Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Ok swim. I was a little surprised by my split as I really took it easy. On the east-west leg the wind was pretty strong and it was difficult to stay close to the buoys as I kept getting pushed north. Almost had to swim at a fifteen degree angle.
On the last 200 meters I felt a little twinge in my left calf. I tried to ignore it as I never get cramps swimming but unfortunately it was a sign of things to come.

Not a thing.

Took it easy. Stopped to apply some suncreen on the way out.

Stuggled into the wind only averaged 17 mph. Made the turn and -wow- felt great. Was averaging 21-22 on the way back until mile 40 then- wham- the calf "twinge" turned into a full-on cramp. Spent the next few miles coasting and trying to get it stretched out. Then at about mile 45- wham- both quads and hip flexors crampped. Almost wrecked as I could not move my legs. Really slowed down and tried to take as much liquid and extra gels as I could.

More training outdoors as I had to do most all bike training inside this winter.

Took it easy trying to recover for the run.

Things went from bad to worse. My inital goal was a 1:50 run split. I'd put in some great training runs and run some pretty fast half marathon times recently so thought that would be easy. During the last part of the bike I knew it would be difficult but thought sub 2 hours was very reasonable.
But the heat and humidity were really getting to me right away after T2. At about mile 2 my calf cramped again and I nearly fell. Trying to recover, both quads cramped and I had to come to a complete stop. My head was spinning thinking about what was going to happen for the next 11 miles. So I went into ironman shuffle mode coupled with walking stretches about every 100 yards when the calf crampped again, each time nearly falling as the quads would cramp nearly simultaneously.

More outside work, different nutrition plan.

Finished and limped directly to transition to get my bike, loaded it up and got out of there within 10 minutes of finishing.


Heat, heat, heat oh and the humidity.


I don't post much but do lurk and read the race reports. I've always wondered about those who post about serious problems during an event as I never have really had any- that is until this one. Maybe I'm getting too old and my body does not like the heat anymore or maybe my nutrition was off but I've never had this type of debilitating cramping problem in any distance event I've ever done. If you'd have told me befoehand that it was going to be a 2 1/2 hour run split I'd have called you crazy. But it happened. Oh well.

On the bright side I did enjoy the one slightly overweight african-american lady sitting in a chair on the run course out near the road near that one small dirt patch. She was in that chair all by herself the whole time cheering and "dancing"- offering encouragement. She certainly seemed to be enjoying herself!