Yeah so this was the plan:
Run: 39 mins
T1: 1 min
bike: 30:30
T2: 2 min
kayak: 39
would be like a 1:51 or so.
The run was pretty good actually. I ended up actually beating mike ammon, which was a first for me.
Yeah so that was cool, also it was cool that i went 38:40. cause thats faster than my goal time.
The T1 was fast, i hopped on my bike and thoguht i had a rear flat tire! AArgghhh! it felt like a slow leak, but then i realized that it was my tire liners that i installed the day before to prevent thorns. they slowed me down a lot!
I got on a good draft, and we went up the course pretty good. It was me, Larry Feldhaus, another 40+ ironman, and two team guys.
The two team guys just kept switching off drafting, which left us to jusst hang on. Larry let a gap form and i came around him to cover the gap. in doing so, larry was dropped.
We caught a lot of cyclists, in that draft! like maybe 30 guys or so. I kept expecting to see Nick (the guy i barely beat last year), but i never did. Our group did catch Craig MccMannis, I yelled at him to hop on the draft. He rode with us for a few miles, then another gap formed as we maybe that hard left bend (where Vic went off the road in practice).
I finished the bike, had a good cyclocross dismount, ran across the bridge, and down to the boats. as soon as i hit the water and started paddling steve wilson shot out in the center of the river, and there was no way i could cover that draft. he was fresh, and my abs and core were fried.
then craig mcmannis came by me, and again i couldnt match his speed. my dad had told me that there were 12 ironmen ahead of me (which is a lot, last year it was like 5). I began to feel okay, by Rossmoor, but still didnt never really got the pace jacked up too much. I caught another ironman at the last corner, which was good. The water flow was like 3900 or so, a little down from last week, but still pretty high. That didnt help me.
I ended up 3rd. 36 secs off of first, 18 secs off of 2nd, and 25 secs ahead of 4th.
it was a close race in my division, but the old guys kicked our ass hard again, Don won the overall at like 1:45 something. I went 1:53
next year will be a different game.
my prediction? my time: 1:46:06
