Thanks for all the well wishes everyone!
The race went very well and I made all my few goals: To finish, To come in at 12:XX hours, To beat a few friends times, and then my reach goal was to come in with a time of 11:XX).
With the swim being my weakest event, I waited to be one of the last ones into the water so that the river current would pick up as much as possible in my favor. That worked out really well and I came out of the water in 52 minutes. (Usually my swim for that distance would be able 1:20).
Transition was smooth and I was out on the bike. Lots of long steady ups and long steady downs with not many flat sections. I had some stomach issues with my nutrition and ended up not being able to eat much solid food and stuck to gels, blocks, and other course nutrition. I knew the run course would be difficult so I definitely tried to ride below my level while still coming in under 6 hours.
The second transition was easy enough and I spent the first major hill walking briskly while eat a bag of potato chips. I picked up the pace and from mile 1 was doing the mental math of just how slowly I could run to make it in under a total time of 12 hours. The run course was quite challenging with all the hills on a hot day. I had been practicing for this by running the FreshBikes Tuesday Night ride course on foot, if that gives you any local comparison.
At one point I actually got stung by a bee inside my mouth. I immediately spit it out, but the stinger was stuck in the back of my throat and swishing water around wasn’t working to dislodge it. I ended up sticking a couple fingers down my throat, gagging and dry heaving by the side of the run course, but I was able to scrape it off with a finger nail. I took a pain killer and kept going. I ended up coming across the finish line right on time and couldn’t have been any happier with making my reach goal!
Here’s the breakdown:
Swim: 52:13
T1: 6:40
Bike: 5:56:18
T2: 6:54
Run: 4:53:50
Overall: 11:55:55
A few interesting numbers and stats:
http://triathlon.competitor.com/2012/08/race-results/by-the-numbers-ironman-nyc_59423
http://www.runtri.com/2012/08/ironman-new-york-us-championship.html
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