2010 Results

Due to my recent sponsorship, I have to maintain a blog regarding my triathlon career. I'll start with posting some of my 2010 results.

1) California 70.3: this was my first race in the 40-44 age group and was just a good start to the 2010 year. I placed 5th in my age group. 31:11 swim, 2:28:11 bike, and a 1:30:30 run for a total of 4:34:24. I ended up qualifying for both the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii and the 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida. My bike was great, but my run suffered!

2) Ironman St. George: this was to be my first A race of the year. I placed 5th in my age group (AGAIN!) out of 304 40-44 year old's. 1:04:14 swim, 5:24:15 bike, and a 3:41:35 run for a total of 10:14:25. Two of my good triathlon friends passed me in the run here (Randy Olsen and Jay Preston). I took my slot for Hawaii here. Great course! If I were doing Ironman again, I would return here for sure!

3) Bolder Boulder 10k: this was to be my son Connor's break-out race. I had a personal best 38:45.65 (6:14/mile average), but my son out-did the old man with a 38:30.50 and won his age group! I felt pretty good considering that I was still dead from IMSG!

4) Metro Broker's Sprint Triathlon: I didn't think that I had any top-end in me, but I finished 3rd overall and 1st in my age group even though I felt like an old man!

5) Loveland Lake-to-Lake Olympic: I had won my age group in this race the past 2 years, but NOT this year. I had my worst showing here in years. My coach said that I was still recovering from IMSG! I'll have to go back to redeem myself. I finished another 5th place out of 70.

6) X-terra Mountain Championship (Beaver Creek): I used to race a ton of X-terra races. I was excited to see how I would do and had NO expectations at all! It went better than expected! I ended up 10th in my age group and had more fun than at any other race this year. I love X-terra's! If I would have had more mountain biking under my belt, it would have been even better!

7) Leadville 100 Mountain Bike race: I was returning for one final shot at the Gold belt buckle! In 2009, I finished this race in 9:13. I honestly felt like this was the toughest race that I had ever done! It was BRUTAL! I loved seeing Armstrong fly down Columbine, but it was an icy, cold, miserable day for me that day. I was back in 2010 to redeem myself! I was in far better shape this year, except that I wasn't mountain biking much at all trying to gear up for Kona. The weather was perfect for the race of my life! I did it! I ended up doing an 8:48:42.1! I shattered my previous year, beat all my Body Sync team-mates and had a great time despite two vicious wrecks! I will NOT be back however!

8) Utah Half: This was to be my last tune up before Kona! I was having a great race and sitting 5th overall when I completely busted my bottom bracket on my bike in half! Needless to say, I couldn't finish the bike, got a ride back to transition and then did a 20 mile training ride. The best part of this trip was going up to Park City with my wife afterwards.

9) THE IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: I had two goals for this race: 1) Beat my previous Ironman World Championship time, 2) Beat Randy Olsen! I accomplished both! I got a PR on the tough Hawaii course with a time of 9:51:36. The hardest part of this race was that I totally bonked on my run! I honestly think that I could have finished in about a 9:40, but my legs quit working at mile 9 of that darn run. I had my worst ever marathon with a 3:37! Oh well! Even though Randy was gaining hard on me, I held him off for the final 10 miles of that hell run! I vowed this to be my LAST Ironman, it sucks that I know I could do even better!

10) The 70.3 World Championship: I had NO expectations out of this race really. I went there just to finish my season with another world championship and do my best. I had not put in the appropriate training for this race. I had put on 6 pounds since Kona and had NO speed work in me. I ended up 22nd in my age group and had my best ever 70.3 time on the fastest course known to man with a 4:24:56 overall time. Once again, my run disappointed me.

The season was a great success for me! I was able to go to kill the Leadville 100, go to Kona and ended up placing my highest ever in the USAT standings (17th in the 40-44 AG as of today). It will be hard to duplicate 1010!