Ironman Florida : Official Thread (Page 96)

TriMyBest - 2010-11-07 1:51 AM I saw the Guy who crapped himself. Actually I smelled him first as he ran past me (apparently up wind). It was all the way to his ankles! I thought the same thing - what an idiot! I hope they pulled him from the course for safety. I had a good race for my first IM. 12:34.

LSUfan4444 - 2010-11-07 1:50 PM Here's my race report:

First, let it be said that this is my first IM and I have no basis of comparison other than a few 70.3's.

Swim start - the mass swim start was fun, I enjoyed the adrenaline rush on a day when everything else is so held back.

The swim - my first lap was faster than the 2nd, but not sure why.  Maybe got tired?  Maybe the draft on the first loop, but still managed a 1:07 swim.  Since both of my other 1.2 swims were over 35 minutes, I was happy with the result.  I do well in sprint swims, but have struggled with the 1.2 distance for some reason.

T1 - In a word, embarassing..12:39.  I literally didn't know what to do.  My b@ll$ were 4" from the guys face in front of me, my a$$ was 6" from the guy behind me as I stood totally nude in the middle of the isle (no seats).  My stuff was in the middle of the floor getting kicked and thrown everywhere.  Good news is, I made it out without losing anything and had on everything I needed.

Bike - Because of the super elevated heart rate in T1 and being quite warm, I decided to go only in a sleeveless tri jersey and arm warmers, which probably wasn't enough.  I was pretty cold for at least the first 30 miles, but the head wind was more of a concern.  Had I known so much of 79 was in the shade, I might have rethought that decision, but even though it's obvious now, I never considered it.  As I said, the bike course gave us a headwind for 40 miles or so, then 15 miles of tailwind, then 20 miles of headwind and finally 40 miles of tailwind at the end (all approx). 

The out & back at the 56.2 mark was horrible.  Not big holes, but every 5 yards you hit another bump.  The tailwind home was a good opportunity to make up lost time, or rest.  I decided for the latter, but still turned out my fastest stretch the last 20 miles.  The wind tunnels in between the condo's on front beach road were everything I heard they were gonna be.  Bike split = 5:43, 19.54 mph.

T2 - ALOT better than T1, less people, less stuff needed.  Not the BEST time, but I put on body glide, Vaseline, changed HR monitors and had them put sunblock on me.  T2 = 6:02.

Run - The first mile was, WOW.  The support headed away from Alvin's Island was unreal.  The ladies in front of the beach houses, it really was fun.  Support slowly dwindled as did my energy and I ran into the infamous black 2XU singlet, pant cr@apper in the back of the park.  At first, I thought he fell in mud or something, then I realized it was much worse.  I agree with most, if your vying for  kona q., okay, but at best he was gonna just make it under 11 hours.  Man, jump in the gulf, wash yourself at an aid station, do something.  Thank goodness, that was all I saw of him.

The 2nd loop was a bit more rough, but my pace stayed the same when I ran, it's just my pee breaks became more frequent and the walks at aid stations became longer.  I met some really great people on the run who were great motivation.  Run split - 4:31.

The volunteers and aid stations were all great.  Only two in the middle part of the run course lacked a bit of enthusiasm, but were still very nice. 

Total time was 11:41, which I am happy with.  I thought I'd be between 12-13, but all I really wanted to do was finish, eat Mellow Mushroom afterwards, be at the finish line for midnight and be at the finishers tent for 6 am.  The only thing I didn't do was make the finish line at midnight.

Congrats to all finishers!