I took the back half of 2017 off of my race photo blogs, but wanted to bring it back. Ironman Texas proved to be a challenging day for me, finishing 19th. That being said, here's some photos from race day and in the weeks (and months) leading up to it. Enjoy!
Not from the race, but every year prior to Ironman Texas, I have been at the Endurance Corner Tucson Camp. This year's camp had a ton of folks racing IMTX and it was great to share in some of their preparation.
This is the time it took me to drive from Boulder to The Woodlands a little more than three weeks out from the race. I did the drive just under 16 hours. Rolling solo in one day is not something I recommend, nor is it something I plan to repeat. But if you happen to break the record, let me know.
Photo Credit: Tim Floyd of Magnolia Masters. Tim was very helpful to me, and many other professionals in town, by letting us train with his squad in the days, and weeks, leading up to the event. While my overall race was not the best, I did set a new PR swim time for this course by two minutes, thanks in large part to the work we did together in the final three weeks before the race. Hoping to continue to build on that improvement
Shot from the second half of a run/bike/run session I adapted from Gordo Byrn.
From a photo shoot with ON running near Dayton, Texas. I grew up in Houston and I still didn't know where Dayton was.
Pre race ride the day before the race. Mat Steinmetz, of 51 SpeedShop, and I made some minor tweaks to the position this year; mostly with a slightly more upwards angle of the extensions as well as a pad position. All in all, looking and feeling very comfortable.
Enjoying some easier swims before race day.
Photo Credit: Aaron Palaian. Exiting the swim in 52:21.
Photo Credit: Aaron Palaian. Somewhere on the Hardy Toll Road. If you look at my left knee, you'll some some minor road rash/blood there. That's because I crashed while mounting my bike. I've done plenty of clumsy shit while racing, but that was a first. If anyone happened to get in on video, please send it my way. I could tell some people wanted to laugh when it happened, but were being polite in the moment and held back. It's ok, you can laugh.
Photo Credit: Aaron Palaian. I'm not totally certain, but I'm pretty sure this was taken on the bridge of Lake Woodlands, about 1.5 miles into the first loop of the run. One positive outcome from the run is that I seem to have made the right adjustments to my nutrition plan. My last two races of 2017 were plagued with some stomach problems; something that is usually not a reoccurring issue for me. Hopefully this new strategy will be to my benefit in the future. Thanks to Ownway Apparel for the custom Texas kit. Also note the JFT hat which is a throwback hat from circa 2004 that I've been wearing.
Post race chatting with Brooke and the fam.
I felt like this would be the appropriate closing photo to the IMTX photo blog. Now on to the next one.