I’ve downloaded my watch from the race on Sunday and thought I’d share it with you. Victor (the winner) said in the paper on Sunday that he was 10 minutes slower this year than when he won 2 years ago. He also said that he knows, with absolute certainty, that 100% of that 10 minute loss came from the new bike course. I liked reading that!
Total ascent on each lap was around 3100ft. (I say around because the 2 laps read differently by about 40 feet.) That means, that a good estimate of elevation gain and loss for the new bike course was about 6200 ft. Does anyone know what it was on the old course, or what the total elevation gain / loss is at IMC?
By my watch the bike / run total had 7408 ft ascent and 7405 ft descent making the run about 1200ft of climbing and descending. If anyone has anything different I’d like to see that too.
People have posted comparisons on various forums (can’t find them right now). I vaguely recall a similar elevation gain in the two races on the bike (IMC run has only a couple of hills worth mentioning). The way these elevations get totalled up is another matter - I think CdA would need you to change gears much more frequently. You can get a feel for these things by comparing the profiles of the courses at: http://www.nasports.com/compare/comparebike.php Doesn’t compare old vs. new CdA though.
The course is extremely sheltered except for the 10 mile downhill (slightly) section coming into town. That was into a headwind. So I would say it was slightly due to wind, but mostly due to the course. (2 minutes wind, 8 minutes course, maybe?)
I was way slower on the swim (8 minutes) and about 1 1/2 minutes slower on the bike than last year. Overall, not too bad, as I took over 30 min off my run for a PR! (Cool weather helped a lot with the run, I’m sure.) I thought the bike was tough, especially in the last 40k, which is why I asked about elevation. My watch is a Suunto T6. I guess I have no way of knowing if it’s accurate, but there sure is a lot of discrepancy between altimeter readings from the course. Thanks for the feedback. The bottom line is an Ironman is hard… I don’t think there’s much else to say about it. Hard course, easy course, flat water, hilly water (you get the point)… it’s a long old day. We all rock for getting the job done!