Well, my legs hurt like hell and I'd really like to go to bed, but if I don't get some of this down now, I'll forget it I'm sure. Ignore spelling and grammar errors. You get what you get here. :-)
Pre-Race:
Woke up at 4:30, showered, had a bowl of cereal and a banana, facetimed with the family, and headed down to transition. Once I got to transition, I checked my bike on loaded my Garmin on it. Got out of transition and patiently waited to drop off my street clothes bag. I got that dropped off about 30 minutes for start time and headed down the the swim start. It was horribly backed up and I walked into water about 2 minutes before start.
Swim:
I started about in the middle of the pack this time. It was a completely different swim than Hawaii. For starters, I was actually in the pack this time instead of behind 90% of it. I got hit more times than I can count and my goggles got knocked off at least 3 times. I swam with salt water in my eyes for pretty much the entire time. These Aussies like to swim in packs for drafting purposes and they keep them tight. I'm sure if you know what you're doing it works out pretty good. (I don't know what I'm doing, so I just kept getting bumped around) I decided not to check my watch during the swim. Because of the way the course was laid out, I really had no idea where half way was anyway, so checking my time would really do me no good in this race. I was pleasantly surprised when I came out of the water to see what looked to be 1:13 and change. This would make this swim time about 20 minutes faster than my time in Kona and a very respectable swim time. It also set me up for a much easier 12:30 that I thought I would have.
T1:
Wow! I had a wet suit on and still got out of transition in about 4 minutes. Crazy fast. I almost couldn't believe it. The helpers in the change tent were incredible, or at least mine was.
Bike:
Navigating the first 10 miles is tough. It's all hills and tight turns through town, not to mention I was a little winded from my swim. I think I was barely averaging 16mph by the time I got out of town, but once I got on the highway, I was able to pick that up to about 19mph, even with 10-15mph winds from the SW. It was a tough ride down to Laurieton with the winds, but I help up okay and raised my average speed to nearly 18mph by the time I got down there. Again, Laurieton has some smaller hills and lots of turns, but I managed to keep my average up through town. Back on the highway and now I've got a sweet tailwind. Average speed is more like 22mph, and sometimes getting up to 25 or 26mph. I made great time and raised my average speed up to 18.5mph. I thought I might actually be able to put in a sub 6 hour bike if my legs would hold up. But alas, I got tagged for not dropping out of the draft zone after being passed as we were coming back into town. Once you get passed by someone, you;re required to drop back 12 meters within 25 seconds. This jerk passed me and then slowed way down while I was trying to keep a fast average speed, so of course I got the penalty and had to stop for 4 minutes at a penalty tent just after the half way check point. As I left the penalty tent, my average speed was now 18.1mph. :-( I knew at this point that sub 6 was not going to happen, but wanted to give it my best anyway. I tried to keep the hammer down, but the winds picked up even more on the way down. I think I wound up with an average speed of 17.9mph and of course a time of about 6:13 on the bike.
T2:
Well, my first potty stop was in T2, so my time was a little longer here, but still pretty good. Again with a great helper with my gear. I think it was 7 something.
Run:
Well, with my bike being over 6, I had kind of given up hope of getting under 12, but as I left T2 and clicked off the lap counter on my watch, I noticed I had 4:23 before the 12 hour mark. Really? Well, my goal time was 4:20, which is about a 10 minute average. Shouldn't be too tough... I felt great too. Was putting in an 8:45 average on the first mile and 8:50 on the second. Trying to let things settle into a 9:10, or maybe a little under. It's a 4 lap course that is fairly flat except for one very tough hill. I guess it isn't one hill though, it's 4, right? I actually had thoughts of doing my first sub 4hr marathon in this Ironman as I was going so fast for the first 6 miles. Well, I couldn't hold it. I spent too many pennies on the bike chasing a sub 6 and my legs were toast. My first cramp started at 1.5 miles in, then my calves started to cramp at about mile 3, then my groin started to cramp at about 6 miles in. I had to bring my pace down or risk being one of the guys on the side of the trail in agony from massive cramps. I started to re-think things and calculate a new finish time. Was sub 12 still possible? Maybe, but it all depended on how the first half went and if I could hold on to a 10 minute average. Nope. Wasn't going to happen. So now what is my adjusted goal? My run was appearing to fall apart, and quickly. I was determined to at least run the entire marathon, and I did meet that goal. Nutrition and hydration went better than Kona. Only had to stop twice to pee, so not bad there. I stayed away from gatorade and I think it made a big difference in how my stomach felt. Well, there I was with about 3 miles left and I noticed that if I was going to beat my Kona run time, I needed to get on it. I tried to pick up the pace and I skipped the last two aid stations and ran straight through knowing that if I could get there quick enough, I could possibly beat my Kona run time as well as beat my buddy Andy's IM time in Canada! :-) (Had to put that in there Andy) Well, the rest is kind of history. I was able to pick it up just enough to beat my kona run time by about a minute and my Kona IM time by about an hour and 5 minutes. Not too bad for an old man!
Once again, thanks to everyone who tracked me, supported me during training, and inspired me to race. Much thanks to Andy Krans for getting me into this crazy sport in the first place!
