My 3rd pro race of the season and 2nd Ironman pro series event! By the numbers, this was my best Ironman despite the slower bike time. I swam in a small pack, some tactical moves to stay in it, pushed my biggest bike power for a longer duration, and ran my fastest marathon by 6 minutes. Let’s get into it.
Pre-Race: This was an incredible trip. Ty and I flew out early Thursday morning and travel was smooth. I spent a little extra money to stay at the Best Western between Mirror Lake and transition, which was well worth it. This eliminated the need to drive anywhere (offset a little gas money and parking). After unpacking we went for a quick swim, and I had a short run to shakeout the travel. Friday, I rode the Keene descent in the rain, and I’m glad I experienced it once before the race. Everything else from check-in, pro briefing and gear check was standard. My final ride/bike were great and it felt like the body was ready to roll. My swim felt good but pace was slow, so I had some concerns of repeating IM Texas.
Race Morning: I was up around 4:15, ate breakfast
right away and walked my gear to transition. Given the technical start of the
bike, I decided to not flying mount. That saved bike setup time, and I was out
in just a few minutes. We walked back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before
I started warming up and getting my gear on. Pros had to report the start at
5:55am, so we didn’t have too much time to chill. I got in for a quick swim warm
up and was a little chilled waiting to start.
Some quick numbers before diving into the results and
details. Of the 60 pros registered, only 42 started and finished the swim (8
total DNFs). I’ll include the DNFs in my placement if they finished that leg of
the race.
Swim (58:17 - 33rd): One quick note is the water temp
was 75 degs so non-wetsuit for pros and wetsuit for age groupers. I would argue
that this was my best swim in terms of pace and execution. They started the
pros knee deep and I stood behind in a 2nd row. I got out as hard as I could
for the first 2 minutes and sighted very often to see how the packs were
forming. With how clear the water was, it made it easy to see bodies and feet
even with my face down. I found myself in a pack of ~6 and think I was on the
very back. Despite having the underwater cable to sight, I kept my eyes up to
watch for any splits. My first proud moment was seeing a split happen and
surging around to stay with the faster swimmers. Shortly after, a second split occurred,
and I managed to bridge back up once again. Now it was just 4 of us with me on
the back 1000 yards in. The rest of loop 1 actually felt comfortable and
relatively easy. I stopped sighting and just followed the feet/cable. As we
approached the Aussie exit, I surged up next to the guy in front of me to not lose
the front. As we came out of the water, he cut me off and I had to sprint back
into the water and put in a very hard effort to get back onto those feet. I was
now sitting 3rd in the group and could feel my feet getting hit. The worst part
of the swim was passing the age groupers not staying left of the buoys (pros
were told to take the inside). I kept getting knocked off those feet and put in
big efforts to get back on. The second half was a much harder effort than the
first with more water churning and dodging the stray lapped athletes. I managed
to hang on until the end of the swim and I am incredibly proud of my result and
tactical racing.
T1 (4:34): Bit of a run and I took the extra time to put on aero socks. I more than made up that time in T2 though. I also carried my cycling shoes to my bike and put them on at the rack. A flying mount didn’t feel safe in the beginning mile of the bike.
Bike (5:11:30 - 36th): I felt like I was in a good position out of the swim, but not able to ride with the few stray athletes around me. I was nailing my power targets and still getting passed by a few male and female pros. Penny Slater and Laura Jansen came around me with a male pro, and I sat off the back of them for a few miles with the race ranger light OFF. Unfortunately, we rolled into a hill and the light went orange, blue, then red for a millisecond and back to blue. I had to make the pass and pushed 380W for 90s to pass all three of them; burned a match there. Otherwise, the first ¾ of loop 1 was uneventful and I felt like I was doing alright until we started climbing back to transition, around 1,200 ft in 14 miles. This is where the top amateurs came by in a pack with some females pros. This was degrading after a 12-minute head start. Then it down poured, and visibility was tough. I took my visor off several times to see better and slowly watched my average pace drop. I also started running potential bike splits in my head. My goal was 5:05 and it was looking more like 5:15-5:20. At this point, I considered stopping after loop 1 with how much time I was losing. This was by far the worst part of the entire day, and I really did not want to go out on the loop again. The only reason I stayed out there was to take my shot at breaking 3 in the marathon. Once I saw Ty the rain let up a bit and I started loop 2. At 56 miles I was at 2:37:30 which would be a 5:15 if I even split. My power was where I wanted it to be at 227W, but I didn’t think I could increase it much if at all. As I got back out of town, I started pushing 250-260 and actually felt pretty good doing so. My average power began to creep up, which was very encouraging. I kept the pressure on best I could and it wasn’t until mile 100 that my legs really started to hurt. The last few punchy uphills were tough, and I just wanted to get back to transition without digging too much deeper. I ended up averaging 231W (243 NP) with an average speed of 21.3mph. I pushed about 10W higher on loop 2 and negative split the ride by 3.5 minutes. I was at least happy to salvage something, but the power to speed was still not making sense to me.
T2 (2:00): 2nd fastest overall T2 on the day! Flying
dismount was flawless, bike catchers were great, and I was running fast.
Everything was soaked, splashing through puddles, but I was so happy to be off
the bike. I did have a fresh pair of dry socks in my bag, but I knew I’d soak
the instantly. Opted to save the ~30s and get moving. Very fast and smooth
getting my shoes on and I was GONE.
Run (2:54:51 - 16th): At this point, it had rained a lot and continued on and off for the rest of my race. Lots of water runoff down the hills and puddles to run through. I had a plan going into the run and stuck to it. The course had around 1,100 ft of gain with the first 3 miles all downhill. I knew I needed to run 6:20s for the first section to be on pace and clocked 6:16, 6:20 and 6:07. Miles 4-7 didn’t have any net gain with some gentle rollers, and I was still holding low 6:20 pace. As I started to climb back up, my goal was to be under 7:15 pace so my average stayed around 6:40 at the top. My slowest split of lap 1 was 7:14, so I knew I was doing great. I saw Ty around mile 9 and told her I may have gone out too hot given my average pace was around 6:30 even after the climb. I finished the next 2 out and back sections and started the second lap with an average pace of 6:35 (around a 1:26 half marathon). I was still feeling strong and was able to attack the steep downhills without needing to hit the brakes. I brought the avg pace down and with a few more 6:20s as I got back down to the bottom of the main hill. The next 2 miles, I set my focus on running sub 7s until mile 18. Doing my mental math, I wanted to have 60 minutes to run the final 8 miles (7:30 pace). I held steady and had about 61 minutes to do it. Mile 20 was the base of the 200 ft climb back up again, and I had about 48 minutes to run the final 10K. In my mind, I just had to run under 8:00 and anything faster was time banked. My slowest split of the day was 7:48 with a net uphill of 100 ft. This was encouraging since I was now close to the finishing elevation with 4 miles to go. I saw Ty again and told her I was breaking 3:00 today. This is where my legs really started to hurt, and I could feel myself slowing. I kept digging until that final turnaround where I saw 1 more pro that I could catch. I passed him with ½ mile to go and gave everything I had to the line.
Finish (9:11:10 – 27th): A phrase I started using
this past weekend is “What’s the best that can happen?” Instead of worrying
about the negative what-ifs, I tried to think about the positive outcomes. What’s
the best that can happen? I make a swim pack and break 3 hours in the
marathon. I’ve never regretted leaving everything I had on the course, and I’m glad
I didn’t bag the race after a poor bike split. Coming away with what felt more like
an elite run split was well worth the mental battle on the bike. There is
always more to work on, but I’m content with how this one ended.
