Ironman Texas 2023 Race Report

Ironman Texas caught my eye when I was looking at races on the Ironman website in the last summer. A year had passed since my first Ironman race (Ironman Tallinn -2021) and my race plan for 2022 was already clear. But I was thinking of a more challenging goal for 2023. Running a long-distance race just before the summer season of 2023 was a good idea. IM Texas is a very good alternative…

I was already training for Ironman 70.3 Turkey until November. I thought I could continue to increase my training and prepare until April 2023 for the race. It wasn’t a bad call at all.

Ironman Texas would also be a continental championship, so it would be a great experience. It was a beautiful race and experience beyond my expectations. I’m glad I made this decision.

I gained experience about the different races in Europe. But I was curious about racing in a different continent and time zone.

Texas gives 100 slots for the World Championship. What if it happens? Even participating in the roll-down would be a great experience.

When I looked at the dates, I saw that the race coincided with the bank holiday period in Turkey. It’s a criterion that needs to be considered when you’re a white-collar worker.

Another issue for me is that I need to prepare for a whole year for a summer or fall race. The whole summer is spent with tough training. For my previous Ironman race (Ironman Tallinn), I spent all spring and summer time with long hours training. It inevitably disrupts family life. That’s why it seemed like a good idea to train in the winter months and race before the season starts.

Direct flights are important for the race. It’s not easy to carry bikes and other bags with connecting flights. Turkish Airlines flies directly to Houston. The bike transport fee is twice as expensive, but what can you do?

Of course, there are challenging aspects to this decision; Costs. It was good to split expenses for the race into months. Buying plane tickets at a very reasonable price one year in advance worked out. Winter training sessions. Long bike and long run training sessions are not easy in rainy weather. But everything is done with the right motivation. Anything is possible…

The time difference between İstanbul and Houston was 8 hours. To be honest, it wasn’t much of a problem. The race was on Saturday, April 22nd. I arrived in Houston on April 19th. 2 days of adaptation were quite sufficient.

I said I could go alone, but there are risks to a race like Ironman. Having someone you know with you provides an important comfort. I was lucky that Volkan decided to come to Ironman Texas too. We raced together. Volkan’s wife Dilek’s race support was unforgettable.

We evaluated all these criteria with my coach Axa (Instagram: @AxamanProject) and made the decision. I registered for the race in last August and got down to work. Coach Axa knows me and my weaknesses. Then, he planned the training plans for me, and it was what I needed to do well.

I did about 8 months of intense training. I followed my training plan as much as possible. It’s not easy to train in the winter times of İstanbul. But when you’re motivated, everything happens somehow. Nights and weekends were intense. I even managed to train in Amsterdam by coincidence with a business meeting with my race partner Volkan.

Race Week

The race was scheduled to start on Saturday morning, April 22nd. Accordingly, it made sense to buy the plane ticket on Wednesday, April 19th. After a long 13-hours flight from İstanbul, I landed at 7:30 pm to Houston. After passport control, baggage delivery, Uber etc., I arrived at the Airbnb rental location around 10:30 pm. Volkan and Dilek had arrived much earlier. I can say that I spent most of the first day with the flight and reaching the location.

Thursday, April 20th was the last day for registration procedures. The rental house we stayed in was very close to the registration area. Registration and race briefing were done. The race briefing is held in the parking lot outside. It started raining heavily while we were sitting nicely. The weather was already constantly humid and rainy. We didn’t really mind getting wet from the excitement and energy of the environment.

After the bike unpack and adjustment, we did a short bike check around the lake.

The last item at the to-do list was joining the opening ceremony at Marriott Hotel on Thursday. The buffet was very good, and the atmosphere was very exciting.

On Friday, April 21st, we went to the starting area of the race for swimming training and swim check. They gave everyone a chip for the safety. It was nice to try both the wetsuit and the water conditions.

The water was surprisingly dark and around 22 degrees Celsius. After swimming about 1000 meters, we turned back. Bike check-in and chip delivery processes were completed.

T1 and T2 are in the same parking lot. The grass was slightly wet due to heavy rain last night. Blue and red bags are left in different directions on the road at the end of the grassy bike area above. You take your bag and change clothes when you enter the transition area after getting out of the water. The support of volunteers is quite active in this race. This is something I have never seen before in any race.

