You went 9:50 at Kona, I am in no position to give you advice. But I will congratulate you. Great job.

Don't wear orange. No particular reason other than it's not a good kit color choice.
Paint your bike black. Everyone knows that black bikes are faster.
And, for crying out loud, eat a sandwich every once in a while.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

- Run more stadiums, you looked gassed taking those steps coming out of the water.

- Don't draft, no matter how big of a wind block the guy ahead of you is providing

- Quit staring at the girls walking while your trying to run

- lastly, get a faster pacing partner. Perhaps someone in a gorilla suit.

I'll take compliments and jokes any day of the week but after the armchair QB performance in the jeer&cheer thread of the pros about little details I could barely even discern when I was looking for them, I was hoping for the kind of comments that would make non-twitchers roll their eyes...

But to address a few specific points raised so far:
- Orange is the colour of swimskin elitism, I thought it was beneficial.
- I got my gorilla pacer to shave because of the heat and also aero benefits. Turns out our club gorilla suit just looks like our tri suits when you take the hair off.

What's the beef with your wheels and who is this "trusted" source? ;-)

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"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz

my only question would be, is the front wheel on in the correct direction, can tell from small photo size which side valve stem is on

The front wheel is the same as the back in terms of spoke shape and valve position; I hesitate to say it is the right way round because some smartass will show up and tell me about his wind tunnel test where it works better facing the other way. (No joke, someone did this with tyres once.)

But I believe it is installed as the manufacturer intended. 😂

I asked that too and he screwed up his face and said "eh, you can do better" - to be honest I didn't push it further so that we would be able to have some fruitful discussion in this thread. Maybe he will chip in, I emailed him the link :)

What shoes are you rocking? Look fairly low-profile. Might benefit from a more supported shoe across the marathon. Bout all I've got here...

+1 on faster training partner to hold hands with

Shoes = Saucony Kinvara, neutral & 4mm drop. I haven't changed shoe models in a couple of years, my fastest IM run with these shoes has been 3.10 (well, it was 3.03, but adjusting for the Austria factor).

I haven't ever felt like I needed more support but admittedly I don't know a lot about shoes. Would I be able to tell while running? Are there signs for me to look for?

Ps that guy got off the bike 15 minutes behind me, I think I need a faster pacer but he should be a faster cyclist not a faster runner :)

Ah, yeah, Saucony Kinvara is probably OK on the support front. That said, if your legs felt really beat up for the last 10K or so, you might want to try doing some longer training runs in something with a bit more support to see what you think.

I've slowly gone with more and more support (race flats to Clinton 2 Hokas) for IM marathons and have found that my legs simply work better for the back half. Not so much the case for me this year w Kona, but think there were other issues at play... Just something to think about. And again, if the shoes are working, no need to fuss with it.

Best of luck in the coming year.