So, #3 is in the books and oh, what a ride it was for the days leading up the Ironman Brasil. In a nut shell, I am happy with my performance and even happier to be home.
I managed to shave off some more time since IM Canada, some 17 minutes to 10:08. My goal was to get under 10 (9:55), but it just wasn’t in the cards that day.
My whole trip started off pretty crappy, some was my fault, some airlines, and some mystery crap.
Just a quick recap of issues that contributed to non-ideal pre-race stress levels…I tried to remember and celebrate the little things, the things that got me here, it was hard, I tried. Gant, Brynje, Bryon and the hotel staff made things a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. I appreciated them very much this week.
- Repack bike box in Portland, too heavy
- Backpack lost in Sao Paulo
- Missing connection to Floripa – cause of lost baggage paperwork
- Missed second flight to Floripa - wrong directions from TAM
- 8pm arrival instead of 9am to Floripa
- Fever/chills/headache for two days, then headache and cough, then just cough till race day morning.
- Sheared crank bolt, left crank arm falls of during training ride. I thought I needed new cranks, twice the price in Brasil, but once I started transferring Brynje’s brother’s crank, I realized, just the bolt was needed. Bought a new one in the States for $10!
Anyway, aside from being sick, I handled things pretty well. And being sick, I was hoping for the Jordan like performance, when he got sick, he goes and scores 60 points…
Race morning comes around and the hotel had it’s usual breakfast out…yogurt, granola, fruits, breads, coffee, cheese and ham. I ate lots of bread, honey, coffee and some yogurt and granola. Now, off to get dressed and apply sunscreen. Since our bikes were dropped off yesterday with our bike/run bags, all we needed to do was drop of our special needs bags and put our bottles on the bike. A van left at 5am to get to the start.
Once there, special needs bags were dropped off, bike bottles were placed, body marked and wetsuit was put on. The bags were all very organized, but their rules on coming and going from certain areas were really fucking annoying.
The swim ramp to T1 was really long, like 200m or so, which other than walking down the street was the only access to the swim start, about 300m down the beach from T1/T2. It was still dark, but watching what sun was coming through the clouds was pretty calming. I had all but abandoned my hopes of a sub 10 day several days ago, so my stress level and pre race jitters were pretty low. The swim start was set-up with the pros only 5m in front of the rest (1200+ athletes). Sucks for them. Warming up before the race in the water was strictly prohibited…stupid.
I guess there was a count down, but I didn’t hear it, the banner went up and everyone started running to the water. The cannon went off a minute later as I was already in the water… I waded pretty far out looking for a spot to dive in and go, but nothing materialized, so I just went… The course was a bit of a an ‘M’ shape. The first bouy was 900m out and turning left the whole day…the current was going right to left as well. This made for an interesting swim. I was always swimming to the right. I was alone a lot, but this meant I was going in the right direction. Following the masses on this day was not the right thing to do. So, I was never on any feet, nor were there anyone on mine… At the half way point, we run out and around the beach and back in…I was just under 30 minutes…fine, I said, 60 is cool with what I have had to deal with this week. But, apparently the second have is much faster, cause I was out in 56 minutes…PR by almost 3 minutes…I’m happy about that.
T1 had the usual wetsuit strippers and I was in and out pretty quick. They roll your T1/T2 times into your bike…which is stupid, but what can you do… T1 was somewhere around 3 minutes with that long run to the tent and T2 was less than 2 minutes.
The bike is 90km loops out to the Central Florpia and back with a few little out and backs along the way. The bike was deceptively hard for me. It was very flat and fast, but I didn’t feel it. HR was down to 130s for most of the first lap and second lap I pushed up to 140, just as planned, but the speed was no there. Sick legs…my legs were sore Wednesday and Thursday from the violent shivering… Both loops were around 2:37ish which makes sense since my official bike if 5:21. Gant and I rode for a bit, he was pushing 200 watts as I was staying close to him for awhile.
Drafting, holy shit do these guys not give a shit. There were pelatons of 50 guys riding the day. I would see them on the turnarounds, never breaking apart, never leaving the wheel in front. I got into several as there was no where to go. If you went ahead, guess who was on your wheel? I tried not to sit in, but occasional I had no choice. I broke free on the hills on time, just torched them and only three came with me and then passed me on the flats…fine, I was by myself again. Next time, I’m sitting in, fuck it, save the legs to run a 3:30…
So, the run…I felt really good compared to Canada last year, so that was a good sign. However, that quickly faded as the 21k mark came, it was a struggle. I started running 8/8:30’s and faded to 9:30 by the last 10k loop. There was a 22k loop followed by two 10k loops. The two 10k loops were nice, I liked that. The run was flat after the first loop, but my quads were feeling it already. There isn’t much to say about the run…the pocket on the jersey isn’t worth crap, it can barely hold gu packets and sure as hell not a 10oz nutrition bottle. I threw it out after 16k of slopping around. The sun came out for the run after being overcast and sprinkling a bit on the bike. It never got hot, or humid. In the end I took 10 minutes of Canada’s run to low my marathon mark to 3:50… Guess what Garren is doing this off season? Running!
I’m happy, I PR’d, Brazil is a beautiful place, with good food and drink. I was told over and over again to come in the summer when the women out number the men, 10-1…that’s a good deal!
The hotel where we stayed was the best! They bent over backwards for us on everything, anytime. Venice Beach is the place…Katja is the owner and speaks English. I definitely didn’t stress about the living situation.
What’s next? Who knows…I really want to get to Kona, so at least one more race to get there…maybe squeeze a slot to Canada…who knows…
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