David Glover leading Kevin Kunkel out of T2

This is good news for all the triathlon coaches out there (including me) - following a structured, periodized, Ironman-specific training program does make a difference! For me, there was a 2 hour difference between my 8:51 at the Quelle Challenge in Germany last year and my 10:55 in ChespeakeMan this year.

I offer no excuses. I did what I could do on race day. My swim was decent, my bike was reasonably fast although I did lose time when I took a turn too fast on wet pavement (it rained all day) and fell then later flatted, which bumped me back from second place overall in the bike at the time to probably tenth. The run is where I couldn’t pretend that I was trained up when I wasn’t.

If you’ve been following my blog at all, you know that I’ve been busy with other activities this summer including hiking the Swiss Alps, whitewater rafting, rappelling, kayaking and experiencing military training at the Special Operations Force Academy so Ironman training hasn’t been a focus. I wasn’t completely unprepared as I did some swimming, biking and running; however, I was not putting in the 4 hour rides with 75 minutes of tempo and the 2 x 2 hour weekly runs that enabled me to go so fast at Roth last year.

I signed up for Chesapeakeman less than 2 weeks before the event. I figured, “What the heck!?!? Let’s see what happens!” Now I know!

Me crossing the finish line with a smile

From a race experience perspective, I thoroughly enjoyed the event. Race Director Rob Vigorito and his staff did an excellent job from start to finish. The volunteers were some of the friendliest bunch of folks I’ve ever met. I like the looped course because it breaks down the race into smaller, more manageable chunks.

I had a chance to race alongside my friend, Kevin Kunkel, for the first of three out and backs on the run. He had caught me at the end of the bike but I passed him in T2 to lead him out on the run. We were in places #2 and #3 at the start of the run.

At the start of the second out and back, I dropped back from Kevin and began running with Bill Lane from Doylestown, PA. Bill, who was racing in the Clydesdale category, had been doing triathlons since 1981 when the sport was just getting started. He was doing a Chesapeakeman as a training race for a double Ironman the following weekend at Lake Anna. Impressive!

Congratulations to all the other finishers out there including Kevin Shaw and Bill Olson who turned in impressive times for their first Iron-distance races and to Kevin Grogan from Clermont sprinted past me when we entered the stadium for lap around the track to the finish line.

Shaking hands with Race Director Rob Vigorito at the finish

I look forward to returning next year…and racing much faster of course!

Live life richly and boldly!

David

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David B. Glover
Experiential Writer, Elite Athlete, Coach and Race Director
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine
Personal Web: www.davidglover.net
Business Web: www.enduranceworks.net

©2008 David B. Glover