Alan's IMLOU 2018 Race Report
You might have heard this was a bit of a challenging day!
A few good decisions led to me being able to finish! 1st good decision was after heading to transition and setting everything up, getting body marked, I decided to head back to the hotel and get my bike tights. Returned to transition and added to bike bag.
Headed to swim start. Overheard girl mention she had done Choo 2 weeks ago as here 1st IM and was here to complete the full 140.6 since the swim at Choo was cancelled. Imagine her disappointment when we heard the swim here was shortened to .9 mi due to strong currents. Swim is my strength, so I was quite disappointed by the decision. It was the right decision for safety though.
Swim Time 14:44 1st in AG
Wow the current was moving. The buoy's were moving and the kayak folks did a great job guiding us to finish. If you weren't paying attention I could see folks missing the finish and having to fight upstream back to the finish. Luckily, I didn't see anyone in that situation.
T1 Put on dry top, rain jacket, gloves and happily those tights. 2nd good decision was to put arm warmers and headband into tri top back pockets.
Bike Time 7:11:25 23rd in AG
With the temps and steady rain I knew the bike plan was out and the goal would be to survive the cold and potentially slick roads. My bike computer read no power numbers, so I rebooted it and then it read low power meter battery. I would now ride with RPE (interestingly my watch recorded power numbers, so the bike computer was probably reading someone else's power meter battery info). I hardly looked at the bike computer anyway, it was hard to see with the rain constantly rolling down the helmet visor. About 40 min's in the cold was getting to me, shivering pretty good, and I decided to pull over and put on the arm warmers and headband. Pretty sure I would have DNF'd at some point if I hadn't. After about 2 hours body seemed to settle, still cold but no longer shivering. Saw a fair number of mechanicals which must have been numbing for those folks. Saw several folks in just tri shorts and tri tops on the side of the road shivering uncontrollably waiting for the bus home! Saw a few who completed the whole bike in short and short sleeves, wow!
T2 Changed into running shorts, new socks and rain jacket. Kept bike gloves and headband. Guy next to me couldn't tie his shoes his hands were so cold, and the great volunteer tied them for him! Volunteer mentioned he did it for several folks along with unbuckling helmets.
Run Time 5:02:12 9th in AG
I did IMWI 5 weeks ago (as did @Jeff Horn who also did Barkley's in between (beast)) and was disappointed with my run there. I put a lot of time in this year training and didn't feel I had honored my training self. Took a line from @tim cronk as my running mojo "I earned this pain". HR was quite hi for 1st mi, so walked the entire 1st aid station to get it down, HR settled and was good rest of run. Saw @Jorge Duque and @Trish Marshall on run, everyone covered up so hard to see other team members. Plan was walk part of aid stations and run in between. There was a lot of carnage on the run course, I passed a lot of people. Got tough around mi 17, but put the head down per @Al Truscott and got it done. Finish line at Lou is fantastic, all the folks pounding the barriers for you, brought a big smile to my face and I really enjoyed the finishing shoot.
Overall Time 12:58:15 12th in AG
Certainly no PR today, but great satisfaction just finishing on this challenging day! This was IM #12 for me, so unlike @Jeff Horn, I will be entering the Lottery and hopefully head to the Big Island in the next few years. Really enjoyed meeting the team members at brunch. We won't forget the day!
Comments
@Alan Brown Great work on a tough day! I'm not certain I'd have had the fortitude to make it through the elements, but at least, as you say, it forms permanent memories. Good luck on the Legacy slot working out for you!
Great race @Alan Brown way to get #12 done in epic fashion. Really nice seeing a familiar face on that bike course in the dreadful conditions. Who knows, maybe we will get to race in Kona together after all.
Nicely done @Alan Brown ! Way to gut it out in such miserable conditions. It looks like you had a day you can truly be proud of (and you hit lucky number 12 to boot!) Good luck with the lottery!
Congrats @Alan Brown ! Sorry it took so long to comment...I'm avoiding the casino cash drain right now as I am in Vegas and my better half is really digging the gambling! ;)
You looked ROCK SOLID on the run both times I saw you. ROCK SOLID!! Especially with bringing the IMWI fatigue to the table on race day!!! I hope if we tackle this beast again next year I can run like you did last Sunday. (IF because we ended up transferring to IMTX 2019 due to the hurricane).
Recover hard, and I might see you same time (hopefully with pleasant weather!) next year!!!