2014 Challenge AC - Pat O'Connell - 11:45 Finish. 45 minute PR
Work definitely works!!! After months of EN training, 50k of air/work travel the first 6 months of the year, I made it to the start line on Sunday physically and mentally healthy and ready to race. This was my 3rd IM. 2010 Louisville - 12:47 (I was definitely in the 90% crowd that didn't have a clue what they were doing), 2012 LP - 12:30 (better prepared, having attended the 2012 EN LP camp as a non EN member, but still in the 90% camp) and now Challenge AC - 11:45. A 45 minute PR even with an absolutely awful swim (read below). Goals heading into the race: *Have fun, *Finish, *Break 12 hours by racing steady and following my/EN game plan.
Results: 1:35 Swim, 5:34 bike, 4:24 run = 11:45= All goals accomplished.
The details:
Swim- Awful!!
When I raced Louisville it was non-wetsuit and I did 1:23, Lake Placid with a wetsuit 1:15. You can tell -I'm not a great swimmer! CAC- amazingly, no wetsuits allowed. Temp must have been taken right off the dock at low tide. Ref. said water temp was 80 degrees. I live on the back bay 15 minutes away in OC - no way it was 80. I digress! Bottomline, due to no wetsuit, tough incoming tide and poor execution my expected 1:15 swim turned into a 1:35. I got out of the water pissed but didn't panic. 33rd out of 63 in my AG after the swim.
Bike - I road the bike I should, not the bike I could. I repeated that statement tons of times on the bike. CAC is very flat, but being on the Ocean it was windy. Tail wind was awesome for the first 30 miles. That head wind crushed many racers coming back in. I stayed aero for the entire time except, per Patrick, to stand every 30 minutes for 20 rotations. I road high Zone 1 the entire ride. No serious spikes. I felt like I could have gone so much faster on the bike, but knew the purpose of holding back.
Problem on the bike: At the 30 mile mark I noticed my front wheel had a slight wobble to it and I was hearing a faint "tink, think, think" sound. I stopped and found out that a front spoke nipple had snapped. I had no idea how to repair that so I opened up the break lever, road slow for a mile to make sure the spoke wasn't going to cause me to wreck, and got back to my zone 1 work. It was definitely a bit nerve-racking looking at that front wheel shimmy for 80 miles!
Botttomline, 40 minute PR on the bike and back in the hunt to break 12 hours. 24th in my AG after the bike.
Run - LP run time was 4:50. For being 6'4" and 185lbs, I'm a decent runner in the shorter races, but due to heat, bike pacing and nutrition, I wasn't able to run the entire run at my first two IMs. I followed the EN plan of LRP(9:17) + 30 for the first 6 miles. As I got deeper into the run, I was able to keep running at a solid pace but I felt I needed the breaks at the aid stations. It was 83 degrees and I was feeling the effects of the heat, length of the day. Bottomline, 4:24 run. 26 minute PR on the run. I didn't walk any of the run except the aid stations. My race results show that I did slow down a bit during the middle of the run, worst pace was 10:40 mile. Good news is so did my competition! 33rd after the swim, 24th after the bike, 15th after the run.
Nutrition - Executed nutrition as planned/practiced. I'm big and sweat like crazy! SaltStick tablet every 15 minutes on the bike, 1/2Powerbar every 30 minutes on the bike, 1.5 bottles of Gatorade Endurance per hour. On the run, I had Gatorlytes (1k mg sodium) in each of my 4 empty Fuel belt bottles. Per Patrick, I filled bottles at aid stations and spiked the gatorade, on the run course to keep sodium intake up/me going. Went to the coke at the 18 mile mark and it did help.
Strengths of the day - 1) Bike and run execution as planned. 2) Mentally, was able to stay engaged throughout the event. Very little mental drift throughout the race. 3) Had a ton of fun.
Weaknesses of the day - 1) Swim!! 2) I executed my nutrition plan exactly how I wanted and still ended up in the med tent getting 2 bags to rehydrate. I was severely dehydrated at 2010 Louisville (just written up as one of the epic sufferfests) when it was 98 degrees. LP I was ok at the end and didn't need medical. Challenge was warm - 83 degrees. I thought I had the right nutrition and fluid plan. I calculated I took in somewhere between 12-15k mg of sodium, along with the planned level of fluids. Clearly, I still have room to improve. For anyone that has had really tingly lips, fingers, that feeling sucks. 3) my EN gear showed up 4 days after the race - I had to race as a stealth ENer. 
No worries on this one, the gear will get plenty of use.
Thanks for all of the guidance Rich, Patrick and all of the EN members. I've learned a great deal from becoming an EN member.