I have to say...IM STX was everything it was known for and more. The swim course was great. Water temps in 80's not very rough. Only about 400 competitors made for a swim that wasn't too crowded. The bike was extremely hilly, hot and 15MPH head winds...a huge challenge. Averaged 17.9MPH on the bike. The run, well is the run. It's always all about the run...but on this day, it was all about the bike.
As I left the water I was 16 minutes behind Daley. I had my work cut out for me on the bike. After the initial 8 mile loop before heading out on the 48 mile big isle loop I was able to pick up 3 minutes on Daley. Carla shouted out 13 minutes down, you've made up 3 minutes already. I was pretty pumped when I got that news and then decided to push as hard as I could on the bike to try and catch him. By mile 43 I was pretty beat down, screwed up my nutrition by 1/2 the intake, which I didn't determine till I was packing my nutrition for IM 70.3 Florida today......All I could think was that I blew my energy on the bike and if I didn't see him soon that I was going to have a very very tough run in front of me.
Fortunately at about mile 46 I saw bib # 113 and thought - yeah buddy......Catching Daley at mile 46 breathed life back into my legs and I told him to grab my tire to draft for the remaining 10 miles - but he was pretty spent after nutrition and equipment issues. I knew at the point that I had broken him. I made it back to T2 a couple of minutes before him and the girls were shocked to see me come in ahead of him.....rule #1...NEVER EVER count me out!!! I decided to take my time in T2 and walked about the first 3/4 mile when Daley went running past me at about an 8min/mile pace. I thought to myself, shit....if he can maintain that and if I can't shake these stomach cramps I could actually lose...so I made up y mind to get my act together and stay on his heels. His little burst of energy didn't last long as I past him at the 1 mile aid station and then didn't look back. At the turnaround I decided to take it easy and run in with Daley.
We finished the race a little over 6 hours....a good race! Im headed out this evening to Orlando to compete in the IM 70.3 at Disney World. Suppose to be a flat fast course, which I usually do quite well on...however the heat will play a factor on Sunday with temps in the high 80's, so the mental game is going to have to be dialed in.
More to follow...expecting a great day!!!
Cheers!
great pics:)
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