Ryan Pace had pushed his body for 11 hours before it began to rebel. Day after day of sweat-soaked training carried him that far, to Mile 18 of a marathon that followed a 112-mile bike ride that followed a 2.4-mile swim. But with only eight miles of road remaining, his burning legs begged his brain to downshift. It's the point in a race marathoners refer to as "the wall."
"In the Ironman," Pace said, "it's like a freakin' cliff."
He was prepared, though, because a scout always knows his opposition. As daylight faded on that Saturday in June in Klagenfurt, Austria, he put his game plan into action.