St George Ironman

My swim started off great, I felt like I was at a really good pace until after the second turn buoy at about the halfway point in the swim. I began to feel very very cold. My jaw started to shake and I felt my body shutting down. My pace slowed and I started to get passed by a lot of people. I ended up swimming a lot slower than I had planned and came out at 1:12. When I got out of the water I was extremely cold my body was shaking uncontrollably. I had planned very poorly and didn’t have a jacket or anything else to put on to keep warm. I got on my bike and the wind blowing on my already freezing body took me to a whole new level of cold. For the next hour and a half I shivered and shook and thought about how stupid I was to not have a jacket and/or arm warmers and hoping for a flat tire so I could stop and get warm. The other problem the cold created was my hamstrings started to cramp. I am a big time wuss when it comes to cold water. I think I’ll wear two wetsuits in my next cold water tri and then a giant winter coat on the bike. At around mile 30 of the bike I noticed I wasn’t shaking anymore. I was able to start pushing it on the bike and I was able to pick up my heart rate. By the halfway point I felt great and the rest of the bike ride felt almost effortless. My only issue being that my hamstrings started cramping when I got out of the aero position to punch up a hill. I finished the bike in 5:09, a disappointment as I had planned on being under 5:00. On the run I settled into a pace just a little slower than my planned pace. I was worried about my hamstrings cramping on the run. They felt like they were on the verge of cramping but luckily they never actually seized up during the marathon. The run was definitely tough but I never felt black hole terrible. I ended up with a 3:40 marathon. Overall I wanted to go under 9:45 and ended up at 10:07. I didn’t manage my race as well as I could have. My mistakes dealing with the cold water cost me some energy and time. On a positive note I think that my nutrition worked out great and really saved my race. I was able to take in about 3300 GU calories and probably around another 2000 liquid calories. I think that this was the reason that I always felt like I had enough energy. Post race I felt ok. I thought my legs would be thrashed after the tough course but I actually felt pretty good. Towards the end of the marathon I had the thoughts of “why” “why am I doing this stupid, painful, pointless race” but it only took an hour or two after I finished before I was already getting excited about my areas of improvement and my training for my next race. The triathlon addiction continues, it’s a hungry beast that can’t be satisfied.