Ray Miller IMC 2010

Ironman Canada 2010
Ray Miller - Race Report

The morning was calm, I had all my stuff together, and a nice person carted my gear to the start for me. A little panic for my friends for forgetting some stuff.

Starting with the swim I went in with a 1:30 expectation, and with no plans to push I started at the back, starting with a large pack. We swam together (more or less) all the way, the buoys came quick, and I just counted the numbers on each one. There was only a little bumping and grinding, following the inside track all the way back to the Peach. I was out of the water as they were calling 1:31 very happy with my time.

The bike started well, my plan was to watch my heart rate, take a sip of calories every 10 minutes, and a electrolyte tab every 30 minutes. Plan went perfect, I had a spin up all of the big hills, 12 minutes up McLean Creek, then Stayed on the big ring with a tailwind all the way to Osoyoos passing slower riders the whole way. I slowed briefly in Oliver to wave at the cheering squad in front of our campsite then picked up the pace again.

In Osoyoos I turned to go over Richter pass, and just took it easy all the way to the top. It took me about 28 minutes from the base of the climb, but I am only guessing cause there were so many people cheering all the was up I really can't be sure. After that there were the "Seven Bitches" as they are called, or the seven rollers that can sap all your strength on that part of the ride. Again nothing fancy, easy spin to the top of each one, then a quick decent to the bottom of the next one. All went to plan out to Karemeos and the out and back. By then I was thinking about my Special needs bag at 121km, I wanted some more Chamois butter, it was worth the wait, but I won't fill you in on the details. Out and back was not too hard, koodos to the yahoos on the side of the road wearing clam shell bikinis, they brought a smile to my face. Then back to Keremeos into a 30km headwind to the base of yellow lake. This was the only part of the bike that I felt like I was suffering at all. They actually block a whole lane of traffic for yellow lake which is really nice. As a climb it took me 17 or 18 minutes then stopped and said hi to my friends volunteering at the top. And back to transition with a nice decent into Penticton. On the way on to Main Street about 10 minutes from the end of the ride I switched to run nutrition, had a Gel and a salt tab an started spinning in an easer gear. I finished the rode with a respectable time of 6:16 which is on pace for my practice rides. Very happy with that performance.

Now I had a plan for the run, hold my pace and don't do anything fancy, alternating a Gel and Endurolite every 15 minutes. After walking the Osoyoos Half Iron I planned for a sub 5 hour marathon, I wanted to stay strong for the run and I figured that would give me room to make that happen. I started easy pace and did 10 run walk 1 to keep my pace easy. The plan worked well, I felt good for the whole run, and at 18 miles with 8 to go I picked up the pace. I pushed hard and enjoyed myself holding mid 5 min/km for pacing for the last bit of Skaha Lake and low 5s for the last 3 miles. I visualized Craig Alexander last year at the end of Kona, or Jasper Blake at IMC in 2006, easy stride comfortable cadence. With the kick in the run I managed to pull in a negative split by 2 minutes. I finished the run in 4:33 averaging 10.23 minutes per mile passing people right up to end.

Overall time 12:33:58 which is about an hour faster than I told everyone.

As I write this I feel fully recovered and have since signed up for the Victoria Marathon on 10/10/10, sucker for punishment indeed.

BOO YEAH!
Plan to do this again in 2012...