Swimming, especially over a longer distance can be quite boring so I usually spend my time thinking about some odd thing or another. My thoughts for this race were about feet, something that I had never noticed in the past, probably because I always spent my time at the back of the pack. But this time …. as I MOVED UP in the pack, I found that I would be hitting peoples feet, so … I began counting feet as I raced +1 for every person that I touched as I moved up and -1 for every time someone touched my feet as they passed me. I was up a bunch on the out leg but got beat up pretty badly (passed often) on the return leg (so I quit counting!) Anyway, from here on in, I will be judging my swim pace by feet.
Now on to the serious topic of Ironman:
The water was smooth as glass for the race. Ed and I got to the venue at about 5:30 so we had plenty of time to sit around and second guess ourselves - which we did several times; did I pack everything? - go through the bike bag - go through the run bag - go through the bike bag again. We all hit the water about 10 minutes before start, swim about 200 metres to the start line and treaded water waiting for the start. It was an incredible experience being one of about 2700 people treading enmass. The water is definitely brown. I could not see my hand in front of me and certainly couldn’t see any swimmers after the start. My sighting was a bit off again. I figure that I completed about 4Km during the race as I went from the canoes at one side of the course to the sea wall on the other side 3 times. The width of the course was about 75m. I finished the swim in 1:46. Another interesting thought; I find it difficult to keep track f time during a race. It seems to go so slow during the swim and so fast during the run.
Arizona is definitely a bikers dream course. It is straight and wide with loads of room to pass 2 and even 3 wide. Other than for the turnarounds, there was no place on the curse where you could not pass. Because it was 3 laps, you got to see just how fast a pro can go and I’m here to tell you that they do go fast. A down side to the bike course is the constant wind. The first 2 laps saw a fairly brisk head wind on the one leg with a welcoming tail wind on the home leg. The wind changed direction on the final leg so many of us had to endure a head wind both ways. As for the pros speed, there was one point in the home leg where I got up to 50kph when a series of pros passed me like I was standing still (I estimate that they were going 65 to 70kph or more) .. and that is on a near flat! Any way I finished the bike sometime around 4:30, or 9.5 hours into the race. I didn’t feel bad but I almost collapsed when I got off the bike, something that has never happened before. My brother Ed was waiting for me in the change tent and helped to re-orient me and get me out for the run. I’ll tell you his story later in the article.
The run was a 3-loop affair through town. The course was slightly hilly (and all hills seem huge to me after 9 hours) it is very spectator friendly with both volunteers and fans lining almost the entire race route. As for the volunteers - They were incredible. I was impressed with IMC but the Tempe people really get into the race; most of the aide station were themed. My favorite was one at mile 3 of the second loop where they dressed in a western theme; their Penalty Tent was a hangman’s scaffold complete with noose! My run time with a 15:11 finish was slow, which expected due to the lack of training, but I was ticked with myself as I know that I had had the 11minutes in me to finish under 15 hours.
Now back to Ed. He had whiplash from the bike crash but decided to compete. His swim was 2:03 and timed out on the bike. The most incredible part of his race was that he had no strength in his neck muscles and had to ride holding his head up with one hand while riding with the other. That is a true competitor! Ed missed the 3rd loop cut-off by 5 minutes.
I’m off the catch the plane home so I’ll write more about the race and Tempe tomorrow fro Victoria.
Bye for now; Bill
The run
I’m developing a Foot Fetish!!!
13 hours to go!!
Just a quick note before an early dinner and quiet evening.
The day went well (for me). I blew the wad and invested in a pair of Newton shoes for the race. They seem to be a good median between regular runners and Vibrams. They are cushioning my sore left foot and that is the most […]
2 Days to GO!
I went for an early swim this morning. Guess what – They have 2 foot swells (and chop) in an Arizona Canal! There were times when the swell raised my body out of the water to the waist. After more mouth-fulls of “brown” water than I care to think about, I started to unilateral […]
Woulda, Coulda and SHOULDA!
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A Week after Victoria Marathon
Time seems to fly when you are procrastinating writing a blog entry.
