I had a good 2nd IM. I think IMMOO is significantly harder than IMCDA in all three disciplines plus transitions. Three more buoy turns on the swim, challenging rollers to manage on bike, more hills and grade changes on the run and lots of running in transition. Considering all of that I finished under 12 hours with an 11:49 time.
Lessons Learned: Swim - seeding correctly and choosing the right start position is key. Getting out aggressive and fast if you are a good swimmer is helpful later on. My IMMOO swim was great. There was the usual shenanigans of getting hit/bumped but the turns were pretty solid and I was able to accelerate around most of them and maintain good momentum. Water conditions were awesome. Bike - despite my best attempt at smoothing out my power I still checked in with a VI of 1.10 which is is lousy and embarassing considering I have trained and raced with a power meter for nearly three years. The rollers definitely got the better of me. I would gladly have traded 10-15 mins of time for a better VI and a bit lower IF. Run - when it seems your race is hosed (like it did for me when I was reduced to mostly walking between Miles 14-20) you can still salvage your race and do something with it. At Mile 20 my stomach had settled back down, HR was lower and energy was returning. I began running again at 20 and from Mile 23 to the Finish had my very best mile splits of the day and even managed to descend the pace during the last 5K. Don’t count yourself out at any point in the race, no matter what.
It was a warm day for sure but not oppressively hot and when I downloaded my power data I realized that it was my poor pacing on the bike that caused me to walk some of the marathon…not the heat, not the sun. As with most things in triathlon, it comes back to the individual and their ability (or lack thereof) to execute. My execution on the swim was perfect and yielded a time commesurate with my fitness, my bike execution was sub-par and although it resulted in a nicer bike split, the missed opportunity to keep a smoother power output manifested itself midway through the run. Run execution was therefore comprimised until I was able to gather myself at Mile 20 and do something about it.
Next up, Ironman St. George. This one will be interesting for sure.