You can also have special needs bags for cycling and running courses. But we didn’t need it. We prepared our red and blue bags in the order we were used to. In fact, since our running bag was very light because it only had a visor and number, we even need to find stones in the park so that it wouldn’t fly in the wind and put it in the bag. We drank our coffees while doing a 15-minute shake out run and watching the setup of the finish area of the race. After doing all our preparations and checks outside, we went home for rest.

Race Day

It’s hard to sleep the night before the race. The night passed by constantly looking at the clock. We woke up around 3:00 am. We drank our coffees with a simple breakfast (bread, peanut butter, honey and cheese). The nice thing about this race is that when you wake up in the morning, it is afternoon in Turkey so you can easily call anyone you want. We left home around 4:45 because the Transition area opened at 5:00. The weather was dark and slightly cool.

My Race Plan

Swim 1 Hour and our 30 minutes

Bike: Around 6 hours

Running: Complete the first 21 km with a pace of 6-6:30 minutes/km and complete the next 21 km with a plan of running and walking (25 minutes of low tempo running and 5 minutes of walking) in about 5 hours.

I reserved about a total of 15 minutes in both transitions total.

A total of 12 hours 30 minutes – 13 hours race time.

Race nutrition

Taking a Sports Bar and Water before swimming.

A banana at T1

I put Maurten Gel100/CAF100 packages, Banana, Sports Bar, a Maurten C225 Bar to the bike for every 30-40 minutes on the ride.

I also planned to replenish from water stations. Maurten Gel, energy bars, fruit, water and Gatorade Endurance Formula drinks are provided at the stations during the race.

I had two 750ml liquid with SIS tablets on the bike.

I took Gatorade/water supplements at stations, and I planned to take a salt pill at 90 km and another one at the end of the bike.

Another energy bar at T2

Maurten Gel, fruit and Gatorade supplements and salt pill when necessary during the run course.

My nutrition plan generally worked. However, at the end of the run, I ate and drank whatever I found at the stations. They were serving chicken soup (broth) at one station. It was good for the last lap. I had the same thing in Tallinn. I wonder if this chicken soup thing is a special for Ironman races. By the way, it’s nice towards the end of the race.

Swim (3.800 Meters – 1 Hour and 30 Minutes)

We spent 15-20 minutes in the transition area for bike check, tire pressure, placement of water bottles, taping gels, and putting shoes and equipment in bags. When we finished our work, we started our 2 km walk towards the swim start area as the sun was rising around 6:30 am. The pro triathletes started at around 6:30 am. As of 6:45 am, age groupers started the race in groups of four. I pressed the start button on my watch exactly at 6:58 am. With Volkan, we found ourselves in cold water a few seconds apart.

Swim was completed exactly in the time I planned. After the first turn, I stayed slightly to the right of the crowd. My front was almost always empty. However, when I entered the canal towards Town Center, I continued to swim with the crowd because it narrowed. Volunteers help remove wetsuits when you get out of the water. Of course, my heart rate was high. Someone pulled me by the arms, and I fell on a mat. I found myself on the ground in a daze. Within a few seconds, volunteers removed my wetsuit. Within the next minute, I found myself looking for my bike bag. I don’t know if it’s because of the width of the area or something else, but T1 took longer than I thought. I ran 400 meters. I couldn’t fit the spare tire into the back pocket. It must have taken at least 1 minute. I couldn’t apply sunscreen properly and ran to my bike. T1 took a total of 11 minutes.

Bike (180 km – 6 hours 22 minutes)

The bike course was completed slightly above the time I planned. Most of the bike route is on the highway. It was hot and dry compared to the rest of the race. The southern direction of the route was around 25-26 km/hr because the hot dry headwind. But on the way back, I saw averages around 36 km/hr on my watch. My nutrition plan went as I planned, and I didn’t have any problems throughout the bike route. I didn’t push my performance too hard. It was a ride in an easy pace. I also wanted to leave some energy in my legs for run course. There were many athletes who fell or pulled over and waited for the technical team on the route. Even an age grouper fell right in front of me. Although the sudden change of wind direction was risky, I completed the bike without any accident as I hoped. Although it was difficult to calculate miles (I am a km guy!) at first, I got used to it later. I can even say that I liked it more than calculating kilometres. The number and locations of stations were very well chosen. Even under the heat on the highway, there were many spectators and they supported us a lot. It was a nice experience to see pro triathletes occasionally and see camera motors broadcasting them live.

