12 November 2008

Silverman Ironman 2008 - Inside the Numbers

Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: Ironman; Races; triathlon.

One thing I love to do is drill down into numbers… so, here are some interesting stats about my race performance that can be gleaned from drilling down into my “race line”.

Here’s the line:

  • Final Place - 61
  • Swim - 
    • Time: 1:42:07
    • Pace: 2:25/100yards
    • Swim Rank: 120
  • T1 - 
    • Time: 4:42
    • T1 Rank: 54
    • Rank after T1: 112
    • People I passed in T1: 8
    • People who passed me in T1: 0
    • Places gained in T1: 8
  • Bike -
    • Time: 7:25:56
    • Speed: 15.1mph
    • Rank after Bike: 80
    • People I passed on Bike: 32
    • People who passed me on Bike: 6
  • T2 - 
    • Time: 4:26
    • Rank after T2: 76
    • People I passed in T2: 4
    • People who passed me in T2: 0
  • Run -
    • Time: 4:48:16
    • Rank after Run: 61
    • People I passed on Run: 19
    • People who passed me on Run: 11
What I really like about this line, especially compared to my race last year is that I didn’t lose any places on any of the legs of my race. Which is to say I gained position in T1, on the Bike, in T2, and on the Run.
It’s interesting to me that I did get passed by 6 people on the bike and 11 people on the run.
But another interesting way of looking at the race is, who was behind me at different point in the race, and finished ahead of me.
  • Swim- 4 people who swam slower than me (my weakest skill) finished ahead of me. One of those people was “Arizona” who I ran with during the middle of the run, and who ran past “Oakland” and I in the last 1.5 miles of the race.
  • T1 - 7 people who left T1 after me, finished ahead of me. The 4 from the swimmers group plus 3 others.
  • Bike/T2 - 4 people who finished the bike and got out of T2 after me, finished ahead of me. One was “Arizona” who darted past me with 1.5 miles to go, one was “Oakland” who really, I could have finished ahead of, but I stopped to get out my video camera, and so I told him to keep running ahead of me, one was the guy with the invisible rope I mentioned in my audio post, and the forth was some amazing runner who jumped from 81st place after the bike (right behind me) to finish in 17th place overall, by running a 3:08 marathon!!!!! WOW! She was amazing!
Anyway, looking at the numbers this way further convinces me of what I always tell people… triathlon is an amazing sport because everyone can come to it with different strengths and weaknesses… and everyone has a chance to “win” or “advance” based on their own strengths and weaknesses.

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6 Comments so far...

rhcp Says:

12 November 2008 at 3:38 am.

You should be o proud of yourself! I am amazed.

Thomas Powell Says:

12 November 2008 at 5:49 am.

Very nice marathon at the end of a long day. Looks like we have a similar story going… I started at around 230 lbs, and I’m down to <165 lbs now, over the course of 2 1/2 years. Of course, I’ve only experienced the marathon, and I’m still setting my sights on Boston (3:10:59 for me still).

bikingbrady Says:

12 November 2008 at 6:03 am.

Outstanding Brad! That’s a very impressive set of results and you SHOULD be proud!!

lynchseattle Says:

12 November 2008 at 6:14 am.

Good work! It sounds like a grueling swim! Reading about it was a reminder that I need to be good at breathing on both sides while I do the swim.

Fantastic job and I look forward to our next ride!

Thomas Powell Says:

12 November 2008 at 6:15 am.

That last sentence, “Of course, I’ve only experienced the marathon, and I’m still setting my sights on Boston (3:10:59 for me still),” came out weird–it was just a remark on my unwillingness to branch out to other activities yet.

It looks like you spent twice as much time training as I did last year. I can’t imagine the dedication needed to take things to that level. Simply amazing.

rschad Says:

12 November 2008 at 1:14 pm.

Outstanding job! I appreciate your analysis of the race segment by segment. While I get a rush out of training and races, I also really get into looking at the details of performance to make subtle improvements for next time.

 
 
 

Activities: Year to Date

Distances
Bike: 797 miles
Run : 186 miles
Walk: 15 miles
Swim: 20,940 meters
Hours of Activity
 Bike: 42.5 - 37.5%
 Swim: 7.1 - 6.3%
 Run : 25.8 - 22.8%
 Strength: 25.9 - 22.9%
 Flex: 4.2 - 3.7%
 Walk: 4.8 - 4.2%
 Other: 3.0 - 2.6%
  Total:113.3
 

Activities: Last Year

Distances
Bike: 6,086 miles
Run : 1,121 miles
Walk: 277 miles
Swim: 100,234 meters
Hours of Activity
 Bike: 306.8 - 42.6%
 Swim: 38.0 - 5.3%
 Run : 165.6 - 23.0%
 Strength: 32.8 - 4.6%
 Flex: 70.7 - 9.8%
 Walk: 100.8 - 14.0%
 Other: 5.9 - 0.8%
  Total:720.6