I was blown away (and still am) watching these times roll in on a very tough course. Huge props to the team and hoping to see some news on some KQ's. Congrats to all!!
Thanks all! I'm super happy with my race. I wrecked my bike 1.5 miles into the ride. My Gqrmin went flying and it crushed my k-edge mount. Tossed my computer in my pocket and was blind the entire race... Had to stop again after about a mile because I couldn't clip in. Pulled my pedal and took off my ripped toe covers. Shifter also completely bent/broken, but it actually held up the whole ride. Got some road rash and ripped my brand new EN kit, but the only thing I really hurt was my pride. The support on the course was AWESOME. Mike Reilly went crazy over my Fat Bike when I was finishing my first loop of the bike. I kept count of the "Nice Bike" comments. I also included the "You are an Animal", and "Whooooo Yeah, Fat Bike" and anything similar. My favorite one was a woman I blew passed. She said "now I know what a dude feels like when I chick him". Total count 1,309. I'd say I'm within 50 of the real number, but don't know if I'm low or high. Was hard sometimes win so many people screaming obnoxiously as I powered up the hills.
I beat my first ever IM time (IMLou 2011) by 25 seconds. You have know idea how much that ride took out of my legs. I could barely run the first 2.5 miles because my back was so sore I couldn't stand upright...
It was fun to just know you all were watching.
@Nemo, some dude rode up to me and said "Are you John? Nemo says hi!"
Super quick RR, cut and pasted from a driveby on Facebook. Much more detail coming later
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Thanks everyone for the props and congratulatory texts. Quick race synopsis before I hit the shower and go to bed, after staying behind the finishline for a long time to greet the squad as they finished:
- Swim -- 57:51, easily a minute slower than expected. I need to line up on the buoy line to swim with the lead group. I didn't and it cost me about 1:30, as after a while I found I was pulling the second group, so I basically sat up and mailed it in.
- Bike: 5:14, about 7-10' slower than expected. I had to stop quickly for 3x annoying mechanical issues, was a very windy day, but more importantly I just felt flat and not very powerful. Heart rate up about 10bpm for the watts I saw, which were about 7-10w less than target. I think I finished at 211w Pnorm, about 202w average. Gatorade Endurance (500mg sodium per bottle) was too much on a cool day and I had to triage some high sodium levels after about mile 60: fingers swelling, skin puffy as my body retained water to balance out the sodium. Still, hard to argue with 14th OA and 1st AG bike splitsmile emoticon
- Run: 3:47. I FINALLY had the run I worked and trained for. I just practiced whatPatrick McCrannand I preach to the Team: sat on a comfortable heart rate, eyeballed pace, pushed it on the key hills, ran the downhills fast, and generally played defense until about mile 22.xx. I think in only walked 2x aid stations and nothing else. Again, haven't looked at the Garmin but I'm pretty sure I was very steady with a rock solid HR and very little (relatively, for IM racingsmile emoticonslowing down. Didn't get nightmarishly uncomfortable until ~mile 23...then it hurt, bad. And after 10x IM finishes, I finally chilled a bit in the chute to enjoy it a bit and at least pay attention to the experience.
Left it all out there, with my physical finishline about 10ft beyond the race finishline. Fookin. Shagged, could barely stand, dizzy, not super coherent...the usualsmile emoticon
10:07, 35th overall, 5th in M45-49, and 34yo Rich from 2002 only beat 47yo Rich by 2'. Old age and treachery brought game against youth and exuberance today. There should be 4-5 Kona slots in my AG so I won't know until tomorrow. Regardless, I get to stand on the podium and I'm couldn't be happier about my run.?#winning??#thisisagoodgig??#chessnotcheckers??#thisgameHURTS?!
Thanks again and I definitely felt the HTFU, DBAP vibes being tossed my way later in the day!
+++++++++
Funny story from the day: about mile 20 or so, I think the Mescherschmidt rd area, a 26yo doode in green kit says to me "hey, man, are you taking it personal that I keep passing you on the hills?!" I guess because I was doing what we do = yo-yo'ing with him. I was too stunned to fabricate a witty retort . So when I go by him again on a downhill/flat he says "there you go again," and when he passed me on the next hill I said "Son, you should pay attention to how the older guys race, you may just learn something today. But make it quick because you're going to pop at mile 40. Have a nice day."
Was tracking the team off and and on all day yesterday. Who knew triathlon could be such a great spectator sport? Very inspiring seeing the work of Team EN. Congrats to all!!!
