goldennugget

The awards ceremony slot allocation was embarrassing. No one was taking Nice slots and eventually Tom got up and said anyone who didn't wear a wetsuit who wants to go to Nice come claim your slot.

I joked and said I give it a week before they go back to having the WC at Kona every year after this embarrassment and turns out I wasn't joking at all

None of the Kona slots rolled down they were all taken by the girls

Ironman Texas 2025 Race Summary

Swim - 1:13
Bike - 5:01
Run - 3:26
Overall - 9:50

5th AG, 34th Overall

Swim

Was surprisingly non wetsuit. It was 74 degrees a couple days before and it rained hard Thursday and Friday. But somehow warmed to 76.6 for race morning and it was going to be my first ever non wetsuit swim. My goal was to wear my swimskin and find feet, and that's what I did for the first 1/3 of the swim, I drafted off a girl who was doing a good job swimming straight. I probably could have dropped her and found someone faster, but I didn't want to risk it. According to my splits we were swimming about a 1:38 pace which would have put us around 1:09 if we held that the whole way.

Unfortunately at the first turn buoy it was mayhem and I lost her and then it was every man for himself and I couldn't find another swimmer to draft off of. It became a lot harder and there was some fat cheating jackass wearing neoprene shorts who kept being aggressive with me and at one point I slugged him pretty good on purpose to send a message to cut it out.

Ended up swimming a 1:13 which is my slowest swim at this race by far, having previously done a 1:07 and 1:09 but those were wetsuit swims.

Transition went well. I decided against clipping my shoes on the bike, which I practiced in training but since my rack position was so close to the bike start I didn't decide to do that and just put my shoes on at the rack.

Bike

I put in a custom workout on my Garmin to where the plan was to average 197 watts for the course and that's exactly what I hit for a normalized power of 204. I do think I could have gotten to 210 NP if I wanted but played it safe.

Of the 3 times I've done this course that was the least windy its been. I think the reason the pros had such ridiculous times is that the wind didn't really pick up until they started their 2nd northbound loop so they never really had to deal with any headwind but got a tailwind benefit.

Meanwhile us age groupers did have to face somewhat of a headwind the 2nd time down which wasn't as bad the first time. If the wind was the same as it was the first loop I think I could have rode a 4:55 or so but ended up at 5:01. I tried to go under 5 but the last 5 miles or so have too many turns. Not a big deal as 5:01 was still my new bike PR by 3 minutes.

The bike course was a lot less crowded than it was for me in 2023 and 2024 - I rode alone a lot, and didn't really get any "drafting" benefits especially the 2nd loop.

Run

I trained to run a 3:19 but it hot and humid. The sun was blasting and the pros didn't have to deal with the hottest part of the day like I did. My watch got up to 99 degrees and the heat index was 98.

My first loop I ran at a 7:32 pace which was ahead of the 7:37 I needed to hold to run a 3:19 and it felt pretty effortless. But like with my previous 3 Ironmans at around the 10 mile mark its like a switch flipped and the effort required to continue running 7:35 miles became a lot harder. It's crazy how the graphs on my Garmin run data for this race you can see a clear drop off.

The heat and humidity became too much, and dumping water/ice on myself constantly caused my shoes to become wet and heavier, and I developed a massive blister the size of a walnut shell on my right foot big toe.

I feel I executed my nutrition/sodium strategy well as I never felt dehydrated or low on carbs, I think it was just the heat. The upside is that my decline wasn't as drastic as it was last year or at Ironman Florida, and I still was able to hold 7:45-8:00 miles.

The last loop was tough and I had to gut it out, now with some kind of tendon issue/bruise on my left foot to go with the blister on my right foot. I was in a dark place from miles 20-23 but I partnered up with a female pro who was struggling and we ran together the last 3 miles at around a 7:45 pace. Had the 5th best run in my age group.

Finish

Finished at 9:50:03. Went to the medical tent to get that blaster wrapped up and my left foot checked out, turns out the bruise was due to a slight rupture in my extensor tendon. So I had to gut out that run with issues on both feet. The blister on my toe looked like a tumor growing out the size of a thumb.

I learned in the tent I got 6th which shocked me, I got 43rd last year and with such a strong field I thought even going Top 20 would be tough. But the heat wore down a lot of people and having trained in it constantly the past year I was more prepared than others.

I wasn't going to go to the awards ceremony but I got contacted by Ironman yesterday morning with them saying I actually got 5th because one of the Top 5 in our age group wore a wetsuit which DQ'ed him from awards, so I showed up to claim this nice trophy:



Not a lot of time to rest as I have Chattanooga 70.3 in 3 weeks - makeup race from Augusta being cancelled last September. The 70.3 distance isn't my strong distance, as I don't have the top end 2 hour bike power to truly compete, even though I can run a 70.3 run leg pretty well (5th best AG run at my last 70.3). Need both feet to get better before I can resume anything.

Schools should be on the hook

They charge way too much. Even state schools charge as much as TCU cost when I was a student - that's absurd

They can charge as much as they want as long as these loans are given out like candy and backed by the government

Ironman Texas today. Going to be hot. Trained to run 3:19 but may not get there

Those boomers at the anti Trump protests will be very upset

Got my pre order through Target. Took a while with all the errors but it finally went through

Yes and the refs always side with the Avs when the Stars play them in the playoffs

The refs tried to steal Game 6 last year with that BS goalie interference call

A bad call that led to a goal

Mackinnon flops more than the catfish I caught and left on the dock for 20 minutes

Patriots and Red Sox too

Pro sports leagues need to stop having so many execs who are based in the northeast.

Goddell was a major Patriots homer

Red Sox got a lot of assistance under Selig and now Manfred