So, this was my first ironman, i wasn’t really sure what to expect. i battled tendonitis in my for 2.5 months this summer which prevented any run training, but my run felt ok in the few weeks leading up to the race. I knew i was undertrained for the marathon going into the race though.
I went ahead and shaved/tapered for it, despite initial intentions not to, so i’m sure that helped some. My swim and bike were feeling good in the days leading up, and i was feeling a good (by my standards) result.
Swim (53:10)-i went ahead and started myself at the front of the pack, about 2/3ds of the way from the shore to the buoy. This was the right decision; i left everyone around me behind and had open water to swim in without having to fight with the other good swimmers for clean water. i kept a good, relaxed, long gliding stroke to use my wetsuit efficiently, and i breathed to both sides during the race (i breathe every-other stroke e.g. every left hand pull, so i breathed left between two buoys and then right for one.) i think this really helped keep my arms fresh and i felt strong the whole time. i stayed probably 10-15 meters wide of non-turn bouys to stay in clean water, but i cut the turn buoys as close as one would expect (~1 yd). the water was a wonderful temp and very smooth.
T1 (6:09): i was going to treat the transition like a normal olympic distance race and strip my wetsuit off myself, but the strippers yelled at me as i ran past so i turned around and let them do their job. i didn’t know if this was maybe a rule or something. the rest of the transition went relatively well, i ran in socks through the transition area and threw my shoes on right before the mount line. the volunteers were really helpful grabbing my stuff and then putting it away afterwards.
Bike (5:12:46)-i really wanted to nab our team’s bike split record, but i didn’t want to do it at the expense of my overall race. i had heard that the most common rookie mistake was to hit the first lap too hard on the bike, so i put what felt like no power into the bike the whole time. i let people pass me on hills, which hardly ever happens in an olympic distance race given where i live and my relative strength on the bike. once i got through the first lap with a sufficient pace to get the bike split record i went ahead and just kept a comfortable pace for the second one. I ate 1 pop-tart per hour (200 calories) and 100 calories worth of gatorade per hour, plus water as i felt. did a decent job with hydration, but got caught out during the second lap without liquids twice, due to increasing heat and water bottles that my cages didn’t hold securely (didn’t want them to bounce out on the terrible paving–on that subject, my poor taint!). so that kind of sucked, but oh well.
T2 (3:07): nothing to note really, threw the running shoes, visor, and fresh glasses on, hit the port-o-let, and went off running. i missed the sunscreen volunteers but didn’t care to go back 1/4 mile when i finally realized for sure that they were behind me.
Run (4:19): i know it looks like i bonked or blew up, but running is not my strong event, and given the 2.5 months without run training, i wasn’t terribly disappointed. i ran between aid stations and walked the aid stations. my legs felt pretty bad, and i didn’t want to push terribly hard for fear of blowing up (this being entirely new territory and whatnot). i steadily deteriorated miles 1-8, and just pell-melled the aid stations–usually fruit, water, cookies of some kind, and ice for my hat. once i got to mile 8 i decided i felt bad enough to do coke, so i did 2x water 1x coke and ice at the rest of the aid stations. i was able to keep running (i walked the nasty hills; running didn’t seem worth it) though i still felt pretty bad. but at least i kept the walking to a minimum. for reference, my best straight up marathon is 3:30.
i finished in 10:34:23, 6th in my age group. looking back, i want to be disappointed in my run, since a mere 15 minutes faster would have nabbed me a Kona slot. plus, i had a 20 minute lead on my AG going into the marathon which i sacrificed plus some. however, i didn’t really have any expectations at the time, so while i feel like i might have done better, i can’t truly be disappointed. it was my first IM, and a learning experience. i want to do another, but i think it will be a ways down the road–i may as well focus on olympic distance racing while i’m young and fit, and transfer to longer races when i’m older and better suited physiologically to IM distance racing (a larger training base will help too).
anyway, it was a great experience and i look forward to repeating it some day. next time i’ll have to up my goal to sub 10, maybe sub 9:30.