IMFL 2012
Here is my race report for Florida!!
Thursday: I traveled down to from Atlanta early in the morning and made it to PCB by noon local time. I had a lot of anxiety about getting there on Thursday instead of Wednesday....mainly brought on by my other tri friends but I stuck to my travel plan and made it there by noon. The girlfriend and I got checked in to the hotel early, then went and check into to the race and dropped my bike off to get race wheels. To my suprise, Tri bike transport said to come back at 4:30 to pick up my bike which meant I had to push back going for a short ride and run until late in the day. Luckily I was able to go for a swim while waiting for the bike and focused on the swim out through the swells. I missed the EN dinner to squeeze in a bike and run (sorry peeps!) and then headed to the athlete dinner to catch the presentation. Overall, way to busy of a day!
Friday: I hit up a dinner for a big breakfast of pancakes and packed all of my bags while at the condo. Ate a suprisingly good pasta lunch at pineapple willies and then waited at the condo for the family to arrive. We went to Carraba's for dinner....crazy packed....but we got in and out in a decent time.
Saturday:
Got up at 3:30 and did the applesauce, bannana, and sport drink and went back to bed. Apparently the fog set off the alarm in the building at 3:45 but slept anyway. I left the condo way to late race morning. I was at my bike loading my bottles and pumping tires when they announced transition was closed but kept at it anyway. Forgot to give my flops to the family and kicked them off under the suv parked on the beach.
Swim: 1:06
I lined up just outside of the bouys and holy bar fight.....i got elbowed, uppercutted under the chin, pushed, kicked, but stuck to staying in the box on the first lap. On the second lap i went slightly inside the bouys and found lots of open water going out and most of the way in.
T1: 11:29 way to slow
I left my watch strapped on over my wetsuit so the strippers couldn't pull the suit off....just dumb on my part...but quickly got out of it. The volunteers in the hotel were great...lots of help with getting my gear together and out the door. I could have been faster and shaved some time off.
Bike: 5:35
I did the JRA for 90 minutes and watched people fly by while i sat back and focused on nutrition. Tried to drink every 10 minutes and a pb gel every 30 with salt sticks every hour. Took it up a notch after 90 and started passing some riders...since i'm a HR athlete i tried to not let my HR get out of a low zone 3 high zone 2. On the out and back it got very crowded and dodging ejected bottles became the goal. I had a rider on my back wheel drafting me for most of the out and back.....not cool...your in my bike photo...stuck on my back wheel foreever in my pic. I did hit special needs for my 2 bottles but it was a quick stop. Cooled off with cold bottles of water down my neck and back. On the way back in, a big pack of riders formed which left me with no choice but to ride steady and safely to front beach road.
T2: 8:08
I took my time to put on running shorts, fuel belt, sunscreen, and hit the door running. Could have been faster but wanted the comfort of shorts.
Run: 4:20
Coming out of transition was awesome....definately had to slow down my pace as the crowd got me excited. Focused on running easy for the first hour, taking in nutrition, and cooling off. The florida sun was out in force for that first lap so i made sure to hydrate as much as possible with ice water and what i didn't drink went down my jersery front and back. I yelled at the EN coaches in the park, great spot to see them hanging out, and yelled at Rinny a few times! If you had on EN gear i made sure to cheer you on.
I saw my family and friends coming in on the first lap. At special needs I quickly lost the fuel belt and saw my crew again on the way out. Oh btw, I'm still running deep into the marathon....at mile 15 I made friends with a guy from ireland and we ran steady for the next hour chatting the whole time. At mile 18 i realized i could run this sucker in since my legs were still there and I began to steadily pass people.
With about 5k left i began to hurt but reminded myself of all the 5k runs i had done over the past few months. The sun went down and i found myself moving faster than i had all day. Coming down the finish chute was something I'll always remember and hope to do again. When i crossed the finish line I realized that I had not looked at the clock coming in....turned around and heard the volunteer say 11:22....my reponse "hoooolllyyy sh$t".....she got a big well deserved hug.
Comments
Solid race. I know a lot of people under estimated the heat. Way to execute!