IM Maryland
Friday morning at approximately 3:00 AM my right calf cramped. Spent the day in compression sleeves, coating the calf with Bio freeze, and Foam Rolling
Swim- Not my best sport. The out length was rough the in length and the cross lengths were smoother. First loop I didn’t encounter any Jellies, but on the second loop I got stung a couple time. In my opinion the Legend is greater than the result, yes, I got stung but the irritation went away quickly.
T1 Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Got the wetsuit on, grabbed my Bike bag put helmet on, grabbed my shoes and ran gingerly to my bike. I was about 30 yards from the bike exit and return. I set off at a relatively easy pace for the first 20-minutes or so then picked up the pace. There was a section of the road that was a no pass zone (25 and 75) felt like a gravel ride. A big oil tanker was on the course and was going slow for about 4 miles, with traffic building up behind. Mark Allen often said that the race begins at mile 80, mile 80 for me is where it got lonely out there, there were fewer people out there to pull back. I was averaging 20+ up to mile 90 where the wind became a steady headwind that we battled all the way back to T2. Ended up at 19.75.
T2 Racked the bike, left the helmet at the bike, morning clothes bag already there and surprisingly not a lot of bikes were racked. I took another easy run to my run bag no calf issue. I was a little slow in the changing tent, once I got my shoes on I should have headed out, but I took my time and put on race belt, hat, and stuffed pockets with nutrition.
Run Just as I started it started sprinkling. I created a Garmin run workout the first two miles were set between 8:40 and 9:00, the remainder 8:25-8:50, the calf never bothered me. And for the first 21 miles I hit those numbers. This was a very comfortable pace, I do not remember getting passed except by one person who I pulled back later. I only walked part of the aid stations up to mile 20, somewhere after mile 21 I walked a few times between aid stations.
Total time 11:12:16, 6th age group, Swim 25th, bike 10th, 2nd fastest run in my age group. Age Adjusted finish 75th.
The staff, the volunteers, the crowd, and the local residents of Cambridge and Easton were spectacular.
Roll Down. I knew that since this was a return to Kona year for the men that all the fast dudes would show up. The last slot of 55 went to #56 who was 4th in my age group, 12 minutes faster than me. I know some people are upset about how many women got slots but if you look at the percentages it played out perfectly. Females made up 20% of the athletes, 20% of 55 is 11, 11 women got slots. I know I can do better, so after Marbella I will sit down with a coach friend, a pro friend, and some of my training partners and make a plan to try and get a KQ.
