Ok, so now that we have all returned from Timex camp and written our race reports I thought I would give you my perspective on the day as well. 

Coming from Vermont and racing California 70.3 has been an interesting experience the last 2 years.  I arrive knowing that I am not in top form yet, but excited to kick off the season. To make things even more interesting this year I was making my pro debut.  Lastly, adding another level of complexity to the race was the fact that the participant list read something like a world championship race!

I arrived in Oceanside Thursday, got a quick tune up from Doug, the stellar Timex mechanic and a quick ride, the first outside on  my new orange Trek TTX 9.9 SSL , man that bike is fast, hence forth referred to as the flaming rocket! J 

My home stay host Rob, his girlfriend and her son were incredibly gracious and welcoming, giving me a great pasta meal, a private bedroom and bathroom as well as anything else I could have needed.  Thank you again!

Race morning the water temperature was 60 degrees, significantly warmer that I expected, yet still a little chilly.  I placed myself right up front opting to BE swum over rather that have to DO the swimming over.  I wasn’t able to get the first pack, but caught the main group and was following a good draft until the turn around where the group began to spread out and swimming into the rising sun made for some guess work on exactly where to swim. All in all not a stellar swim, but respectable exiting with the main group around 27 minutes.  I definitely need to work on my swim start and hanging on a little longer to catch the faster feet. 

Running through T1 I saw many familiar faces and got some great encouragement from a lot of the age groupers lining up for their respective swim starts.  I was off the back of the main pro field, but used my PowerTap , to focus on a consistent/steady effort at my goal power.  This bike course is great, the first half is pretty fast and flat with a few small climbs and on the back half there are a few tough climbs, this year there was a pretty stiff head wind on the back side of Camp Pendelton as wel,l which made it slightly more challenging.  I was able to pace myself well and pass several cyclists in the last 10 miles of the race.  Overall normalized power of 288w with a VI 1.02.

I was feeling very good heading into T2 and ready to run hard to see if I could make up any ground.  However, within the first few hundred feet of the run my lower back began to cramp very badly and I was forced to hobble most of the run.  Many of my friends and family who were watching the race commented on how “not myself” I looked while running.  Let me tell you, I didn’t exactly feel like myself either.  This cramping was probably due to a combination of an early season race where my body was just not accustom to the high intensity efforts, lack of stretching over a very busy previous month and just bad luck.  My goals changed and it became a survival run to just finish.  I have never considered dropping out of a race before, however, at mile 3 I was seriously considering it.  I always finish what I start and in addition there are many people who struggle through a triathlon and just because I was having a bad day I was not going to let myself quit.  I pushed a little bit the last 3 miles to try to salvage what was left of a frustrating run

Disappointing as it was, I finished 25^th in a field of almost 50 pro triathletes and ultimately, I am pleased considering it is only March and I have a long season ahead of me.  This race was not perfect and as a result it has only sparked my motivation to train even harder which will ultimately make 2008 a great year.  Lastly, even though it was a “bad day at the office” it is truly a privilege to be following my dream racing as a pro triathlete. 

Train hard, rest harder!

-Alex

www.alexmmtri.com

Well it has been a VERY busy and whirlwind week! 

The Brief Version: 

I had an amazing race here in Kona finishing as the amateur champion and 29^th overall in a time of 9:00:09…I know 9 seconds…don’t ask!  Then on Tuesday I got married to the most amazing woman (Ashley), in the most beautiful and picture perfect ceremony on the beach in North Kona.

The Long Version:

Ash and I arrived in Kona on Oct 2 with plenty of time to take care of wedding stuff that week and race stuff on …well…race week.  Having spent the month of Sept in Durham, NC and 90 degree heat, definitely helped as it did not take long at all to acclimate to the conditions in Kona.  Even though this was not my first experience here in Kona, I was still blown away and a little bit intimidated by all the über athletes that can been seen at all hours of the day all over Kailua-Kona.  At any rate it was great watching the town come to Ironman-life as race week approached.  Of note, the day before the race, my now sister in-law who has a business relationship with Oakley, introduced me to Greg Welch, VERY COOL!! J

As usual I was not able to sleep much the night before the race but used the time to visualize the perfect race.  The clock hit 3:30am, breakfast time, and before I knew it I was walking to the pier.  WTC and the Kona volunteers are amazing and the whole pre-race process, including bike check-in the day before, went very smoothly.  Ashley was also able to secure some pier passes so she was able to walk out onto the pier to give me one last good luck kiss and take some fun pre-race picture, including a shot of my “lucky sea turtle.”

