Ironman #2 on the year and my 10th different venue for the full distance! I want to address the craziness with the time adjustments up front and say I did not finish in 8 hours. An incident on course caused the top guys to reroute and cut 16 miles from the bike course. Everyone else’s times were adjusted to remove that 16-mile segment (not ideal if you rode it really well). My actual time was 8:36:59.
Pre-Race: A 14-ish hour car ride with pops. We left first thing after I got done with work Tuesday and drove 4.5 hours before stopping at a hotel in Indiana. We finished the drive Wednesday while I worked remotely in the car. I’ll skip the rest of the pre-race other than some of the worst sleep those final 2 nights.
Swim (1:02:21 - 22nd pro): An in water start for the pros, and luckily it was shallow enough for us to stand while we waited for the cannon. It was choppy from the start, and I found myself amongst other guys throughout the entire swim, 6-7 total. A few times I could see the front, and I knew I was pretty much at the back of the race. I was mostly in 2nd position with my group, and a few times I swam up next to the guy leading us. I quickly realized that my effort was much higher to go the same speed, so I just tucked back in. Overall, it wasn’t the hardest swim I’ve done, but there were a few moments when I really had to push to get back into the group. The chop moved us around a lot, but it wasn’t a problem until loop 2. As we made the turn to start that 2nd lap, the sun was blinding. A few of us popped up to try and see the buoys and I heard a kayak yell straight into the sun! Once we joined the loop 1 athletes, I could feel my efficiency drop. It was hard to focus on a good stroke, and I needed to alter it to navigate around everyone. The pros had darker green caps, so I sighted more often to make sure I was still with my group. I could tell from a few splits on my watch that it was going to be a slower swim, but I was content being in a group regardless. Looking at final times, I was about 10.5 minutes off of 1st and my goal is always to be within 10. I’m also normally worried about the female pros catching me, but we had a 10min head start and none of them made up any time.
T1 (3:18): Very happy with this one. We were told race morning that we could leave our helmets on our bikes, so I took the extra time to get it from my bike bag and set it on my bike. This allowed me to pull my water bottle from my bag while running to the change tent, take a big drink and rinse the salt off my body on the move. I took the extra time to put on aero socks and was content with where I fell in terms of the other pros.
Bike (4:27:51 - 27th pro): Multi-PR alert!!! Time, power and nutrition. This was easily my best bike ride to date. I had never ridden under 4:35 and 4:30 was my stretch goal for this race. The wind was very strong, but it felt like we had tailwind during the open sections and headwind in more wooded/protected areas. I was told 22nd place starting the bike and I think 3 people passed me early on. The first 10 miles were a little more technical, but I felt like this was the best cornering and bike handling I had ever done. Even with the flying mount and corners, I averaged 24.5mph (with tailwind). I was happy with my power as well and once the roads opened up, I was pushing low to mid 250W from 15-40 miles. Also moving 26+mph with the tailwind. I was pretty much solo with no one in sight until Robby Webster (another pro I usually end up with on the bike) came around. I went into a bit of a lull from 40-60 mile and thought it would be a struggle in the 2nd half. I stayed with Robby back into the headwind until we started lap 2 and got mixed in with the age groupers. My power dropped significantly through a technical parking lot section while working my way through them plus an aid station. It was kind of nice to have something else to focus on but some parts had droves of lapped athletes. It was nearly impossible to get around in some spots, and with how strong the wind was… many were swerving all over the place and I was almost taken out a few times. I opted to just leave aero if I didn’t have a ton of space and used my voice as much as possible. I was able to hold my power back into the upper 240’s despite a lot of coasting and surging as I went around them. I was probably burning matches. Training Peaks shows I spent 27min between 300-330W and 13 minutes over 330W…. Regardless, I caught my 2nd wind until about 95 miles. That last headwind section was actually perfect with the age groupers to my right blocking the head crosswind on a very wide road with plenty of room for everyone. Once I turned off the loop for the final 10 miles, I really wanted to average 25mph and pushed it hard. I still felt quite strong, but I knew I’d lose time into the headwind and the final few corners. I just got it and set a new best power PR of 242W (247 NP), 25mph average and took down 650g of carbs (145g/hr). One final comment on the bike is that most of the top pros were in the 4:05-4:10 range, and this was the closest I’ve ever been to the front of the race at 32min back instead of almost an hour. Robert Kallin did split a 3:54, but he’s an outlier ;)
T2 (2:32): I didn’t feel like this transition was anything special, but looking back I was the 2nd fastest through! Having socks on certainly helped, but this is a big win for me.
Run (3:00:58 - 16th pro): The run started out a bit rough with some gut issues the first 5K, and I knew my pace early on was probably not going to get the job done for me. I tend to not look at my watch for the first ½ mile as I find my legs, and I was surprised to see my pace was 7:30. I assumed my watch auto transitioned while I was still in the tent and that first split was 7:10. Mile 2 was 6:35, so I was actually pretty happy with that and felt like I was moving. There was a dirt/grass section and then uneven brick that we had to run through 7 times, and I knew that’d impact my pace a bit. I wasn’t feeling my best running mid 6:40s, but I did find my stride a bit miles 5-12. Unfortunately the wheels started to fall off shortly after, and the next 3 miles were all over 7min pace. I knew it was heating up and humid, but I still felt like I was managing ice, nutrition and fluids well. I caught a 2nd wind during mile 16, but then it all fell apart and I pretty much convinced myself 7:30s were acceptable to close out the final 10 miles. I didn’t seem to have any umph and my legs were completely trashed. Each step was painful and I honestly just suffered my way through. The only thing I could focus on was each little milestone. For me that’s 10 miles to go, 18 miles being ⅔ done, 10K to go and 5K to go. I kept checking my total time and maintained the goal of at least being under 8:40 since a PR was no longer in reach. With 10K to go, I just had to average 7:30s. A few 7:10s gave me a little buffer for a very rough mile 23 when the cramping started. At that point I gave in to just keep it under 8min pace. The last time through the grass and dirt, both of my hamstrings cramped and almost brought me to a walk. I’ve done the straight knee run before, so I used that “technique” to just stay moving until it passed. The final mile was on that brick section, and the course was pretty packed on that final loop. I suffered to the line and cramped again coming up that little ramp. The run course must have been a ¼ mile short because I was pacing for just under 3:05.
Finish (8:36:59 - 18th OA): I had to specify overall because I do still compare myself to the top amateurs. But, this was my best pro finish, and I’m proud of a 2nd top 20 since taking my elite license last year.
Up next is some recovery before I try my hand at the Mines of Spain 100K with absolutely zero specialized training :)
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