E's IMSTGUT race report

First off, everything on the 5287 different things you could buy with the IM logo on it called the race Ironman St George Utah. So, IMSTGUT seems like a good acronym for the race.

Leading up to the race, the weather forecast looked great. Barely no winds (<10 mph) and a high temp in the mid 60's. Honestly, I was hoping for snow to freeze all of those from warmer states.

Pre-race went pretty well. We got up especially early due to the required bus ride out to the swim start and had breakfast in our room although our motel started their breakfast at 4 am just for the race. We then walked the couple of blocks from our motel to the buses. The bus ride was mellow and we had plenty of time to get the tires pumped up and the sunscreen on.

Once the pro's went off, A and I headed into the water although we first had to break through the ice. Okay, it wasn't that cold, but it cold enough that I needed a few minutes to get my breathing to be normal. We waded out towards the start line and could see a lot of people hanging out on land. We could barely hear the announcer but the 15 minutes between the two start seemed to take about 30. Eventually, we got a warning that the start was imminent.

Swim: 1:09:55
The swim started pretty brutally, but that is to be expected. In a couple of minutes though, it cleared up around me. I enjoyed that for about another minute until it got very congested again. That was the general theme for the first half of the swim. The worst was when somebody's watch or something cut my foot. Fortunately my foot was half numb from the cold and it didn't hurt much later, but it still hurt like hell at the time. Also got a good kick to the goggles, but was luckily a glancing blow. Sighting to the first turn was pretty easy, but then we turned directly into the rising sun. That section was pretty short and then we turned onto the longest section. Felt pretty good for the first part of that section, but then got into a funk. My goggles started giving me a headache, my head was too hot, my feet were too cold, etc. Made my way past the island and to the final turn. I tried to start kicking more, but having numb feet didn't help much. Got out and saw the timing sign say 1:24 or something. I really hoped that it was still on the pro's time (which it was). So, another 1:09:XX swim. 415th place for the swim suggests that it was a "slow" swim since I have been in the 600's or 700's for similar times at Canada. Going to the excel spreadsheet shows that A has been 268th for the swim at IM AZ '08 with a 1:03:11, 261th at IM CA '08 with a 1:03:35, and 236th at IM CA '09 with a 1:01:3
and 263th at IMSTGUT with a 1:06:14. I'm going to stick with it was a slow swim.

T1: 6:39
That was one crowded change tent. Putting on disposable arm-warmers (cheap socks from Target with the toes cut out) was slow, but handy.

Bike: 6:03:48
The bike starts with a nice little cruise back into town. I passed a lot of people and got passed by some people. I was surprised to see A on the way into town, but she said that she had a bad swim. The last thing you can do on the first 25 miles of the race is fall asleep. The road is bumpy, there are about 72 turns and the speed differentials between the riders made it pretty interesting. Once out of town and onto the country roads, I settled into my pace. The road surfaces on the climb were pretty bad, but the scenery and varied slopes were good distractions. On the steep little climb up the reservoir, I noticed one guy really struggling to get any turn over and informed him that he was still in his big ring. His reply was "Just trying to stretch out the legs." Yeah, right. At the pie shop, we got a nice little tailwind and much better roads. At the volcano, we got a nice little downhill. The crosswinds kept me pedaling for increased stability (hit 49.8 mph at one point).

Got back into town to start the second loop and felt some soreness in the legs, so I decided to back it off a notch for the second loop. I think the winds picked up a bit, but still wasn't too bad. The second loop went by very similar to the first except the field was even more spread out. Very little drafting observed, but even less officiating. There was a little group of guys ahead of me that were switching off drafting and even crossing the yellow line with a official watching them. Still, much better than at Canada. The lack of traffic on the roads were a nice change from Canada as well.

The downhill on the bike was a little more sketchy as there were riders on their first lap who were taking it nice and easy on the descents. Headed into T2 by taking it pretty easy.

T2: 4:06
T1 was full (at least 100 guys?), 2 guys in the change tent in T2.

Run: 3:51:54
Tried to stay relaxed for the first climb out of town. Picked up the pace on the rolling section at the top of the course but still kept it under control. Hit a little energy low about 4 miles in, but got some calories in and felt better pretty quickly. Hit the turn around and headed back.

Of the two little side loops, the first (and shorter?) one was worse as you just run up to a parking lot and head back out. The other at least is on this cool little trail.

Didn't expect that the uphill on the way back as hard as it was, but the downhill into town was fun although the legs were hurting pretty well by that point. Hit the turn around in town and headed back for round 2.

On the second loop, it was nice to know that the higher of the two mileage markers applied. There were a lot more "runners" on the course which wasn't a problem most of the time. I did get a snarky reply when I asked two guys to move over when they were blocking the way on the first side loop, but I let it go knowing that it wasn't worth giving any reply. Felt pretty good although I had a few more energy lows and started to slow a bit.

Fully ignored the pain heading back into town for the last time and picked up the pace. Finished all alone as there was a minute between the guy in front of me and a minute to the next guy.

Finish: 11:16:23
Well, it wasn't a PR so it must be bad. Just kidding. I'm proud of the effort I gave and raced decently well. Maybe I should have been more conservative on the first loop of the bike, but I don't think it would have changed my time much. I fueled well. I hydrated well. I thanked a lot of volunteers during the day. I raced honestly. I finished. On to Lake Placid.