A lot went wrong in IMAZ. In fact, my race was almost over in the first 10 minutes. But in the end that makes me even prouder of the result.
The swim started comfortably in the 58 minute group. Then... *pop!* That was my shoulder injury from the bike crash shooting a pain from my jaw to my hip. I'll spare you from my next hour of panic, but I ended up one-ish arm swimming to my worst IM split in a decade, 1:11. At least I didn't have to DNF.
Big bike concern was if I could hold aero position with the shoulder pain. Luckily I could. Unluckily my power meter wouldn't pair so I was data-blind. NBD, I was still nailing my splits on my way to a 4:28 until a little bad luck. My nutrition cage snapped off so I had to stop at Personal Needs, and my chain dropped 2x leading to two more full stop & fixes. Total time, 4:31, just missing 25mph.
Then the run. I started off a little hot with 6:25 miles but I was mentally prepared to race the marathon. I held pretty steady until about mile 18. Then I was in the 6:40s, then the 6:50s, then I saw a 7 at mile 22.. Uh oh.
That's when I saw my family cheering me on and I thought of all the support, all the training, and all the work so many people have put into this journey. And I didn't bring all that to Arizona not to leave absolutely everything on the course. Then I saw a 6:30, then a 6:20, then finally the finish line through blurred vision. 2:54 for the run with a 6:37 pace, just under goal with my last two miles being my fastest.
Was it a perfect day? Far from it. I've still never had that Ironman where everything just clicked. But it was an effort I can be proud of. That 8:43 was absolutely everything I could get out of myself, and I can leave my pro racing days behind feeling satisfied. Does that mean I don't think I can go faster still...? No, it sure doesn't.
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