Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon 70.3 Ironman

Nowhere, West Texas, USA on the way to Lubbock

Thuggin' out in my passenger seat

I decided to grow some hair for this race.

Tab helping me prep the Spanish Beauty

Out of T1 after my picnic 'bout to head up a huge hill

(courtesy of Aaron Patel)

Out of T2 onto a half to do a hilly half marathon

Paul Matthews, Overall Winner 4:01.26, 26yo Aussie living in Boulder, CO


The band at the awards banquet, that girl could sing


Top 6 Pro Men

Top 6 Pro Women, Overall Winner was Amy Marsh ,31 yo out of Austin, TX (husband Brandon was 4th)



'The' Voice of Ironman, Mike Reily

As you may know by now this weekend I competed in my final race for this half of the season the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon 70.3 Ironman. I was competing for a spot to the Foster Grant 70.3 Ironman World Championships this year in my 25-29 age group, I did get a roll down spot but however after finishing 6th and a slower time than I was going for I decided to turn it down and get faster next year. So with that said....

We made it to Lubbock and followed the VP of East Texas Triathletes, Steve Farris around in circles and out and back with multiple U turns scouting out the race site, finding the hotel, and a nice LARGE Spaghetti and Meatball (and lots of breadsticks) dinner at Olive Garden.

Race morning was off to a bad start already instead of waking up at 3:45 a.m. we should have been up at 3 a.m., because parking at the park was a pain to get into. Then as I am about to warmup I forget to put my timing chip on, so I had to run back to the car barefooted, up the huge hill you bike up put the timing chip on and run back down.

The water was 74 or 77 I think. Anyways it wasn' that cold but it was wetsuit legal. I thought I might overheat in my wetsuit but never did. I was warm but didn't feel too hot. I thought I had got off to a good start. I was passing people left and right but never could find someone consistent to draft off of. I got out of the water in 36.30 something a lot slower than I was expecting, but some peope say there was a lot of chop, but I didn't really notice. I was focusing on a good long stroke. Coming out into T1 I passed my rack up twice. I finally saw my bike and went under another rack to get to it.

On the bike there was a huge hill you bike up. I took my time going up that hill and then it was on. A pack of four of us broke out but I got dropped early. My legs didn't respond fast enough, but that's ok we still had like 50 more miles to go. I did sorta baby the first half of the bike more than I probably should have. There 8 huge long climbes from like 7-10% grade or so. The wind was constant around 15 mph or so I heard and then it started raining pretty good midway through the bike and we had to go back down a lot of these hills too that had pretty sharp turns. I didn't wreck but I thought I was going to crash into these other guys going up. Near the last 10 miles or so of the bike a pack got together (sorta legally). I was in the back when the lead guy dropped all of us. I put on a gutsy surge to catch him, but never did but had him very close in site was we flew by other cyclist. I could have caught him at the end but I didn't wanna wreck going down that huge hill at the end and I was stretching my legs and in a lighter gear getting ready for the run. I finished the bike in 2 hrs 34 min with a 21.8 avg.

In T2 my running shoes were soaked from the rain and I realized I only had put one orthotic in my shoes so I tossed out the one and ran without them and now my arch is hurting but hopefully it will be better in a few days. The first 3 miles of the run I was right on the pace I wanted to run about a 6.10 a mile, about 18. 28 at 3 mile mark. However, right after is when the first huge hill started and that took a lot out of a lot of people. My times then became 7 minute miles. There were 3 steep hills in this run and one not so steep but real long and gradual it was around 6-7 miles. The last hill I took it easy and stayed behind this 41 year old guy then I "took off" to a 7 minute mile pace again for the last 3+ miles. The 41 yo almost came back with a good chase but I used what speed I had left in the last mile to hold him off. When I stopped running I almost fell forward but the volunteers caught me so that was good. I finished the run in just under 88 minutes.

The end result was 52nd overall/901 finishers and 6th/71 in the 25-29 age group. Overall time was 6 and half minute PR 4:42.30. Why is Joe Thorne not in the pro division?

I owe a lot of thanks to Jesus Christ for getting me through the hardest half I've ever done. To my girlfriend Tab who did A LOT for me, driving, taking pictures, carrying things, standing in the rain and not worrying abouther hair. Super job!!! Duke Gill for the room and the guys at Colonels for getting me hooked up in the last few days. Shirley Green for making me a huge good luck card! To my coach Brent Poulsen (he finished 12OA in 4:17), without him and his guidance I probably would have ended up on crutches before the starting line. I'm still finalizing the next half of the season schedule, I'll post it soon.