I’ve never been to Oklahoma City before, but this weekend worked out in terms of my Kona preparation and personal schedule, so I thought I’d see what I could do at this years USAT Long Course National Championships.  I drove in from Denver on Friday afternoon, asked a ton of course related questions, got to bed extra early, and felt very prepared for my race. 
 
Race morning was great minus the few sprinkles that turned into a steady (and miserable) rain right before the start.  There were full Ironman and half Ironman distance races held together on Saturday so there were a lot of worried athletes to say the least.  Roughly 1000 were in attendance.  Apparently, there was a lot of water accumulating on various parts of the bike course and there was speculation about cancelling the bike and making it a swim/run race for all athletes!  After about an hour after our original start time, the race director told us the bike course was safe to ride on, but we had to be careful of ”knee deep” water at mile 6.  Before I knew it the gun went off and I was on my way!
 
I really tried to go hard the 1st 200 meters or so to distance myself from the pack in my Aqua Sphere Icon Wetsuit.  Me and one other athlete did just that and soon caught up to the other athletes from the full Ironman wave. We finished together and began the wet, rainy, slippery bike course.  I went as hard as I could on my TTX yet still tried to remain very cautious in the rain.  I pulled away from the other athlete and soon found a good rhythm, and the water at mile 6 was lower by the time I got there.  My new Bontrager Race X Lite Aero TT tires were great on the wet roads but still remained very cautious since I was the first athlete to be on the course.  I luckily made it back to T2 unharmed with a 5 min lead over 2nd place. 
 
After coming into T2 I was relieved and nervous at the same time.  Relieved because I completed the bike safely, but slightly on edge because I was in the lead and had a chance to win.  I just told myself to run strong, enjoy it, and to trust my body. After all, it’s rare for me to be able to run in the rain, and its usually a lot of fun.  I knew what I had to do and pushed the pace.  After the 1^st loop I saw my lead was getting bigger, so I kept pushing on and before I knew it I was running down the finishing chute as the 2009 USAT Long Course/Halfmax National Champion!  I ended up getting a new course record in 3:59.25 and a new PR run time in a ½ Ironman of 1:16.53.  Full results can be found here.

After cleaning my red dirt covered bike (I guess this is why they call it the Redman) and spending a fair amount of time sorting out my 100% soaked race bag (yes, everything was soaked), I went to the awards and one of the things I won was a gift card for meat from Cusack Meats.  Although I am not a meat eater I thought it was very cool and appropriate since we were in Oklahoma!

It was a great race and I was happy with how everything turned out.  I got in the car, drove home and made it into Denver at 1:30 AM, with a special pit stop celebration treat at McDonalds for a Big Angus 1/3 pounder burger.  It was heaven.  Andrew Hodges, I knew you’d be proud of me!  I arrived with plenty of time for some sleep and Sunday morning church with the family. 

I feel very confident for Ironman Hawaii in less than 3 weeks, and hope my body will deliver great things.  You never know what’s going to happen out there, but up to this point I feel ready and am very excited for #11 on the Big Island. 

 Be sure to check out Timex’s history with Ironman and Kona plus an update on the Timex athletes racing in Kona 2009 at TimexIronman.com.

 Aloha—

 Tim