"There's a double meaning in that!" - Benedict, Much Ado About Nothing
This will be my last post until at least Sunday night. The race starts around 9:15am Sunday morning, I hope to do done before noon! More about that later.
I've been watching the forecast, it's not all that promising. Chance of rain on Sunday is 70%. I seriously hope that that holds off until the afternoon. I really don't want to be biking at 30km/hr in the rain, that spells suicide. I've also been watching the water temperature and that has encouraged me. Generally the water is above or equal to the air temperature at 9am. The should feel nice.
Here is my official race strategy:
Finish the race.
For the swim: Don't get kicked in the face too many times! Nice and easy. Only once has an Ironman race been won in the swim, so why burn yourself out there? This neither an Ironman nor am I going to win. So again, why burn out on the swim. Prediction: 18+ minutes.
For the bike: No flat tires! The course is set up to about 15km with the wind and 15km against the wind. It's hard to tell which wat it'll be going first, but my plan is the same. When I am going in the same direction as the wind, I will push it. My hope to see 35, 37, possibly 40km/hr for that half. But that's only half. My goal biking into the headwind is to keep my speed at 30km/hr. Prediction: 57m30s.
For the run: No blisters! I've set this up in my mind as a 5km run. I know I can run that in my sleep. The final km will be about adrenaline. "I've trained too long to quit now." That's what I'll be grunting to myself to keep me going. If I'm able to find Sue and Darcy in the crowd and get Darcy to give me a high-5, that will get me through to the end. As long as my heel doesn't flare up, my prediction is 28 minutes.
Total Prediction: 1hr45m00s. Including about 90 seconds to put my shoes, shirt and helmet on after the swim. If it's rainy, I have no idea what to predict.
Hopefully things start on time and run smoothly. I hope to have fun and I know I'll learn from the more experienced competitors. I have to remember to run my race, not to get all excited if someone passes me and burn myself out trying to pass them back.
Starting to get the jitters.
At first this was about doing a triathlon. Now it's about life, which still makes it about triathlon...
2 comments:
Good luck Nick!!! Can't wait to hear all about it and am waiting for the spandex pictures.
I'd say break a leg, but I don't suppose that's what you want to hear at this point. Good luck.
I don't know if anyone will check this or not, but I'm back from the race. My brother has just gone to pick up Nick and his bike.
Nick did amazing! I'll let him fill you in on all the details but I will say that he finished 5 minutes faster than his goal time. We'll have a full update and pictures later today.
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