Michael Milford Ironman Machine (73) Wins 1st place and qualifies for World Championship in Nice, France 2025

A note from Mike's Coach to him and his team members...

Mike had a race.... As I said earlier Mike and Corinna had trained and pushed each other for most of the training cycle for IMAZ. Mike, however, was lucky enough to not wake up ill. He had a very impressive 1:31 swim, again the data didn't record so I can't give the yardage, but I'm guessing he swam very straight. Mike's plan was to start off the bike "stupid easy" and really save his legs for the last half of the bike and for the run. He really stuck to the plan, even though he was getting passed and was in third in his AG and loosing ground to a couple behind him. His second half was strong and he held his third place position off of the bike. Gary, who I gave specific instructions to, stepped out of his comfort zone and became a drill instructor in the changing tent and hustled Mike out of T-2 with a 4 min flat T-2. Knowing he was within striking distance of second, and that second place had an 15 min T-2 was a strong motivator. Mike started the run the same as the bike, stupid easy. He did lose a couple of minutes in the first 4 miles, but those were the only minutes he lost on the marathon. Mike settled into his all day pace and just ate up miles, holding a steady and strong pace. Watching first and second place it was obvious they were not going to be able to hold their pace - first place slowed to 18 min per mile at mile 8 and failed at mile 10, he starting off with 11 min miles. We kept feeding Mike the information on his position and he responded, by holding pace and maintaining focus. The athlete in front of MIke had a 30 min lead at one point, but Mike whittled that down to just a couple minutes with 6 miles to go. Mike held pace and ended up taking first place in his AG, on his first IM, by 15 min, having the fastest marathon in his AG by 45 min. This just doesn't happen on a first IM.... Not only is Mike an IM AG champion, he qualified for Nice and earned the right to melt a credit card with the entry to the World Championships, only to have to melt another in the Ironman store at Nice.