to switch if for me but they had already scanned it. So close. They put on my wrist band, quickly ran through the packet content, wrote number on a swim cap then I went on and collected the event back bag, the 5 event plastic bags for gear and yes the flag was back! Awesome. This whole process was less than 5 minutes.

As you exited you picked up a ticket for the bike and gear check-in time on Friday. This was to simply spread people out but as it turns out they didn’t pay any attention to this at all.

The exit from check-in did not lead straight to the merchandise store which is the norm but I walked through the village and bought a few things. They did not already have the finisher gear out which they did for the races in 2021. And that was it. All told I was there for about 15 minutes. I did run into Kevin who I chatted to at Ironman Tulsa in 2021 and was nice to catch up and we grabbed a bite to eat that evening. I really just relaxed the rest of the day. Pasta and chicken for lunch then egg white omelette, potatoes and toast for dinner at Cheesecake Factory (it just sounded really good). To bed at 7:30.

I slept well and woke up around 3am (my usual). I did a bit of work, laid all the gear out for the bike and run bag. Put stickers on the bags, bike and helmet, packed up the bags and got things ready to take to the bike and gear check-in at transition at 10am. It’s just shy of a mile walk from the finish/athlete village so I set out about 9:30 and they never asked to see the check-in time ticket. They didn’t take pictures of the bikes this time (like they have at previous Ironmans). You just racked your bike then gave the volunteers your bike and run bag at the two bag stations (you didn’t place them on the floor yourself in the rough position like at other events). Like athlete check-in it was very fast and efficient.

It is a shared T1 (swim to bike) and T2 (bike to run). The swim is a point-to-point with an out and back for about 1.5 miles then the remaining down a canal to get to transition.

I bought a few things at the HEB opposite the transition then walked back to the hotel. I had to have lunch in the room (was staying at the Westin which is at the finish line) as I had a work call so did room service pasta which a chicken breast on the side which while tasty was a tiny portion of pasta so was still hungry. I had bought some little Debbie oatmeal crème pies which I intended to eat during the bike so a couple of those helped numb the hunger 😀

I watched some movies and then had my traditional pre-race evening pizza for dinner. I wanted to try something new with my goggles that often fog up so I sprayed the anti-fog solution on and decided to just let it evaporate over night and not mess with it again. Totally worked! Back at the room I showered, applied a layer of sunscreen then put on my race tattoos. Chatted to my family then to sleep. While I woke up a few times I actually slept the best I ever have before an Ironman and got up feeling pretty good at 3am when my alarm went off.

I ate a bagel and drank a chocolate milk (my regular pre-training food) then browsed Facebook etc. I saw a great post with a way of thinking about the day:

“Make your race a playground not a proving ground”

I really liked that and decided to make that my motto for the day. I would focus on enjoying it. Transition opened up at 5am and so I decided to leave the room at 4:30. I packed my drinks to put on the bike and had a Powerade I would sip on till about an hour before I was due to start and another half a bagel to nibble on. I also had my gel and 5 hour energy I would take 45 minutes before due to start.

I walked down to transition and even though it was not 5 it was already open. I went straight to my bike, they had the regular technicians and bike pumps available but my bike neighbor offered me his pump so I pumped both tires up to just below 100, put on the drinks and set off on the 1 mile walk to the swim start which is a pleasant enough, easy walk and helps you relax. At the transition they also announced water temperature was 75 and wetsuit legal. Woo hoo!

Once I got to the swim start I just hung out. The age groupers were starting at 6:40 and it was the regular self-seeding into 10 minute groups based on your estimated swim time. I always swim 90 minutes so go to the 1:21 to 1:30 group at the back. This means I would be getting in the water about 7am. Within each group they let in 4 people every 4 seconds (or something like that). It helps spread everyone out and takes a lot of the stress out of the swim. It’s also a very wide course so its easy to just swim on the outside (which is what I do) to avoid most people. It was a very clear day so sighting was super easy. At 6:15 I put on my wetsuit, dropped off my morning clothes bag, ate my gel, drank my 5 hour energy and joined my swim group.

I had not done a huge amount of swimming leading up to this race just because of, well, life. I had done a few 30 minute swims in the pool over the past couple of weeks and that was it. At dinner with Kevin he had given some swim tips (him being a good swimmer) that I had decided to focus on during this swim.