Funny story from the day: about mile 20 or so, I think the Mescherschmidt rd area, a 26yo doode in green kit says to me "hey, man, are you taking it personal that I keep passing you on the hills?!" I guess because I was doing what we do = yo-yo'ing with him. I was too stunned to fabricate a witty retort . So when I go by him again on a downhill/flat he says "there you go again," and when he passed me on the next hill I said "Son, you should pay attention to how the older guys race, you may just learn something today. But make it quick because you're going to pop at mile 40. Have a nice day."
This is a great place to do an ironman. Crowd support was awesome. And the run had change of scenery every two miles at most. Crowds at the far reaches of the bike course with great police control of intersections. It's definitely. Most do IM. Of course the EN support was awesome too but that travels well everywhere.
Great Job out there team! I spent my day watching from the volunteer perspective so I was literally disconnected from the NET. Started at 5:30am in the 'Morning Clothes Bag' area taking bags from excited & nervous athletes. Then I moved to Bike Handling at 12:30pm, I got to see Rich come in off the bike - man that guy was moving! Then I moved to Run Special Needs at 5:30pm and got to help and cheer a bunch of athletes. What a super way to spend the day, helping everyone achieve their athletic and life goals at every level of racing.
Comments
You guys & gals have really provided some motivation here, for now and for next season. Thanks for raising the bar!....again!
I beat my first ever IM time (IMLou 2011) by 25 seconds. You have know idea how much that ride took out of my legs. I could barely run the first 2.5 miles because my back was so sore I couldn't stand upright...
It was fun to just know you all were watching.
@Nemo, some dude rode up to me and said "Are you John? Nemo says hi!"
Super quick RR, cut and pasted from a driveby on Facebook. Much more detail coming later
+++++++++++++++
Thanks everyone for the props and congratulatory texts. Quick race synopsis before I hit the shower and go to bed, after staying behind the finishline for a long time to greet the squad as they finished:
- Swim -- 57:51, easily a minute slower than expected. I need to line up on the buoy line to swim with the lead group. I didn't and it cost me about 1:30, as after a while I found I was pulling the second group, so I basically sat up and mailed it in.
- Bike: 5:14, about 7-10' slower than expected. I had to stop quickly for 3x annoying mechanical issues, was a very windy day, but more importantly I just felt flat and not very powerful. Heart rate up about 10bpm for the watts I saw, which were about 7-10w less than target. I think I finished at 211w Pnorm, about 202w average. Gatorade Endurance (500mg sodium per bottle) was too much on a cool day and I had to triage some high sodium levels after about mile 60: fingers swelling, skin puffy as my body retained water to balance out the sodium. Still, hard to argue with 14th OA and 1st AG bike split smile emoticon
- Run: 3:47. I FINALLY had the run I worked and trained for. I just practiced what Patrick McCrann and I preach to the Team: sat on a comfortable heart rate, eyeballed pace, pushed it on the key hills, ran the downhills fast, and generally played defense until about mile 22.xx. I think in only walked 2x aid stations and nothing else. Again, haven't looked at the Garmin but I'm pretty sure I was very steady with a rock solid HR and very little (relatively, for IM racing smile emoticon slowing down. Didn't get nightmarishly uncomfortable until ~mile 23...then it hurt, bad. And after 10x IM finishes, I finally chilled a bit in the chute to enjoy it a bit and at least pay attention to the experience.
Left it all out there, with my physical finishline about 10ft beyond the race finishline. Fookin. Shagged, could barely stand, dizzy, not super coherent...the usual smile emoticon
10:07, 35th overall, 5th in M45-49, and 34yo Rich from 2002 only beat 47yo Rich by 2'. Old age and treachery brought game against youth and exuberance today. There should be 4-5 Kona slots in my AG so I won't know until tomorrow. Regardless, I get to stand on the podium and I'm couldn't be happier about my run. ?#winning? ?#thisisagoodgig??#chessnotcheckers? ?#thisgameHURTS?!
Thanks again and I definitely felt the HTFU, DBAP vibes being tossed my way later in the day!
+++++++++
Funny story from the day: about mile 20 or so, I think the Mescherschmidt rd area, a 26yo doode in green kit says to me "hey, man, are you taking it personal that I keep passing you on the hills?!" I guess because I was doing what we do = yo-yo'ing with him. I was too stunned to fabricate a witty retort
. So when I go by him again on a downhill/flat he says "there you go again," and when he passed me on the next hill I said "Son, you should pay attention to how the older guys race, you may just learn something today. But make it quick because you're going to pop at mile 40. Have a nice day."
Homie don't play on race day
That was Scott, a buddy of mine from when I lived in Maryland. He promised to pass along a hello for me if he saw you. See- I'm everywhere :-)