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Hurtn’
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2 Weeks Later - OOps, Forgot to post this one!
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Dissecting Ironman Canada
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SWIM: 1h45m. As […]
Hi from Penticton
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10 hours to go!
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Registration
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I chickened out and only watched the Underpants Run, fully clothed and […]
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5 Sleeps til Ironman!
I had a terrifying thought last night as I was going to bed. I will be spending more time on the course this Sunday than I have ever spend training in an entire week. On the positive side, these doubts are mentally preparing me for Sunday. I’m finding myself spending more and more time mentally […]
A FEW LAST MINUTE RANTS
6 Sleeps to go!!! …. And worried!
They say it is good to talk about what worries you so get ready for me to bear my soul.
It just seems like just yesterday when I spent the night on the sidewalk in line for a chance to register for Ironman Canada 2008. The excitement and camaraderie of […]
Self Transcendence Tri
Yahoo! Finally - a swim without problems! I made two significant changes to my pre-race routine which I credit for my improvement: 1: I had a complete breakfast - 2 fried eggs, toast and coffee (5:00AM) and went for a twenty minute pre-race run (6:15 to 6:35). I had always blamed anxiety for swim problems […]
Where Did That Mack Truck Come From???!
Do any of you out there find it hard to re-start something after relying on excuses not to do it for so long? This is actually my 6th or 7th attempt at writing this blog entry and I think that I may have finally done it this time! As for me, I find it amazingly […]
Message from a friend
It’s been a while since my last blog. A wedding and the start of 2 months of home renos have given me the excuses that I needed to avoid blogs and training. Unfortunately I have less than 2 months till the big day in Penticton so.
I did my first swim in two weeks today. 4.5Km […]
A Lazy Week
My Highlight of the past week was watching Donald (Jarhead) perform at the 24 hour Easter Seals Run last evening. Cheryl and I dropped by at 8:00 in the evening as Don was finishing his 70 to 75th kilometre. I have got to tell you, he looked better after 75Km than I usually do after […]
A Shawnigan Lake Education!!
Well, I was right about the education (I had mentioned in my last blog) that I believed I was about to receive on Sunday. Before I give you my feelings on the race and my performance, I have to make a comment on the quality of Victoria and area athletes. Not withstanding the fact that […]
1 Nervous Sleep to go!!
Here I sit at the Internet Cafe in Shawnigan Lake waiting to go out to West Shawnigan Lake Park to register and I’m nervous as hell!! I drove by the spot earlier. While walking around, I over heard two 40 to 50 year old types talking about a training session that they were running. As […]
6 Sleeps till Shawnigan!
Wow, What a great week! I guess that a couple of weeks off with swimmers ear can help a body recover.
This week I was able to get out on the bike twice; 54Km with hills training on Wednesday and 90Km on Saturday with a new high avg. speed of +/- 27KMH. I finished both rides […]
Cool Swimming!
Well, I’m back to training again. My ear is still sore with about 50% hearing but seems to be getting better.
I managed 3 hours of training last week; 2hrs on the bike, 0.50hrs barefoot running and 0.50hrs in the lake.
I especially enjoyed the lake swim - Thetis Lake to the island and back. The water […]
Out from Hiding!
Well, I managed to do it again……. Go a month without an entry!
Since we last talked, I completed the Sooke Sprint Tri, did a 100Km ride together with several shorter (50 to 60 KM) rides. All was going well till my very first bout of swimmers ear from which I’ve been suffering with for two […]
I Love My New Shoes - So Far!!!
I take back what I said last blog about the new Vibram five fingers that I am now running in. I went for my first two outside runs in them yesterday and they performed exceptionally. My first outing was an easy 5.5 miles with my friend Tom. Usually we are about equal in our running […]
New Shoes!!!
Training went well this past week; 2Hr in the pool, 5Hr on the Bike and 3Hr on the road.
My 2 hr Parksville run was particularly good. Parksville streets and sidewalks aren’t as pitted as Victoria’s so I was able to do about 35 min of the run in bare feet – a really nice feeling!
The […]