• Thumb and index finger enter the water first. This then encourages elbow up since already in that direction
• Be long, i.e. reach out for the apple then put it in your pocket as your hand exits by your hip
• Rotate your hips with your shoulders when you breath

And that is what I did. I treated the swim as a training exercise and just tried to focus on those 3 things. I took it SUPER easy. I finished in 90 minutes as usual and felt great! The out and back in the lake was uneventful. They added an arch near the turnaround on the swim that you swam under (to make sure didn’t cheat). I also focused on keeping my head relaxed. Often on the bike my neck aches looking up and I realized a lot of it is from straining during the swim. This helped greatly during the bike portion and didn’t get a sore neck.

I kept to my plan of swimming out about 20 feet from the buoys and no one got near me. When you turned down the canal part for some reason people turned into idiots. People were swimming all over the place, I got punched in the face twice but kept telling myself they didn’t mean it and were likely stressed. The canal was dirty as ever and with each swim stroke you got stringy crap in between your fingers. I mean the main lake was solid brown and you couldn’t see anything but the canal was worse.

One problem I commonly have on previous Ironmans was needing to pee during swim and having to pee constantly on the bike. My new sipping on Powerade and stopping hour before solved it. So thats my new routine! They had wetsuit strippers to help remove your wetsuit then a short run to grab your bike bag, into the transition tent to apply the various lubes, PR lotions and sunscreen. I took a really long time (15 minutes) but honestly not a worry for me. Lots of volunteers in the tent and most of talk was about how brutal the canal portion was with people flinging fists everywhere. They had sunscreen available in transition (1 and 2) both pumps and individual packets you could take which was great.

Then out onto the bike course which is about 22 miles to get to the Hardy toll road where you repeat 2 out and backs of 20 miles each way (so 80 miles on the toll road). The toll road surface is smooth, has a few rolling overpasses but is completely exposed. There was plenty of aid stations on the course that were well stocked and as always the volunteers were awesome. The weather forecast had not changed. It was expected to have 25mph wind coming head on for the outbound but then would be tailwind for the 20 miles back. Obviously, twice.

Sure enough as soon as you got on the toll road the wind hit you and it was pretty discouraging putting out 200 odd watts and going 13 mph. Within the first 5 miles one of the good people on their second loop shouted out “do you have bike tool?”. His aero bars had fallen off and were dangling down. I pulled over with him and spent 7 minutes getting his aero bars back on and he was on his way 🙂 7 minutes was really going to make little difference to my total time but he was very stressed. I kept telling him to relax, it’s OK, we’ll fix it. We did and he was on his way.

It took about 80 minutes to go Northbound as you battled the 20-25 mph headwind and was pretty miserable. BUT, then you turned round and weeeeeeeeeee. Many times I was going vroom vroom as I effortlessly went 30 mph and completed the southbound 20 miles in 40 minutes. Then you did another u-turn and had to repeat for another 80 minutes misery but at least you knew you had 40 minutes of awesome coming. Another bright spot was only had to stop to pee once at about 30 miles. I drank the on course Gatorade and then water with Nuun. I stuck to the planned nutrition.

• Ate an oatmeal crème pie (170 calories) in T1
• Half a waffle at minute 20 and 40 of the hour
• Tootsie roll snack bar (50 calories) at minute 30 of hour
• Mauten gel on the hour
• Another oatmeal creme pie at mile 56 and another at T2 before the run

That’s a lot of calories. With the Gatorade likely about 400 an hour on average but I felt great. Never struggled on the bike. Heart rate never went particularly high. One good thing was while it heated up to maybe 80 on the bike, the sun was not super strong. I alternated Gatorade and water with Nuun every 10 minutes.

While the wind made things harder than usual I really didn’t find the bike that bad but I consider the bike my strongest discipline. I know some found it very tough which is likely why some people were drafting. On the second loop into the wind someone was trying to draft me which is where I went up a gear and just dropped the hammer and left him. Go cheat off someone else. There were quite a lot of people in penalty tents which was good to see. Also on the first loop because I start the swim later and am slow on the swim there are lots of slower cyclists ahead of me that I have to overtake and many of them were not staying on the right so I was constantly having to shout out “on your left” so I could get past safely. I heard 300 people DNF‘d (did not finish, i.e. had to stop) on the bike portion alone.

