Well, my last race in the month of July has come and gone and I am extremely pleased with the effort/result. Now its time for a little rest and recovery during the month of August before I start my training block for Augusta and Clearwater.
Thursday, my brother and I left town and headed for St. Joseph, MI to compete in the Steelhead 70.3 race on Saturday. We got up there in the late afternoon and went for a little lake swim. It was extremely windy and the lake conditions looked more like an ocean when we swam. We only hoped the weather wouldn't be like that for the race. After the swim, we walked around downtown, found some good food and ice cream, and called it a night. Friday we woke up, got our pre race workouts over with and hit downtown again for some more food. Afterwards, we drove to a blueberry farm and picked up 10 pounds of blueberries and the best blueberry scone I had ever eaten. We headed to pick up our packets and made it back to our home stay's house before 4:30. After a little cat nap, we went to dinner and called it a night.
Saturday morning came and it was extremely nice knowing that the transition area was only about .5 mile from our home stay's house. The second we walked out the door, it started to spit rain and it only got progressively harder. I racked my bike in transition, and attempted to stay dry for a while. My brother and I decided to run our bags back to the house since we had a little time to kill, and the house was in the direction of the swim start. I walked down to the beach from the house, and swam to the swim start for a good warm up.
At 7 am we were off. I had a great start and may or may not have been the first person to the first buoy. After a little jockeying for position, I got a great rhythm and swam as fast as I could. About halfway through the swim, I had a swimmer come by me so I sat on his feet for a few hundred yards. We closed the gap to the group in front of us and we actually went by the group. I ended up leading that 2nd pack out of the water which was unusual for me. I was 4th out of the water but the pack was made up of about 10 guys, so I was probably the 8th person or so out of T1. After 2 guys took off in the first 5 miles or so, I settled into pace and just tried to keep those guys in sight. Around mile 20 - 25, Michael Lovato, Zach Ruble, and another guy flew by me. Once again, I put my head down and attempted to keep them close. I did a decent job until about mile 40. Daniel Bretscher and myself ended up almost riding the whole course together (legally). He did beat me back to T2 by 15 seconds or so, but he was still in sight. I had a great transition, but thanks to the rain, my shoes were completely soaked. The rain had only stopped a few minutes earlier, but the sun was already poking its head out. I tried to do what I did at Kansas and just take my time on the run. I was not catching anyone in the first hundred meters so I needed to pace myself. Around mile 1 I ran by Bretscher and Ruble was just up the road. I passed him at mile 3 and another pro around mile 4. At the 5 mile mark I had a spectator tell me I was in 5th position. I had no idea what place I was in, but 5th place was the last place to get prize money so I needed to stay where I was at. Ryan Bates, who was spectating, yelled at me and told me Lovato was just up the road. I was on a mission to catch him. I ran the next 4 miles at 5:45 pace when I covered the first 6 miles in just under 6:00 pace. I passed Lovato around mile 10 or so and tried to pick up the pace from there. I held onto 4th place and crossed the finish line in a time of 3:58:17.
This was my best finish in an Ironman event, my first time receiving a paycheck from an Ironman event, and I also qualified for the World Championship race in Clearwater.
Thanks again to Ann who let both my brother and I crash at her house for the weekend.
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