Ironman Arizona - Not a perfect race, but I raced perfectly

Ironman number 10 has come and gone. My body is still sore and my appetite is ENORMOUS!

Barry D. and I arrived at the race site just after 5:00 AM. We were both glad to see that there were so many people already in transition. To me that indicated that there were a lot of veterans in the field. Arriving early makes for a less stressful day. All in all, it took us a good amount of time to check our gear bags, quadruple checking our bikes, and generally going through everything one more time.

The swim start at IMAZ is a wide and relatively gentle one. A single loop in Tempe Town Lake, we swim into the rising sun. Sighting on the buoys was made easier with some FAB new TYR Nest Pro Metalized goggles. After a few bumps and grinds I found some clear water to swim in. A few zig-zags and I was finally swimming straight. It wasn't until after the turn that I found my rhythm; a little long, but it didn't really hurt my time too much.

T1 was about normal for me. There is a 500 meter dash from the water to the gear bags. I didn't dilly-dally in the change tent, but still my time was almost 7 minutes. Where and how to find those lost minutes?

The bike course at IMAZ is a combination of urban and desert; approximately 1/3 urban and 2/3 desert. The urban section is relatively flat with a lot of 90 degree turns. The desert section is a long slow rise to the turn around; basically a false flat with a little hill at the end. With 30K winds in your face the false flat didn't seem very false :) Those long hours on the Computrainer paid off. I kept aero and kept peddling and passed lots of studly young guys and very expensive bikes. The pay off was the return trip; On that long slow downhill I maxed out at 52KPH. For most of the trip back to town I was able to keep my speed over 40KPH.

My only complaint about the bike course was the lack of volunteers at the aid stations. There just didn't seem to be enough of them. The aid stations tended to be messy and I had to stop a couple of times to make sure I got the food and drink that I needed. At one aid station I flew head-over-handlebars coming to an unexpected stop.

If the bike course is relatively flat, the run course is relatively hilly. Lots and lots of small hills and rises as the course winds its way through Tempe Town Park and Pagago Park. In addition to the hills and rises there are three bridges that are crossed a total of 12 times. The organizers reorientated the run course with a nice surprise uphill finish :P I kept my pace nice and steady, but took too much time refueling and lost precious time. In the end I am not sure if I made the right decision; I ran the entire course and passed tons of people walking and looking much worse than I felt. Perhaps next time I'll use my own camelback, a la Jean Lacroix?

I ran up that final hill knowing that I had a new personal best under my belt, 12:33 and ultimately finish in the top 25% of the field. At the finish line was Barry D. and my Mom and Dad (who had survived another Iron-spectator day). Barry had a great race, finishing 3 in his age group and helped me through my post-race wobbliness.

I came to Arizona with hopes of a break through race, but the day is the day that it is. I didn't have that breakthrough race, but I didn't make any major mistakes and in the end I think I raced perfectly.

Many thanks to Barry for sticking around to see me finish and as always, a very big thank you to my parents for showing their support by driving across the continent to watch their son sweat in the "sizzling sun" of Arizona.


2008 Ironman Arizona