Swim:  59:29,  212 overall

I got into the water just before the pros started and did a quick warm up to ensure I got a good spot right at the front of the starting line next to the pier.  As more and more swimmers approached the starting line I felt a strong nudge, ready to return the nudge and ensure my spot in the increasingly crowded water I turned to find fellow Timex team mate Luis grinning at me!! J  As the anticipation mounted Mike Reilly called out 4 minutes and then within a minute or 2 the cannon went off, caught off-guard the thrashing began!!  I was able to escape relatively unharmed and get into a pretty good draft group and swam right along the buoy line.  After the turn I lost a little steam and fell off the pack I was hoping to stay with, but overall I was satisfied with my swim breaking the 1hr mark.

T1: 1:58, 

Aside from a few rude people cutting me off, nothing special just went through smooth and relaxed, it’s a long day!

Bike: 4:56:26,  57^th off the Bike

I was looking for vindication after what I viewed as a sub-par bike at Ironman Lake Placid earlier this year.  Although I biked only a minute faster than last year on this course the conditions were more difficult, although not as bad as they can be.  Especially the climb up to Hawi the head and crosswinds were taunting us making things interesting.  I tried a slightly different tact on the bike here using my power tap to race at Half Ironman power for the first 20 minutes until I got out of town, then settled into my steady IM power and kept it steady for the rest of the ride.  For those of you who are power savy, I averaged 237w with a VI of 1.03 for the ride.  I saw several Timex teammates and other friends out on the course which was a great pick me up in the middle of a lava fields.

T2: 1:51, fastest in the WORLD!!

I just went, again I thought about being smooth and relaxed but efficient (I have a great transition coach) J Also I passed 7 age-groupers in transition, free speed.

Run: 3:00:27, 4^th fastest amateur run of the day.

I was hoping to break 3 hours, but I need to save some goals for next year! J  Leaving T2 Ashley told me I was the 10^th amateur and was 13:30 back.  As I had done at Ironman Lake Placid I knew that I could make up a few spots as long as I was smart and ran strong.  Once I established a rhythm the first 10mi down Alii drive felt pretty good, and I was passing a few people, but it was hard to tell who was a pro and who was an amateur until I was right next to the person.  At about mile 10 just before I began running up Palani hill Ashley again saw me and said I was in 7^th about 3:30 back.  “Wow!” I thought to myself “lets keep it steady but relaxed.”  Running out to the Natural Energy Lab (NEL) on the Queen K there was a tail wind, which made the heat pretty noticeable, but I wanted to save a little for the trip back into town, so I allowed my pace to slow a little.  Running down into NEL I passed a few more amateurs and right in the middle of the NEL just after the 17mi check point I moved into first.  At this point there was a tail wind while climbing out of the NEL which felt good, and I kept telling myself a good mantra I once heard “champions are born or crushed in the NEL.”  OK that maybe overly dramatic, but it was working.  By the time I got back up to the Queen K highway at mi 19 I had a 30sec lead.  This is what I had been preparing for all day that last 10k of the race so I picked it up.  There was a head wind the whole way back to town and my legs were on fire, but I kept going!!  At mi 23 my watch read 8:39 and I really wanted to break 9 hours so I turned it up a little more, although kept going the same pace and I knew it was going to be close.  At the top of palani hill I gave it all I had, my then future father in–law was at the top and yelled at me “7 MINUTES!!”  As I turned right on to Alii drive for the final several hundred yards I was overcome with the power and magnitude of this race and what I was about to do…I began sprinting as fast as my legs would carry me.  The only problem is Samantha McGlone came into view ahead.  She had such an incredible race and is such an amazing athlete in her first ever Ironman that I did not want to be one of those obnoxious amateurs who blows past a person at the last minute and wrecks their finishing picture…so I slowed a little…it was not a difficult decision and my legs almost did it for me.  I knew that I had a large enough lead over the second amateur or any other pros that I would not jeopardize my finishing position.  Shortly after the race the 9 seconds did not bother me, but the next day they did!!  I just have some work to take care of next year!!

All in all it was the race of a lifetime and my last race as an amateur for awhile, the only problem is I am never satisfied, even if I did miss my time goal by 9 seconds!!!  I could not have raced so well with the constant support of my now wife Ashley, the Timex Multisport Team, my coach Kurt Perham, and a slue of friends family and volunteers.

As for the post-race festivities, Ashley and I got married on Tuesday at Sunset in a small intimate setting with just our families at Kikaua beach just north of the airport.  The bright blue water, black lava rock, white sand, bright green grass and the most beautiful woman I have ever met made for a fairytale wedding!  I know it sounds cliché but it was really an amazing experience!!  We’ll post pictures shortly for those of you interested.  This is a whole separate post and I’ll post it at my website http://www.alexmmtri.com/ in the near future.

Thanks for an amazing season I have been indulging a little as you can see I ate a cinamon bun from Lava Java the size of my head!!  Now I’m excited to spend a week in Kaua’i with Ash and I’ll keep you posted with all my off season adventures, only next time I’ll try not to be so long winded!!

