Ironman Race Report Preface

My report is going to be super long so I've broken it up into sections. Here's the first section which I also posted to Slowtwitch as a mini-summary. You can read this and skip all the gory details ones over the next days.

I finished...I wanted to give thanks to the entire Slowtwitch community for being a great resource. Super awesome thanks go out to Jeff P. and Don O. for basically teaching me how to swim. You guys rock!! Special thanks go to BarryP, jonnyo, desert_dude, devashish_paul, and the brick workout discussion threads. Also a great shoutout to the IMC bike aid stations where I got pass-ups like the volunteers were soigners for TdF teams. I never touch my brakes and just went through coasting with no problem.

The stats: 68 swim, 5:39 bike, 3:25 run for a total w/ transition of 10:20.
My goals were 75 swim, 5:45 bike, and 3:15 run.

Key factoids:
- No caffeine outside of training for a year
- No alcohol and no Doritos, Lays, Pringles, fast food for a year
- Never swam before August 14, 2007
- Swimming extra yards doesn't hurt even if you're slow
- Never raced in my wetsuit, only 5 open water swims
- Only completed one triathlon(Florida 70.3) prior to IMC(Yes Fleck, I'm not a triathlon role model. I'm a one and done guy who just wants to say I've completed an Ironman.)
- With Beijing just finishing, I'd say the Ironman wall holds it own against the Great Wall
- If you can barely walk and it hurts too much to sleep, does that mean you pushed hard and should be happy or you didn't train hard enough
- Mother Nature is Kathy Bates from Misery where she's all nice at the beginning and the next minute you're tied to the bed with a 4x4 between your ankles and she's holding a sledgehammer
- all hickies aren't romantic nor are all strawberries sweet

Coming up you'll read the best advice about T1. You'll also learn how Ironman and Alzheimer's are linked. You'll read musings about the condition, Ironman mouth. You'll see that one place can matter. You'll also find out how far might be too far to go for those precious minutes in the hopes of Kona. My thoughts on should you or shouldn't you buy ungodly amounts of finisher great then wear it all through the offseason. Also the top 10 list of why Ironman athletes are eerily similar to mental hospital patients.