I'll do a short one for the time being, since we are still traveling and I only have a phone with me.
When I started training for this race my initial goal was anything in the 12 hour range would be considered a success. Heading into the race I really thought of everything went perfect I MIGHT be able to come in right at or just under 12 hours.
During the taper and leading up to the race, everything was feeling great physically. Only issue I had was it took longer to get those wheels in my hands than what I was promised. They come stock with 25mm tires that aren't known for being great, and I never got a clear cut answer to how well they'd run with my 23mm Conti 4000 GSPs on them. Since I couldn't get a straight answer on that and since I wouldn't be able to just put gem on and test it out, I just kept the stock tires on. Definitely much slower tires but didn't have to stress over something happening while on the bike.
Swim: 2 loop lake swim. First loop was fine and uneventful. Second loop was chaotic as hell trying to pass a lot of the slower swimmers. Was a wetsuit legal swim, and the water was pretty warm. I wore my friends Rosa Pro Maverick full sleeved wetsuit. A lot of people complained it was too hot for a wet suit but I was perfectly comfortable in it. Just settled into a nice light z2 effort and finished at 1:21:23. I probably could have finished significantly quicker but that would have required burning a lot of energy with short bursts passing people. So there were a few times I just settled in behind some slower swimmers until a passing lane developed.
T1 was a bit of a *****. Probably the steepest hill all day was getting out of the water and into the changing tents. Had a nice calm and stress free transition, though. 12:03. Took my time and made sure I didn't forget anything. Bike was racked pretty much on an end, so that was nice. Oh.... and 2 people next to me found out the morning of that a family of foxes got into the bike bag area overnight and ate all their nutrition.
Bike: already touched on this above. Fairly easy bike course, about 3100 feet of climbing. Going into it on my original setup I think if I really pushed it I could have finished the bike in about 5:35. Normally the bike is where I perform the best, but the goal was to not overdo it like I did last year. First 35 miles my average HR was suppose to stay in the mid to high 120s, maxing out no more than low 140s for the last 30 miles. First half of the ride was real scenic riding through vineyards and stuff. Second half was pretty boring with stretches of roads so bad you couldn't go more than 10mph for stretches that lasted a mile+. Just really, really ****** roads. Ended up sticking to the bike plan as I was suppose to, but came in MUCH slower than I anticipated. It was a lot windier than anything I ever trained in, so that definitely dented the time in a way that I wasn't expecting. Official bike time was 6:18:15.
T2 really uneventful. Noticed a lot of people complaining about how hard the bike course was, so that made me feel better about being slower than I expected given my legs still felt great. T2 time 11:15.
Run: 3 loop run. Plan was for HR in the 140s for loop one. Low 150s for loop 2, and just get it done for loop 3. Loop one went about as well as I could have asked for. HR average about 147. Loop 2 went great as well. Average HR for the first two loops combine was then around 150. Legs still feeling awesome after loop 2. I wanted to be around 10 minute miles for the day. Pretty easy run, 276 feet of elevation gain for the whole run. Ran 20 miles straight, averaging right at 10 minutes per mile while walking all the aid stations and taking my time to make sure I got everything I needed. Mile 20 was when my stomach just went to absolute hell. Legs were fine, but I couldn't keep any fluids or solids down. Just an absolute mess. Was able to then force myself to do some run walk intervals. Did that till about mile 23. That was the goal I then set, thinking if I can get to mile 23 run/walking at that point I can tell myself it's just a 5K left and run if ouf from there. So I did get that dons, average about 12 minute miles in the process..... but my stomach felt miserable in the process. Started getting a little light headed. Had to walk miles 24 and 25, then ran/walked about 1/2 mile.... and then ran the last 1/2 mile or so when we finally made it back into town and fed off the energy of the crowd. The crowd was awesome, but what did suck was on the run you only saw the crowd for MAYBE a total of a mile. Rest of the run was on like a nature path, and just dreadfully lonely out there. No energy or anything to feed off. It was pretty tough. Official run time was 4:53:15.
Total time being 12:56:08. So at the end of the day did hit my goal, and truly only felt like I had to suffer the final 10K of the run.... so if that's all pain I really had to endure over a full Ironman, that's not too bad in my books. The volunteer and crowd support was great, there just wasn't a lot of it which was kind of a bummer. A week before the race they had to change the run course because of a lack of volunteers.
Hopefully this reads decently since it was all on my phone haha.
