Before getting started, I have to give a humongous shout out and thank you to my coach, wife, and best friend, who I most definitely could not have done this without: I LOVE YOU BABE! :-)
Let's jump straight into the action! First up, the swim.
The gun goes off at 6:50 starting the pro wave. After they take off, we have 10 minutes to get 2900 bodies across two small timing mats, into the water, and then a 200 meter swim up to the starting line. A little nerve wracking, but I'm way up towards the front of the corral, jump in the water, swim up to the line and spend the next 5 minutes taking it all in. I can't believe I'm about to actually do this! Looking around at all the people in the water, and all the thousands of fans lining the water, looking up and seeing both bridges covered with people, is amazing.
Finally the gun goes off, and here we go! Keep in mind, the biggest race I've done previously had a wave start with about 100 people. Now I'm in the water with like 2900 other people. And I've heard time and again what a swim start like this will be--but it just doesn't prepare you for the real thing. I managed to stay pretty calm considering the first five minutes I felt like people were actively trying to drown me. Arms hitting me in the back of the head, on my back, grabbing my butt, pulling on my legs--I think the only place I didn't get hit was in the crotch. I'm also pretty sure I broke someone's nose with my elbow-inadvertantly-during this time. I had started very close to the front of the mob, and after a few minutes I finally found some open water and was able to relax. I settled into my rhythm and just concentrated on my breathing. Sighting was a piece of cake, as the swim was in Tempe Town Lake, which is basically the Rio Salado river channel. It flows east to west, but really the current was nonexistent. So the first half of the swim is west to east along the south bank. So, every other breath, look to the right, there's the bank, keep going. I chose to stay close to the bank, about 15 meters off it, because of this. This is fine for the first 3/4 of the trip out, but after crossing under the Rural Road bridge the channel veers to the south-but the turn around buoy is in the middle of the channel. Up to this point I've been swimming with two or three other groupophobes like myself, with the main line of swimmers about 10 meters to my left. Now its time to join them for the turnaround. I make it around the two end buoys without any problems, and start the trip back. On the way back, we are basically smack in the middle of the channel-no shoreline to keep me headed in a straight line. This is when I notice I don't really have an even swim stroke. I continue to veer to the right--like 30 degrees to the right--like, where the hell am I going to the right. So the return trip is me zigzagging all over the place because I just don't think I can handle getting into the group of swimmers just to my left. I hit the last buoy and make the final turn towards T1 feeling strong. I climb out and check my time, 1:07:48! Hell yeah! What a great start to my day! I thought going under 1:10 was definitely doable, but having never done this before I just didn't know.
After a slow T1, I hop on the bike and get going. I take it easy for the first hour, just like my coach said to :). I get passed by TONS of people flying by, but I have faith in my game plan, so steady as she goes. My legs feel kind of dead anyway, so I probably couldn't push it if I wanted to. There is a little headwind on the way out but not too bad. I hit the turnaround at about 1:03, and BOOM! Well maybe that wind was a little bit more than I thought. I come FLYING back into town in like :50--and that's with a potty break!
The second loop is not so nice, for several reasons. One, the wind has picked up. Heading back out of town I definitely feel it a little bit more. About 2 miles from the turnaround, just as I'm starting the one small climb we have, I realize-I'm hot. Immediately following is the realization--there's no wind, i.e., it's shifted. Dang it! Nothing to do but go on, so that's what I do. I hit the turn around, hoping it's a cross wind. No such luck. Straight on headwind--yay. So I get to have a headwind BOTH ways with this lap. Awesome. At least it's downhill so its not all bad. I get about 3/4 of the way back into town, when suddenly I hear a motorbike pull up next to me and I here my name, "Jeremy!" I look around and there is an official with a big red card, who proceeds to tell me I am receiving a penalty for drafting. Drafting??? ME?? Mr. I hate drafting and everyone who does it?? Are you F'ing kidding me?? I look around bewildered at the closest bike, which is clearly over 50 feet in front of me. Excuse me but have you seen the packs of 20-30 riders in their f*cking echelons, and you are giving ME a penalty?!?! I just roll my eyes, shake my head, and get back to work. I report to the penalty box about a 1/2 mile short of the end of lap two and wait my 4 mins. So yes my 2nd lap was considerably longer than my first, partly due to the wind and partly due to this bullshit penalty.