Thanks

Alex MM

http://www.alexmmtri.com/

After the race many people asked me why I came all the way to Raleigh, North Carolina for the Duke Liver ½?  Well, the truth is I am living with some friends down here in Durham, NC doing some “heat acclimatization” and my final build up for Kona.  The 50-60 degree weather of Vermont is just too much of a jump to Kona’s 90 degrees.  But I digress, onto the race report!

The race was put on by SetUp Events and they really did a great job.  They had done some publicity before the race saying that I was coming down to race “fresh off my win at Ironman Lake Placid.”  As a result I was a marked man on the course, but at the same time everyone knew who I was and were all very supportive.  I had a great time during the race, but an even better time after the race meeting people.  Thank you to the entire North Carolina triathlon community for being so welcoming.

Since I came for the heat, obviously on race morning it happened to be 50 degrees.  During the race it was sunny and in the mid 70s, basically perfect race day weather!  I was hoping for it to be 95 and humid just to practice racing in the heat.  I’m sure I was the only one who was hoping it to be disgustingly hot! 

I did not even bring my Helix wetsuit on this trip expecting the water to be well above 78 degrees.  However, because of a few cooler days before the race it was a wetsuit legal race, measuring in at 77 degrees.  I had decided regardless of water temps to wear my Blue Seventy Point Zero as I have yet to wear it in a race and wanted to before Kona.  The water level in Jordan lake was about 2 feet lower than normal due to the drought most of North Carolina is experiencing this summer.  As a result the swim was an out and back instead of the preferred triangle shape course. To add to this there was a pretty strong headwind creating a very rough and choppy swim particularly on the way out.  As a result my swim was significantly slower than I was hoping and a little further back, 30mins, 8^th place and 5 ½ minutes behind the leader. 

After a quick T1 I headed out onto the bike.  This bike course is absolutely beautiful through rolling farm land with a few small climbs and very few cars.  At one point during the race there were about 10 wild turkeys in the middle of the road, at the time I was traveling about 30mph and had to swerve and fortunately avoided them, needless to say this experience was a little scary!  The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  I was working pretty hard and found a great rhythm until the last 10 miles when the slightly rougher road and head wind began to make it a little tough.  I pushed through and finished 2^nd off the bike in 2:19. 

I cruised into T2 just as the leader was heading out onto the run course.  After another quick transition I began my pursuit about 2 ½ minutes down. 

This run course is two loops on a series of hilly, dirt and grass trails located in New Hope State Park.  This run course is hard, but very beautiful and peaceful through a forest and overall a really enjoyable run.  I began the run with several tight muscles and twinges after a solid bike, but after a mile or 2 I began to loosen up and found my stride.  I caught up to the leader at about mile 4 and kept up the pace because there were some very talented athletes in this race that I knew would keep the pressure on.  I finished the run in 1:22.

I finished first overall in 4:13 which I was told is a new course record.  This was a great confidence boost and measure of my fitness heading into October and I’m getting very excited!  Lastly, I really like this area of the country and the triathlon community is pretty impressive.  There is a chance I may move here next year…we’ll see! J

Results Page

Thanks!

Alex M-M

http://www.alexmmtri.com/

Ok, somebody pinch me!!  It’s been 4 days and still does not seem real, I have to keep checking the results to make sure it wasn’t a dream!!

 I drove over from Burlington, VT to Lake Placid on Thursday evening.  It felt very odd packing my car to drive to an Ironman.  No need to box up my bike or make sure my bags weren’t over weight!  It was also really exciting knowing that because this was a “local race” there would be tons of family, friends and Green Mountain Multisport team members there.

I had high expectations for this race, knowing full well that I needed to execute the perfect race to meet my goals.  I always try to focus on race execution rather than time or placement and I find that the time seems to almost take care of itself.  Being the women’s professional championship many of my friends had told me that I was going to be first across the line, but anyone or anything can happen on race day and I wasn’t going to expect anything, I just wanted to execute. 

The weeks of cloudy and rainy weather leading up to race weekend were beginning to get to me and I was starting to get down, along with the usually woes of taper.  However, race weekend came and the excitement of Lake Placid quickly lifted my spirits as well as the break from the gloomy weather! On race day there were sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70’s - 80’s…not ideal, but I’ll take it!  The days leading up to the race were filled with meeting other athletes, sponsors and participating in the Timex panel on IMTV, which was really a lot of fun.  Especially since I was able to share my pre-race meal and admit to my pre-race psych up music (80’s hair bands!!).  My fiancé and I ended up staying in Wilmington, a good 12 miles from town, so it was a little tough driving back and forth, but it was also nice to be out of the chaos of downtown LP on race weekend.

