Team Endurance Nation’s Shaughn Simmons put in a tremendous effort for an 11:10 finish, and had another Age Grouper sprint him to the finish! Read his report to see who won the spectacular, adrenaline filled finish.

Goal: 11:25   Actual: 11:10

About an hour faster that the last one and warmer temps.

Great plan, great coaching, and a great team with excellent mentors led to huge improvements.

Swim w/ wetsuit

goal 1:30 – 1:25   Actual 1:23 (even with swimming a little extra)

Swim was not as bad as I had imagined considering this was my 3rd mass start IM swim.  I kept repeating over and over in my head to stay in my box, count my strokes, rotate, focus, over and over, swim buoy to buoy, etc…..  I started back behind the main front line and swam straight the first 700-800M but somehow got redirected and swam over to the incoming side of the buoys then back to the outgoing buoys, so swam a little extra and still stayed within my target time.  The whole swim I felt the sensation of moving faster than accustomed due to the wetsuit and refocusing on form.  While definitely a slow time by most standards, I was elated to finish the dreaded swim leg without a disastrous long time.

T1 – 4 minutes

Only about twice as fast as my past.I listened to the advice given, ran straight through the tent, out the other side, dumped the bag out on the ground, handed my wetsuit and goggles to a nice volunteer and sprinted with Helmet on to the bike.  Ran with bike to mount line and then put my shoes on and was off to take care of business.  The wetsuit strippers had a rough time getting my wetsuit off though they were frantically engaged and committed……

Bike

Goal 5:25  Actual 5:16 on a .74 IF

I was glued to the PM like a Gerbil on crack!  Passed hundreds on the bike.  Wind was wearing people down on the back half but, for me, the time was flying by and I new I was making good time if I could just hold.  I held the fist 40 miles at a .72 and then just managed from there forward to a total .74 given I knew I was going to come in sub 5:30 and landed right on my Goal TSS of 285.    At mile 60 I had to stop the Perform because I was drinking bottles at each aid station and taking it in too fast.  I went with water and salt pills and my stomach cleared up on the back half.  Peed like 3 times on the bike.

T2 – 5 minutes

Same routine as T1 but forgot to take my watch off the bike quick release and had to go back, find the bike with the volunteer and retrieve the watch……glad I did.   Hat, belt, shoes and off I went…..

Run

Goal was 4:20 Actual: 4:18

Walked every aid station and focused on 9:30 pace.   Source of strength seeing Coach P out there on the course.  Perform, Ice, water, sponges at each aid station, then repeat.   At mile 18, hit a wall, forgot to use Ice and Water and felt the heat on to mile 19 as I went through my own little hell at that point.  Took 10 seconds to pee at mile 19, refocused, got pissed off and moved forward…….Began COKE, water and salt pill at mile 20 and started to come out of my hole and was able to hold until the end.

Coming into the final shoot another male in my AG began to race me and passed me……..I took off in a sprint (which I was surprised to see I had in me.) Crowd went wild and got loud to see two sprinting each other……..  He cramped up halfway there, my sprint held up fortunately and EN represented well in that last battle coming through!

Miserably hard (as expected) and wonderful at the same time.  My greatest memory of this IM is of the team, the individual personalities, and the great teammates I met and got to know.  Priceless!

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