talk about nerves. after having gone through the emotional up and downs of canada just two weeks ago, was so looking forward to an easy race day in the dalles. wrong! having won aluminum man last year, and being panic sticken most of the race after taking the lead, i had more butterflies in the old belly than i did for ironman. turns out i REALLY wanted to repeat. last year i had a good swim, a great bike, and a fast enough run to hold off the rest of the field. this year, exactly the same. it was a perfect day for racing. sunny, warm, and not a stich of wind. the columbia river was a sheet of glass and the perfect temperature.
swim is short in the dalles. starts with a running beach start which is an absolute blast. you end up running about 100 yards or so before finally diving in. everytime i looked up i was towards the front of the pack and right on line. no corrective strokes needed, just a good comfortable swim and in position to make a move on the bike.
t1, good. had a great spot for bike and could see most of the other tsunamis in transition - they had all finished right ahead of me in the swim. always very cool to have the boys around!
bike was awesome! i don't know what it is about this bike course, but it just fits me perfectly. it is a rolling course, nothing steep up or down and some good flat stretches. pavement is mostly great too. came out of water in 12th place, passed a couple guys in transition, and started picking them off pretty quick on the bike. just before the turn-around, i passed the final guy (another IM Canada finisher) and it's just me and the lead truck. last year, this scared the shit out of me and i spent the entire rest of the race thinking of horrible things that could happen. this year, i couldn't wait to get in front! felt great in the lead and knew i had to hammer the second half, build a big lead, and then hold on for the run with my legs still a bit fried from ironman. averaged 25.6mph on the bike and had about a 3 minute lead going into the run.
t2, solid. just under 50 seconds, no problems with shoes, gear, etc and best of all - nobody around!
run was all guts. not one step felt good, but i knew that would be the case. had absolutely blistered the bike knowing i wouldn't have much to run with. kept telling myself that i only had 20 minutes. after 12 hours, dude, 20 minutes is nothing! no looking back but knew i still had a big lead at the turn-around. 2nd half of the run, i knew i had it locked up and was able to relax a little bit. ended up doing a 20:30 5k, only about 20 seconds slower than last year and total race time was 1:08:26, went 1:08:22 last year so am pretty consistent on that course!
both on the bike and the run, got tons of encouragement - not only from fellow tsunamis but lots of other racers too. feels pretty cool, never having won much of anything growing up, to be able to have a little glory as an adult, even if it's just a small race in the dalles. as always, was super proud of the rest of the crew as well. nearly everyone took age-group podium spots and absolutely everyone had bright spots in their race to build off for 2009! Best of all, everyone had fun. this is one cool team and an absolute joy to be around...
Monday, September 8, 2008
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