RESULTS
4:29:52
14th Place Overall
2nd Place Male 30-34
Note: I'm not sure where the splits came from in the results because Setup lost the timing chips for all racers over number 400. I wasn't wearing a timing chip so while the splits in the results are in the ballpark, they are not correct.
Swim- 27:43
There was only one goal for this race. Win the swim. Coach Flanigan has apparently grown tired of me not taking full advantage of my swim background and he gave me strict instructions to not swim like a pansy (although he may have used a more forceful word not suitable for the interweb). The water was pretty chilly after an unseasonably cool spring so the swim was wetsuit legal. Generally speaking I hate wetsuit swims because I feel that the suits really restrict the range of motion in my shoulders. However, given the fact that Ironman CDA will definitely be a wetsuit swim it was good early season practice for June 23. I attacked the swim much harder than normal and got busy for the first 500 meters. It took me about five minutes before I got clear of the crowd and then it was smooth sailing. Once clear I settled into a smooth Ironman pace and began to pull away from the crowd. All the swimming I have done over the past few months has really paid off and I felt strong in the water (thanks to Peluso Open Water Masters Program). It felt good to put the field behind me and swim in open space. The really great news was that swimming harder didn't really change the way I felt coming out of the water. My heart rate and level of energy was about what I am accustomed to. Mission accomplished, and I came out about :45 seconds ahead of the next person.
Bike- 2:25:38,Avg Speed- 22.5 MPH
Avg Power 268, Normalized Power 278
Variability Index- 1.04
The bike course was honest. The terrain wasn't overwhelmingly difficult but it was rolling and the weather conditions made it more difficult than it should have been. It rained for a good deal of the course and the wind was pretty terrible. There were large sections with brutal head and crosswinds. I was alone out front for the first half hour before the stronger riders began to catch me. There were some legit cyclists at this race!!!! My goal was to ride between 240-250 watts but guys started going around me and I began to panic a bit. I realized that 240 wasn't going to be enough to be competitive and I started riding harder, sometimes you have to ride with the field and that's what I did. Much to my chagrin there were still dudes passing me. I set a new ceiling of 270 watts and tried to keep it there for the remainder of the bike ride. My buddy Justin passed me about 30 miles into the bike and was riding strong. I hung close to him for about 10-15 minutes but realized that I would not be able to run if I did the bike course at his speed. Shortly thereafter Rob Green passed me going uphill. Rob was flying and ended up splitting 2:18 on the bike which was the second fastest bike split in the race! He called back to me as he went around me and told me to hold on but there was just no way. He was absolutely killing it and I had to let him go. A few more guys passed me on the bike but I was still positioned in the top 10 by the time I hit the second transition. I was a bit concerned rolling into transition that I rode 20-30 watts harder than I planned and I knew the run course was very challenging. As I ran out of transition I was hoping I didn't cook my own goose. In looking at the data, I had an objectively good ride but it was a certainly a wake up call to ride against faster competition than I am used to. My take away from the bike is that there is still work to be done before IMCDA. Objectively the numbers were good, but I was not pleased with how many guys passed me. I at least need to ride on par with my training buddies Rob and Justin (props to them for throwing down big bike splits). During the bike my nutrition consisted of one bonk breaker (230 calories) and a bottle consisting of 400 calories of Carbo Pro, 100 calories of Gatorade and 6 salt stick tablets. I drank about 2/3 of the bottle during the ride. along with one bottle of water.
Run-1:32:03Avg- 7:06/mile
Mile Splits: 7:08, 6:46, 7:07, 6:49, 6:58, 6:56, 7:03, 7:04, 7:17, 7:19, 7:25, 6:58
The run course at Kinetic is brutal. You run out of transition and run immediately uphill for about a mile. You then run a challenging section of rolling hills. The run course is three loops and you have to run the brutal uphill section three times. This run stings!!!!! My plan was to run consistently especially on the long climbs. My focus on the uphill was on a quick cadence. I was pleasantly surprised when I ran the first uphill mile in 7:08. I was even more shocked when four of the next 5 miles ticked in under 7:00 pace. I certainly wasn't feeling like I was running that fast so it was awesome to find out that I have the capability to ride at 270 Watts and not completely explode on the run. I started to get a pretty nasty blister late in the run and the hills definitely started to catch up with me. Miles 10-12 were pretty weak and I was climbing the ladder of pain. It was good to see that I was able to reel the last mile back under 7:00. My nutrition on the run consisted of straight coke. I took a cup of coke at every other aid station and supplemented with water as necessary. I was overall very pleased with my run split. This was my fastest ever run split in a half ironman and my previous best was at the Charleston half which is pancake flat.
Overall the race was an objective success, but I am not especially pleased with how I performed relative to the competition. I continue to improve every year, but I am still not yet where I want to be. I want to get to the point where I am in the mix for the top 5 overall at these longer well contested races. In any event this race confirmed that I am in a good position as I head into my final IMCDA preparations. As always, thanks for taking the time to read!!!!
