Saturday, November 22, 2008

Arizona Ironman


What the heck. My 5k race I was going to run was cancelled. So, I thought I'd run the Arizona Ironman..

What, you say. You can't do that without training. It's 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking and 26.2 miles of running.

Sorry, I guess I got you confused. I ran the Arizona Ironman 5k. It's the charity race the day before the triathletes take the stage.

It was pretty cool. We started at the new Tempe Arts Center and ran along the Tempe Town Lake. There were about 225 runners and the weather was ideal. Maybe in the 60's. I think most of the runners were family of a triathlete that will be racing tomorrow.

I got to meet Paul from Houston. His daughter and son in law are racing tomorrow. He and I ran this morning. I told him I really wanted a sub 30 minute race. But, I've been having tendinitis issues with my left foot. The good news is my legs are well rested. The bad news is, I'm not sure how my foot will hold up. My plan was to do a 9 minute first mile, followed by a 9:30 and a 10 minute mile. That would get me under the goal of 30 minutes. I, in fact did a 9:10 first mile followed by a 9:41 second. I was feeling really good and ran the entire way, except for a water stop around 1.6 mile mark. Maybe 20 seconds worth of walking and drinking. The second mile was rolling hills (three of them - just like Boston). Just kidding, the hills were maybe 30 yards in length and were not an issue.

In mile three I watched as a man about my age was in front of me. I figured I better get ahead of him if I wanted any hope of a medal. Heck, it's just good practice to race against the closest runners to you. I tracked him down and was within 40 yards of him when we started the final portion of the race. I did mile three in 9:15 and as we turned onto Rio Salado and saw the finish line I pour on the gas. My pace for the last 1/10 of a mile was a blistering 6:57. I speed past bib # 99 and finished at the same spot the triathletes will be finishing IMAZ tomorrow. Turns out #99 wasn't in my AG, but was 2 groups older.

My previous PR was 30:16 and today I finished in 28:49 (garmin time). A new PR and under 30 minutes. You can click on the graphs below to see a map and my splits.








Good luck to all those athletes competing in Ironman Arizona tomorrow. I'll try to stop by to see you in action.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome Pat, you smoked your former PR not just by seconds but minutes!
Totally envious that you get to be in the midst of all the IM hoopla. If ya run into my friend Jen Brady and the Brady Bunch, be sure to say hey from the Wimmers!

Irene said...

Congratulations! That's a HUGE amount of time to shave off your previous PR!

Aaron said...

Congrats Pat. I am impressed!

Pokey said...

Holy smokes!!! That is awesome Pat....congrats!!!!! You were flying my friend!!!

Unknown said...

Great job!

Anonymous said...

way to GO!!!

Anonymous said...

Nice!!! Still working on breaking 30 myself... and well, this sounds much more reasonable than an Ironman.

Greg said...

Check it out, Pat, you ran at 6:57 per mile!






For .1 miles. Good job! It sounds like you had a great time, not to mention you broke 30! That's awesome.

Anonymous said...

Good job on the PR!

Dan Seifring aka "OBRATS" said...

What a great time Pat. I am seriously considering IMAZ for my IM down the road. I hear the wind could be killer.

Richard Hefner said...

Excellent Pat... way to go!

Anonymous said...

Go Pat! Congrats on getting under 30, and not just a little, but more than a minute! I was so excited the first time I got under 30 in a 5K. Now that I've been off for most of a year, I bet I'll be even more excited the next time I do it!

J~Mom said...

DUDE!!!!!! You rocked it!!! Congratulations!!

Unknown said...

Awesome new PR, Pat! You really rocked that race. Congratulations.

Viv said...

WHOHOO Pat, way to know a heck of a chunk off! Maybe the Ironman is speaking to you :-)

Jeff said...

I most definitely wouldn't have clarified the 5k part!

Great time, Pat. Congrats on the PR.