The season is over and it ended with a couple pretty bad races.  I very rarely race badly and it was very discouraging to come up really short in my last two endeavors.  I never really reported on Savageman because I had quickly put it behind me and then focus and time put me all into Kona.  Let me summarize my last two races (Savageman and Kona):

Swim- good start, moving well, then blew to bits, but recovered and got to transition. Then I never felt good on the bike, had trouble holding goal numbers (not my numbers- coach’s reasonable and well thought out numbers).  Finally, I staggered into T2 and pulled myself out of a hole and got moving on the run.

Transitioning to just discussing Kona, I had an enjoyable week, with so many good friends from my past and present racing and watching.  My parents the ever present support crew were enjoying their Kona vacation.  My earliest tri idol, Rick Crump, a director at my childhood running camp was racing.  Good friend from my earliest ironman training days and now Boulder resident Scott Jones was out killin’ it and took home the Armed Forces crown.   Paul Hert, a good all-around dude, from 2005 Kona training and long time friendship through Jones was racing his dream.  There were other notables like Virginia Beach ladies Sharon (coming back from being hit by a truck trailer at Placid) and Barb (super stud 60 year old) and friend Pam Buderus (fulfilling all of her Kona dreams) were out there gettin’ it done when the conditions were some of the worst.  I wonder if I could ever do what those ladies did, it’s a totally different race as Barb explained to me.

I have talked a lot about the break-down of the race with many friends, and I am not sure I will ever really know exactly what went wrong on the bike.  I do know that leaving Scott Molina last year, he told me to get my hammy healthy and figure out the swim or I won’t go where I want in the sport.  He was spot-on.  Obviously, I completely healed my hammy and am running better than I ever have in this sport. However, I failed to really focus properly on the swim.  This year, I showed I can run AND bike at the front of a major ironman, but without a proper swim, future goals will be difficult.  There were other issues on the day even on the swim, but I did fail myself in proper preparation for the swim.  My friends have reminded me there is more to take from a bad race than a good one, ironically something I have always told my friends and athletes the same.  Going into 2010, I know I can run, bike, and my super-gut has yet to fail me, but I must learn to swim faster and more importantly with better technique.

I didn’t want to close this season out on a completely sour note.  While out in the Energy Lab, I was suffering and amongst many other pros putting in some personal worst days.  However, I ran past some friends in the age group field, who had passed me on the bike (Glen, Jonser, and Greg Price) who were encouraging me to keep in the race.  Once up on the Queen K, I figured I had a weak chance of breaking 10 hours.  This Kona was my tenth ironman and I began a little mantra of “10 under 10,” how cool would that be?  Along the Queen K, I re-passed Jonser, his mere presence fires me up, and I considered pacing with at one point, but instead went on my own to get the “10 under 10.”  At Palani, I was under 7 minutes to the 10 hour mark, but long ago I learned from Ed Eyestone how to just let yourself go and fly downhill.  I have run about 4:45 for the last mile at Wildflower.  I decided to risk cramping and would fly down Palani and then hopefully Hulalai would provide a similar shoot for me to fly down.  Well, it worked, I skipped the last aid station on Palani and put everything I had into the final mile.  I am not sure where it came from because on the bike I thought I would have been walking that part.  It was great redemption to see 9:59:30 (or 9:44:30 at that point w/age group finish times up).  Although the race was overall not what I wanted, I got the finisher’s medal, t-shirt, and hat.  I also have a clean record of no DNFs and 10 ironmans under 10 hours.  I am a truly happy ironman athlete.

This finish photo pretty much summarizes my day, sucks, but someone has to do it even when it sucks.

Thanks to all my supporters, especially going into and on race site:  Colorado Multisport, Gu, 2XU, TYR (last minute help, thanks so much), and of course never would have stepped up this year without Dr. Phil (www.physfarm.com).

Expect some changes around the site in the next couple weeks as we ready for 2010.

I am not quite turning the corner on 2009, because with the upcoming honeymoon to Australia it is not really over. 2009 has been AWESOME!  Collegiate national champ coach, 4:01 for a half, getting married, 7th at Placid, 2:58 run off the bike, marrying the wonderful Lara, renewing my work with the mids this fall, seeing four of my best friends get married, did I mention getting married myself to the amazing Lara, and of course, how could I forget, the Bogart.  Hopefully we can close out 2009 with a great drinking season, some fast beer-miling, and some good work in the pool.
later,

billy