When I think about making my own A-goals now, I remember you saying that an A-goal should be achievable if 1) You do absolutely everything right, and 2) Everything goes your way. I suppose that means you could do everything right, really hit the nail on the head, but still miss your goal because of external circumstances. And vice versa, if conditions are great, but you’re just not feeling it, you might have an okay/good race, but it won’t be the BEST race.

I dunno… That makes sense to me. So why did you miss your PR? Because you didn’t do everything right, and everything didn’t go your way. Luckily, you still finished, you had a great time, and it was a worthwhile experience, so yeah — let’s call this one good. The A-goal will come, and it will be that much better when it arrives.

So after you do that, you can read the rest of my comment.

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As much as this is really unfortunate, your training isn’t wasted – you got more fit, improved your endurance, and built up a great base that might serve you even better going into Augusta. Go kill it there.

As for the race, I think you had a super hard week going into the race. Nutrition and hydration is vital to performance, and due to the infection and antibiotics, you weren’t able to do that as well as you wanted. Don’t beat yourself up too much about it.

I’m learning not to be too emotional about what happens on race day, and after the race passes, working to be as objective as possible about how the day unfolded. It’s hard. Your coach will be a key help in this process.

Identify the issues – if you wear HR or use power, analyze those files to see what types of clues you might be able to find for what happened. Match that to the previous weeks of training. Talk to your coach – no doubt s/he will have some thoughts for what you’ve done and where you need to be.

But, beyond the actual race files, I think it’s really hard to go have the race of your life when you can eat or drink properly in the days prior. Pick another race, and go after your goals. You CAN DO IT!!!!

Frankly, I think you did the right thing by not pushing on the run. When you miss the PR/A goal and have other races in the pipe, my thought is that it’s best to use the race as a training run and don’t red line. Red lining will just make recovery take longer. In the long run, taking it easy will let you get back out there faster.

And congrats on the mental win! As one who has struggled with the brain game, I know how hard that is. You rock! And you will get this at Augusta!

2008 – first half iron. Hottest year they’ve had in the last decade. Walked the entire half marathon (3:38) and got so badly burned had to go to the hospital. Very stubborn. Finished in 6:48:xx.

2009 – better year, better weather. 4:24. But, 4th in my age group. 1 spot to Kona, 2 to Clearwater. Nothing for me

2011 – great swim, great ride, terrible run.

2012 – first. ever. dnf. 2 miles out from the finish, had to be pulled.

I took this year off. Couldn’t do it to myself again. Anyway, the point is that it’s just a really hard race and anything can happen. And unfortunately sounds like you went in with a bunch of stuff not going perfect for you – and to have a perfect day that’s what you need!

And yeah, swim was definitely slow. My friends swam over 30 minutes and they normally would swim 27-28:30. Andy Potts is a good example, 23:45. That would easily be 90 seconds slow for him. And the water conditions changed from the pros to everyone else.

Great perseverance though!

~ Ryan (aka BMoreRunning)

As far as running the 1:40 – put in your hardest effort, go for it, and don’t worry about the pace. I think your coach is right: you will surprise yourself. Don’t let your past experience with this race dictate the future awesomeness that awaits you.