Ironman Augusta 70.3 is over. It was my 10th tri of the season
and extremely important to my future in this sport. I enlisted Jim Christian as my coach and
buckled down on the training.
Unfortunately I had raced a bit too much in the early season and had
some nagging foot pain that kept me from
running too fast. When I started the
focused approach in July I had 12 weeks to try to get myself under 4:20. A somewhat lofty goal considering I haven’t
had a good race since 2009. I know the Augusta course well and knew what I
could do. The swim is practically a free
for all. I wanted to be the fastest
overall. Anything sub 19:30 (yes, a very
fast swim) would have pleased me. When I
entered transition my watch was at 22:xx and I was feeling like I was behind. I had a lot more in me for the swim and
should have used. I was caught up for a
few seconds trying to get up the boat ramp.
It was extremely crowded because of the crappy wave starts. Turns out I swam a 19:58 which brought me a 3rd
overall. I was beat by 2 pro’s by 1
second and 6 seconds. I’ll take that as
a wash. I ran pretty hard through T1 to
try and get some blood in my legs. My
heart rate was screaming at the dismount line but, I was trying to make up those
2 minutes from the swim.
The bike went pretty good. I was supposed to ride out
towards the Aiken barricade with a 24.5 avg but, I just couldn’t do it. I was pushing and just couldn’t get above
23.5. I was very focused on getting my
nutrition in. Before the first aid
station at mile 17 I needed to have 200 calories of Gubrew and 200 ca Gu gel,
and 20 oz of water in. I had no problems
and was able to get my water refill. I
knew the second half of the course was hillier and harder…so I thought. I was blowing by people at a demoralizing
speed. My legs felt like I was holding
off a cramp so I kept backing off but, it seemed like I was just moving
faster. I hit 2 more bottles of water
and 400 calories. I got it all in. When I came into T2 I felt like I was 3
minutes behind and was worried I pushed the bike but, I really held it when I
needed to. I was on my feet at 2:50 with
a bike of 2:21. My expected bike was
2:20.
The first mile of the felt like I was dragging my feet but,
I was still under 7:00 pretty easy. Knowing that my run endurance was lacking I
backed it off to 7:30. Hell, I haven’t
been under 1:50 since 2009 so 7:30s sounded fine. At mile 3 I felt the same but, I began to
slow down. I knew it was going to happen
I was just hoping it would have been at mile 11… I decided a while back that if
I could stay consistent on the run that it would have been a victory for
me. After 3 years of awful racing I’m
basically starting over. So at mile 3 I
settled in to 8 min miles. No
choice.
In the end I was 8th out 400 and something and 83rd
overall. I executed perfectly with what
I had which was huge. I missed my time
goal but, still hit a 4:32, an average time with room to improve. That’s a good place to be in. It means I still have THAT day in me.
