Read This First
This is a guide, not a script. You are not expected to memorize it.
The ranges and cues are here to help you make good decisions as conditions and your body change throughout the day. The top of a range is not automatically better. The entire range represents good execution when used under the appropriate conditions.
Race Purpose
This race completes a journey you began approximately ten months ago.
The primary objective is straightforward: get across the finish line, feel as strong as possible, and become an IRONMAN. You have completed the preparation. Race day is about accessing that fitness without allowing impatience, wind, or missed fueling to take it away from you.
The 30,000-Foot Approach
IRONMAN Maryland is flat, but flat does not mean easy. The primary costs come from wind, continuous pedaling, prolonged time in one position, cadence and muscular fatigue, feeding consistently for an entire day, and remaining patient when speed changes.
Strategy at a Glance
Swim
Establish a sustainable rhythm and respond assertively—but calmly—to chop.
Bike
Ride primarily at 145–155 W. Protect cadence and fueling into the wind. Use up to 160–165 W with a productive tailwind only when everything remains stable.
Marathon Walk
Settle into a purposeful 15:30–16:15/mi rhythm. Keep fueling, minimize unnecessary stationary time, and continue moving forward.
Key Anchors
Bike
Marathon Walk
Whole-range reminder: Every number inside the stated range can represent good execution. The top is not the hidden target.
Your Control System
On the bike
- Power
- Perceived exertion
- Cadence and muscular condition
On the marathon walk
- Purposeful walking mechanics
- Perceived exertion
- Sustainable pace
- GI function and fueling continuity
Do not use speed to judge bike execution. A headwind can produce an excellent effort and a disappointing speed. A tailwind can produce tremendous speed without requiring excessive output.
Swim
Starting Position
Seed yourself among athletes expecting to swim approximately 1:20–1:35. There is no benefit to beginning around swimmers whose urgency will disrupt your rhythm.
Allow the first several minutes to establish breathing, stroke rhythm, clear water when available, independent sighting, and sustainable effort.
Swimming Into Chop
The Choptank can become choppy. When swimming into chop, slightly increase your stroke rate.
Think like a running back: it is better to deliver the contact than wait passively for the contact to arrive. Put the stroke into the water before the chop can continually interrupt it.
Do not overreach or force a long, slow stroke into oncoming water. Shorten slightly, increase rhythm, and continue moving assertively.
Sea Nettles
Sea nettles may be present. Be aware of the possibility without allowing it to dominate your thinking. A normal sting may be uncomfortable, but discomfort does not require panic or a change in execution. Maintain breathing and stroke rhythm. Seek medical help for any serious or unusual reaction.
Second Loop and Swim Exit
At the second-loop junction, pay attention to the course markings and reestablish your rhythm after any contact or congestion.
Approaching shore, prepare the legs gently, stand deliberately, accept the temporary rise in heart rate, and move through transition without racing it. Do not attempt to recover a few transition minutes by forcing the opening bike miles.
Bike: 30,000-Foot Approach
The purpose of the bike is to deliver you to T2 capable of using your walking durability.
Your normal range is 145–155 W. Every watt within that range can represent successful execution. The wind determines where within—or occasionally just outside—that range you should ride. Speed does not.
Early Bike and Rust Protocol
Through the technical Cambridge exit, ride safely, use an easy gear, let breathing settle, confirm that the bike is operating normally, and begin fueling once safely established.
If the legs initially feel flat, do not test them with harder riding. Use familiar, low-cost cadence changes and allow the legs to come around gradually. Persistent unusual effort, breathlessness, pain, or dizziness is not ordinary taper rust.
Bike Sections
Cambridge Exit and Opening Connector
Target approximately 140–150 W until safely clear and fully settled. Then allow power to enter 145–155 W, establish a sustainable aero position, begin the fueling schedule, and observe the wind without judging the day.
Headwind Execution
- Generally use 140–150 W.
- Accept the lower speed.
- Pay close attention to cadence and shift before it falls substantially.
- Avoid allowing cadence to drift downward by five to seven RPM.
- Leave the aero position when handling or safety requires it.
Do not try to overpower the wind. Fighting it creates muscular damage without producing enough additional speed to justify the cost. Most importantly, do not allow headwind concentration to interrupt fueling.
Tailwind Execution
When posture, cadence, perceived exertion, GI function, and fueling are all stable, use approximately 155–165 W. Select a somewhat larger gear, allow cadence to move modestly lower, and continue producing smooth, purposeful pressure.
Do not grind. Do not chase average speed. Do not ride at 165 W simply because it is available. The additional output is appropriate only when the tailwind provides meaningful return and the muscular cost remains controlled.
First Refuge Circuit
Across Maple Dam, Blackwater, Golden Hill, Hoopers Island, and Smithville, keep power smooth, adjust output to wind rather than speed, protect cadence, and use safe straight sections to eat and drink. Take brief posture resets when needed.
Legal passing may require short changes in output. Complete the pass, return smoothly to the plan, and avoid emotional repassing.
