Nick has had a FULL year. While training for Ironman Canada, he completed his college education at Seattle U and became a honest to goodness engineer. In addition to graduation, he managed to squeeze in some awesome short-course performances earlier this spring and summer – notably the Seafair Tri where he placed 8th in a STACKED Pacific Northwest field. When he landed at Canada he was just 24 years old and a month and doing his first Ironman. As you’ll read, Nick plunked down a 10:05 – that’s the 2nd fastest Ironman time in Raise the Bar history my friends (Brian Guillen 9:57 IMCanada 2010) We’re super excited to have this humble, hard-working, smart young man who’s definitely raising the bar at Raise the Bar. Way to go Nick!!!
I got to the transition area with just enough time to get my bike ready, take a look at my age group competition which nearly all fit on one bike rack, and put my wetsuit.
Swim - This may be the most memorial part of this race. The first minute or so was absolute chaos. I wasn't able to get a front row spot and was churned up a bit in the beginning Things settled down and I just tried to find some waves to ride to the shore. I really had no idea what my time would be, but was hoping for something around an hour. when I saw 57 and change I was pretty happy, and I felt like that boosted my morale going onto the bike. The volunteers are so amazing! This was my first time experiencing this and I was so impressed, between the wetsuit stripping and the unpacking and packing of your plastic bags, they practically do the transition for you.
Bike - The start was a total rush, with all the people cheering and announcer calling out your name I was cruising on pure adrenalin. I remember looking down seeing 27 and having to tell myself "Easy now!"
The road to Osoyoos was fast but easy at the same time. I stopped to use the restroom, and without realizing it this it where the frigg bypassed me. The slow climb up to yellow lake really got me, I felt like I was in the tour de france during the final ascent as all the riders funneled through a crowd of cheering people all out there in the rain and hail. Coming down the other side I was terrified. The wet and slick looking roads had me all over the brakes. My arms were so cold and numb I could barely steer. At one point I had some pretty serious speed wobbles and I thought I was going to hit the pavement. Feeling lucky that I recovered from this, I played it pretty conservative on the decent to penticton. I was happy to be back in town where it felt 20 degrees warmer.
Run - Leaving transition I saw 6:40 on the clock and I knew breaking 10 would take a lot of work. I used my Garmin:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/47215756 (minus the first mile) but mostly just ran by feel. Less than a mile before the turnaround I saw Brian, he was looking strong but still looked at my watch to count how many minutes I was behind. I figured had maybe 10 minutes on me. Josh looked to be feeling good as we slapped each other five running by. Attempting to pick up the pace only worked for a couple miles, and eventually struggled to hold onto 8:00 miles. about a mile from the finish someone with a 23 on their calf passed by I tried to follow but could not. The friggulator was cruising to the finish as I made my lap through town. As soon as I finished my legs stiffened up (and are still stiff!) and am glad to say I left it all out on the course.
Congrats to Josh and Brian on great races, its always fun racing with teammates.
and thanks for the geyser crew for getting me mentally and physically ready for the ironman, and for supplying me with extra clothes on those 30degree days when I would show up with only my jersey and bike shorts haha nj
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