Ironman Canada Race Report

Now that the warmup splash is out of the way, time to get on with the REAL race! (Mark Creery photo.)

The Swim (2.4 miles/3800m)

1:15:08

The good news is, it wasn't my worst Ironman swim ever. The bad news is, it could have been a lot better, based on how well things were going in the pool leading up to the race. I would love to blame it on the shoulder injury, but the truth is, the shoulder felt fine. So instead I'll blame it on my wetsuit! Back to that shortly.

Considering that this was the largest mass swim start in Ironman history (2588 brave souls), I had a really clean start, with no contact in the first 1000m. Then just the usual incidental swarms every few hundred meters. As I passed the second turn at 2000m, I snuck a look at my watch: right on pace at 37 minutes, and I figured I could negative-split.

About 100m later, both quads and calves started to tighten up. Then I remembered why I didn't wear this suit for Ironman races; it's too tight in the legs for longer swims. So I spent the rest of the swim doing everything I could to shake the cramps out. At long last, I was out of the water in a brutal 1073rd place, do-oh! The most frustrating part is, I had logged this problem after the last race it had occurred, and forgotten about it. In addition, I had another wetsuit that I had raced the last three Ironmans, back at the suite.

Oh well, my race really doesn't start until the bike anyway, and because I was putting in 8000+ meters per week in the pool, I wasn't tired; just mad at myself. But I put the swim behind me, and chanelled my energy into turning the pedals over.

Next: Let's Ride!