The past few months have been just mad crazy busy and I have severely neglected this page!

I competed in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Asia, and St Louis! Overall, finished out the year ranked #2 in the world and #9 overall – so not too bad! I have decided I will be dropping to feather weight for 2016 and hitting up the Europeans, Pans, Brazilian Nationals, and Worlds. In my absence from writing here, I did write a rather in depth article for Digitsu detailing how I budget for trips. You can read it Here!

I will be publishing a new article in a few days on this page, but in the meanwhile, here is the race report my Dad sent me for his latest IronMan. He is now gold level which means in his in the top 1% in the world in his division!

This is the IronMan Maryland race report for Craig Stoller

This was my 2nd IronMan for the season and IM MD was very different than IM CD.  IM CD temp was 105 in the run and IM MD was very cold and windy.

The IronMan consists of 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run.

With IM MD I am now gold status for IronMan All World and with only a few more races may keep this status.  Gold status is the top 1% in the world for your Age Group, based on your top three races.

Swim:

Goal: 1:25:00 (modified goal of 1:06:00 because of shorter course)

Actual: 1:01:47 (calculating for 2.4 would have been 1:20:31)

Swimming has not been my strength and it has kept me from podiums.   After my pathetic swim at Timberman (1.2 miles) of 45:27 I sent mail to Stacy (she is a swim coach) with a big “HELP ME, I need to improve my swim to get on the podium at IM MD”.  So with 7 weeks before IM MD setup a weekly session with Stacy for 4 weeks.  She totally redesigned my swim stroke but was not until the 4th week that started to see increase in speed.  Then for next three weeks I swam for 5 days a week (three normal workouts and two 20 min).  This 5 days a week was key to work on my muscle memory.

Because of the high winds, just before the start the swim course was reconfigured to spend less time in the channel.   So was reduced from 2.4 miles to 1.98.  Even with the change the water was very choppy with high waves.

With the start of the race I was very eager to try out my new swim stroke but had no idea how I would do.   I started in the 1:30:00 group and was frustrated that when got in the water people were just standing there so I had to dive through the people and do a Tarzan stroke (with alligator eyes) for the first 50yrds.  Then got into my stroke and felt very good.   In past races I had people swimming over me be in this race I was swimming over people.

Even in the rough conditions I was doing well as able to stay on top of the water.  The last 100 I even sprinted to the finish (YEA).

I was so excited with a 1:01:47 that is a pace of 2:03/100m.  Only one other race have I had a faster pace, and that was a .3 mile race in calm water.

I can’t wait for next year as expecting even faster times with my swim.

T1:

14:53

This was a disaster.  All night before I was going over in my head the order on how would put on my stuff.  Because was so cold I had to put on layers but did not think would take long.   I went into the changing tent and it was PACKED and I found a little little space to dump out my stuff. But with no room for stuff (also mixed with others) had a hard time.  I was so glad to get out of that place and hopped would not bump me off the podium

Bike:

Goal: 5:40:00

Actual: 5:49:52

The wind was  brutal for this 112 mile ride.   Most of the time had head wind or cross winds, with very little tail wind.  When did have tail wind it was a little teaser.

The first loop I struggle some but on 2^nd I started taking caffeine jells and boy did that pick up the pace.  For past 5 weeks had very little caffeine and when started taking on the bike was like high power fuel.   My power got to where I wanted and I was flying past people.

Coming out of the water the temp was around 47 and think the high was around 55.  So for arm warmers I use $1 black tub socks (with toes cut out) and worked very well.  For upper legs also used the tub socks and when got warm just rolled down past knee.

T2:

8:30

This was much improved and was nice to see Fosty and Kurt.  To save time did not change socks so continued to have bike socks with my running socks.  I decided to just run in my kit with no shirt under kit.  Most people had two layers on, as cold, but I like running cold.

Run:

Goal: 3:45:00 (but dream was to do 3:40:00 and qualify for Boston)

Actual: 3:36:10

Now I was ready for the fun part.  The first 18 miles was doing around 7:45 pace (even with stops).  The first 6 I tried to slow down but body just wanted to keep that pace.  Note: all my long training runs I run a 7:50 to 8:00 pace so may be why body comfortable at that pace.

At 19 was starting to get sick and very light headed.  At 20 pulled over and had a huge throw up.  I felt much better and at 21 downed my last jell and my speed picked up.  AT 25 I started to celebrate and had a hug smile on my face.  I also passed Kurt and gave him a big pat on the back.  I was so impressed with his race and he encouraged me every time I would see him on the run, like all the other members of the team.

One concern about the run is that on Monday started having big issues with the tendon in my foot, as very painful.   At mile 6 the pain was very bad.  It looked like I may need to drop out but pushed through because I was running so well.  I did stop and move my chip to the bad leg and tighten.  This reduced the pain on the tendon and able to push through.

Finish:

I finished at 5^th place and was so happy when found out that top 5 got on the podium. I also finished in 10:51:12.

It was so great to be on the podium for my race and for the team.  We had 9 members from our team (NorthEast MultiSpart) and our team got 1^st place for division 4 and that is impressive as other teams had a lot more members racing.   Kona roll down was also fun.  Next year will be my shot at Kona.

Up next is a Marathon on Nov 14 and I am hoping to do between 3hr15 and 3hr20.   I will be 55 on Nov 9 so will be in a new division so I think I have a good shot at wining it.