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 Swim
Comments: Water temp felt good - being from Michigan I had spring tri's in colder water. Hung out towards the bouy line about 30-40 yards back. I had read all about how crowded the swim is and all the contact. All I read turned out to be true, but not that bad that it drastically effected my overall swim. I did get kicked, punched, run over, and I am sure I did the same to others just due to the large numbers, the actual hits were no different than other wave start tri's I have done, it just lasted longer, for me almost the entire way around. I would get clear for a period of time then run into another tight group and work through them, get free again only to repeat. Overall the swim seemed to go by quickly, I was expecting to be around 1:20 - 1:30 so felt good with a 1:20. What would you do differently?: Start further to the right towards the wall, I had been told not to try and start there cause everyone else would be there but from those I talked with later that started along the wall, they had much less contact.  Transition 1
Comments: Not sure why the time was so slow as it did not feel that slow. Wet suit strippers were great. Changing tent was full so it took a minute or so to find a seat, got the bike shorts on - swam with my tri top on - socks, shoes, helmet, a good dose of lub in the shorts, nutrition into the pockets and out. What would you do differently?: Not much, had I swam faster.....  Bike
Comments: The first loop I had to really work at holding back, stayed in the small ring and just cruised, I was getting passed like crazy but held to the plan. The little wind was in our face on the way out of town, which has a slight up hill grade, then down hill with the wind on the way back. As others have stated, then the wind shifted 180 degrees, pushing us up the hill and against back into town which I thought was much better. Saw the family at the turnaround in town which was a great boost. The second and third laps went well, just a Sunday cruise, but by the last loop I was passing people in droves, and not pushing it at all, going easy paid off, someone told me to treat the bike as a ride to a marathon, not part of the race and it worked. I exceeded my expectation here by a huge margin, I was hoping to break 7 hours and was amazed at coming in just under 6 hours. What would you do differently?: Had to stop once for a pit stop, maybe should have made that stop during T1 Transition 2
Comments: No problems, volunteers were outstanding in taking the bike, and taking care of my stuff in the transition tent. What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: I had trained using the Osler method of periodic walks, I felt great, saw my daughter coming out ot T2 and gave her a high 5! Saw the family on more than one occasion due to the nature of the course, got a kiss from my wife at one point on the first loop! I felt really good and ran well through about 13 miles, then began to struggle, mainly because everytime I would try to start running after a short walk my quads scream, after a quarter mile or so they would settle down, but it slowed me down, at 15 miles I figured I had a chance at breaking 12 hours (I had hoped that if everything went perfect, I would be at ~13:30)and tried to hold a good pace but it just wasn't to be, at 22 miles the wheels really came off, walked quite a bit, then remembered the 5 hour energy I had in my pocket, drank it, and was able to jog the last 2+ miles. Finally came to the sign that pointed finishers to the left, my son and daughter were there and started screaming. I was able to pick it up, then the finish line, what a feeling! What would you do differently?: Should have stuck to the original walking plan from the start, I was feeling so good I ran the first 6 miles and might have been faster had I taken the walk breaks early. Other than that - it went perfectly. Post race
Warm down: None - the finish line catchers were great, as were all the volunteers. It made such a difference with such great volunteers, just can't say enough. Got the finisher photo taken, the shirt and hat, a cold drink, found the family. Tried a piece of pizza but after one bite knew that was not going to work! What limited your ability to perform faster: Being my first ironman I didn't know what to expect. As I stated earlier, having a coach was crucial. My weakness was the bike and hoping to keep it above 15mph and then averaging almost 19 was amazing for me. Event comments: Liked everything about this race. Again I can not say enough about the volunteers and the organization of the event, everything I was involved with went off with out any problems. I would recomend this race for any first timer, although it is tough to get in unless you volunteer the prior year. Last updated: 2012-11-21 12:00 AM
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United States
World Triathlon Corporation
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1117/
Age Group = 55 - 59
Age Group Rank = 30/
I strongly recomend any first time inronman athlete hire a coach - this made a huge difference in my results as he had me train to my weakness, more on that below. Arrived in Tempe on Weds. afternoon before the race. Check in on Thurs went smooth, did a 15 mi easy bike followed by a 2 mi run. Fri was spent resting and getting all the bags ready along with a final bike wash and check. My wife and daughter flew in Fri night, and my son Sat. Sat was the practice swim, after all I read about how bad and cold the water would be, it wasn't that bad, ditched the "booties" and the neoprene cap and went with 2 swim caps instead.
Didn't sleep much the night before, up at 4:30, a banana and PB&J some Perform and off to Tempe Town Lake. Added a few things to the transition bags, got the body marked, dropped of the special needs bags, although I never used either of them. Hung out, until it was time for the wet suit.
A little stretching, then a short swim from the jump in to the start line.
Treaded water for awhile waiting for the start, but the water did not seem that cold to me so it was not a big deal, other than the nerves from waiting.