Dan - SAXMAN - Progress At Ironman Muskoka 70.3

Dan has finished the swim in 42:42..... and has completed the bike course in 3:35:17... He is on the run course now and there are no splits posted yet. GREAT JOB DAN .... get after that run big daddy!!!!

Thanks for posting Dan.  I was wondering...

Saxman - hope your run's going as well as you want!  Doing a great job so far!

Linn 

COOL..... Great job on reaching your goal of sub 3 hour half marathon Dan!!!  TOTAL TIME:

7:09:53 Way to go buddy!!! Looking forward to the Race Report...

Woo hoo, way to go, congrats on the success today!

awesome job!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, my time isn't great but I feel so great with finishing this one.  I'm damn proud of the finisher shirt/hat.  I really earned it on this course.  The course KICKED my butt in ways I never dreamt.  Dan, I want to hear what your coach has to say about this course.  I don't know if Satan himself had a hand in that one or not, but it was a brutal course.  Beautiful area/beautiful day, just grueling.  
 I did learn that if you can hit 44 mph on the bike going down a hill then you better be ready for some serious pain going back up it!!!  My Garmin says 7000' worth of climbing through the day 4700' on the bike and 2500' on the run.  No idea about gradients either but based on the 8% grades we've got out here (what a joke after experiencing Muskoka) I'd guess there were several 10-12% out there.  

I'll post a report in the next couple of days as I come to terms with everything that happened today.

All in all, I had a great race.  Swim was right on target (Steelhead had a significant current to help), bike was brutal, run was great -- yes I said the run was great!  I kept with my plan on the run, walk going up the hills and walk the aid stations and run everything else.  I even negative split the sucker.  I was hoping to do 9 minute/miles the last 5k but there was 1.5 miles worth of nasty hills to climb!!  

Thanks for watching my progress all!!
--Dan

edit:  Just read that one of the hills was a 20% grade (leaving the little town of Dorset) and I believe it!

YEah bro.. I heard that Muskoka is a ******* I know Brent (Coach) was hoping for sub 4 hours and he finished in 4:24:-- so I think it was probably a pretty dang tough course. Will let you know what he thought after I catch up with him. Rest up and I look forward to the RR...

Hey Dan,

Just looked up the course map and found this per the official race site: (Bike Elevation)

Maximum Elevation - 395m
Minimum Elevation - 287m
Ascending - 359m
Descending - 363m

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So with that, the 359M of climb equals 1178 feet of total climbing. I have found that Garmin does not do a good job of elevation calculation, and most Ironmen will agree. But, from what it sounds like, the hills that are present are pretty dang intense. Sounds kind of similar to Buffalo Springs 70.3. It is mostly flat for about 50 miles of the 56 miles, but the hills that were there were long and sometimes very steep. However, looking at the above elevation map, perhaps it's just up and down all day... Def not a cake walk. Great job again bro!









 

that is one gruesome route.  You guys really set a high standard. Great work!

 Great job Dan!  You rock!

Duane