IM AZ race recap

Like over 1,100 over the athletes that morning, this was my first IM.  I want to start off by saying "thank you" to the EN community and Coaches RnP, your guidance and knowledge made this race successful and enjoyable for me. 

Swim - I did a quick rehearsal swim on Thursday morning, so I knew it was going to be cold, but not too cold.  I swam mid-pack and was jostled and kicked like most people for about 80% of the swim, but it never felt dangerous or unnerving even though I'm not a strong swimmer and that was only my 4th open water swim.  I finished 1:19 which was right where my last three practices swims put me, so I was happy with it.  

T1 - The cold caught up to me here.  I had to stay in the tent for awhile to warm up before I headed out and possibly had the longest T1 time every recorded.  Oh well, it will be an easy bar to beat next time.  I also decided to go for comfort and changed into cycling clothes, which I probably won't bother doing again.  Since my goal was to finish I decided the night before to go for comfort on the run and ride and I don't think it was worth the effort or time lost.

Bike - This was just an outright weird bike ride for me.  All of my practice rides and RR's had me finishing just over six hours and my powertap shows a 6:11, again about what I expected.  However I had some "issues" and my real time was 7:02.  I had a rear flat the second loop and had a hard time breaking the tire off my rented wheel.  I was able to get through it and lost about 12-14 minutes.  Those things happen.  The weird thing though was my sweat rate or lack of sweat.  The entire ride my arms and head were salty and dry, more than I would have expected in AZ since UT has a fairly similar lack of humidity.  It seems all the liquid I took in, my two 3-hour infinit bottles, water and enduralites were passing my system in the other available way.   I stopped to pee 12 times, possibly another course and maybe even IM record.  Sure it was only ~3 minutes a stop, but that was a ton of time not moving forward.  That has never happened to me before and I'll have to think about why it did.  Too many enduralites?  I took 2/hr plus what was in the Inifinit, which seems about right.  Body not acclimatized?  That seems like a stretch since our summer/fall is close to theirs just cooler.  Needing stronger core muscles on the bike?  Maybe. I'm sure that's true, but maybe not a factor here.  Anyway, the ride ended up being a start and stop leg that should have been completed an hour quicker. 

T2 - changed to normal running clothes

Run - Held about an 11 minute pace for the marathon with no issues using the method of running between the aid stations and walking about a minute at each.  I also saw the family four times on the last two loops due to the spectator friendly nature of the run course.  I actually enjoyed the run, so I know that means I should have picked it up.

It was great meeting some of you at the dinner Thursday and I was glad to read about your successful races.