Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Everything I Had

Well I gave it everything I had on the day, the only real issue I had was dealing with the heat on the run. I knew what to expect so I shouldn't be surprised but it's next to impossible to train in Canada for a hot and humid race and not fall apart on the run, for me at least. The race itself was fantastic, there were too many turns on the swim which was terrible when I started running into the other swim waves in front but for the most part it was really exciting and amazing to be in an Ironman atmosphere in mid-April. I'd prepared really well, getting in quite a bit of training leading up to it but still suffering from a calf injury and not running a lot leading up to this one. I still managed to get in 5- 90km rides and 5- 21km runs and a ton of other shorter stuff. I felt good about my swimming and riding it was just going to be tough to run like I'm used to without a proper run build.

The swim was pretty rough, the course is shaped like an M so there were 6- 90' turns and the smashing and thrashing was terrible. I was right in the middle swim wave so there was no where to go but forward, it wasn't a wetsuit swim so I was okay with a 32:22. The ride was amazing, I drove the course the day before and was a little worried with all the turns but being at sea level really helped and I felt like I was flying! I was pleasantly surprised with a 2:21.15 time and thought I would be closer to 2:30 based on my training but the turns didn't slow me down too much and it broke up the monotony of the course. So I was starting the run in under 3hrs which was my goal and I still felt fairly fresh, I took in lots of calories on the bike and didn't push too hard. I had to deal with the stabbing in my quads for the first couple miles but I managed to run it out. My issue on the run was I just couldn't get my temperature down no matter what I tried, I was dumping ice, water, ice, water and I just couldn't hold a steady pace. I'd run for about 500m then have to walk a couple steps and start running again, it was very frustrating but I knew if I didn't walk for too long I could still pull out a decent race. It was 3- 7k loops with 3 big climbs each loop so there was 9 really hard points on the course and by the final loop I was really struggling. I did a lot of hill climbing in training but nothing in 28'C weather. I still managed to shuffle to a 1:38.32 half marathon but I know I'm capable of at least a 1:24 in a half IM so I'll be working for that for Calgary 70.3.


Darin Hunter

Overall Rank: 34

Div Rank: 4

Gender Rank: 34General Info

BIB 1159

Division 40-44

Age 42

State AB

Country CAN

Profession ---

Points 3315

Race Summary

Swim 00:32:22

Bike 02:21:15

Run 01:38:32

Overall 04:36:29



SWIM DETAILS
Division Rank: 13



Split Name Distance Split Time Race Time Pace Division Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

Total 1.2 mi 00:32:22 00:32:22 01:40/100m 13 85 96



BIKE DETAILS
Division Rank: 6



Split Name Distance Split Time Race Time Pace Division Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

Total 56 mi 02:21:15 02:56:05 23.79 mph 6 36 36



RUN DETAILS
Division Rank: 4



Split Name Distance Split Time Race Time Pace Division Rank Gender Rank Overall Rank

Total 13.1 mi 01:38:32 04:36:29 07:31/mi 4 34 34



Transition Details



T1: Swim-to-bike 00:02:28

T2: Bike-to-run 00:01:52