The third loop was about the same as lap two, except I have an obvious tailwind on the way out. It's nice because its gently sloping uphill, but I know I have to turn around and ride back into town straight into it. I make it through this lap without too much difficulty and check my bike split--6:01:42. Minus that four minute penalty, (and another 7 mins for bathroom breaks and stopping to adjust my rear brakes) and I'm well under six hours, which is right where I wanted to be! I had hoped to be a little faster, but this being my first IM I just didn't really know what I could/should be capable of, ya know?
After a quick change and potty break in T2, I'm off on the run. And despite feeling like I had dead legs throughout the bike, once I start the run my legs feel AWESOME! I was amazed! They didn't feel like I'd really worked them at all--I felt fresh and had a spring in my step. I continued to put the brakes on and still ran my first mile in 8:30. Definitely faster than my goal race pace, I just felt so darn good! I walked through the first aid station and then set out at a much more reasonable 9:15 pace and managed to stay there. My legs continued to feel good, and I continued with my plan of walking and refueling at each aid station, approximately every mile. I mention this because about mile 5 is where my day started to go not so much as planned. My legs continued to feel great; however my stomach started to have a different opinion about how the day was going. And after having a day to reflect on it, I think my stomach issues started much earlier, on the bike. Of course I had my nutrition planned out going into the race, and stuck with it--until the 3rd loop of the bike. I had skipped my special needs bag during lap 2, but decided to stop on lap 3 and grab it. I was feeling hungry on the third loop, and became absolutely terrified of bonking, hard, on the run. So I stopped and grabbed my bag, which contained 2 Smucker's Uncrustable sandwiches and a Snicker's bar. I then proceeded to eat ALL of this over the next hour. Yeah, I know, WAAY too many calories for that time frame. My stomach took it all in stride--for the most part--with just a little discomfort after the second sandwich. So fast forward back to the run. I continue with my nutrition plan, walking at each aid station to drink, and eating at my scheduled times. My stomach started to become more vocal at around mile 4, but again, I was terrified of bonking, so I continued to shove the food in. I managed to push through 'til about mile 10, but by then the damage was done. Anything more than a fast walk sent my intestines into spasms. I tried to induce some upchucking, but all I got was dry heaves. I struggled to limp from one aid station to the next. I tried switching foods for the next few miles, going away from the GU's and taking some fruit, pretzels, cookies, coke, didn't matter. 1-2 bites/sips and I'd just throw the rest of it down as another wave of spasms worked its way through me. Finally, I decided to just worry about staying hydrated. I stuck to the water for the next few miles, nothing else. Then, darkness. And with darkness at Ironman comes warm chicken broth! I continued to stay away from anything other than water and chicken broth. After 2 aid stations of that, I finally ran all the way from one aid station to the next without walking! Success! Of course by then my race was nearly over. I managed to run the last two miles at 9:30 pace, so I ended my day on a very positive note! I was definitely all smiles as I crossed the finish line: 12:22:01!! :-)
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my race. I kicked tail on the swim. I feel I did well on the bike despite my legs not feeling 100%, for whatever reason. And my run was definitely not what I had hoped for, but overall I feel I learned a TON from the whole experience. I definitely felt like my fitness was there. This gives me great confidence going into the future-I know how much training I can handle, and now have some idea of what the training will give me. I think my GI issues were completely self inflicted, and that can be fixed.
I know some people will do one Ironman and say, I've done one, never again. I thought about this off and on during the run, but this morning, just one day after I raced, I'm already looking ahead to the next one. Ironman Coeur D'Alene, just 31 short weeks away!
