Executive Summary:

Finished
Time: 6:54:54
Splits: Swim: 28:59 T1: 11:38 Bike: 3:42:03 T2: 10:20 Run: 2:21:57
Happy with time considering: Finishing was #1 goal, one flat tire, one broken shifter, sun came out on the run, casual approach to transitions.

Many Thanks to all helped me go from not having a road bike and never having been clipped in except in spin class to regularly completing 50, 60, 70 mile rides and even a 114 mile bike ride.

For those of you who need some help sleeping: below you'll find my full race report.

Friday Morning

Took my 6.997 year old daughter to breakfast for her birthday since I was planning to be in Augusta on her birthday. Loaded my car leaving enough room for Dick Larson's stuff. Ready to roll around 9:30am. Dick arrived at 10am. Got his gear loaded and headed out on the highway. Easy drive over. Dick and I chatted like we were on a long run and killed the 2.5 hour ride. I had to stop short of downtown and get on conference call. We arrived at the Marriott and decided that paying to park there. Dick went in to get checked-in while I was finishing my conference call. When I finished my conference call I went in and Dick walked me through check-in. Quick trip through the Ironman shop. I keep with my tradition of not buying anything from a race until I've completed it. Expo was minimal. 1 vendor with with all the last minute bikes items you might have forgotten or did not want to ship (tubes, CO2 cartritdges, chamios butter, etc.). Off to the pre-race brief.

Pre-Race Brief

Brief - but a few important items like chips not to be handed out until race morning at the swim start. One interesting note was that the bottle exchange procedure explained by the guy giving the brief was different that what we were told  during training. What was explained during training was what actually happened.

Gonna skip the rest of the pre-race. Just gonna say that the lines were so long on Saturday that I felt really good about coming in a day early to get checked in on Friday. Also, a couple of good meals with Get Fitters before a race are a good thing.

Swim

Got my wetsuit zipped up and headed to the swim start. Oh wait I am still wearing flip flops. Run back and put them in my gear bag and catch back up to John & Chad. John Ridgely realized we were separated from out wave so we scooted up to the back of Wave #22. They were closing the gate as we got to it. Up the stairs with a thumbs up to the photog. Out on the dock and I follow Ridgely out the far end and they are counting the time to the wave start down. In the water with :30 before the start. Flip on my back to revel in the wetsuit. Horn sounds, start my stopwatch and away I go. Swam through a little bit of traffic but never felt uncomfortable. Think this was due to the wetsuit. The Savannah river has some kelp growing in it. For some reason this functioned like lane line in the pool and it helped me imagine that the bottom was shallower than it really was. Took until I got to the first bridge to get into a rhythm and start breathing on both sides.

Caught some people in the previous wave and got caught by a couple of people in the wave behind us. My biggest concern was getting out of the water – that is not missing the exit and continuing down the river. Was not an issue. I used the 2 story building just up river from the transition area as my reference. About 150m from the finish I saw the buoy at the exit and decided to pick up the pace. Here's where there was some contact but not much. I was swimming straight for the buoy and lots of folks want to cross in front of me. Sure – but not with out some contact. Continued to swim up the ramp until I could not any more. Out of the water and no one is running. Took me a second to snap out of it and start running to transition. Wetsuit strippers were excellent. By the time I got to them I had my cap, googles, earplugs and top of my suit off. On the ground, SNAP, up off the ground and continue into transition.

T1
My transition was setup more for comfort than speed. I had everything in bags because of the rain. It was nice to get into dry clothes. Turned on my Garmin. Time to get dressed: HR monitor, bike jersey, gloves, socks, shoes, glasses, helmet. For future races I am going to try to wear a tri-top and put the HR monitor on at the start. Stuffed food in my jersey, grabbed my bike and trotted to the bike exit. Walked 3 paces past the mount line, mounted the bike and off I go.

Bike

Rain, rain, and more rain. Rain pelting me felt like it was solid and it stung. Early on my legs were tight and I was hoping this would not be the case for the whole ride. Glad that it wasn't. Early on the bike debris in the road bordered on ridiculous. Lots of sunglasses, a tire not a tube but a tire. 19 miles in and it's time for the bottle exchange – not before waving to the penalty tent ladies. Exchange was a breeze. Pointed finger, called out to confirm water, got advice from the aid person to keep moving. No problem. Squeezing the bottle into the Speedfil. Almost used the entire bottle. That was good it meant I drank about ¾ of my 40oz resevoir. Another good thing about it was that I knew I would not miss my camelbak. Dumping the empty bottle and away I go.

