This past weekend marked my third trip to Ironman Branson 70.3 in Missouri. Aside from having won the race in its first two editions, I am strangely drawn to the uniqueness of the area, so I opted to return for the defense of my title two weeks after Ironman Wisconsin. This is not something I would normally do, and in fact, have never done, but I felt surprisingly good in a relatively short amount of time after my race in Madison. So, after unpacking my bike for only a few rides, it was back in the bike box with fingers crossed that TSA wouldn’t go searching for those deadly CO2’s and leave my bike and wheels a mangled mess of shattered carbon fiber.
The Shiv and Zipps arrived safely, and so did I, so I went about the business of resting. I had a decent week of training leading in, but I knew it would be a matter of feeling as fresh as possible, so I took it easy and ate a bunch of Glenn’s Velvet Creme popcorn. After a nice welcome dinner and concert (no Journey cover band this year, sadly) with the Silverback race crew and Chamber of Commerce, I rested some more. A light spin on the hills, easy splash and jog, and it was go time.
Fortunately weather was on our side this year after torrential downpours in 2011, but it was a little chilly setting up in transition. We all donned our wetsuits a little early to stay warm, and I tried to wrap my head around pushing myself to the limit again on one of the hardest courses I’ve raced. Seriously. This bike course is HARD.
The swim was about what I expected, maybe slightly slower than it should have been. I also swallowed about half of Table Rock Lake, which I fear will return to haunt me in a couple weeks. Andy Potts used his mastery of the water to put nearly 3 minutes into our chase group, and I got out of T1 thinking it would be possible to bridge at some point if I rode like I did in Wisconsin. Only problem was that I didn’t ride that way. Or rather, I rode almost the exact same power numbers over half the distance, which left me an additional 30 seconds adrift entering T2. Thumbs down.
But the upside was that I put good time into the rest of the field, and I resolved to not give up. Just because this guy got 5th in the world a couple weeks ago, didn’t mean he couldn’t have an epic implosion/explosion, right? And more importantly, my whole outlook returning to Branson was to fight even if I didn’t feel great. No excuses, just give it everything I had. And mile by mile I kept ticking over 5:40’s, not pulling any time back, but not losing any either. At mile 9 I realized that I was on pace to have my fastest run to date, so I kept pushing even though I had over 4 minutes to the next athlete behind me. When things finally started to slow with about 2 miles to go, I kept consulting the group runs I had done this summer, remembering how we pressed the pace all the way back to the cars on our long runs.
Of course it doesn’t feel as good to get 2nd as it does to win, but in some ways I was as happy with my effort in Branson as I was in Wiscsonsin. I tried all day long, as hard as I could. I didn’t feel great, but I kept pushing, and I improved my time slightly over last year. Could have been worse!
I have to say a big thanks for the support that makes my training and racing possible. To Ryan and his race crew, to my girlfriend who came along and supported again, the Chamber, and all the race volunteers and fans. Special thanks to Zoot for the quick run in my Kiawe’s, Specialized, Volkswagen, Clif, The Infinite Monkey Theorem Winery, SportPump,Zipp/SRAM, FuelBelt, and Oakley.
Next up is a little trip to watch the race in Kona, and a final vacation race to cap off my 2012. Thanks for checking in!