Now in the tranquility of the hotel I’m writing a brief note of what has been the ironman of Texas today for me. From the swim the race went very well, I found the pace high, with no time to relax and I felt the swim terribly long!! We came out of the water in 49′, a large group of about ten units. In the transition I overtook a few places, and went out well placed to address the first miles of the bike. The course is very fast, especially the first part, even more today as we had a nice tailwind at the beginning. The pace was not too high so I decided to try to pull away in a couple of times but without success, the group was always catching me. I must say that the race has been a very drafting legal and clean, always respecting the distances, having a marshal for every five professionals makes people take the drafting issue very seriously. A slight rain has accompanied us in much of the bike, so the temperature was not very high and allowed us to ride more confortably. Once we were caught by Chris Lieto he broke away, I have done everything possible to keep his pace but he was flying and I couldn´t keep up and I was again absorbed by the group. From there we started to lost minutes to Lieto, we continued with a not very constant pace and at times rather slow, I’ve tried to push the pace but I didn´t want push too hard on the bike. In the last 15 miles came the attack of Luke Bell and seeing that I was feeling well I decided to go after him and we managed to open a nice gap before the run.
Leaving the transition area 6 minutes behind Lieto the win was still possible. Until mile 5 (km 8) of the run I have not had a good feeling running, from there little by little I recovered my runner’s legs and found a better feeling. All the while running with Luke Bell, we had a good pace, passing the mile 6 (approximately 10 km) in 37′ short and the half marathon in less than 1h20′. My legs were pretty well and Luke faltered a bit so I pushed forward alone. Coming very close behind me was Tim O’Donnell, so I didn´t relax and I kept my rythm to increase the gap to a minute finally. In the last 500 meters I saw that the win was mine and I thoroughly enjoyed the last part of the race, I finished very very happy.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the people who followed me in this Ironman, either from Facebook and Twitter and live here supporting me with their courage. You can be sure that without your support this would be much more difficult (and boring!!) And I sincerely hope that you feel this win also yours. I want to dedicate this victory to my girlfriend Ruth, to my family for their unconditional love and support always, to my coach Iñigo Mujika and to all my friends.
Thanks to all!! Big hug!!
