Below is the link for my VERY long race the report. Here are the bullets:
Great race, would do again, very well organized
Fast course on paper unfortunately mother nature made this one of the hardest courses I have ever done.
Morning start weather was 50 degrees and windy, start delayed by about 15 minutes to allow for adequate light.
Swim: with the current. Crazy fast. I usually swim high 50s for a full IM with wetsuit and did this in 40 min with zero effort. There was some effort required to navigate the current near he end of the swim.
Bike: Pretty flat course, was expecting a 5 hour bike but 50 degree temps, light rain and 80 miles of 25 MPH headwinds made my bike time slower than IM Wisconsin with more perceived effort. Bike course was on fairly open roads until the last few miles that required a lot of caution as a result of traffic. Local dogs made an otherwise boring ride interesting. 5:23 bike time.
Run: Again, did not look hard on paper but those bridges are tough the second time around. The wind was brutal even during the run causing my pace to slow to crawl over the bridges and even on some flat sections. Awesome crowd support for the entire run. Fell apart at the end but able to knock off a 3:30 run.
Very happy with results as this was my first ironman since 2009 and I really had limited training 10-12 hours a week compared to my last IM.
Total time: 9:45, 14th overall, 3rd in AG
Hopefully better next year
Full race report with personal musings below.
Congrats man! That is an awesome time! Especially given the conditions. I did the full as well, I finished in 12:33, wanted sub 12 and probably wouldve but I spent a total of 26 minutes in transitions and took it a little easier due to the weather… since it was my first IM.
Congrats on a great race. I too did the full (10:58:22) and really enjoyed the race and the town. I highly recommend this race to anyone from a first timer to someone that is use to the Mdot events.
The bike was certainly tough with the wind and random wild dog chase. I will certainly make the drive down again from NYC to participate in this event; we had 5 guys at the race and everyone of them had a great experience.
Congrats to you and all the finishers and Thank you to Wilmington for the support!
Thanks for the report. I am looking to do b2b next year. I like the fast swim times(you have to go down to like 200 to get someone that went over an hour)
Mark,
Quite the weather, huh? Looks like I’m not that far from you here in MA (Bedford). You must have passed me on the run, as I finished about seven minutes after you. I was hoping for a bit of a faster run, but doing an open marathon seven weeks before B2B probably didn’t help me out.
I was planning on going under 5 hrs on the bike, but ended up at 5:07 - pretty brutal rain and wind!
Nice job!
Congrats to all who endured the harsh elements this year. I was on the winning relay each of the three prior years. Hated that I couldn’t get a team together this year, but seems it was a blessing in disguise.
That’s an amazing bike split in those conditions. Great job. I was hoping for a 5hr bike but maybe that was unrealistic even without the winds. Once we hit those headwinds on 410(?, right after the highway stretch) I started to seriously adjust my expectations. After this and USAT Nats in Burlington I seriuosly need to look at my bike training. I’m in Western Mass, Berkshire County. Long drive down but worth it, I thought. Looking forward to nice rest for a few weeks.
Congrats