This weekend was the Ironman 70.3 St. George race in UTAH, it doubled up as the US Pro championships and was my first race of the Northern hemisphere season. Only being back into training the past 6 weeks from a small recovery period after Kelloggs Nutri-Grain Ironman NZ my goal going into the race was to test the body, see where the fitness was and test that against most of the best athletes in the world. All in all it was a very tough day but I am please to walk away after a solid race finishing in 6th Place. This was my first trip to UTAH and to be honest I wasn't sure what to expect coming in, but the truth is St. George has such amazing scenery and very friendly people I will definitely be coming back and exploring the area a little more.
The course has to be one of the toughest I have ever competed on, add to the course the stellar field and the slight altitude of the area it was sure to be a hard hard day at the office. My feel in the water has been good plus I had a brand new Aquasphere wetsuit on so I was glad that I managed to put together a good swim and come out of the water near the front of the lead group. Andy Potts had a little gap coming out of the swim but with the large lead group we would catch him at some stage during the bike. Getting started on the bike my toes were a little numb from the cold swim and the the chilly air, very interesting though that the temps rapidly went up through the day and by the end of our race it was everything but cold. The guys were riding incredibly well, my power was definitely higher than it has been in a long while and being able to hold off the uber bikers like World Champ Sebastian Kienle chasing us down for the whole duration of the bike had to say something about the pace we were setting. At the 40mile / 60km mark we hit Snow Canyon which was a solid 5mile climb and was sure to be where the the race would be separated. I just hung onto the lead group and was thankful for the super aerodynamics of my Argon 18 on the long decent back into town. The climb did some damage to field and Jan Frodeno who is having a great year got dropped from the group. I half thought we could count him out of the running for the top spot but he proved the lot of us wrong coming away with the fastest run of the day and bridging back across to take the win.
The run was going to be interesting, there were no flat sections at all and the first 2.5miles was straight up hill. Defending champion Brent McMahon who would go on to take the silver set a pace that I struggled to match running out of transition, soon Tim Don who would later take the bronze came trotting past and again I couldn't change gear to hang with him, Gambles, Potts and Collington, all great athletes came past and again I could not find that next gear, my legs felt good, my heart rate was well within myself but I was noticing the altitude of 3000feet when it came to sucking in Oxygen, I just couldn't get enough in and now a day after the race my throat is killing me, I guess from breathing too hard! I still wanted to see what I could do out there and knew that the tough course may come back and bite a few guys in the but later on so I just kept my focus and kept the guys in front within my site. Unfortunately I was passed by Ben Hoffman at mile 8 and still could not change gear to stay with him. A couple miles later I knew we a long 2.5mile downhill stretch the finish and managed to bridge back up to 6th and 7th place. We were moving pretty well down the hill and knew we had to as Bevan Doherty was hot on our heels and closing the gap. It has been a while since my last sprint finish and while it would have been great to be sprinting for the podium it was still pretty cool to be able to be a part of the action and help put on a show for all the specters watching live and online.
I guess all those years of running on the track back in high school are still paying off…
In case you are wondering – I wore a black band around my arm in memory of good friend and amazing massage therapist who took his life 6 weeks ago. Ian McKellar was great person and will be missed greatly.
Back to LA for a couple day then I am off to Europe for the Challenge Rimini Half distance race next weekend followed by Barcelona 70.3. My last trip to Rimini was in 2001 where I won my first world title so I am looking forward to revisiting those memories and experiencing my first Challenge family race. I just hope my legs can recover in time from that downhill sprint! I have not taken off my 2XU compression socks and quads sleeves since the race.
So this weekend was a great test of my fitness, it was good to see where things are at for everyone and what needs to be done before the business end of the season and World Championships.
Regards