19 Jul 2015-
IRONMAN UK, the race that we
have been targeting from the beginning of the year. Everything else along the way was just to get
me to the start line on Sunday in Bolton.
I have been training consistently and seeing progress since the end of
last season, and had been extremely happy with where things were headed. I was excited to race Bolton and see if the
work was going to pay off.
The start list came
out 10 days before the race and only had 14 guys on it, with quite a few top athletes. As the race got closer, some pulled out of the race and when race day came, we were down to 11 guys on the start
line. I had done my research and knew
who I was lining up against, and thought I had a good chance at a good day, if
I executed my race plan.
The weather was
predicted to be pretty bad with rain and wind, but I wasn't surprised, as this
seems to be the norm on race days in the UK.
Pre-Race with the wifey. Trooper for her to chase me around the course in the pouring rain!
Swim- 57:06
I knew my best bet
for the swim would be to try and get on Victor DelCorral's feet or attempt to
swim with Joe Skipper. Last time I tried
to swim with Victor was at Ocean Lava, and I believe he out-swam me by 3 mins over
3 km, so I wasn’t sure how the plan was
going to play out. I lined up next to
Victor on my right and Joe was a few guys over on the left. When the gun went off, Victor went a bit right
and what I thought was off course, so I ended up swimming towards Joe and
hoping to get on his feet. After about
400 m, things got spread out and Victor made his way over to us and I ended up
sitting on his feet, trailing Joe for the whole first loop. Starting the 2nd lap, Victor went to the
front and I ended up on Joe's feet.
Then, halfway
through the 2nd lap, we started getting into the congestion of the Age
Groupers. This is where a gap opened up
and I lost contact with them. Over the
next 900 m, they managed to put 1 minute into me, which I was a bit unhappy about
looking back afterwards, but overall I was really happy with my swim. I came out of the water 9th, which wasn't
great but my swim time and where I was relative to Joe and Victor was a step in
the right direction. It would have been
nice to come out of the water with them and attempt to ride with them.
Bike- 5:14:43
By the time I got
out on the bike, the rain started coming down really hard. I had pre-ridden the course 3 weeks back, so I knew the course pretty well. I was a bit
hesitant for the first 1.5 hours, as the rain was coming down and I didn't want to
crash through one of the many corners.
The rain stopped 1.5 hours into the ride, and I started riding a bit more
aggressively then. I got into a groove and
started making my way up through the field.
I got passed early on and moved back to 10th, but then after about 40
miles, I slowly started passing guys.
The second loop of
the bike was congested, but not too bad.
With about 10 miles to go I moved into 6th position, but could not drop
the guy, so pulled into T2 with him just a few seconds behind.
I was most impressed
with the spectators on the bike course.
Unbelievable to see so many people out there supporting the athletes
considering the early morning conditions.
There were a few sections that were very similar to the TdF, with the
roads lined with spectators on both sides of the road. The only other time I experienced anything
like it was when I did Wiesbaden 70.3 in Germany back in 2009.
Run- 3:09:10
As we ran out of T2, I got passed and was back to 7th. I held
back the first 10 km and really tried hard not to "chase" the guy in
front of me. I stuck to my plan and slowly
pulled him back in. The course was a
looped course, but first you had to get to the loop via a point-to-point route
that was about 8 miles. Around mile 12, I
made the pass for 6th.
I stayed in a good
rhythm and just kept putting time into the 7th place guy. I started to struggle around mile 20 and the
guy that was back in 8th moved into 7th.
At the start of the last lap, I had a 4 min gap on him. At the last U-turn he passed me, that was
around mile 23. I immediately found an
extra gear and passed him right back. It
was all downhill to the finish, other than one small incline that was 1/2
block long and about 10% grade. I slowly
opened up a gap but then he sat back around 15-25 feet for 2.5 miles. At that last steep pitch, about 1/2 mile out, I put in a surge, hoping that it would open up a bigger gap. I really didn’t want to go to the line having
to sprint with this guy. There were
AG'ers on the course, and I didn't want to have to navigate them in the final
meters as the finish chute was quite technical with a U-turn about 75 m from the
finish.
Luckily that last
surge was all it took and I think that deflated him. I told myself when he passed me that I wasn't
going to give up and quit after executing a great 138 miles. So I dug deep and found those extra gears.
Swim- 57:06
Bike- 5:14:43 /
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/349840099
/ TrainingPeaks: http://tpks.ws/oUx9g
Run- 3:09:10 /
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/349840558
/ Trainingpeaks: http://tpks.ws/Bcmw
Total- 9:27:56 / 6th
Pro
Overall, I am really
happy with how the race went. I fell
like I executed the race plan all the way up until mile 20 of the run. Still learning how to race the IM distance,
but I think I am almost there on being to race the whole 140.6 miles.
Next up will be some
recovery time and then some traveling with my wife on a cruise to Scotland,
Iceland and Norway. Then, after the down
time I am going to build back up and prepare for another IM in November. Hopefully a few 70.3s along the way.
Thanks again to
everyone for their continued support!
You can view all of my sponsors HERE and get special discounts
from a few of them as well!
Race Day Nutrition-
Breakfast-
1 Banana
2 cups of Starbucks Instant Oatmeal
1 Bottle of Osmo Pre Load (also one night before)
1 Bottle of Osmo Hydration
Bike-
2x Concentrated Bottles (consumed 1 first 2 hours, second one between mile 70 and 100. Second bottle has Caffeine from EFS Shot, Perpetum Latte, and Hammer Espresso Gel)
-- 4 Scoops of Hammer Perpetum, 2 Hammer Gels, 4oz of EFS Liquid Shot. Approx 1000 calories.
1/2 Pack of PowerBar Gel Blast (Cola Flavor)
2x H2Pro Hydration (1000mg of Sodium)
1/2 Bottle of Gatorade Endurance
Run-
2x Pack of PowerBar Gel Blast (Cola Flavor)
1 stick of Base Salt
8x Cups of Pepsi
8x Cups of Water
Race Day Nutrition-
Breakfast-
1 Banana
2 cups of Starbucks Instant Oatmeal
1 Bottle of Osmo Pre Load (also one night before)
1 Bottle of Osmo Hydration
Bike-
2x Concentrated Bottles (consumed 1 first 2 hours, second one between mile 70 and 100. Second bottle has Caffeine from EFS Shot, Perpetum Latte, and Hammer Espresso Gel)
-- 4 Scoops of Hammer Perpetum, 2 Hammer Gels, 4oz of EFS Liquid Shot. Approx 1000 calories.
1/2 Pack of PowerBar Gel Blast (Cola Flavor)
2x H2Pro Hydration (1000mg of Sodium)
1/2 Bottle of Gatorade Endurance
Run-
2x Pack of PowerBar Gel Blast (Cola Flavor)
1 stick of Base Salt
8x Cups of Pepsi
8x Cups of Water
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