Once you finished the toll road portion I think it was about 8 miles on the small roads to get to the finish which was quick enough and soon I was at T2 where a volunteer took your bike for you, grabbed the run bag, into the tent (for a 10 minute transition as I reapplied sunscreen etc) then out for the run! The only real problem I had for the entire bike was sweat in my eyes. I’m going to try something different for St George with the little channel stick on brow thing.

My plan for the run was 2-minutes run, then 2-minutes walk for as long as my quads would take it! As it happened was for about 15 miles which I was very happy with. The run course is great. It’s flat and 3 loops of a very pretty course that has great crowd support and lots of aid stations each mile that were always well stocked. You also go through Hippie Hollow that the rule is you have to run through 😀

At about mile 15 I had some bio freeze applied to my quads which helped and I still attempted to run a little however I had so much time there was no danger for me and my goal was simply to come in under 6 hours which would ensure my total time was sub 14.

It was around this time I realized how brave many people are. Because my swim is OK and my bike is strong even on a bad Ironman I still have 8 hours for the marathon part meaning I can walk slow and would still have time to finish. I’m not really worried about not finishing (outside of a medical/equipment issue). There are many people who have very real concerns about not finishing in time but still push through for 17 hours. That is amazing to me and shows great strength of character!

For the run my nutrition was a Maurten gel every 2 miles along with a lick of base salt. I would drink Gatorade at the water stations and also had a little bottle I carried with water with Nuun that I would refill at the stations. I felt pretty good during the run. The last 8 miles was a lot of walking but i found someone to talk to who was walking at same pace as me which was great.

Mike Reilly was there to call me across the line, “John Savill, you are an IRONMAN”. YAY! As you crossed the finish line there were the catchers to ensure you didn’t fall over and helped you through the various stages. You got your medal, finisher shirt and hat. The medal is awesome and doubles as a belt buckle! Finisher picture and then I grabbed 2 slices of cheese pizza which I quickly devoured.

Because I travelled on my own I had to grab the morning clothes bag from the finish, walk the mile back to transition to get my bike and bags. I then tied the bags together, put them round my neck then rode the bike BACK to the finish which is where my hotel was at. Once in my room I ordered a burger from room service, drank a chocolate milk, ate a Twix, called my wife, showered then my burger arrived which I ate some of.

One first for me is I didn’t crash post event. Yes I was tired but I had no tingling lips, no body shaking. just, tired which was AWESOME! I will be sticking with my nutrition plan from this Ironman for every other!

Then to bed, which as usual offered me no sleep. I can NEVER sleep after an Ironman. I just laid in bed unable to sleep. At 2:15 I gave up. I got up, packed and by 3am was in my car where I drove back home arriving about 7am. On the way home I stopped at Buc-ees and ate 2 sausage, egg and cheese breakfast burritos.

Many people wrote about how brutal the event was. Yes, the bike was tough but overall I felt it was a great day. Obviously I live in Texas so I am more used to the heat and humidity. If you came from a colder climate then I’m sure the heat combined with the windy bike really took it out of you. I think many others I have done were far tougher because of the course or heat or other conditions. I really enjoyed this Ironman which is great as the Tulsa and Coeur d’Alene of 2021 I found pretty miserable.

In the end I think about 400 DNF’d. 2232 started and 1838 finished. Therefore about 17% DNF compared to 10% regular so definitely a high DNF.

So that’s it. Overall very happy with my performance and more importantly very happy that I enjoyed the event. As always a giant thank you to the organizers, police, other support and the amazing volunteers.

Only change for next IRONMAN is ensure get sunscreen on hands more (as they burnt) and on my back at shirt edges (as burnt there as well a little). Key wins from this IRONMAN

• Nutrition and drinking
• Swim technique and relax neck during swim
• Spray goggles night before

Now, St George!!!!

Also known as “suddenly Boulder doesn’t seem so tough” 🙂

Lake Placid was my 3rd IRONMAN this year, 6 weeks after Boulder which itself was a very tough day with the altitude and high heat. Lake Placid also marks my 10th IRONMAN just 2 more to go (Wisconsin and Chattanooga later this year) until I can apply for the legacy program and at some point the opportunity to partake in IRONMAN Kona.

