Nice. I thought I had some 'unfinished business' to take care of so I signed up again for next year. Now I'm wondering if I actually took care of all my business. Too late though, my $$ is already gone.
Very interesting. They put IM Texas in the top 5 of hardest IMs. Really caught me off guard on that. I can see St. George with it's unbelievable hills on the run. I don't think the course terrain is really that difficult. I think what makes it so is the no wetsuit swim and then heat and humidity, especially on the run. We were lucky not to have huge headwinds back into town on the bike this year. Also, there was cloud cover almost all day. If the sun was shining all day, there would have been a lot more than 7% DNFs. After reading Matt's post on weather and IM times, I'm convinced it's mostly a pacing and execution issue for the run course. Wish I had read that post earlier!
I agree with Tom on the impact of weather. The course was tough this year, but it could have been a lot worse. Since I live in the area I've been watching the weather closely for the last several months and training regularly on the course. Race day was by far the best weather day we've seen in months. The cloud cover and (relatively) light headwind back in to town has been the exception rather than the rule.
If we were treated to full sun and some of the 25-30 mph winds we've seen on the bike course, it would have been a truly brutal day, especially for first timers like me. I'll take my blessing where I can find them. Best of luck to those racing next year!
Comments
Very interesting. They put IM Texas in the top 5 of hardest IMs. Really caught me off guard on that. I can see St. George with it's unbelievable hills on the run. I don't think the course terrain is really that difficult. I think what makes it so is the no wetsuit swim and then heat and humidity, especially on the run. We were lucky not to have huge headwinds back into town on the bike this year. Also, there was cloud cover almost all day. If the sun was shining all day, there would have been a lot more than 7% DNFs. After reading Matt's post on weather and IM times, I'm convinced it's mostly a pacing and execution issue for the run course. Wish I had read that post earlier!
If we were treated to full sun and some of the 25-30 mph winds we've seen on the bike course, it would have been a truly brutal day, especially for first timers like me. I'll take my blessing where I can find them. Best of luck to those racing next year!