When I completed the bike course and entered T2, eight hours of the race had passed for me. When I entered T2, volunteers took my bike and direct you to collect your running bag. T2 took about 11 minutes with a 500-meter run and running preparation. Finally, I left the last bag to a volunteer and started run course.

Run (42.4 KM – 5 hours 50 minutes)

Photo Credit @IronmanTri Twitter Account – IMTX

The running route consists of 3 laps of 14 kilometres. It is done on an asphalt and concrete ground that is run around the lake and in the city canter. There is a water and supply station almost every step of the way. Gel, bar, water, chips, pretzel, ice, Red Bull, Coke and Gatorade are provided at each station. The people and those who come to support the race support the runners on almost the whole route. It is beautiful in that sense. I think the most original is the “Hippy Hollow” area. This is the area in the photo above. There is an incredible amount of cheer and support in that area. Since it is evening on the last tour, you experience an even more beautiful atmosphere with colourful lights.

My plan for the run was to run the first lap and half of the second and then adjust the strategy accordingly. The first 15-16 km went well. I ran at an average pace of 6:00 – 6:15. However, when I stopped for a water station afterwards, it was not possible to continue running again. Afterwards, walking turned into a painful process that took a long time at a pace between running and running. As a result, when I completed the run in a total of 5 hours and 50 minutes, much more than I expected, my watch showed the total race time of 14 hours and 14 minutes.

Finish area was amazing. It’s the first time in all this time that I’ve experienced a finish with so many people cheering. A volunteer never left me alone during the minutes I was there. Volkan also finished the race 45 minutes before me (Congratulations bro!). Together with Dilek and Volkan, we happily ate the pizzas served in the race area and congratulated each other. It was the most delicious meal I’ve had all day.

To summarize the race in a single sentence, the following words would be sound well :)…
“The first 200 km is very good, but the last 26 km was a real pain in the as…”

Award Ceremony and Slot Roll-Down

The award ceremony was held at the Marriott Hotel at 11:30 the next day. Trophies were given to the top 5 athletes in each category. We congratulated Sera Sayar and Ruso Yakimovic among 6 Turkish athletes. They proud us with their success as age group finish times.
I experienced the Slot Roll Down process for the first time. After being told how many slots are allocated to the age group, they call them in order from the top 10. You go with your credit card and register immediately for the World Championship in Nice, France male athletes or Kona, Hawaii for women athletes. It was all completed in about half an hour. I hope to have it next time.
2023 Woodlands – Turkish team in Texas.
From left to right, Volkan Baş, Dilek Baş, Orkun Süer, Önder Anıltürk, Can Datça, Ruso Yakimovic and Sera Sayar.

Sera Sayar – 2nd. of Age Group Women in her category – Award Ceremony.

Ruso Yakimovic– 4th. of Age Group Men in his category – Award Ceremony.

Myself with the medal

Key Learnings and Feedbacks

• Ironman Texas is one of the most beautiful organizations I have ever attended. I am happy that I completed it, even if it was more than expected.
• Around 3000 volunteers provided support to around 2000 racers during the race. Thank you all. Volunteer organization and their sincere support add to a very good experience.
• It is very important to stay somewhere within walking distance of the race. Airbnb has been very helpful. Going to a long-distance place after the race is difficult after 14 hours of the rave tempo.
• Nutrition is definitely the 4th discipline in triathlon. Here, knowing yourself and gaining experience is the determining factor for the race. I still have a way around this.
• I recommend Ironman Texas for those who want to choose and race at Ironman distance. Those who have more questions can contact me at any time.
• All in all, IM Texas is a great race experience…
• There is a love and hate relationship with this sport. I love it most of the times… Texas is the place to evaluate yourself.

Thank you reading this. Hope to see you in another race.

You can contact me on Instagram: @triork or @orkunsuer7737

#ironman