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!
You ROCK! When you referred to the little gray haired ladies lubing you up with sunscreen and asked where the hot ladies were, I almost said, "What like your wife?" However, you got to that in the next paragraph. You're a good man, Jare! Good save!
ReplyDeleteHaha I love it, Sara! :)
ReplyDeleteI also love hearing all the details of your day! You're so amazing!