quick report off IMSG

this was by far the hardest finish i ever had!!!!

The run, clearly my strenght this time was my weakness!!

ok, my goal was getting to the podium, it was something i confessed to a lot of people, even with this impressive field.

The water was cold but managable, i have been doing some fast swims back at home races and was confident that this year i would have good swims in Ironman. I started pretty well, felt a good stroke from the begining and tried to catch a good group. i got into what i tought was the second group and sit on the back, probably a mistake as honestely i felt strong enough to get at least in the first spots of the group to prevent any breaks in that group witch i think happened. for most of the swim i felt confortable but i do have to ask apologies to the athelete in front of me, i was a bit annoying :P
i got out with somewhere around 54, hmmm i messed it again i tought but soon enough i was told that the lead got out in around 52, THAT is not bad now i know that it was more on the low 51's but at the time it was a booster especially when i got to the bike and there where a lot of them racked.

onto the bike, it was cold!!!! i had a hard time with this especially going downhill, Weiss passed me before the 10 mile mark and he was flying as results have shown. after that i felt alone, i caught brader and passed him but he passed me again already in the 2 loop course, i was riding somewhere near the top10 with 7 min to the lead at around mile 30. the uphill was haaaard, uphill bad surface and head wind, what can be worse right? i almost caught brader in the final hill but got away coming back to st george, i had to coast a lot to have some fluids leave my body and that was enough for petr get on my "wheel" just at the begining of lap 2 he mentioned that we where 9 min behind the lead group, that is not bad i tough, with around 45 50 miles to go it was defenetely not bad, i had the normal routine for the race, ride within myself and run fast so this was kinda good news if i didnt loose to much time in the rest of the ride (now i know that it was true about the group but he was forgeting about weiss that was way ahead). 2nd loop was easier as it seemed that the winds calmed down a bit, i was riding with petr and we caught brader again and styed together ,kinda, till the end of the ride, i had to let go another big quantity of fluids, and this was the only strange thing for me on this race (aside from the run :P) i took advantage of any big downhiil to let go something and it was  lot. Anyway, back on the ride, getting into T2 i saw the lead pack still in the middle of diagonal street, a quick math would put them less than 2 miles away, so probably less than 13 min. Already with a big gap to the lead was Paul Amey, i honestely tought, "you are the first", i was really looking forward to put my feet on the ground and run fast :P

After T2 i tried to get to the magical 4min/km pace, petr was a bit behind and brader got a gap in the final kms of the bike and i caught brader with around 2 miles into the run, after that it was over, oh man where are my legs, i was toasted and reduced to survival mode with 2 miles of running!!! i passed amey that was walking and i flet like doing the same or just pulling the plug and dnf. I was passed by petr with around 6 miles, i didnt even tried to keep up, i was hurting too much, brader passed me coming back to finish area and i kept my litle slow pace, one step each time :P. fortunately i passed luke that was walking and soon after that i passed brader again, this time for sure, i was in 7th and actually was gaining time on petr but it wasnt something i was trying, it was more petr fading other then me going any faster.

it was a relieve to finish, it was really hard to run this marathon, with something normal i would of course (duh) be in the top 5 or top3 but it just didnt happened and im actually proud of just going through the marathon despinte all the toughts of walking or pulling out of the race.

i think it could be better but neverthless im happy with another top finish and swim/bike performances but the running legs where left in the bed this morning hahaha.

this was bit longer of a report than i expected

rest time now, ice bath just ahead :D