My training since Texas has not been going great. I think doing an IRONMAN every 6 weeks is very aggressive and I’m fatigued physically and mentally however the last 2 weeks have gone pretty well and I think most of it is mental and was feeling mentally strong and in pretty good shape. Placid was going to test that 🙂

Like Boulder, my family came with me. We flew into Montreal and spent a couple of days there where we took the kids to the science museum and wandered round the old town. I went to a Tim Hortons and ate Poutin and a maple leaf donut. This was about as Canadian as I felt possible 🙂

We drove the 3 hour trip to Lake Placid on Thursday where we checked into the High Peaks Resort which is the host resort for IRONMAN Lake Placid. Note that although its the host resort it is actually pretty far from the village and the transitions. There are many other hotels much closer FYI. It was a nice enough resort though and the staff were very friendly.

When we arrived we went and registered at the convention center which was all very standard and then went and registered the kids for the IRONKIDS run on Friday and the VIP passes so the family had a good view at the finish line. As usual bought a few things in the store including a complete Lake Placid IRONMAN tri shorts, running shirt and bike shirt in addition to a donut IRONMAN bike shirt 🙂

Lake Placid is a small town but there are a lot of places to eat with a huge number of Italian restaurants so lots of pizza and pasta choices 🙂 There is also a Ben and Jerrys ice cream store which we may have frequented daily. Also a nice chocolate shop with giant chocolate raisins!

On Friday we had the IRONKIDS run. It said it started at 2:00 however before the half mile run they had the kids dip and dash who all had to finish so the run didn’t actually start till 2:45 and it was a hot day. There were a lot of very grumpy kids. I definitely think it would make more sense to tell people different start times for the various events.

After the run I laid out all my gear. This event added lip balm sunscreen as on boulder my lips got a bit burnt. As it would turn out sun was not a huge problem for Lake Placid 🙂

 

Saturday I took my bike and bags down to the transition area. The run and bike bags are kept together on a set of hooks which was pretty cool. Your morning clothes bag went on the same hook on Sunday so was easy to collect everything at the end of the day.

For the rest of the day I pretty much did nothing. Pasta for lunch and as always pizza for dinner. We watching Paddington Bear 2 in the room 🙂 I bought tri-tats for this event so put them on before bed. Went to bed around 8:30 and actually slept pretty well. I got up at about 3:15 to eat my apple sauce, protein shake and bagel. I checked the weather forecast and it had stayed with rain starting around 8am and finishing around 12 with temperature of 55 going up to 72 later in the day. Greeeaaaatttttt.

I walked the half mile down to transition, pumped up my tires, put on a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water (which I never even opened) however the morning clothes bag drop off was at the transition and so I just hung around the transition area sitting in the men’s changing tent rather than going to the swim start. The water temperature was about 74 so wet suit legal, woo hoo! With an hour before the 6:40 age group start I put on my wet suit, applied the spray on lube around my neck, put on some sun screen and put my morning clothes bag on the bottom hook next to my run bag then walked down to the swim start.

It wasn’t raining yet but was 55 and pretty chilly. The swim course was two loops (really just out and back) but they were really keeping people pretty tight on the swim course not letting people stray too much out by way of people in canoes telling you to move over, which meant frequently you would bump into people, get stuck behind people and a few times get kicked by people. It was a rolling start where you self seeded into your estimated finish time. I know a few people with anxiety around the swim were unable to finish because of how bunched together they made us. I thought the swim was fine though, finishing in 1:29:59 (no matter where I swim I’m always 1.5 hours). Sometimes it’s good to be a bigger person so if people do knock into you its fairly easy to knock them back out the way. 🙂 You have to get out the water between loops and they had some water to drink which was nice. It started to rain during the second loop which made the water a bit choppy. Overall the swim in Mirror Lake was nice and you had great visibility to see the buoys so was easy to stay on course. I also saw the underwater line a few times that connects the buoys and if you can stay on it provides the shortest path without having to sight the buoys. Problem is everyone tries to do that 🙂

After the swim its a run to the transition area (which really wasn’t that far, I had heard half a mile but was nothing like that). Grabbed my bike bag off the hook, into the tent, put on my new bike shirt, applied the butt chamois butt’r stuff which really helps with the saddle pain and is much better than a bar type thing I used to use. Applied some sun screen, stored my nutrition and out I went. Into the rain. I turned on my bike computer but it was having problems finding GPS so didn’t register the first .25 mile of the ride but thankfully started showing my speed pretty quick. It was now raining a lot. A lot of cold rain, in the cold. 55 degrees. This would be the state of the entire first loop pretty much. I was freezing for most of the first loop and it was a cold that felt like it was going down into your bones. My new white socks were basically black by the end.

