Jordan Rapp @ Ironman Arizona #2

Jordan's first 'real' Ironman was this year in Arizona where he had a solid 3rd place, kicking onto the podium with the following splits: 55:03/4:32:42/3:02:33 8:35:04
This was a reasonable performance, not totally representative of where he was at preparation wise, but a step toward learning how to race a new distance effectively and lay it all down on the course.

With the Olympics in August and his role as a team mate and training partner for the Canadian National team here in Victoria, we planned the middle of the season to include some halfs and olympic non-drafting races then a 2 week break while he cheered his mates on in Beijing. Ironman Arizona #2 was a nice fit post Beijing to ramp up the training again over 2.5 months and finish with another go at the same course. Although he trained on his own in Los Angeles in the fall, rather than with the team in victoria, we kept the same short course, raise the ceiling, training style and pushed through a few 'shake the rust off' races like Dallas Lifetime Fitness and Jamaica.

I was fortunate enough to be able to make the trip down to Tempe and support Jordan's race and I am glad I did, as nothing makes me more proud that to see an athlete leave it all on the course and race with guts like Jordan did last weekend. He swam a level up from his April debut, much more like the level he's shown in the pool this year, and paying off the trials of miles in the water, to start the bike solidly within the second bunch. Onto the bike he got rolling like he does, and with good conditions, he patiently made his way within 2 mins of the leaders, posting the fastest split of the day. Finally on the run, he got a bit excited on the first lap to catch Lieto and Doe very early, and then learnt what it is like to lead an Ironman. Its a different game once you get a sniff of the win, and then it became a real race. Unfortunately the fast early pace and the swift legs of Raelert coming off his 2nd place in Clearwater meant the pass around mile 20 was definitive, but to his credit Jordan worked through a pretty rough patch for about 5 miles and pulled back within 20 secs of Lieto to finish up on the podium again. The way he raced and competing with a surprisingly high quality of field made it a very pleasing progression, in his maiden year at the Ironman distance. A new overall PB and improved splits in each discipline was the result of a lot of hard work and discipline in getting the job done since April: 50:28/4:26:12/2:58:43 8:19:45

Lots of upside for Jordan to continue to improve and now learning how to win is the next step.

Read Jordan's report here: http://blog.rappstar.com/2008/11/426-to-tempe.html