The trip started out on the wrong foot when my 8.30pm flight to San Francisco was delayed for 4 hours (making me miss my 11pm connection to Chicago) and forcing me to sleep on the floor from 1am to 5am (not happy). I was originally scheduled to land in Indianapolis at 9am on Friday morning but with the delays and re-routing I landed at 5pm. I had to scramble to Muncie and get registered and build the bike before the 8am start the next day.
Unpacking my bike at 9pm I discovered a big problem. Somewhere along my travels I had lost a pedal. Damn ... what to do now. After calling around a bit I was assured I would have pedals waiting for me at transition the next day. I would have to take the risk. I finally got a good nights sleep and was up early the next morning to arrive at the race site.
A perfect day dawned and with the arrival of some pedals I could use (Thanks Scott and Dave of Zipp for helping me out) I was relieved everything had worked out.
I got off to a good start in the swim and sat in the top 5. I wasn't feeling my usual sharp self in the water but I was in a good position and ready to attack the up coming bike leg. A group of us mounted the bike together and set off on the 90km ride. Ben Hoffman asserted some early pressure and the pace was on from the get go. I was struggling to say the least and after being gaped by a few guys in the opening 10 miles myself, Bryan Rhodes and Josh Rix reeled all but Ben back. We now rode as a group of 8 and I felt the legs starting to come around. Around the 20 mile mark I tried to move off the front of the group but it was clear I wouldn't be shacking anyone and I was consumed back into the group. On the return to transition I started to think about the run and really wanted to focus on putting down a solid split.
Definitely a different tactic to my usual race plan but with the quality of field in Frankfurt this would be a good opportunity to run from with a larger group. I started off well and was feeling strong in the opening miles hovering around 5th. I felt Ironman run strong but lacked the 70.3 extra speed to make any impression on anyone in front or behind from mile 3-8. I had a little rough spot from mile 8-10 and dropped 3 place very quickly as a few runners from a group that started the run around a minute behind caught me. I was going to have to fight now to maintain a top 8 placing and a pay check. My legs came good at mile 10 but I had let the 20-30 second gap to the guys up ahead stretch too far and I would settle for 8th.
In all a solid but far from amazing day. I guess with the work I was doing for Frankfurt it was about what I could have expected. I obviously thought I had more but with a taper I can see myself coming around right in time.
The trip home from Muncie was even more of a debarkle than the flight over. I was literally about to board my flight home when United announced they were canceling the flight! What? OK, I guess they would just re-book me for a later flight. No, no more flights available that day ... OR the next! I wasn't going to be able to get home from Indianapolis till Monday. Definitely out of the question. So what to do? Drive to Chicago with my new friend Harold from Portland (who was in the same boat) of course. We drove the 3 hours to O'hare and bunked down in an airport hotel for the night. We were up bright and early the next day and I was finally home in Bend by lunchtime. It could have been a lot worse that's for sure.
One week here in Bend putting the final touches on the IM Frankfurt preparation. Next Monday its back to Europe. I am really excited to line up at this event for the first time. Especially after watching recent races like Challenge Roth. So I guess next post will come from Deutschland?!
