To sum it up very shortly, im really happy with my race overall, i was really patient even when thing werent working out as planned, let get to the point :P
The swim was off from what i expected, i was hoping to get out of the water with mr Temmu toivanen like i did in lisbon half. instead i lost (i now know) around 3 min and already had Mr big guy Juhanson on my heels. This time on the swim, was crucial to my mostly alone bike ride. at the end that few minutes make a real diference in the bike time, i have experince enough to say this, the "out of site out of mind" id big in ironman racing. I had "ords" of age groups going by me at the begining of the ride but i kept myself cool and not freaking out trying to keep theyr pace. Speaking of pace, Ain alar juhanson went by me with around 5km, i looked like i was riding a trycicle :P. Kai passed me at the same time i passed the women leader, another "see you later" i tought. I had a hard time setling to a good pace, everything seemed hard, it was not until around 2 h into the ride that i started feeling strenght in my legs but with 2h the big mountais also showed up.
The course is brutal i must say, wind, lava mountains unbelievable views to the ocean and lava (yes i noticed that), its brutal, really really tough. I highlight the last big climb of the day that was one of the parts that i didnt see with my rental car, Bloody mountain!!! at the time it felt it was over i would take a small curve and there she is again uphill, Brutal (did i say that again?)
anyway, up and down i was feeling good and with the good feeling came the time to pass people, unfortunately i was loosing time in the downhills since i didnt really know what to expect and for sure i wouldnt risk cliff diving. We had a very fast part of the course with tail wind and that felt good. with 140 a lot of athletes started dying and i was feeling good. I had no split to the lead, not a single one, that is one of the problems of racing alone, so i was dying to get to transition and see what the hell was going on. I felt great in the last km of the bike and could only hope for a good pair of running legs.
T2 bla bla bla, i started running. The run is 4 laps of 5.250m out and then back (10.5km) the plan was of course try to hold 4min/km as long as i could and see what happens. That meant that 20min and some change would be needed each lap. Competition was all over the place, i passed a lot of people at the first lap, very few on the second and another handfull of guys on the third last one i was getting toasted too :P splits where something like this: 20:XX 20:XX 20:XX 20:XX 20:XX and almost 21 where tha laps i took before fading to a survival pace, last 2 laps where 22:00 and around 23 for the last 5.250km. and finished 8th with the fastest marathon of the day, so they said...
The race nutrition was PERFECT also
Im happy, in the leader board it may seem worse but for me i was a waaaay better performance compared to my last good IM result (louisville), but those little details that at the end are worth are still missing.
I was putting tremendous pressure in my self to race well, im honest. and i feel a lot better now.
i also have a slot but im not entirely sure if i will take it. something ill decide in the next few hours.
I think i didnt forget to mention anything. sorr about the bad spelling and things but i really want to get out of this computer :P
