Final Thoughts on Ironman Regensburg

Well it's been 48 hours since I finished Ironman Regensburg and here are some final thoughts.

You don't know what you don't know.  Every race is different and I've always done shorter races where the transition area is in the same spot.  The two different transition areas and a different finish areas were a new experience.  I know now what I need to pack for the different transitions, i.e. fresh socks for the run, a towel for the finish bag, and maybe a running jacket for the run.

PCC/PCIs, for you non military folks that's pre combat checks and pre combat inspections.  In other words check your stuff and then have some else recheck it.  I forget my small towels for T1 and T2, my body glide, motrin, and sunscreen.  All things I normally have on hand.  Part of the problem was this was my first and only triathlon of the year, so kinks I would have worked out by doing smaller races I didn't have worked out for this one.

Have a plan and stick to it.  That's especially true of the longer distance races. I had a training plan that I stuck too and I said all along that I wanted to average 15 mph on the bike and then run 13 minute miles.  I averaged 15.9 mph on the bike and 13:23 minute miles.  I was really tempted to push it hard on the flat portion of the bike but I've done that before on Ironman 70.3 races only to have my legs give out 3/4 of the way through the half marathon.  That didn't happen on Sunday.  I took it easy and maintained my average and felt great through the run.  I was also tempted to push it during the run since I felt like I had plenty of gas but I kept the pace nice and easy and would walk for a minute every mile.  I know that dropped my time but I enjoyed the run, finished my first Ironman and I'm able to walk and go for a short jog 48 hours later.  That's much better than my first Ironman 70.3 11 years ago where I finished but I couldn't walk for a week later.  The difference was the training and race plan.

Finally for all my talk about beer I didn't drink any beers during the race or immediately afterwards.  Afterwards I was just DONE, so all I wanted to do was get the bike and my transition bags and head back to the hotel for a soak in the tube, where I promptly fell asleep only to wake up to cold water about 30 minutes later.  I did get an offer of a beer from one of the aid stations on my last lap.  I was on lap 3 and the volunteers were winding down and breaking out their beer.  One of them told me to ask for a beer on my last lap and they would give me one.  I guess I took too long on that last lap so that while the aid station was open that particular group of volunteers were gone. Darn the luck!