IMAZ: Race and Aftermath

Aside from the "minor" glitch of me forgetting my goggles and cap in my hotel room, my race went almost perfectly. I was prepared in all facets, and except perhaps for not taking enough salt on the run, all my preparation worked, from athletics to nutrition, and I had a very relaxed and pretty strong race.

10:09:05.

Under the ceiling goal of 10:15, short of the reach goal of 10:00, but good. I'm happy with it, which is saying a lot for me.

Swim: very relaxed, felt good, could have gone perhaps a bit faster and harder, but it was fine. Didn't feel cold or tired at all until perhaps 55 minutes in, but still finished strong. Was frozen on the way out, though, and onto the bike. T1 was a long 8:30 as I struggled to put on socks while frozen. 1:09:53

Bike: also relaxed and strong. Pushed a bit harder than planned because I thought my swim was actually slower than it was. Decent headwind on the way out, strong tailwind on the way back. Each of the three laps was pretty even. I didn't feel my legs until roughly 99 miles, though I did hit a bit of a mental rough patch around 60-70 and had to push through 100-110, but felt very good coming in to T2. T2 was a much better and easy 3:30. Took about 5 minutes in a porta potty 30 minutes into the bike that I wish I had back. 5:16

Run: told myself to go out slow, went out fast: 6:18, 19:30 for 3, 33:10 for 5, 77:12 for 11 and then it began to hurt. Halfway (13) was 1:34, and my thighs/quads started to cramp at about mile 15. By mile 18, however, I knew I'd finish. The 2nd lap was toughest, but after taking coke with other drinks, Gu and electrolytes (could have taken more salt as mentioned, though), I felt a bit better through the end. Getting to 22 was important and 25 was super; I picked it up a bit and finished the last 200M running hard. 3:30:20 for the run.

Finishing was great. I rolled as well. All in all, I was thrilled that my training plan got me through pretty much as expected and that I was able to come through the line in a bit of pain but feeling no pain as well.