On Friday I went to packet pick up and also got my bike from the Tri Bike Transport. I met a super nice lady named Leslie from Dallas when I commented on her tri top and the Enduroshark Salt Pill logo. These are the salt pills I have been taking and love them. They have tons of salt in them, 255mg to be exact. She ended up giving me a ride to the places I needed to go when I told her I had been sick the previous days. So kind of her. I am sure I will run across her again sometime since she lives in Dallas. Friday was a bit more hectic than I needed with all of my family arriving and spent a little more time on my feet than I should have. I also went to the Athlete dinner and meeting on Friday night. Food wasn't bad and it was a cool part of the experience. One guy lost 212 lbs while training for the Ironman. This is why triathlons are cool.
So on Saturday all I had to do was drop off my T1, T2 bags, and my bike. This was all that I wanted to do too. I was successful at this as well. The entire afternoon I spent with my feet up relaxing and napping. We finished dinner by 6:45 which was perfect since that would give me 12 hours till race start. However this wouldn't really matter cause some how I knew I would be in the porta-john at some point on Sunday.
The race day had arrived. I had a wake up call for 3:45am. I showered, ate my oatmeal and banana and packed up the last of my things. I picked up my 2 bottles of red bull mixed with water that would be in my special needs bag on the bike. The hotel was supposed to freeze them, but they only put them in the fridge o-well.
We parked and got to the race start early. I bumped into Casey Z. and Sam M. as well as Richard B. This was nice to see them. Something that was really weird about this race that is different than all other ones I have ever done was how I felt on race morning. Normally on race morning I am nervous and worried about what is going to happen. However for some reason this race I was missing this feeling. I was not at all nervous about the race. I was so confident that I would finish the race. There was never any doubt in my mind about finishing the race. In the days leading up to the race I was more nervous about getting to the start. Usually before a race I kind of dislike the swim and don’t look forward to it. However this feeling was gone. I feel that much of my missing feelings were due to the large amount of mental preparation I did for this race. I had spent the last 9 months mentally imagining what the race would be like, how I would feel and what would go thru my mind on race morning. I was very confident in my training and knew it would take me to the finish line. I approached the event as 3 separate events, an early morning 2.4 mile swim, a late morning summer bike ride of 112 miles, and an afternoon jog of 26.2 miles.
I walked to the swim start and got in line. I got in the water at about 6:45, I was tired of waiting around on dry land and wanted to get this thing started. I wish it would have started at 6:30 as opposed to 7am. I floated in the water till the cannon went off at 6:50 for the pro athletes. That was cool. They took off. The next 10 minutes went by very fast. The swim start was actually a bit anticlimactic for having some 2,406 athletes all start at the same time. I started right at the front of the pack. I didn’t care about hitting people or what not. I knew I would swim 1:45 – 1:50 per 100M so I knew I would be near the front. One thing that was very interesting about this swim was that how little energy and effort I exerted to maintain that pace. In training I was supposed to do a few 5km swims but never did. My longest swim was only 3200M. The Ironman swim is 3860M give or take. I didn’t even have to work hard to keep my pace at all on the swim. I think this had something to do with the amount of other people in the water all swimming the same pace. I didn’t mind bumping into people too much. Pretty typical for any race, in the that at the first turn we all pretty much stopped swimming and were doing a doggie paddle. One thing I did notice was that other people’s swim stroke really has a great deal of force when they go thru the water. I found that I swim just as fast as everyone else but when my hand enters the water and pulls thru I do it very gently, others not so much. When a few people would stroke it felt like they were punching the water, I don’t get it. Swimming is all about technique and the force of your hand into the water and thru the water isn’t as important as its positioning. So for instance when I would stroke and hit someone else’s back or leg it would simply be a gentle tap as opposed to a forceful blow. So the swim ended as quickly as it began. I was out of the water and felt great. I had the wet suit strippers pull my suit and I began the run up the helix.
