Race morning arrives and the alarm goes off at 4:30. Lucky for me, sunrise was at 4:48 so it was already light outside, which makes waking up that early SOO much easier.
The gun goes off at 7AM start and 2600 crazy people make a mad dash into the water. I thought the mass swim start at Arizona was bad! In the swim at AZ I pretty much did my own thing; I swam WAAY outside so I could go at my own pace and not have to worry so much about everyone else in the water. I knew coming into this race though, if I wanted to improve any on my time, I'd have to mix it up with everyone else. I spent the first 15 minutes just trying to survive, and finally found a little bit of breathing room after the turnaround buoy. I also had an A Ha! moment somewhere during this time. Up to this point, I'd always shied away from any contact in the water, always felt like I was just in the way of all these faster people. But then I started thinking, hey, I have just at much right to this water as anyone else! Then I thought, just treat this like a basketball game. Lord knows I never shied away from contact playing basketball, even though I was often the slimmest player out there! After this occurred to me I became a lot more aggressive with my swim; I swam where I wanted to and didn't care who was in my way-just like everyone else seemed to be doing :-). I wouldn't say I was LOOKING for the contact, but I definitely started dishing out more than I was taking :-). I made it back to the start and jumped out of the water for my short beach run before starting lap 2. Glanced down and smiled when I saw my first split, 32 minutes!
The second lap started out well. The crowd had thinned out by this point, but I noticed the water was a LOT choppier than the first loop, despite having fewer people. Guess the wind had picked up. About 10 minutes into this lap, though, I started to notice a strange thing. I couldn't seem to grip the water. Apparently my hands had had enough and were calling it a day. I couldn't force my fingers together! And I couldn't even keep them stiff! I had developed a case of what I call spaghetti hands. I didn't feel all that cold in my wetsuit, but apparently my hands did. My feet had gone numb within five minutes of the start, which was fine as I'm a horrible kicker on a good day when it comes to swimming. I somehow managed to stay in a good draft though and came out of the water with a 1:07! I slowed a bit during the second loop but felt it was a good time considering the chop and cold hands!
T1. Nightmare. I ran to the wetsuit strippers, and with my lifeless hands had not even managed to unzip the damn thing by the time I got there.
My enthusiastic helpers did not initially notice this and attempted to rip the thing from my shoulders down to my ankles in one fell swoop. After several attempts I finally managed to yell "Hold it!" after which they slowed down, unzipped me, pulled it off my arms and then the rest of the way off. I grabbed it, my T1 bag, and headed into the changing tent. I definitely wasn't in shock, but I was a little out of it, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, I almost felt disconnected from my body. Is that what hypothermia feels like? Who knows. I found a seat in the changing tent and couldn't grasp anything in my bag! Come ON hands, we have a race here! I finally just dumped it all out on the ground, managed to scoop up my towel, and held my cold lifeless hands inside it for a little bit to try and get some feeling back. A quick rubdown got most of the water off, then I attempted to peel the speedos off and put the bike shorts on. After much fumbling and bumbling, I finally had all my gear on--except my arm warmers. I just looked at them dumbly for a second, realized I had no chance of putting them on, so stuffed them in my pocket and headed out. T1 time 11:52, good grief!
On to the bike!
I spent the first ten minutes shivering uncontrollably. I mean COME ON!!! I decided there was no way I could continue to go on like this, so I stopped and spent over three painful minutes trying to pull my damn arm warmers on. I ended up using my teeth. But it was definitely three minutes well spent, as I quickly stopped shivering. I rode for about 1:15 before my bladder reached its bursting point. I was almost to the top of the biggest climb of the day and knew I had a big descent coming up. Perfect timing. At least 4-5 minutes of coasting would be a great time to go! Of course I've never yet been able to pee while on the bike, but I knew I wouldn't have a better chance. Plus, you would think screaming down the road at 40+ mph would literally scare the piss out of you, right? Well guess who still hasn't managed to pee while riding. Yeah, this guy. I managed to make it back to the top of the next climb but had to pull off and spent over two minutes parked on the side of the road--grr I hate losing time like that! I had one other bathroom break on the bike that also lasted about 2:30, but otherwise had a pretty spectacular bike! I finished the first loop right at three hours, and still felt really strong. The second loop was fairly uneventful as well, I felt great right up to the dismount. Final bike time 6:11:xx, 18.1mph avg. I was super pumped; I felt coming in to the race that at best I’d do about 6:00 to 6:10, and I almost hit that even with my stupid three pit stops. I felt even better than night when I looked at my garmin
and realized that I’d climbed over 6000 feet! That’s 25% more than the 4660 advertised on the website! BAM! I crushed this thing! :-)
T2. Much better than than T1! I ran immediately to the port-o-potties, and spent the next 2:11 on what would be my final pee break of the day. Yes I timed it; I am that Type A. I finished up, grabbed my transition bag for a quick change of clothes and shoes, got lathered up with sunscreen by a group of gray haired ladies (come on where were the young hot women??), and headed out! Final T2 time 5:04. MUCH BETTER.
RUN. After only about 45 seconds out of T2, I saw my sexy wife and beautiful baby boy cheering me on! Of course I had to stop and give them both a quick smooch, then off I went. The first 6.5 miles went very smoothly, I settled into a very comfortable 8:45ish pace and just enjoyed the experience.
Most of the course is an out and back along the shore of Lake CDA, and it is beautiful! I hit the turnaround feeling great and started back in. The next 6.5 miles went fairly well, I continued to feel great until around mile 11. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was wrong, but I just started feeling blah. My legs were good, my lungs were good, no stomach issues up to this point, so what gives? I kept my same pace and finished the first loop in just under two hours. I passed Joy and Hunter twice in town, and told Joy I was really hurting as I went by. I don’t remember what exactly she said, but I think the gist of it was along the lines of HTFU J. I didn’t know what exactly was going on, but at the aid station at mile 14 it was time for another gel, I reached for it then realized I didn’t want the f’ing thing. I was suddenly, desperately, craving salt! I decided instead to go with some salty Lay's potato chips. That seemed to hit the spot! I was still running a bit slower than the first loop, but I wasn’t walking dang it! I did this for the next 5 aid stations as well, and could feel myself coming out of the hole. I did walk up the hill on the way out on this second loop :-/. However I was feeling pretty good at the turnaround, only 6.5 miles to go! I managed to
Final finishing time 11:52:30, a whopping 30 minute PR on a much tougher course than Arizona!
I couldn’t be happier with my race! I drastically cut my weekly training hours after Hunter was born, so I was really uncertain how that would affect race day. However I did increase the intensity of most of my workouts, which really seems to have paid off! My coach is pretty smart :-).
I do think this will mark my retirement from the full Ironman distance, even though I know this will be disappointing to my wife. I really just want to spend more time with my family now. I still love triathlon and racing, but it’s definitely a much less important part of my life. Until next time friends!
