This was Ironman number 9 for me. I am a big boy at 48 years old 6 foot and 210 lbs. I have to give credit to the people that put on the event, for an inaugural event they did a great job.
Got to transition at 4:30 and set everything up on my bike and loaded the tires. I’m from the west coast so my body clock was at 1:30 am. I think that is the toughest part of racing on the east coast. In transition they announced the water temp was 77 so no wetsuits.
Got on the bus at transition and it was quick ride out to the swim start. The line was already long, similar to IMLOU. We were about half way back in line. 7:40 race cannon went off and line started to move. It took 17 min to get to the dock and jump in. I knew there would be a current and I really wanted to through down a fast swim time. (The day before I would say the current was twice as fast). I pushed the swim as hard as I could. I forgot to push the start button on my watch so I had no Idea how fast I swam. Later my wife told me I swam a 55 as I left T2. My average Ironman swim time is 1:04 to 1:10. This swim had two major benefits 1the current (which you can read everyone’s opinion about on the other thread), and 2 being only 1 turn buoy. I think the haters are missing the benefit of only having to navigate 1 turn buoy. I also know for a mid-pack swimmer like myself the more turns the more minutes it takes to complete the course. In Whistler which had 7 turns my swim time was about 6 minutes slower than average. The friends I traveled and raced with all got almost the exact same 10 minute benefit from the current.
T1 was uneventful and I got out on the bike course.
I really enjoyed the bike course, with lots of people cheering from the ends of their driveways. We drove the course Thursday to see what we were up against. The course is a lollipop made up of rollers and one not to long of a steep climb. Only thing I miscalculated was I thought I could carry the hills off the back of the rollers, but turned out I had to work the top of each of the rollers. Aid stations could have been in better locations (one was at the bottom of a downhill curve) and the nutrition section was very tight. Course was 116 miles long which added about 13 min to my average IM bike time. Bike time 5:34
T2 No issues
This run course was the toughest of any Ironman I have raced. I had run the first half of the course on Thursday but never crossed the river or drove it. Big mistake. We had cloud cover all day and even a little rain which felt great. Anyway I pounded my way through it. I am not much of a runner but I always try to do what I can. Finished sub 5 hours and came down the best and longest finish chute of all my IM events.
I really think the weather played the biggest part of making this a fast day for so many athletes. I know that not overheating really helps me stay in the game.
Thanks to all the volunteers.
Got to transition at 4:30 and set everything up on my bike and loaded the tires. I’m from the west coast so my body clock was at 1:30 am. I think that is the toughest part of racing on the east coast. In transition they announced the water temp was 77 so no wetsuits.
Got on the bus at transition and it was quick ride out to the swim start. The line was already long, similar to IMLOU. We were about half way back in line. 7:40 race cannon went off and line started to move. It took 17 min to get to the dock and jump in. I knew there would be a current and I really wanted to through down a fast swim time. (The day before I would say the current was twice as fast). I pushed the swim as hard as I could. I forgot to push the start button on my watch so I had no Idea how fast I swam. Later my wife told me I swam a 55 as I left T2. My average Ironman swim time is 1:04 to 1:10. This swim had two major benefits 1the current (which you can read everyone’s opinion about on the other thread), and 2 being only 1 turn buoy. I think the haters are missing the benefit of only having to navigate 1 turn buoy. I also know for a mid-pack swimmer like myself the more turns the more minutes it takes to complete the course. In Whistler which had 7 turns my swim time was about 6 minutes slower than average. The friends I traveled and raced with all got almost the exact same 10 minute benefit from the current.
T1 was uneventful and I got out on the bike course.
I really enjoyed the bike course, with lots of people cheering from the ends of their driveways. We drove the course Thursday to see what we were up against. The course is a lollipop made up of rollers and one not to long of a steep climb. Only thing I miscalculated was I thought I could carry the hills off the back of the rollers, but turned out I had to work the top of each of the rollers. Aid stations could have been in better locations (one was at the bottom of a downhill curve) and the nutrition section was very tight. Course was 116 miles long which added about 13 min to my average IM bike time. Bike time 5:34
T2 No issues
This run course was the toughest of any Ironman I have raced. I had run the first half of the course on Thursday but never crossed the river or drove it. Big mistake. We had cloud cover all day and even a little rain which felt great. Anyway I pounded my way through it. I am not much of a runner but I always try to do what I can. Finished sub 5 hours and came down the best and longest finish chute of all my IM events.
I really think the weather played the biggest part of making this a fast day for so many athletes. I know that not overheating really helps me stay in the game.
Thanks to all the volunteers.