Swim Time: 2.4 miles – 1:07:02 – 1:46/100M
40th place in my Age Group, 216th overall
On to T1, this was weird, I had never done a transition where everything I need was in a bag. My brother in-law was working T1 as a volunteer and he helped me do everything. However I didn’t really know what to do first when I dumped everything out of my bag. I stopped for a second and gained my thoughts and did this:
Dry off,
Put on socks
Put on chip
Put on shoes
Eat twix bar
Eat potato chips
Drink 5 hr energy
Put on HR monitor
Put on helmet
Put on sunglasses
Put on race belt
I did all of these things and took way longer than I needed to. I also kind of walked part of the way from swim finish to T1. I was just stopping and looking around and experiencing the atmosphere. I am disappointed with my times in this respect but really glad I did it. I enjoyed the moment. All I could keep thinking was that it was really happening, I was on my way to becoming an ironman. It was so surreal. The next one, I won’t be wasting time. Next time in and out, and also practice my transition with everything in a bag. Luckily Jeff my brother in-law was there to help. I really appreciated everything he did for me this weekend.
I ran outside and once again stifled by the transition set up. I literally had to run from one end of transition all the way to the other end. So I mapped it on Google earth and it was about a .15mile run from the door of T1 to my bike.
T1—14:24 – next time 5 minutes or less…
So I was off on the bike. As soon as I started pedaling on the bike I had my left calf/hamstring get a bit tight on me. This was the same pain I had about 3 or 4 weeks before the race. It went away and I was fine the weekend before the race but for whatever reason it came back. It wasn’t a show stopper but also something I didn’t want to get worse as the day went on. For this reason I was a bit more conservative than I would have been if I hadn’t had this tightness. It was more important to finish than finish fast. I had spent 9 months training and wasn’t going to waste this opportunity.
The bike was easy as I remember it. No real hills at all. Simply rollers, up and downs. There were 2 actual climbs and they are short. My hill repeats made these seem super easy, even at mile 90 or so on the second pass. I smiled all the way up the hills and got out of the saddle and just danced on the pedals all the way to the top. My nutrition plan was this for the race. I was taking EnduroShark Salt pills http://enduroshark.com/ These are great. They have almost 255mg of NaCl in them, plus tons of other sodium. I was taking about 1 – 2 of these per hour and a few extra in the last hour. I started out with powerbars every 20 minutes. I ate 3 powerbars over the first 3 hours or so, plus tons of Gatorade. This would put my calories around 300 – 400 per hour. I pissed twice on the bike while riding and once in the porta john. I picked up my special needs bag at mile 57 or so and grabbed a quick drink of coke, handful of chips, 2 waterbottles with red bull mixed with water and my 5hr energy. I also ditched my socks at this point to. I don’t know why but I didn’t want to wear them right then, even though I wore them 60 – 70% of the time on my long rides in training. I finished the second loop and started back for T2. There was a stretch of straight road that had a headwind on the way back for about 3 miles and this was around mile 105 – 108 or so, this was the worst part of the race. I wanted to drink and eat a bunch more but knew I couldn’t because I would be running in like 20 minutes and didn’t want a full belly. Then I lost my last water bottle with like 3 miles to go and was really thirsty and didn’t have any water. This was all happening but as soon as I realized it I was in T2 and done with the bike. Now on to the mentality of lets just go jog for a few hours and then you will be an Ironman.
Bike Split
112 miles – 6:12:46 – 18mph Average
Heart Rate Average for bike course 138
T2, I ran in grabbed my bag and sat down with Jeff. I immediately put him to task of fixing my race belt. It came apart on the bike. He fixed it while cleaned up with wet ones. I put my gels in my pockets, visor, shoes; race belt fixed by Jeff and was ready to run. I ran out and got tons of more sunscreen slathered on me. That is one thing I didn’t get was sunburned. I was coated the entire time I raced. I started off running very easy about 9:30 – 10 minute pace. I felt really smooth and strong. I knew the first order of business was finding a porta john to take a crap. I knew this was coming and figured I better get it out of the way early in the marathon so I could just run. This was accomplished. I continued chipping away at the miles, holding myself back a bunch. I felt a bit of tightness in my left calf, but all in all I was again being really conservative. I wanted to finish. I ended up in the porta john again at mile 5 or so. I expected this to happen, a normal day for me I am on the toilet a few times anyway.
