I'll make this a fairly short one, since Dan included a nice long report about the race in his blog posting on the subject. Basically, it was a decent day for me, considering the lack of training this year. Funny how twin babies don't like to let you have much time to yourself.
Results:
Swim: 34:37
T1: 3:09
Bike: 2:46:33
T2: 2:09
Run: 2:31:26
Total: 5:57:56
I had been expecting a DNF, because I'd been having some IT band issues that had caused serious pain in my knee on both the bike and the run starting in late April. Consequently, I hadn't trained either discipline as much as I wanted to... although I did manage to get in some long-ish bike rides. In any event, I was sure I'd experience the pain again, if not on the bike, then I expected to come off the bike, run about a mile and collapse in agony. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Pre-Race
Okay, the drive down was beautiful. Some rain, and beautiful rainbows stretching from one side of the highway to the other. Texas can be beautiful sometimes. I left Boulder at 2:00 pm mountain time, and figured I'd make Dumas or Amarillo by 10:00 central. I figured if I made it to Amarillo, I'd just keep going and find a place in Lubbock late that night. Well... by Dumas, I was tired, and I figured I'd go ahead and stop. Pulled into a Holiday Inn Express and took the bike off Laura's car (I drove hers because her parents came to Denver that weekend and they needed to big car). I noticed my rear tire was flat. Hmmm... that's interesting, but not unheard of. I'd been having some tube issues, so I didn't think much of it. Slept in a smoking room (bleah) and got up around 5:30 to head down to Lubbock.
When I arrived there, I met up with Dan and freaked out his Texas Iron group. They were getting ready to ride the run course, so I quickly took my bike off and started to change the tube. Hmmm... that's weird, the tire is melted... oh wait... the frickin' carbon wheel is melted! Oh great! My rear race wheel was ruined. Not a good omen. I was really P.O.'ed. Managed to ride anyway (Dan had a spare) and then I qwnt for a dip while Dan and the Texas Iron folks did a quick run. Water was a little warm, but I was counting on it cooling a bit in the morning (which it did).
The Swim
I felt pretty good. Dan and Matt both went without a wetsuit, but I had my sleeveless suit, and the water was cooler than water at the pool I swim at, so I felt pretty good. The swim seemed to go on forever. I would get to where I thought I should be coming up on the shore, and I'd look up to see that I still had a long way to go. Finally, I just settled in, and quit looking for the shore. When I finally got there, I was surprised when I got out of the water to see 34 minutes on my watch. That was much faster than I expected.
T1
I think I pitched a tent and had a campfire roaring at T1. I don't know why it took me 3 minutes.
The Bike
I felt good coming out of T1. I knew a big hill was right in front of me, but I just spun up it at about 9 mph, so it didn't take much out of me. All in all, the bike was pretty good. After I got out of the park, I turned onto the highway, and it wasn't more than a few miles before Dan came roaring past me. I felt like I was going backwards as I watched him zoom off ahead of me. But... I knew my limitations, and I didn't try to follow him. There were several hills throughout the course, but none seemed too bad. I could definitely feel my legs getting fatigued at about the 45 mile mark, and I knew it would be a long half mary. I powered up the last hill and coasted down into T2 feeling not too shabby.
T2
This was a little better transition. I had a transition spot near the bike entry/exit, so I got to the rack quickly. Unfortunately, I was not near the run exit, so it took a few extra seconds to get there,
The Run
This was basically a 13.1 mile death march. I could tell I had no legs as soon as I got off the bike. But I was hoping the legs would come back to me somewhere after about mile 3 or 4. No such luck. I felt like I was barely lifting my knees, and my feet felt like 100 lb weights attached to the end of my legs. Needless to say, I walked... a LOT! The good news was that I had no knee pain. Yea!!!! As I watched the entire field pass me on the run, I kept noticing that I might actually break 6 hours. The closer I got to the end of the race, the closer I knew it would be. I saw Matt at the 1/12 mile aid station, and he told me about the leg cramps. That sucks!!! As I came around the corner and into the finishing chute, I actually found some energy I didn't know was there, and I even passed a couple of people. I crossed the line at 5:57:56, a little over 2 minutes faster than I was aiming.
So... I made a promise, and I guess I'm in for IM Wisconsin. It's going to be a very long marathon for me, but hopefully, I can at least be ready for the swim and bike.
