2011 Florida Ironman

I looked to this day for a year.  Some days I felt amazing and other days I literally couldn’t walk.  Both kids and wife got sick a few times but I was somehow able to dodge the germs.  I wondered if I trained enough, what the weather was going to be like, how long it would really take, Kona, the mass beach start.  Then at the start there was calm…now the race.

Q: Why did I do it?

A: That’s easy…sort of.  A bunch of friends I ran with in a running group called Boston Bound talked about the triathlons they were doing from sprint to full distance.  I’d seen it on T.V. and I love competing.  In the spring of 2009 while training to one day qualify for the Boston Marathon I learned that the ITU (International Triathlon Union) sponsored by Dextro was coming to Washington, D.C. in June of 2009.  Excited by the prospect of competing and having never done a triathlon I thought this would be an incredible chance to challenge meself.  Keep in mind I hadn’t swam more than a length (25 yards/meters) in a pool since I lifeguarded some 20 years ago and I didn’t have a road bike.  So I began swimming in May and I borrowed a road bike soon thereafter.  The bike didn’t even have pedals so I put my eggbeater mountain bike pedals on the bike and used my mountain bike shoes and I was now set to compete in my first triathlon…

Fast forward two years to the single biggest athletic event I’ve ever participated in.  Yes I had run a couple of marathons including Boston, and yes I had competed in multiple Olympic and 70.3 distance triathlons but I hadn’t done a full distance triathlon (sometimes referred to an Ironman). 

My biggest concern was the unknown of the swim.

I’m not an exceptional swimmer as I just started swimming distance in May of 2009 and I didn’t swim on any teams as a kid.  Before that I was splashing around with my kids.  Compound the uncertainty of the swim with the fact that it would be my first mass start and a beach mass start no less.  So look at it this way.  You’re on the beach and all of a sudden 2500 of your closest friends are going to run into the water (that you haven’t acclimated to) and attempt to occupy the same space to eventually get to the same place.  To my surprise and relief it wasn’t nearly as bad as I made it out to be in my head.  The only tragedy of the swim was my left goggle kept filling with water so I had to keep popping up to clear it.  Eventually I just gave up and basically swam with one eye.  Oh, and the jellyfish were HUGE, though thankfully they were well below my reach.  End of first lap really included part of the beach run to head back into the water for lap two.

At this point I was very happy and a bit surprised with my time but a happy surprised.  Lap two was completed unimpeded except for the turn buoys where everyone would pile up so I went a little wide to miss most of that.  I even got to swim/draft/get dropped by one of the female pro’s at the final turn buoy to the beach.  How cool is that?  On that final stretch I decided to not follow the buoy line and instead take a more direct route to the beach which ended up being a bad idea (lesson opportunity).  I didn’t have anyone to draft off of and came in after my second lap a little slower than my first which surprised me because I felt stronger but I still nailed my swim goal.  Water temp was high 60’s.  Very comfortable and it appeared to get warmer as we headed out.

LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	RANK	DIV.POS.
SWIM SPLIT 1: 1.2 mi	1.2 mi (33:53)	1:45/100m
SWIM SPLIT 2: 2.4 mi	1.2 mi (37:02)	1:55/100m
TOTAL SWIM	2.4 mi (1:10:55)	1:50/100m	744	146

Apparently in Ironman branded full distance triathlon they have volunteers who are called wetsuit strippers (insert comment here).  Whoever thought it was a good idea to have the wetsuit strippers on the beach in the sand on the path everyone needed to take to get through transition should have their head examined.  Fortunately I did not step on anyone nor did anyone step on me.  On to get my bike gear bag and get changed.  Wish there was some pictures of the transition cluster.

T1 was a long run into a building that again didn’t have enough space to breathe let alone change so as I transitioned leaning against a wall I completed the task of donning helmet, shoes and socks, arm warmers, and gloves and off I went all the way back down the chute to run all the way back up the transition area to the great volunteer who handed me my bike and then some more running with my bike shoes on (ARGH!) and then finally they let me get on the bike and off I went.