T2 --- 10:57
The run was weird, since my goal was to finish under 13 hours at this point since I knew the 12 hours was out of the question. In hindsight I went way to slow and felt way to good at the finish. However, I did get to enjoy the entire run. When you see pictures of me on the run you can tell how good of a mood I was in. I mean honestly, I was so happy that the day had finally come and in a few short hours of jogging, I was going to be an Ironman. I absorbed all that was Ironman Wisconsin on that run. At about mile 20 Jeff started running with me. We kept a decent pace. I was bit tired at mile 20 but still kept my cool. I walked thru aid stations and up the 2 steep hills, but other than that I was pretty much doing a slow jog the entire time. As I write this I am a bit ashamed of my run time seeing as I held so much back, I could have done tons better. I can make up for it in my next one. I want my next Ironman marathon portion to be just under 4 hours or as close to 4 hours as possible. I think this is completely within my reach too. My only concern about my next 2 Ironman run portions is the hills. This could prove challenging. My nutrition on the run was gatorade, water, salt pills, coke, pretzels, chips, and bananas. I ate one gel on the run and didn't want to eat another one. To be honest, I was just flat out hungry, all I really wanted to do was just stop and eat a restaurant. I wasn't bonked, I still had plenty of energy and felt pretty damn good the entire time on the run. The bananas were the best. Once I ate a few of these I felt much better. One thing I hated about the run was the fact that they had orange gatorade on the run. They also had orange gatorade on the bike. That is a rookie mistake for such a high profile race. Orange gatorade was the last thing I wanted to drink was orange gatorade. I had probably drank like 2 or 3 liters of this on the bike. It didn't taste good to me at that point.
Run Split
26.2 miles -- 4:43:20 -- 10:49 / mile
Heart Rate Average -- 142 -- (I should of went a bit harder, I can run up to 170bpm and still be aerobic)
Total Time: 12:28:27
Swim Time: 2.4 miles – 1:07:02 – 1:46/100M
T1—14:24
112 miles – 6:12:46 – 18mph Average
T2 --- 10:57
26.2 miles -- 4:43:20 -- 10:49 / mile
After the race, I felt pretty damn good. I was so happy with myself. As you can see from my pictures I was really happy after I crossed the finish line. It was pretty emotional for me, I can safely say their were tears of joy as I crossed that finish line. I had imagined that moment of coming up the last hill on state street turning the final corner and seeing the finish line so many times over the past year. I had played that moment thru my head more times than I can count. After the race I went straight to the food tent. I was hungry. I had a coke, 3 slices of pizza, and some cookies. I was extremely hungry on the last part of the run. I met back up with the family took a picture or 2 and then had my Dad go get my stuff from transition. Then they informed me they moved the car we had parked that morning a few blocks away. This was horrible news to me. That morning we parked 1 block from the finish line. Perfect spot. Now we had to walk like 4 blocks to the car. This sucked, but moving the car did allow my brother in-law to see me on the bike, so I was okay with that. By the way, Thank you so much Jeff for everything. Taking me to the hospital and helping me out when I was sick. Being there in Transistion both times for me and running with me the last few miles. This was a huge help for me. Thanks a bunch.
All in all, this was a terrific experience. I can't wait to do another one. I really enjoyed training for it and racing it. I probably will still use my blog to post updates about different things from time to time. I will definitely use it for all my race reports too.
HERE IS MY VIDEO LINK --- VIDEO LINK, (The link isn't working yet because Youtube won't let me put up a video longer than 10 minutes) My ever so gracious brother in law Jeff will be hosting the video for me on his website. I will update the link when it it is up. There are way more pictures in the video, so I suggest you watch it.
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