Jimmy Johnsen on his IMWA experience

It has been one week since Ironman WA and it is only now I have started winding down from my
accomplishment.

I was a bit concerned about my run fitness going into the Ironman as an achillies injury (which I'm
having trouble convincing people is real) had only allowed me to run 2 hours in total since the
Shepparton Half Ironman 3 weeks before. So if I was to have a good result at WA, I needed to set it
up right from the swim.

Swim
I was very happy with my swim and managed to stay with the lead bunch in a personal best swim
time of 48:36!

Bike
Although it may seem insignificant, a lightning fast transition in T1 formed a vital part in my race.
I went from 10th to 3rd in 1:07 which helped me catch Scott Neyedli after only 400m in to the bike
leg. Not too long after that I went passed Lawrence Van Lingen to take the lead.

I managed to settle into my Ironman heart rate by the 10km mark and was expecting the group of
chasers to catch me within a few kilometres. However, a check of the watch at the first turn around
told me I had extended my lead to 30 secs... which by 70km had turned into a 2:26 buffer and at the
half way mark I almost had 3 minutes on the group which had trouble organising themselves.

I started to feel quite flat between 125km and 140km but after refueling with some much needed
High5 nutrition, I managed to get my spark back for the last 30km and enjoyed a 4.45 lead at T2.

Run
It was important for me not to run too fast during the early stages of the run as I knew I did not have
the running conditioning in my legs, but after 14 km my average pace was 4:10.
It was around the 16km mark when Patrick Vernay blew past. I tried to go with him for about 4
minutes but knew that his pace was unsustainable for me and soon fell off.

By the 24km mark I was passed again. This time by Scott Neyedli and I was afraid there would be
plenty more runners coming as my legs were really starting to struggle and my pace was really
beginning to slow.

But I managed to hold on to third until 9km to go when Courtney caught me, to push me outside a
podium finish. He put 50m on me when I decided that I wanted my third place back!! So I went
from running 4:30 pace to 4:08 which pushed me to the limit and the brink of cramp. With 6km to
go I caught him and asked him a very important question… 'are you good at sprinting?´ To which
he replied… `No, not really´. But I did not want to have to sprint to the finish line so I continued
my charge hoping he could not follow my pace.

At the last turn around point I did a final watch check and realised Courtney had fallen behind by 1
minute. I really enjoyed the last kilometre to the finish and was so relieved and elated cross the line
in third. I was also happy that to able to push my body very hard in the run as was concerned I
might not be able to go the distance due to my troubling achilles.

I'm now taking a good break so I can fully recover before I launch into 2010!
I want to say a big THANK YOU for the support I was given out there, it certainly helped to keep
me going.

Have a nice Christmas and see you in 2010!
Safe training.
Jimmy Johnsen