Jun '25 • General Discussion
Race Recap from Sunday, Three E's
1. Experience
Start with the race.
- What was your biggest challenge this week? Getting all my nutrition and gear organized and packed to travel up to Chicago. I travelled on Thursday and wasn’t going to the race hotel until Saturday. It was a challenge on Thursday and Friday to prep all my meals and execute my carb loading plan in my in-laws house.
- What obstacles did you have to juggle leading up to the race? A few obstacles – preparing for the heat on race day, juggling trying to get in family time while I was back home vs race prep, a bunch of other family drama (outside of the folks I was around) that I mentally dropped for the entire race weekend
- How did you prep for it—logistically and mentally? I took each small step one at a time. I stuck to my nutrition and hydration plan I had laid out and communicated with everyone what my plan was. For example, told my in-laws I would make my own meals each day, that I appreciate them offering to cook, but had to stick to my plan. They were really supportive which helped. My goal was to not be in their way in their house and take care of all my needs at the same time. I’d say it was successful. Other prep, I prepped for the heat by really sticking to a hydration plan. No gaps in drinking, having an electrolyte target, and getting at least a gallon of water in each day. Mental preparation for the heat – I felt ok about the heat, my plan was to stay cautious during the race, keep fueling and do extra if I could, and try to stay aware of how I feel and focus on finishing the race vs aiming for a goal time. This is when Ryan reached out pre-race for a mental state check and completely changed my mental state for the better. I told him I kept thinking about the heat, decided to stick to my plan and control what I can control on race day and stop thinking about it. He sent me an awesome message that put me back into attack mode for the race, ignored the heat, and got me ready to give a full effort regardless of conditions. I’ll always remember that message and how a small mental reframe turned my race from caution to attack.
- What emotions did you go through? Highs? Lows? My first surprising emotion was finishing the swim. Pre-race, and leading up through my prep, I pictured finishing the swim as my first finish line and thought I would feel a huge wave of relief and celebration. To me, the swim was most mentally daunting out of the three. I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit (too warm), and the wind was blowing the current back into our faces. I was surprised when I finished the swim because I didn’t feel that celebration feeling I thought I would. Instead, I had a better feeling of conquering the swim, taking it down with authority, and proud I was able to trust my abilities and focus on the task at hand instead of race nerves. All of my thoughts were strong language coming out of the water, which isn’t always the case for me. I found myself immediately focused on getting to the bike leg, the same attitude of getting ready to take it down. The fact I was looking forward and feeling accomplished was a good indication I was fully locked in where I needed to be instead of my mental state being in celebration mode. Its hard to explain how good that difference felt, but feeling like I belonged and knew what I was doing felt like a huge win.
The bike was all high emotions. The course was tough, the wind was brutal, it was hot, and I didn’t care. I felt like I was flying out there. Staying on top of my cadence, quick shifting on the rolling hills, building and keeping momentum through climbs. My legs did everything I asked of them, and more. I’m really proud of that ride. I talked to some folks I knew in the race, and random athletes after and everyone said the same thing, “The last 15 miles were miserable”. I honestly had to step back in my head and say, wait really? My last 15 miles were my strongest. We had to go South into the wind, but felt my strongest closing out those last 15 miles. Even at the finish line, one of the first things I told my wife, “I felt incredible finishing the bike, I think I destroyed that last section!”. It made me feel good hearing the complaints and having the opposite experience.
Low emotions came in at the end of the run. My goal was a sub-two hour run, and I was cruising on pace up until mile 10. My left knee started with some gradual pain and eventually fully blew up. I started checking down by walking extra through aid stations and running to the next one. Then it became I could only run then walk for a half mile, quarter mile, and eventually could only run 10 steps at a time the pain was so bad. I did this run/walk combo for the last 2.5 miles, in really bad pain. At first I was bummed my time goal was out the window, but I realized my sole focus had to be on just finishing. I had the brief thought of “what if I don’t finish?” and immediately got mad at myself for even letting that thought enter. A loud voice in my head said YOU DON’T QUIT, and that was that. I was hobbling/walking the rest of the two miles no matter what. So, some low emotion at the start of the pain, but got it sorted pretty quickly and shifted priority. I demanded myself to run across the finish line no matter the pain, I would not be walking the line. That last stretch was the most excruciating, but worth it.
- What thoughts kept you going (or nearly made you quit)? The thoughts that kept me going were all the work I put into the prep, and how much I’ve been focused on this race for the past 6 months. As I mentioned earlier, I was struck with an overwhelming feeling of “I belong here” the entire race. My entire prep I had the question in the back of my head, am I really going to pull this off? Am I just going to have a slow time in this race only to say I completed it but not feel like I could really compete? All that flushed out of my head and was replaced with the feeling of belonging the entire race. I can’t overstate how powerful of a mental shift that feeling was.
2. Educate
Now imagine someone else is going to do that race in the future.
- How would you help them prepare? Create a plan for carb loading and hydration and stick to it. This made a huge difference in my race day execution.
- What gear, mindset, or tips would you share? Mindset – trust yourself and your experience. You know how to check down in difficult situations, and how to let it fly when you feel great. Remember that you belong in this race, bring some attitude to the starting line as if you’re a pro and embrace the opportunity to prove yourself right.
- What mistakes did you make that they can avoid? Transitions were long. Move with more purpose without being rushed. Trust that you prepared everything correctly and not worry about double checking every detail.
- What’s something they should look forward to? Maybe not a helpful answer, but all of it. I tried to take little mental snapshots all day long of small things that made me smile. Walking into transition in the morning feeling grateful for the opportunity to test myself, the fun statues they had setup with Ironman gear at the swim start, flying on the fast parts of the bike course and embracing the fun. Reflecting on the feeling that everyone around you worked just as hard as you did to be here, and how I can understand what they went through to be here and they understand me, without a conversation. Small interactions like that created a special atmosphere that all 2,700 of us were there to do something special for ourselves, but perform it together. Embrace the unique feeling of being surrounded by high-achievers that are chasing the same goal as you.
3. Enlighten
Zoom out. How do the lessons learned in this race apply to another area of life?
· This race has given me a confidence in myself that I’ve never experienced before. I always thought any race with an Ironman title was for a different type of person than me. I thought that type of person was simply more talented, had more free time for training than I did, and more money to spend on the sport. I learned I can train to get better at something if I want to. I was in charge of making time to train. Money spent on the sport didn’t matter (up to a certain point) because of all the other benefits I was experiencing. I can apply these lessons to other areas of my life, such as starting a side hustle. I have the experience of answering the question “what would it take to accomplish this?”. Even more important, I have the experience of learning a new process, handling unforeseen obstacles with a strong attitude, and succeeding in the face of fears and doubts. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is I can go into a new endeavor with fear, directly confront it, and come out successful. Most of the time fears don’t even materialize, but when they do, I now have a blueprint to fall back on and get through it.
· Another note I wanted to point out, and not sure where it goes. I was really proud of myself where I placed in the race, especially where my run time placed. Even with the knee pain causing me to miss my time goal, my run time was still a higher place than my overall number. Instead of mad at what could have been, I was thrilled I did everything right (in my own head) to put up a great run number. I looked at it as if my knee blew up by chance, nothing I could do about it except move forward. Did the heat cause it and I was just struggling with everyone else? Maybe, who knows. I’ll never know for sure, but I’m proud of the effort I put forward and where I placed. I know one thing for sure; I’m coming for the sub-two hour run at Chattanooga in May.
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Race Recap from Sunday, Three E's
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