Here's where it got interesting. I broke my bike. Somehow through adrenaline or not getting my bike into the shop before the race I ended up breaking the gear shifter for the front ring. Luckily the rear shifter was still functioning and the front failed in the big gear. I think I freaked out about it for about 2 minutes before I decided it would be okay. I can tell you for a fact that you don't need a small front ring for the last 30 miles of that ride. I had to get out of the saddle for 2 hills in the last 30 miles otherwise I just dealt with a slightly reduced cadence on the smaller hills and kept it moving. I did try to wave down the neutral race support but it turns out that he's one guy in a car full of equipment and he keys in on people on the side of the road. He did not see me waving. I did catch the race mechanic about mile 35 and he said there was nothing we could do with a broken shifter. He offered to put me in whatever ring I wanted to be in but I was happy to stay in the big ring.

Next exciting part was on a downhill where I was trying to slow a little because of the rain. Brakes did not seem to work because of the rain so I just let the pucker factor keep me in the saddle and rode it out. 15 seconds seemed a lot longer.

Miles Bay passed me with 8 miles or so to go. I flatted with 5 miles to go. That was no fun. I picked up a rock and most have flatted just before the big right hander onto 278. Not sure if I had stopped when I picked up the rock it would have made difference. I stopped and started to change the tire. One of the cops who was helping with race control stopped and asked if I needed help. I told the truth – YES. He checked with someone and told me that the mechanic was a few minutes away. I fiddled with the tire and got to the point of putting a little air in the new tube but I could not get the new tube in the tire. Guess what I'll be practicing until I can do it with my eyes closed? Mechanic stopped and fixed me up (found the rock that I missed during the inspection of the tire and booted the tire for me). The race mechanic's wagon had a SRAM wrap on it. Maybe I should get SRAM Red for my next bike? I completed the last 5 miles without incident.

At the end of the ride I loosened my shoes, slowed well short of the line, pulled my stopping foot out leaving the shoe on the bike. Repeated for the other foot and off I went into transition.

T2

Okay this was a little longer than it needed to be. I had to tie my shoes because I had some bad experiences with Yanks during the month before the race. I'll need to look at alternatives before my next race. While it was nice to have dry gear it was all in bags when I got to it. A couple small mistakes that saved time – I did not apply vasoline to my feet. I ended up with a blood blister with a pinkie to on it. The other mistake - I did not apply sunscreen. The sun came out during the run. I decided to that with great job I did hydrating on the a trip to the bathroom might be a good idea. This lead to my biggest time killer. After potty time I decided I needed to go back to my bike to either get something or leave something. When I finished I went towards the run out without going through the chute. So “Wrong Way” Goslow had to head back ALL THE WAY across transition to the proper route out of transition. Do you think I'll ever do that again? Not likely.

One thing to note I borrowed my wife's Garmin for the run. Saved a few seconds not having to pull mine off the bike and I did not have to worry about the battery life.

Run

The run was flat, flat and flat. With the exception of team mate sitings it was kind of boring. I decided before the race I would run/walk the run. Started out with 2mins run/1 min walk fully prepared to drop back to 1/1 if I had to. Spent a lot of the race leapfrogging some of the folks around me. Even held myself to walking through the drill sgt's area on the 1st lap. Ran a little faster the last time past the team area. Peeked a my stopwatch just past the Get Fit area. I havevless than a mile to go and it looks like I can get under 7 hours which was one of my time targets beyond just finishing. So off I go.

Finish

Turned the last corner and there's no one between me and the finish. The clock is slowly counting up to 8:00:00 from the start. I picked up the pace to get in under 8:00:00 gun time. Race pics show me across at 7:59:55.


Final Thoughts

Pre-ride helped me more than I imagined it might.

Room for improvement. Some simple changes I can make to my gear and transitions should cut off 10 mins of transition time.

Need to become at least a minimally proficient bike mechanic.