Vermont Sun Half Iron - 2nd Overall!!

Hi to anyone reading this. I really thought people didn't read this stuff until several people said hey John you haven't updated your blog in a while. So here I am first race back after the Lake Placid nightmare. I have a very hard time bouncing back from bad races particularly if it was an Ironman which (as an age grouper) you have to put all your eggs in one basket. I've been rehabbing my injuries (plantar fascitis and a groin strain) and had a handful of pain free runs prior to racing this half iron. I want to throw a shout out to Donna Smyers my PT and Dr keith my chiro for getting me back on track!!

The goal coming into this race was to simply race pain free, have fun and get back into my routine of racing. The venue at VT Sun is a very special place for me and my wife as that is where we met 8 years ago. We also had our legal wedding there (at Branbury State Park) with a JOP followed by the actual wedding a year later at Breadloaf.

Pre race festivities involved hanging out with some of my favorite people (Pat Berry and Brook Jette and the kids Quinn and Willam). I also got to jam out to some very good sound quality Grateful Dead. It's all I've been listening to lately. Anyhow back to the race.

Swim start-- thrashing chaos I was right in the mix after the first turn buoy. My only mistake on the whole day was missing the front swim group in the first 400 yards. There was 6 or 7 guys that I know I could have got on their feet had I swam harder in that first section. Instead I got dropped and was in no man's land until I found some feet to get on. Those feet ended up swimming all over the place too so I would let him veer off and then he would come back. I would say it was an OK swim considering my swim volume has been down.

Onto the bike I was probably in around 10th or so in that first wave. I started hammering the bike right away. I caught several people pretty quickly. About halfway through the first lap I moved into about 4th by the end of the first lap I was in the lead. I led for 5-10 miles and got caught by Dave Connery who was smoking the bike course. This guy is a Cat 2 cyclist and was riding super strong. I actually decided to try and ride with him for a while. I rode 4 bike lengths beihind Dave for about 20 minutes or so and decided I didn't need to ride that hard so I let him go. I actually felt great but knew if I wanted to have a strong run I should back off. Dave got off the bike around minute to 1:30 ahead of me. Bike split was around 2:28 which I was surprised. The course is fast but I thought it was actually a faster course (I was thinking around a 2:23 ish course for me). Those rollers really slowed your speed quite a bit.

Here's a pic of me on the bike
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=mgy44&gallery_id=1240116&image_id=37


On the run I moved back into the lead around mile 3 and then shortly thereafter was caught by Peter Konecny from Ottawa Ont. This guy was flying holding around 6:30s and I just couldn't hang with him. I actually felt strong considering my run mileage has been very low. This run course was extremely tough with a climb around mile 4 which was a headwall and about 1/2 mile long. We hit another tough climb before the turnaround as well. I would say it was one of the toughest run courses I've ever run.


Overall I had a great experience and am very happy to have raced again. I know my fitness isn't where it was in June but I executed very well. I nailed my fueling and hydration which I am really happy about, I had no cramping or stomach problems at all.

Here's a link to the results -

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/vt/Aug23_Vermon_set1.shtml



Next up--- 5k race this weekend, Montreal Esprit Half ironman on Sept 13, Leaf peeper's half marathon on Oct 5th and possibly a late fall marathon