I’m the kind of athlete who would prefer way too much time on race morning rather than not enough.  As a result Ash (my awesome fiancé) and I arrived downtown at about 4:50am race morning.  I usually can’t sleep anyway, so getting going early is actually easier than lying in bed.  I was able to get body marked, check my bike, walk through transition several times, hit the porto potties and be at Mirror lake at 5:30.  I put on my tunes, laid down, closed my eyes, relaxed and visualized my day for about 30min, which is a pre-race routine I highly recommend!

Swim: 54:11  I got in the water and warmed up for about 10mins right after the pro women started at 6:25.  Then I found a spot to hang onto the end of the dock for the next 20 minutes.  By 6:50 the water and dock were ridiculously crowded with people hanging onto people hanging onto the dock!  With about 5 minutes until race start I moved away from the dock and positioned myself as best I could right at the front and on “the line” to swim the shortest distance.  The gun went off and the pummeling began.  I received quite a few blows in the first few hundred yards and continued to have quite a bit of contact for the first lap.  I was able to cruise with ease and spot really well as my Blue Seventy goggles and Helix worked perfectly and were amazingly comfortable.  I swam hard and made sure I was always in someone’s draft, trying not to work too hard, but just cruising.  The second lap I caught onto the feet of the swimmer leading the second major pack and went along for the ride as he bridged up to the next group, we only caught them toward the end of the second lap, but none the less I was pretty happy with my swim.  I got out of the water in 24^th place.

T1:  3:18 As many of you know you have to run about a 1/4mi from mirror lake to the oval and then through the transition area.  I had practiced my transitions in person and in my mind multiple times and it paid off with the fastest T1 of the day and I began the bike in 10^th place!

Bike:  5:17:54  The bike was tough for me, I was never able to get into a rythum and go.  Honestly, I thought given good conditions I should be able to bike 5hrs.  I had done quite a bit of training on this course and knew it would be a tough, but realistic goal.  The first lap felt ok, but never the way I wanted it to and as I passed back through town completing the first loop in 2:33 I was hopeful I could make the second lap just about as fast.  However, the wind began to make an appearance as there was a head/cross wind from LP to Essex and then a head wind from Essex to Jay along the flat and “fast” section of the course.  As I began climbing the hills out of Jay I came to the realization I was not going to bike 5hrs.  But I kept telling myself  “that’s ok, it’s a long day and I still have to run a marathon.”  I kept my cadence high and relaxed and made sure not to push too hard on the return back to town.  I got off the bike in 5 place about 12:30 down from the leader.

T2:  1:04  Again rehearsal and mental practice paid dividends as I swiftly moved through transition to make up a minute of my deficit and claim the fastest T2 of the day.

Run:  2:59:36  My fiancé was waiting for me at the beginning of the run and yelled “you’re in 5^th place 11:30 down, RUN!!”  As I ran out of town I thought to myself, “it’s a long day anything can happen.”  I ran at a comfortable pace and at about mile 2 moved into 4^th place.  I began to see a lot of friends and spectators out on the course, who were giving me splits and telling me that I looked great and the guys ahead were fading.  As I made my left turn onto river road at about mile 3 I saw Belinda Granger with the lead biker and gave her a big cheer, (she’s awesome!).  But I had work to do and I remained focused.  At about mile 11 I moved into third position, right in the middle of town.  Being the under dog everyone was cheering for me and they were amazing, I felt like a rock star!  I used the energy of the crowds to push me and I moved into second at about mile 16.5, I was running steady and giving encouragement to everyone out there to help keep my mind-set positive.  At the turn around on river road around mile 19 I saw the Timex team manager, Ben Harper and he informed me with a big smile on his face that I was 28 second behind the leader.  At mile 20 I moved into first place and turned in on a little bit and was too afraid to look back!  My goal for the entire day was to run a solid last 10k and that time had arrived.  Up until this point I had been running “moderate-steady” knowing the last 6.2 miles were critical.  I had been sipping my concentrated calories from my awesome new Helium Fuel Belt since the start of the run and now was the time to use that energy.  I began to pick a pace that was slightly out of my comfort zone and just went.  I began the “short” out and back on Mirror lake drive, which seemed very long this time around, and the crowds were amazing!  With one particular spectator shouting “I knew you were going to catch them, I knew it!  You look awesome!!”  As I entered the oval I could hear Mike Reily calling my name and I was overjoyed!  I finished in 9:16:02 as the Ironman Champion!!!

As I crossed the line and 4 days later I am still filled with so much energy and gratitude for everyone who helped me get to that finish line.  My coach Kurt Perham, my fiancé Ashley, the Timex Multisport Team, all my sponsors and most importantly all the people out on the course, friends, family and random stangers!!  It sounds really cheesey, but I said it at the finsh line and I’ll say it again, it does not take a person to win an Ironman, it takes a community and I have the best community I could imagine!

Thanks!

Alex M-M

www.alexmmtri.com