I am on my way back to Ontario to visit family and I am stuck here in the Edmonton airport so I figured it is a perfect opportunity to put down some of the details that I remember from last Sunday's race.
The first thing that comes to mind is how great it was to be out there with so many of my team mates and athletes racing. This is a group of people that I have trained with and coached through thick and thin. To be racing an Ironman with them was really motivating and inspiring. I don't know if I would have gotten through the low moments if I hadn't known I would be seeing someone in an HPR jersey just around the corner.
As for the race itself, it was Ironman so it was bloody tough so anyone that crossed the line was a victor. All the pre race anxiety about cold water was really a lot of stress over nothing. The water was cold when it first hit your face and hands, but once you were in for about 5 minutes it was fine. Simon Whitfield had mentioned to me how important he found doing a proper swim warm up before the cold swim in Vancouver so I took his advice and did just that and I think it was definitely the right move. The only hiccup for me on the swim was the neoprene booties I was wearing. They were great in training, but when I was kicking really hard at the start of the swim they came out from under the legs of my wetsuit and acted like little parachutes collecting water. I managed to kick one off about 200m into the first loop but the other stayed on my foot until I hit the turnaround at the beach for lap 2.Oh well, live and learn. The swim was pretty slow in general for everybody, but I managed to lead out a small group of swimmers about a minute down on the second small chase group. I was on the bike in 7th place which was fine for this race. It still will not do the trick in Hawaii though, so I will have some work to do with Neil and Patrick when I get back to Victoria.
Once onto the bike I pretty much went as hard as I could for the first 30 miles and tried to make up as much time as I could and get close to the front of the race. This was definitely a risky strategy and one that I do not recommend to any of my athletes, but it is something I have always done at Gulf Coast so I figured I would give it a shot here. At one point I remember thinking; does this feel like Ironman pace? Well, it probably was someone's Ironman pace, but up until now it wasn't mine. At 32 miles I had moved from 5:30 down on the lead to 4:10 down so I was going fast, unfortunately I paid for the effort from about mile 40 to mile 60 and that gap opened up again. Luckily I stuck to my nutrition and hydration strategy and by mile 90 I was bringing guys back. I passed last years winner Victor Zymetsev with about 10 miles to go and I knew that if I got off the bike with him I was definitely in the game. I eventually hit T 2 in 4th place. The only guys up the road were Tom Evans, Michael Lovato and Steve Larsen. It felt good knowing I was in the company of guys who all had Ironman titles behind them.
The run, normally my strength, is where I had the most doubts going into the race. My running fitness is far behind what it has been in the past due to a lack of volume and intensity so it was a bit of a wild card. Starting out with Zymetsev for the first mile wasn't a real confidence booster either. We hit the run course together and he just ran away. I thought I was running really slow until I took a split at mile 1; 6:05. I wasn't running slow, he was just running extremely fast. Mile 2; 6:08. Just after mile 2 I ran past where Rach and some of the team were standing and they yelled out that Victor was only 1 minute up the road. They thought that this was awesome; I wanted to stop and point out that he had just put that minute into me in the first 2 miles and he wasn't waiting for me. I just kept up my rhythm and stopped thinking about Zymetsev. I wanted to put as much time into the guys behind me and do to them what Victor was doing to me. At the first turn around at 7 miles I saw that Tom looked relaxed, Lovato looked like he was on a mission and really moving and Zymetsev was going for the win as well. The 4th place athlete was Steve Larsen (who went by me at mile 60 of the bike like he was riding a motorcycle) and I was getting splits that were showing I was moving in the right direction. His 4 minute lead was down to 1:30 by that turn and then I caught him before we made it back into town and started the second loop. The only concern behind me was Australian Courtney Ogden, but in the end he faded and never really over took Larsen. At one point I was getting reports that Lovato was fading and looking really bad. I actually heard that I was 3 minutes down with about 5 miles to go, but I was going into damage control as well and as much as I was trying to run him down I was also worried about completely blowing up and walking myself.
In the end I was able to get back to town on my own and enjoy the long finishing straight down Sherman Ave. This is a great finish, but running 6 blocks down hill at the end of an Ironman is a tad painful. I may have slightly missed the podium at this one, but I was really happy with how I raced and I am looking forward to another trip to Kona in October.
Well, the plane is at the gate and it is time to go. Thanks for reading!
I would really like to thank my sponsors, team mates and my homestay family; Laura, Cody and Cole Curtis for making Rachel and I feel so welcome. You guys all played a big part in the success of the day. THANK YOU!
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