Ironman!

GEC had a big day this year at Ironman Arizona. Big breakthroughs!

Tucsonans Cheryl Palen, Michael McClure, Sylvain Lebreton, and Joe McNally all became IRONMEN after training on GEC plans and guidance.

Then GEC full-time athletes finished and all raced to new Personal Records at Ironman!
- Scott LaRoche finished Ironman #2 with a breakthrough finish. Scott just returned from Afghanistan (US Air Force Fighter Pilot) where his only cycling was on the rollers, his swimming was on stretch cords, and his running consisted of a single, monotonous road. We spoke before the race about how this was not necessarily going to be his year to PR. He decided to prove me wrong and went 10:40 for a 20-minute PR. I was floored. Impressive.
- Owen Paulus came off a nagging running injury and a severe bout with the piggy fly to run sub-4:00 for the first time and come in at 10:29. Wow.
- Polita Paulus als had some running setbacks late season and was worried going into the race that things weren't going well. She held tough and we built a taper plan to get in some late running, and she performed great on race day! 11:07
- Joe McNally PR'd by one hour! His plan was to break 13:00, so he and Bill put together a plan. Joe was successful and went 12:52! Well done.

Brad Hendron stole the show, however. Brad and I have worked together for a number of years, and have lately really worked hard to get under 10 at IM and get him to Kona. When we started, Brad was a 13:30 IM and a 5:30 Half IM racer. Cycling was his weakness and was making his run suffer, so we put together a long-term plan to change that. He was always mentally tough--a great thing.
He had a great season last year with some breakthrough results at Olympic and Half IM distances, including an age group win at the Trisports.com HalfMax National Championships and an impressive 4:19 at Soma Half IM. But the IM was still eluding us.
We doubled our efforts, get him on PowerTap to really nail his cycling, and away we went. With a tough, high-volume plan and a small run injury to deal with, Brad held tough through some dark training sessions--both physically before the sun came up and mentally tough.
But he did it.

It's bitter-sweet, however. Although a breakthrough race both mentally and physcially, a 1:30 PR, a 9:33 finish with a PR in all three disciplines, and near flawless race execution, that time did not gain him a Kona slot. I couldn't believe it. Still can't. You can't plan on who else will show up and who will have a great day, too, but in any case, Brad had a great race and is already looking forward to taking time off in 2010. Next year, Brad.

Congratulations to all Ironmen out there. Well done.