Ironman Arizona- Fun in the Sun

Yesterday I attended the IMAZ in Tempe. The day seemed to be perfect with the temperature maxing out at near 80, yet a cool breeze kept things under control for the Ironmen and Ironwomen competing.



I took advantage of the three lap bike course to go out on my own two-wheeled machine to witness just how fast the top pros go. Let's just say I'm glad I chose to stick with bike racing where drafting is legal. These guys rock the bike. I decided to get in race mode and attempt to stick with professional Justin Daerr for 10 minutes on a rolling section of the course near the turn around.

Here is Justin Daerr at the half-way point on the bike. Notice the elves in the background handing up water.

Ouch! My short ten-minute stretch of time with Justin resulted in an average watts of 351w (355 normalized power). There is no way I could do that for 4.5hrs. Nice ride Justin! And he followed it up with a 3:04 run to make an 8:40 overall time, good for 11th place overall.

Here is a photo of Keith Watson who had a very solid race. Keith is a customer support rock star at TrainingPeaks and has probably helped a bunch of his fellow competitors through all kinds of software needs. Greta race Keith!




Here is the mens top three finishers celebrating at the finish line.

1.	ANDREAS RAELERT	8:14:16
2.	CHRIS LIETO	8:19:25
3.	JORDAN RAPP	8:19:45