Additionally there was a 15mph SE wind which just was the cherry on top of my misery Sunday 🙂 It hit you as a headwind but somehow never was a tailwind and rather a cross-wind trying to blow you over as you went down the hills. It was a tough course and normally you get downhill back from the uphill’s and Placid had massive downhills BUT because of the rain my brakes were barely working so I had to go down really slow. I would pull on the breaks and they responded with “meh, don’t want to”. A brake placebo. The first loop took 3.5 hours. I was looking at a 7 hour bike ride. I’m not sure how much better I would have done without the rain but it really was just very tough. There were a few flat sections but mainly it was up and then a short down. You can see the elevation data below (this is for both loops). It stopped raining by the second loop and the road dried up plus I now knew the course a bit better so I took the downhills much faster. I got up to 45 mph 🙂 weeeeeeeeeee. The second loop was definitely better than the first but I really wasn’t any faster on the second loop and my total bike time 7:01:57. Wow! My slowest ever but also I would say the toughest course ever with worst conditions ever. I feel I tried hard during the course so was pleased with it. It’s a very hard course but the scenery was amazing and the miles did go pretty fast. There were aid stations every 10 miles and lots of porta-pottys along the course which was lucky as I guess because it was so cold I had to constantly pee on that first loop 🙂

 

Another quick transition and on to the run. It was actually great weather for the run. Around 70 degrees but lots of cloud so no bright sun beating down on you. The course was hilly (surprise). I felt tired getting off the bike but not drained. My plan was to run downhill and flat and walk the uphills and I mostly stuck to that with the odd extra bit of walking when required. It was great seeing my family at the half way point (I also got to see them mid-point and at the end of the bike). They had orange Gatorade on the run course which surprised me, normally its lime 🙂 I brought my own nutrition and had a gel every 30 minutes, this time I used ones with caffeine! Apart from that it was the same as all the other IRONMAN events with water, coke (which I had a couple of times), redbull and later on chicken broth. They also had various types of food. The run is two loops and the volunteers throughout the event were amazing as always and the crowds were great. Everyone talks about the finish line at Lake Placid being second only to Kona and it was amazing not that I remember much about it 🙂 I was really tired and basically had tunnel vision on the finish line. I forgot to even make some kind of victory pose. I just ran across the line 🙂 Final time on the marathon 5:20:37 giving me a total time of 14:15:59 when you add in the transitions. That time is way off my best however this was a very different course, very different conditions and I really gave it my all. Sometimes I finish an IRONMAN and feel like I could have done better. I feel proud of this one and am really happy with my performance.

And the reward 🙂 Medal, hat and t-shirt goodness. You also got a mini-towel to celebrate the 20th anniversary.

I picked up my bike and bags, dropped my bike off at Tri Bike Transport then walked back to the hotel (about half a mile). Showered, ate 1/3 of a sandwich my better half got for me then completely failed to sleep all night like every other night after an IRONMAN. Could not sleep a wink. I wish I knew why. I can only guess its eating nothing but sugar all day with caffeine and I never normally drink any caffeine so am pretty sensitive to it I guess. At 5am I left the room and wondered around the town and took a picture of the lake. Really was amazing location.

At 6am I walked down to the store to join the queue. I was about number 20 in the queue and by the time it opened just before 7 there must have been a hundred people behind me. Bought the finisher jacket, t-shirt and polo as normal then headed back for breakfast with my family.

Overall Lake Placid IRONMAN was awesome. As usual the IRONMAN was a great experience. Super well organized, amazing volunteers and you just live to hear Mike Reilly tell you that you are an IRONMAN 🙂 It’s a very tough IRONMAN, I would say the toughest I’ve done. I was chatting to people who had done it in previous years and they said it was harder this year but its a great course, great finish and you have a great sense of accomplishment when you finish. It should be on everyone’s list to do. As the multiple signs on the course point out “if it was easy, it would be called your Mom” 🙂

Two more to go this year, six weeks till Wisconsin then 3 weeks after that Chattanooga!