Luke Wins Japan!!!!

I did it ... yesterday I won my first Ironman title, Ironman Japan! It
was my seventh Ironman finish, therefore I have dubbed it "Lucky
number seven". To make the victory even sweeter I also set a new
course record of 8.29.11

It was a perfect day for an Ironman with cloudy skies, light rain
every now and then, slight wind and a nice 26 degrees with high
humidity.

I had a great start to the day with a good swim of just over 47
minutes. Mathieu O'Halloran lead out of the water but I soon passed
him through transition and from there I kept the lead for the rest of
the day.

I rode well, making sure to take the technical downhill corners with
care and cruising the harder climbs to keep my heart rate from
spiking. I actually broke the old bike coure record also which was
held by super cyclist Chris Leito but Mitch Anderson out split me by a
few minutes to get the bragging rights on that one.

Out on the run I made sure to start more conservatively than I had in
the past and kept to my splits I had been training to over the past
few months. My new K-Swiss shoes were unreal and it's going to be
available to the public at the end of the year so I highly recommend
them to anyone looks for the perfect Ironman shoe!

It was an amazing feeling running down that finish chute as the
winner and something I will savour for the rest of my life. Of course
I hope there are many more to come but I think that first one is
special.

I crossed the line to a "balling" Amanda. It was a great moment!


RESULTS
IRONMAN JAPAN, GOTO FUKUE, 2008

1st Luke McKenzie 8:29:11*
2nd Mitchell Anderson 8:38:34
3rd Hans Muehlbauer 8:39:48
4th Hayato Kawahara 8:48:00
5th Han SeokJoo 8:50:49
6th Daiki Masuda 8:51:26
7th Masayuki Matsumaru 8:52:53
8th Shingo Tani 8:57:11
9th Takuya Shibata 8:58:32
10th Hiroyuki Nishiuchi 8:59:32
* New course record