Race Wheels

So today, I started wondering how much time I could save by purchasing a set of aero-wheels for the upcoming ironman, and I'm actually rather baffled by how little a difference they seem to make.

According to a couple of different resources on the web, the savings for a 40k bike ride is something on the order of about 90 seconds (difference between least aero wheels and a full disk in the back/deep rim + min spoke combo). Since a 40k is about 24.2 miles, we're looking at about 4.5 times that amount of just about 7 minutes over the whole bike course.

While I don't disagree with the fact that it works out to be a "free" 7 minutes, I just can't justify the expenditure of several thousand dollars for it right now. It's certainly important for people racing up at the top (elites and age groupers trying to qualify for Kona), but I'm a little far from that point right now.

I could probably save more time by investing some money in a vacuum cleaner and a hypodermic needle to suck the excess flab out of my gut right now.....or at least by committing to pee on myself during the race. I'm guessing that over the course of the ironman, I'll probably spend at least 7 minutes either in or waiting for a porta-potty.....and I've got a long way to go before peeing on myself becomes on option.

Yeah, so I'll revisit the race wheel purchase option at the same time I revisit the bathroom plan.
Drew