IM Arizona

I'll attempt to make my race report from IM Arizona a short and entertaining one!

Racing in Grandpa's backyard in Tempe, AZ was good fun as I had the ex-collegiate cross country coach yelling for me all day. It meant so much to have Emmy at the bike turnaround and under the bridge on each lap of the run for motivation! I know she hates being a spectator but it helped speed up my day out there.

I was racing with a new set of equipment (high tech goodies) including Zipp 808's, a Powertap, and a disc wheel cover from Wheelbuilder.com. They worked their magic and performed but my legs didn't have their usual pep out there on the bike course. But, I'm jumping ahead of myself.

Despite getting a full night sleep (8pm - 3am), I was still scrambling to get into Tempe Town Lake as the last of the 100+ total pros to get in prior to race start. After a quick warm up, I got a speedy start and found some open water with an inside line. The fastest swimmers started closer to shore and took a tangent and were gone, but I tucked in behind a few specialty colored-caps (all pro men wore yellow, but athlete's who they want to spot wear different colors). I was in a small group with four different cap swimmers so I knew I was in good shape. And, the swimmer I was directly behind was a big dude (Chris McDonald, 185lbs) and was providing a great draft.

I was locked into a safe position in this group until Chris got annoyed with me tapping on his toes and gave me a swift kick smack into the middle of my face. It busted my goggles which I promptly threw off. I learned very quickly Tempe Town Lake is the same consistency as mud and visibility was zero feet. I lost the group and the next group looked to be 30 seconds to 1+ minutes back, so I settled down and just kept on with the best pace I could. I lost over one-minute in the final half-mile to the group that ended up including Paul Amey, Jordan Rapp, Scott Curry, Chris Martin and McDonald. Still, the clock read 51:50 at the swim exit which meant the cool water led to some quick times (and the course may have been a bit short).

Out on the bike I was quickly joined by Ben Hoffman and the defending men's champ, Jozef Major. I rode behind them as Ben was pushing a strong pace and I figured he would pull us up to the main chase pack of pro men. For better or worse, I began listening to my Powertap which said we were pushing 340+ watts and since it was Ben's first Ironman I thought he would be cracking with that pace. I chose to back off so I would not pay the price later on. My goal going into the race was to finish with a solid marathon and I was prepared to let my bike split suffer as a result. While the bike is my stongest suit, I knew I needed to back off to have the chance at a solid run. (Ed note: to Ben's credit, he biked a 4hr 30min bike and ran an impressive 2:56:00 to finish 6th in his Ironman debut....he was just very strong!).



Anyways, since it's my blog, I'll go back to talking about me and my race (isn't that what triathletes do best!).

On lap two of the three lap bike, I sat on my 270-280 pre-ordained wattage limit and could tell I was losing a bit of time to the group who looked to be legally riding in their pack. The third lap, my watts fell off a bit and I rode between 240-250 which meant my pace slowed. I was okay with this since I knew I was just trying to get into transition, take in nutrition, and mentally prepare for the run.

In all my run training going up to the race, I wore a waist belt with a water bottle. My strategy was to avoid having to stop at aid stations which in the past provided me an excuse to walk and rest up a bit. This strategy paid off and despite a few porta-potty stops, I ran the whole blasted course! It wasn't fast, but I kept moving one foot in front of the next. That was a huge mental hurdle to get past! I wasn't too concerned with my overall placing or finishing time as those weren't my goals but did run the final two miles faster than all the rest. It was a relief to see the finish chute and realize I could now enjoy a nice, long off-season. My first tri race was in March so that makes nearly 10 months of racing. It's time to put the bike, goggles and shoes on the shelf and dust off the nordic skiis for a bit of a break. I can't wait.

Swim (2.4mi): 51:51 (25th)
Bike (112mi): 4:45:27 (22nd)
Run (26.2mi): 3:29:47 (25th)
Finish: 9:12:03 (29th overall)

Thanks to all my family and supporters out there in Tempe yesterday and to all others for you help throughout the season. I hope I have thanked most of you at some point individually throughout the year, but if not, thank you.



Cheers,
Lars