High-School Checkpoint Near Mile 59
This is a systems checkpoint, not permission to accelerate. Confirm carbohydrate intake, bottles and sodium, GI function, cadence, muscular condition, urination, and clear judgment. Take only what you need and resume calmly. Do not take a large catch-up dose of calories.
Second Refuge Circuit
Ride the same roads according to the body you have now. Continue the planned output when muscles, cadence, GI function, fueling, and perceived exertion remain stable. Move toward the lower range when aero fatigue, muscular tightness, heat, rising effort, or nutritional disruption begins accumulating.
The second circuit is not automatically the time to increase output.
Return Connector, Cambridge, and T2
Continue fueling. Do not stop eating early because the bike is almost finished. Remain attentive through the late turns and return connector. Do not chase the bike split or attempt to recover time lost to wind, stops, or congestion.
Bike Fueling
Carbohydrate
Target 90–110 g/h. Continue regardless of headwind, tailwind, speed, position changes, or aid-station interruptions.
If intake is missed, restore the normal schedule gradually. Do not take a large catch-up bolus.
Sodium and Fluid
Target approximately 1,000 mg sodium per hour or slightly more, together with your practiced fluid intake.
PH 1000 is a sodium/electrolyte drink. It is not a carbohydrate drink. Carbohydrate must be supplied and counted separately.
T2 Objective
A successful bike delivers functional walking legs, intact GI function, adequate energy, controlled temperature, manageable hydration status, clear thinking, and confidence that the most dependable part of your race is still available.
The bike split is secondary. Your condition entering the marathon determines whether the bike was successful.
Marathon Walk: 30,000-Foot Approach
You are not improvising the marathon. Walking is something you have trained consistently and successfully.
You routinely walk approximately 30 miles per week and have repeatedly completed 2.5–3-hour walks after long Saturday rides. That is meaningful durability. The objective is to access that durability through purposeful, continuous forward movement.
Marathon Sections
T2, First Park Exit, and Downtown
Begin around 15:45–16:15/mi. Let posture and walking mechanics settle before trying to move faster. Early crowd energy can make the opening miles feel easier than they truly are. Begin fueling immediately according to schedule.
Primary Walking Range
Once settled, use approximately 15:30–16:15/mi. The entire range is good execution. Pace will vary with turns, aid stations, wind, crowd congestion, GI condition, and accumulated fatigue. Do not accelerate after every interruption to repair average pace.
First Lap
Establish purposeful mechanics, consistent carbohydrate, fluid and sodium, efficient aid-station movement, and accurate lap counting. Do not begin projecting finish time from the opening miles.
Second Lap
Sustain what is working. The day may begin feeling long here. That does not indicate a problem. The race is supposed to become long. Lower your head, remain engaged with the immediate task, and continue moving.
Third Lap and Final Downtown Routing
The goal is not an obligatory acceleration. Preserve posture, cadence, intake, and forward progress. If everything remains intact, reduce unnecessary aid-station time and continue walking strongly. Maintaining pace while others slow is an effective late-race progression.
Follow the marked lap and finish routing rather than relying on memory or GPS distance.
Marathon Fueling
Target 80–100 g of carbohydrate per hour. Because you are walking rather than running, you may tolerate more carbohydrate than a typical running marathoner. Your actual GI condition still controls.
Continue approximately 1,000 mg of sodium per hour, practiced fluid intake, regular carbohydrate doses, and calm corrections rather than large catch-up doses.
Keep carbohydrate, sodium, and fluid mentally separate. They perform different jobs.
Permission to Race
There is no reason to race the bike against other athletes.
Your permission to become more aggressive late depends on stable walking mechanics, intact GI function, maintained fueling, manageable temperature, clear thinking, and no significant muscular or injury-related deterioration.
Late aggression may simply mean continuing to walk strongly, spending less time at aid stations, and refusing to slow unnecessarily.
If Things Go Sideways
Headwind Becomes Demoralizing
Reduce power, protect cadence, continue fueling, and stop looking for reassurance from speed.
Fueling Falls Behind
Lower the immediate physical cost and restore the regular schedule. Do not attempt to consume everything missed at once.
GI Function Deteriorates
Reduce effort, simplify intake using familiar products, and resume tolerable amounts gradually.
The Swim Becomes Choppy
Increase stroke rate slightly, shorten the stroke when needed, maintain breathing, and continue asserting yourself into the water.
The Day Feels Extremely Long
That is not evidence that the plan has failed. Reduce the problem to the next aid station or landmark: keep moving, keep eating, and do not fight the wind.
Quick-Reference Race Card
Swim
- Expected: 1:20–1:30
- Into chop: slightly higher stroke rate
- Sea nettles: remain calm unless symptoms are serious
Bike
- Opening: 140–150 W
- Main: 145–155 W
- Headwind: 140–150 W; protect cadence
- Productive tailwind: 155–165 W
- Carbohydrate: 90–110 g/h
- Sodium: ~1,000 mg/h or slightly more
- PH 1000 is not carbohydrate
Marathon Walk
- Moving pace: 15:30–16:15/mi
- Carbohydrate: 80–100 g/h
- Sodium: ~1,000 mg/h
- Efficient aid stations
- Purposeful forward movement