No, but my good buddy did tear up the back of a cop car. Not sure if anyone saw it, but he slammed into the back of the car going ~25mph (no time to brake) and smashed through the back window and then continued to fly over the top of the car and hit the pavement on the other side.
200 stitches later he’s in good spirits (amazingly). Not sure if anybody saw this, but he said he’s lucky to be alive - he’s a firefighter - so I trust his opinion.
Scary stuff. Congrats to all that raced well!
Drew
I heard a rumor that there was a bike vs. cop car accident during IMLou, but didn’t know if it was true. Are any more details about this posted elsewhere?
I haven’t seen anything as I only found out about it from a brief convo with my friend. If anybody knows any details I’d love to hear them as I was only able to get a little info on the “how.”
Drew
I’ll play- My first IM, although plenly o’ long races over the years. Did it in 9:20 or so. I stink at swimming as mentioned earlier in the week, but I agree that the bike can make or break your day. I saw a lot of people just wilting out along the roads.
Step 1- ride yourself fit enough so that a slightly hilly course will not hurt you. Training in the heat helped too.
Step 2- Know your body so you can adjust accordingly. I had 4 of my own bottles, probably 7 or so regular water bottles, and choked down 3 perform bottles. I took what I could get at the aid stations and ate what I had to go off of that. I used a lot of sport beans and nuun tablets. There is no shade so I used a regular old helmet so I could dump water over my head the whole day.
Step 3- Take every chance you can to make time. Cornering well, taking momentum up hills, and finding a good spot in the feed zones to take on board fluids are easy ways to lower your bike time. I think I could have done better but I’m new at this and I had PLENTY of people in front of me!
Step 4- Find a routine in the run. I took the same thing everytime at every aid station. Water on the head, ice in the shorts, coke for energy. It works for me, but find something that works. I also ran the first three miles like I was going to bonk, but that paid off as I kept the same pace the whole way through.
Hope that helps!
Josh
I ran the first 3 miles like I was going to bonk. And I bonked! still set my best IM time though, by solid half hour. Took 3 salt caps per hour, used lots of sunscreen, a visor for the run and of course ran in my training during the hottest part of the day around noon. Marginal success, avoided heat stroke, fastest marathon in an IM even though I bonked
i saw this cop/biker accident. well, didn’t actually see it happen…just the aftermath. it happened very early in the bike ride on river road. probably within the first 2 miles before it shrinks down into a 2 lane.
the guy was lying face down on the road…awake but appeared obviously disoriented. i could tell he was bleeding pretty bad cause there was a small pool of blood what looked like around his head.
obviously didn’t get a real good look but he looked to be hurt pretty bad.
i wondered what happened to that guy. glad he’s alright. wondered how it happened cause there wasn’t another biker involved.
Reading the race reports I feel like I did a different race. I’ve done 16 IM’s. This was the 4th time for IMLOU. No PR but I didn’t expect it.
Best IMLOU was in 2007 with 11:01:02. I’ve always trained hard for all my IM’s except this year. I wasn’t into it and didn’t actually start “ironman”
training until mid June. I didn’t keep a log. I didn’t know what I was going to do from one day to another. I only did 3 100 miles rides and did not
run over 14 miles and that only happened once, the rest were between 8 & 10. I didn’t start 3 a day swims until July and before that I might have
gotten in the water 5 times a month. I was happy with my swim, 12th fastest female overall on the bike, but then came the run which I figured
I’d struggle with. The problem I had was stopping at 11 port o pots in the first 19 miles (i was full of shit). Until I met Stacy from Tx and she gave
me 2 Pepto Bismol tablets. Incredible !! I ran from mile 19 to the finish with out stopping. Wish I would have met Stacy in T2. So not a good
marathon for me. 37th female overall. Oh… I eat what they give me, drink what they give me, but add to that an Ensure after the swim, one
cliff bar and a few electrolytes on the bike.
I found out two things:
To have the performance I’m capable of, I have to train.
To have a decent race, my years of experience took care of me along with hit and miss workouts, HFP, and Speedy-feet races.