Monday, May 23, 2011

Back from IM Texas

Well, I just got back yesterday from Ironman Texas. I'll post a full report in the next week or so (as well as a long overdue Boston Marathon report) -> but here's a short version for now:

SWIM: Rough... there were just too many people in too small of a lake and then that narrow canal for the last 1000m. The fastest swimmers escaped the churn, but for the rest of us the canal became a washing machine; as the waves and churn from all the swimmers had nowhere to dissipate. It all just bounces off the concrete walls on each side and made things pretty choppy, and it was pretty crowded as well. Time: 1:22. Bit longer than I hoped for, but nothing I was going to worry about.

BIKE: We got lucky, and had cloud cover for most of the morning and into the first part of the afternoon; with even some light, misty precipitation. The sun came out around the last hour or so of my bike ride, and things started heating up very quickly. Time: 6:00; right on target and kept HR where I wanted it.

RUN: Brutal... that's the word I kept hearing on the run course. It got just over 90 degrees, and the humidity was high as well (welcome to Houston!). I basically just tried to maintain a steady pace, so I could avoid walking as much as possible. I did walk through the aid stations to make sure I hydrated and cooled down, but otherwise tried to keep slogging it out. Time: 4:25. Given the day, I'll take that...

So, finished with a time of 12:02 (including transitions); which was 49th out of 320 in my age group. Tough day, but I'm pleased with the end result and very happy to have IM #4 behind me! I had dedicated the race to the memory of my mother-in-law Marilyn, and that thought did help me a number of times to realize how lucky I was to be doing the race at all.

Next up will be a Boston Marathon report; then full IM TX report with (hopefully) a couple pics.

JD

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