A preliminary report as told by Vance to Bob C.
I got a call from Vance at around 5:30 this evening (Monday). I figured Vance would be like a dead man walking, sapped of energy and suffering from pneumonia. Far from it. He seemed incredibly up and claimed he was on an extended endorphin high.
This event was considered to have been the toughest conditions in which an Ironman was ever run. (Organizers discussed canceling the event half way through because of the numbers of people -- both contestants and volunteers -- who were suffering hypothermia.)
Vance said the rain began just before they got in the water and it never ended the entire race. Water temp was low 70s (that's cold water, folks). Air temps were upper 50s. The way he described the swim, it sounded like the Czech/Soviet water polo match in the Olympics a couple of decades ago when the pool ended up being red. He said he was kicked and gouged and scraped and his wetsuit was unzipped (a bad thing 'cuz it lets in the cold and it fills up with water). His goggles were knocked off several times.
Vance said winds on the bike course were in the neighborhood of 15 to 30 mph with driving rain from start to finish. It was very treacherous. He said there were several good sized hills (3 per lap x 2 laps) that were roughly as steep as our water tower hill, but about twice as long. It was the terrifying descents on the other side he didn't like. One, in particular, was bad. It had a hairpin turn at the bottom and Vance described overcooking it and getting up so much speed he was afraid to release his aerobars to reach for his brakes. But he did at the last possible moment and barely kept it together ... to the wild applause of the fans along the roadside at that point. He did say that the technical nature of the bike course kept it from seeming so long. He had to stay focused on staying upright, so he wasn't focused on the passage of time.
Vance didn't have much to say about the run except that, after 13.1 miles, the last half of the marathon just came down to pure determination. But he said he didn't really have any doubts about finishing and that he felt he held up well.
Of course, this is Vance we're talking about, so his bladder had to come into play. So he stopped ... and stopped ... and stopped. But that also gave him a chance to eat and refuel which he thinks really helped down the road.
Now, Vance is trying to figure out how to get in to do the SC 1/2 IM on Oct. 1
That was the news from Madison. I'm sure Vance will give us his first-hand account when he has access to his computer and time to do a write-up.
Congratulations, Vance!
Bob
PS... As previously noted, Mike Madden posted this as told by Bob because he had access to the BLOG user-id and password....
