The weather for this race is normally hot and humid. Amazingly this year it was neither and it changed the race a lot. As we walked to the water it was even a little chilly.There was by far the most staked field here ever, with a lot of “front row” pros who entered late, so late that they hand wrote there names on their bib numbers because they didn’t reg in time for the printing of them. Its maybe the hardest thing about racing head to head with pros, (or the front of an age-group) you never know who is going to show up. Last year Max Longee won. This year 5th. He didn’t get worse, but 4 dudes who are just faster showed up this year. Its brutal.
The swim here is plain old weird. You jump in and swim around and Island then pick up the Ohio river and pull a u-turn into to t2. in 2007 the river was raging and we floated to a 55 minute swim with no effort. in 2008 it was steady, but this year it was lake like. In fact with the wind it was really slow. This race is great and Ironman does a great job with all their events but I kinda wish the pros didn’t go off at 6:50 as its still pretty much pitch black out and the Ohio isn’t the most clear water on earth. This makes it really hard to navigate and also a bit of a mosh pit. I had a good start but got dropped by the lead pack which I had no business in but got into the first chase group. I was on the rivet sitting on a guys feet and was having the best swim ever. This guy was motoring and I thought he would drop me, but I kept digging and digging and willed myself to hang with him. It was rewarding because we kept catching and dropping people. I think I exited in 57 which was not only faster then last year but when you factor in the lack of current, lack of wetsuits, and choppy water it was a really great swim, better then my 54:07 at IMLP. I was stoked.
Christine ( http://www.liveandeatbetter.com ) gave me a split and said I was in 11th. Sweet. Same spot I was last year at t1. Sadly that was kinda the last good news for the day. Out on the bike people came flying by me. I was wondering if I was way off base with my pacing. But I had done this race two times prior and thought that 1) these guys will pay later; and 2) this race tends to be insanely clean in terms of legal and/or illegal drafting so why not just do my own tempo. I was wrong on both counts. There is a lesson here. Each year is different and while some experience is a good thing and should be drawn on you have to take each race-day as it comes and see in new and fresh. Also when your riding with others even if they are 1/4 of a mile ahead you feel like you are racing. Its mentally engaging and keeps you motivated. So much about ironman is mental
Half way through the bike defending Champion Max Longree came up on me and I was surprised that I had made it that out of the water ahead of him and to the half way mark of the bike in front of him. I think a testament to my swim. But thats also one of the downsides to a good swim. All things being equal you get passed a lot more on the bike. We chatted and he said he wasn’t sure he could win today because we were 16 minutes of the lead. I told him he is such a good runner that it was possible for him. He thanked and dropped me. I was riding really easy and honestly maybe tooooo easy. Like almost training effort, not race effort. I don’t know why exactly. My pace wasn’t awful and I just wanted to be ready to really run well. This race normally rewards that, but not today as the hellish heat that strikes down so many in years past wasn’t present. The course had a change to to, two extra sustained climbs and also this year a different wind direction so it made it slower over-all. I finished in 5:13 4 minutes off my 2007 and 2008 times both of 5:09 but thats about right considering the course changes. I finished the bike feeling fresh and was pretty happy though I had lost 10 spots.
Out of the run I felt good after the first mile which was uphill. On the bridge where we run out and back I saw some guys and figured I might catch em at some point. I knew the weather conditions were nice so I figured I would need to try to blow by them and not wait for them to blow. I took the first 4 miles out at 6:51 ave pace. This was, it turns out, a little too much. But I had put myself in a hole and figured if I didn’t make a move, a big one and go for broke I wouldn’t have much to say about the day. This was gonna be spectacular, either the best run of my life or a spectacular blow up. Again thats one of the hard parts about head to head racing. You sometimes need to take risks to have rewards. I got to mile 8 and felt the gears grinding like a machine without lube. By 14 things had gotten a little worse. Worse still no one was blowing up. “Don’t Despair” I thought. Here is the question. At mile 15 you HAVE to keep going and pushing because most of the catches are made after that. Last year I moved from 15th to 10th in the last 10 miles. You have to be fully committed. This of course means there is no tomomarrow. No jumping into another ironman. No pulling the plug and training for Worlds 70.3 that I have coming up. Some pros might do that. And that makes sense. Its logical. But I have tend to find logic in the illogical. I realized something, to NOT go all out and push means that everytime I line up at an ironman there will be doubt. There will be THE QUESTION. To race well there can be NO QUESTION. So I thought to myself, run, hard, and if I can’t walk for a week so be it, it might serve no purpose today, but in the years to come at least no there is no doubts when I start the race that I am gonna smash myself.
So I pushed through to mile 20 and then just fell apart, completely. I hobbled in, in 9:49 an respectable but under-whelming result considering last year in the hot and humid conditions I went 9:37, good enough for 10th. One thing thats kinda cool is that since doing my first Ironman as a pro in 2005 I have always broken 10 hours. There is a lot more to reflect on. They say you learn a lot more from sub-par results then good ones. I have never not made a huge leap forward in my “A” race, and I am kinda bummed. But I have learned that if you race long enough you will have better and worse days and at the end of each I am happy because I am happy with my life. Happy to be a pro, to train and race all over the world and to live within this sport that means so much to me. Its been a wild season, with some huge highs (4 wins, 2nd at a half ironman and a trip to worlds) and some lows (wild flower, FL 70.3) but that is what I signed up for and its been well worth it.
HUGE THANKS: To everyone who wished me luck! To My Louisville family the Seiler’s ( www.justsocks.com as a special thanks to you they are knocking 15% off sick cool socks I suggest the “ride bloody” ones. Use the follow code: just05 ) to my Coach Jim Ortel for all his support and help with my training. To Phil and Kate for helping me out by founding the Home For Wayward Triathletes so I had a place to train out of the city (btw its p-u-p-p-y day soon.) To My sister Kate, bro-in-law Matt, Koa [the Baby Puppy] and “The Canadian” for all there support this year. To Mr. Wizard: Sean Langford my co-director of the Strong Like Bull Training Camp in Spain and friend who without those long fun miles this whole season doesn’t happen. To my sponsors (see there cool logos on the side) who allow me to live my dreams (btw I can still coach you for free if you sign up to run the NYC Marathon with Team Continuum). Big hug To Christine for [race] support. And to Jen for all the [tracking] help.
