Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

I was incredibly afraid of swimming in this water temperature. WE did a practice swim the day before, of about 1000m which took me 23 minutes. I felt much better about the temperature because of that, so I decided against putting foot warmers in my booties. I don't know if they would have helped, but my Raynaud's made my feet blue by the time I got out of the race swim. I spent 17 minutes in T1 trying to warm them.

Start more to the inside, and wait a bit for the spazziness to abate.

My feet were numb and blue when I came out of the water, so I didn't want to run into the change tent for fear of tripping, andI knew it would take a while for my feet to warm up.

If I hadn't been so concerned about my circulation, I would have had a much faster transition. Most of the time was spent trying to warm up my feet.

Started out with numb feet and foot warmers did not help. Had neoprene toe covers and compression socks on. Feet remained numb for entire first loop and by second loop left foot and ankle became painful from lack of blood flow. TRied extending legs, sitting up, wiggling toes moving chip strap to other leg, nothing helped for more than a few seonds. By end of second lap I was in tears from the pain and really wanted to quit. On 3rd lap made more of an effort to keep legs extended while coasting, and stopped at 2 rest stops to pee and let toes get less numb. They never got completely better, but last loop was more tolerable. By T2 feet were still completely numb and totally blanched. Also had really bad headache from cold and wind and having wet hair.

Wear warmer clothes, head cover, seat may need to be higher?

HAd to sit with warmer around feet for over 20 minutes. Feet were blanched and mottled, and completely numb. Area on front of shin was exquisitely tender to touch, either from low blood flow or rubbing over AT tendon from chip strap. Wanted to start run with a little feeling in feet.

Start run sooner, because feet stayed numb almost whole first lap anyway.

wish I could have run more, but first loop walk breaks were because feet were getting numb. Second loop was more running than walking, and 3rd loop was pretty split. Ran into buddy Darren and ran most of last 3 miles with him. We motivated each other to squeeze it in under 14 hours.

tried to run more and walk less, but I think at that point in the day, there was not much more I could have done, given the toll the wind and cold had taken.

Cold water was the beginning, the wind and rain, and relative cold on the bike made things worse. By the time got to T2, I just wanted to finish the race.


The only problem I had with this race was the weather. I think the water had even been in the high 60s to low 70s, and there had been milder winds, I might have done dramatically better. A lot of time was wasted in transition, at least 30 minutes, and probably lost 30-45 minutes obetween the bike and the run. The swim I can't say I would have swum faster, although my half times would suggest I might do 5-10 minutes faster if there had been wave starts, or I didn't have a panic attack :)