Ironman 2009

Ironman 2009 was so awesome! I finished my ironman triathlon in 12 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds, which is 51 minutes faster than my previous ironman two years ago. The venue was the olympic basin, Ile de Notre Dame, Montreal, Canada. There were about 1,000 athletes competing in varous triathlon distances, but there were only about 50 athletes doing the ironman. Full results of my race can be found at this link:

http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?racecode=45486&first=J.d.&last=WILLIAMS&city=Niskayuna.

Dave Anderson and I did the race together. This year was a little different from last time because both of our families stayed home. We wanted to save the money plus Gina was 8 months pregnant and not in a good position for the travel. It worked out well for Dave and I to share a hotel room and cut down our expenses to make the trip possible. However, it definitely was not the same without our families there to cheer us on. During the race I tried to imagine my family along the course with their signs cheering me on.




The day before the race, Dave and I did two sessions at the Montreal Temple. The first session was in French, and the second one was in English. During the French session, I used the headset translators and tuned into the Spanish version! That was awesome to hear a session in my mission language. Note the strange back tire. We got a flat tire on the way to Montreal, but luckily Dave had a full spare tire in the trunk. Good thing we didn't get a second flat!

By the way, the pictures below are from the photographers site, so you will notice the watermark on the photos.




Here I am getting out of the water after the first leg of the ironman: the 2.4 mile swim. My swim time was a little slower than last time, but I felt really good getting out of the water. We swim in the olympic rowing basin, which is a huge pool 3 meters deep, 100 meters wide, and 2,000 meters long. It was the site of the 1976 summer olympic rowing events.




Here I am transitioning from my swim to bike. You can see my bike in the foreground, #50.




Here I am on the bike course, which is 41 laps around a formula 1 race track on Ile Notre Dame. The total bike distance is 112 miles. During the race I got off the bike about 5-6 times to stretch out my stiff back. My overall bike time was 5:41, which is 13 minutes faster than last time.




Here I am starting my last lap of the marathon. The marathon leg of the triathlon is 9 laps around the olympic rowing basin. It felt so good to be on that last lap. My marathon time was 4:53. I was very happy to get under 5 hours on the marathon.





FINISHED!!! It felt so good to cross that finish line. I ran very hard in my final lap and gave it all I had. After getting my picture taken, I found the nearest chair and sat right down. It was really hard to get up out of that chair later!




Victory! Dave also gave it all he had on the last lap and was exhausted afterwards. Dave finished just 3 minutes ahead of me, so he was there at the finish line when I crossed. After I crossed, he laid down on the cement ground in the finishers area and stayed there with his arms outstreatched for quite some time. He said that there never was a more comfortable place to be in all the world. I don't blame him! I was very pleased with how fast I was able to recover from the race. After about 4 days I didn't feel any soreness or pain. I felt ready to do it again! I look forward to my Ironman next year.