What a weekend at Ironman California. It would be a lie to say that time has dulled my disappointment. I went in with a specific goal and knew after 5 minutes on the bike that something was way off.
That said, time has given me a little room to find some positives from the effort:
The swim, a big positive that there were no negatives! A normal, boring downriver swim.
The bike, still working on that one.. pretty much all negative lol.
The run, with 7 miles left, well after all my goals slipped away (or so I thought), I realized that if I dug DEEP I could still break 9. It wasn't on my list at the start of the day, but dig deep I did. It was both my slowest and hardest marathon close in a decade.
The entire run to the line was high stress. I was literally on the carpet and still not sure if I was going to make it. 8:59:54, 6 seconds.
I didn't know it at the time- in fact I didn't figure it out until I started doing some math at midnight after a couple ciders, but that sprint got me a guaranteed Kona slot by the skin of my teeth. I didn't get Kona right the first time, but looks like I'll get another shot!
So maybe that'll be my bike positive now that I'm typing it out. Every crazy aero adjustment. Every new bottle mount. Every new hand position. Any one of them being wrong would have cost me more than 6 seconds, and maybe the KQ. The legs weren't there, but the aero still was (whenever my back wasn't cramping).
Speaking of biking and cramping, huge thanks to the bike mechs in the AM helping me fix my front brake and the med tent personnel helping me fix my full body cramping!
Even with the struggles, it was a fun weekend. It was great talking to so many people that I've raced with over the years, talked to online, or just met this weekend!
Can't wait for Kona. But I'm glad I've got a long time to prep. I'll need it.
#IronmanCalifornia #IronmanTriathlon #Triathlon #KonaQualifier #MedicalTent