The goal on the bike was to average 20 mph and anything more would be a bonus.  I rode based on heart rate but really going off of how I felt.  The highest point was the one causeway bridge we had to cross and then a few rolling hills but basically flat as a blueberry pancake.  Most of the road was incredibly smooth, however, there was the section leading out towards the bike special needs bags which from all the chatter I heard after the race beat up everyone, not just me.   I did have some minor issues while riding.  One of my rear bottle cages came loose while I was riding but was able to grab my bottle before I bombed the riders behind me.  I put that bottle in my jersey top and put a water bottle in my shorts, ala Faris Al Sultan.  I did have to make one pit stop while on the bike to one of the Port-O-Johns which went fine except when I came out to my bike the rack had collapsed and some of my nutrition hit the ground (GRRRRRR).  The last 7 miles was probably the toughest due to the wind off the beach.  It was even worse as you passed near the tall hotel buildings.  I took this section easy as I didn’t need to be pushing crazy power at the end of the bike right before my run.  With about 1/2 mi to go I got out of my shoes and prepared to dismount the bike.

 Dismounted at the line and a nice volunteer took my bike and I ran to get my run gear bag which had shoes, an extra pair of socks if I needed, and my visor.

LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	RANK	DIV. POS.
BIKE SPLIT 1: 55 mi	55 mi (2:46:50)	19.78 mi/h
BIKE SPLIT 2: 95 mi	40 mi (1:49:58)	21.82 mi/h
BIKE SPLIT 3: 112 mi	17 mi (52:39)	19.37 mi/h
TOTAL BIKE	112 mi (5:29:27)	20.40 mi/h	429	82

So I put my gear on and off I went.  

  

 

The run started out amazing.  I wasn’t stiff or sore after bike dismount.  I made it a point to keep the pace down around 8 min/mi even though I kept dropping to 7:30-:45 min/mile.  About mile 10 my heart rate started dropping (lesson opportunity).  I wasn’t having a hypoglycemic feeling and my energy levels were fine.  I just couldn’t get and keep my heart rate up.  So miles 10-18 were at times quite tough.  I would run but then had to walk for a little then run again.  It became obvious to me that my nutrition “plan” or was not working the way I had hoped/planned.  So all bets were off and I began eating whatever I could get my hands on like cookies, powerade, and even chicken broth because it was salty and that was good because I somehow forget to put my salt caps on my bike (lesson opportunity – put salt tabs in my run gear bag so if I drop them, run out, or forget them I will have more for the run).

Then about mile 20 I looked at my watch and it said 10:00 hours (no the watch wasn’t really talking to me…or was it? so I thought to myself, self, “who can’t run a 10K in an hour” and at that point I started running and my heart rate started coming up and I was able to run sustained for 2 or 3 miles till my heart rate started dropping again and as I neared the finish with all the incredible volunteers and spectators cheering and I realized at that moment in time I could not run a 10K in and hour (ha-ha)so my next goal was to beat the sunset.  Missed that one too so I decided I was going to see how many people I could pass before the finish.  I thought the finish was closer than it really was but that was okay because I felt great and I started hearing the announcer and the music and the spectators and tried desperately to enjoy the finish chute as much as possible but some guy was trying to catch me and if you know me I wasn’t about to let that happen and then with about 15 or so feet to go when I knew there was no way he could pass me (note: unwritten rule is you don’t pass someone in the finisher chute because it buggers up the finisher picture and it’s just not cool) I started walking and crossed the finish line with a BIG smile on my face.

LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	RANK	DIV.POS.
RUN SPLIT 1: 5.75 mi	5.75 mi (47:36)	8:16/mi
RUN SPLIT 2: 13.1 mi	7.35 mi (1:06:00)	8:58/mi
RUN SPLIT 3: 18.4 mi	5.3 mi (59:20)	11:11/mi
RUN SPLIT 4: 26.2 mi	7.8 mi (1:18:14)	10:01/mi
TOTAL RUN	26.2 mi (4:11:10)	9:35/mi	419	86
TRANSITION				TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE				10:37
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN				4:05

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	RANK	DIV.POS.
1:10:55	5:29:27	4:11:10	11:06:14	419	86

Thanks for reading.  Cheers