Aside from finishing IRONMAN Florida last weekend, the best part was that IRONMAN featured my story in their event video. Check it out below.

IM Florida2014 JacobSharff from Ironworks on Vimeo.

This past weekend, on November 1, 2014, I competed in IRONMAN Florida triathlon with my badass training partner Jacqui Kapinowski. This long distance triathlon was a first for me, as I’ve previously only raced in “sprint” triathlons. A “triathlon” consists of a sequential “swim, bike, run” race. In an ironman distance paratriathlon the open water ocean swim is 2.4 miles. The “cycle” portion, which I use a Top End Force-R hand-cycle to complete, is 112 miles. And finally, the “run” portion is a full 26.2 mile marathon distance, and I “run” using a racing wheelchair with Harness gloves.

The night before race, there was a wind advisory warning, which said winds would be from 22-27mph, with gusts up to 40mph. I thought, great, not only is a cold front dropping the temperature down to low 40’s, the wind is going to cause problems! The next morning, wind was ripping so badly they decided to cancel the swim portion, literally 5 minutes before the start. Wind was so bad, the rescue boats were having trouble maneuvering through the ripping current and waves. Super sketchy…

As they often do in life, plans quickly changed! Start time moved from a 7am swim to an 8am cycle start. Headwinds were horrible. Basically for roughly 8 hours 15 minutes we battled strong winds, muscling through 112 miles on a hand-cycle. Actually felt stronger than I thought I would getting into racing wheelchair for marathon run portion.

In the end, the entire race took just under 12 hours. The feeling of satisfaction is indescribable. Truly a natural high. Be stronger than all your excuses, always.

Check out the official IRONMAN Florida 2014 highlight video below.

IM Florida 2014 RaceDayVideo from Ironworks on Vimeo.