Ironman Florida Race Report.....finally

Ironman Florida 2008

This journey began 4 years ago. I was in the worst shape of my life and completely disgusted with what I had become. It all changed at the NYC Marathon in 2004. My friend asked me if I would run a few miles with her in the marathon. Never one to turn down a challenge, I said sure. I had never really run more than 5 miles at one time in my life so I said that I might be able to last 5 miles. Well, that race pumped me up and its amazing what adrenaline can do for you as I ended up running 15 miles on zero training. I never thought a marathon was in the cards for an athlete like myself but the challenge of it again enticed me. I thought running would be a good way for me to get in shape. I signed up for my first marathon to take place the following June and started training that January. I got to that finish line that day in San Diego and thought I was going to die. I felt horrible and everything hurt but the sense of accomplishment was incredible. I achieved the unachievable (for me). I ran the NYC marathon months later, then the Rome marathon months after that. I started to get bored with running alone and I needed a new challenge. Triathlon was introduced to me. Actually, I was a sports fanatic growing up so I watched the Hawaii Ironman on TV and knew about triathlon. Dave Scott was my favorite but it still never interested me because I wasn’t that type of athlete and these athletes are a special breed. I couldn’t do what they do.

I bought a bike, then another, and another, and another until I found one I liked. Don’t worry, I sold them all. I started riding. No sweat. Riding a bike is easy. So far, so good. Swimming was next. I joined the YMCA so I could swim. I put on my baggy swim trunks (because I’m not about to wear those little speedo things or jammers) and start observing everyone else in the water. Okay, I got it now. I head down the pool and boy was I exhausted. I had to stop and rest at the other end. That was tough. So, I would swim about 10-15 laps and thought I was getting a good workout. At this point I realized I was not a good swimmer so I decide to enter a Total Immersion swim workshop. This helped me understand the components of a swim stroke and broke it down to fundamentals. I start stringing together multiple laps at a time now without stopping. Maybe I’m ready for a triathlon now? I entered a few indoor triathlons in NYC where you swim as many laps as possible in 10 minutes, spin on a spin bike as fast as possible for 30 minutes, then run as fast as you can for 20 minutes on a treadmill. Easy, right? Well, I became humbled very quickly. I was the worst swimmer in the race and could only manage 11 laps in 10 minutes. I would have to stop at each end and rest for fear of drowning.

Summer comes around and I think about entering my first real triathlon. I go to the beach and attempt to do an open water swim (sans wetsuit). No way…I’m not ready for that yet. I want to survive. I decide to watch it instead and wow, a half mile swim looked incredibly far. I’m so glad I decided to not sign up. I would have drowned. I start reading stuff about swimming and discover that wetsuits really help a lot with buoyancy. I go down to a local store and I buy one. I went on a practice swim and soon realize that wetsuits are the greatest inventions ever. Now, I can do this. I sign up for the next race. Out of 500 people, I was second to last out of the water while doing the breaststroke 75% of the time. I did it. I was so happy. I got on my bike and motored away passing people like crazy. On to the run and pass some more people. I’m hooked. I just need to work on my swim a bit. I went on to sign up for an additional 4 races that summer, progressively getting better.

Fast forward a few years and lots of triathlons later, I decide to hire a coach to get me on track. What a difference this made in my focus and motivation. My results showed immediately. The time to sign up for Ironman has come. I travel up to watch and volunteer at Ironman Lake Placid in 2007. Lake Placid will be my ironman destination for 2008 since its like a hometown race. It’s a 5 hour drive, the crowds are great, and I will know a lot of people racing. I trained on the course that week as I was preparing for a half ironman and the course destroyed me. As beautiful as it is up there and I love to go up there every year, the course didn’t suit me very well. The course has very few flat sections as its either up or down. As a larger rider, I struggle up the hills and after my crash I have become a big chicken going downhill too fast. I called my coach up that day and said that Lake Placid was out and what did he think about Florida. He said that was a good choice. As it turned out (as I learned the hard way), I had the wrong gearing on my bike that day and have since trained on the course another 2 or 3 times and have come to enjoy it more. It doesn’t scare me like it used to.

That day came when the signup for Ironman Florida started and I was online ready to go. The race sold out 364 days in advance within a few minutes but I got in. No turning back now. The start of the year was highlighted by a cycling trip to Mallorca, Spain for 6 days of cycling. This turned out to be a great start to my base training for the year. I had two training trips up to Lake Placid, one in June and the other in July. I mixed in a few races and had some good results. All the while my body remained healthy the whole time which was encouraging. Coach Marty is very good at understanding my potentials and limitations so I was pushed when I needed to be pushed and held back when necessary. I really enjoyed the training most of the time.

Two weeks before the race I was hit with a virus that attacked my throat and voice. I was actually happy about this as the timing was perfect. I hear a lot of people get sick days leading up to an Ironman due to high stress levels and compromised immune systems. At the time I was a little burned out and needed the rest so I took off 2 or 3 days off from training and got lots of sleep. It was perfect as I came into race week well rested and feeling great.

RACE REPORT

Sue and I headed out Wednesday and had an easy flight. We check in, head to the race site and get all the registration stuff out of the way. I did a little 10 minute swim on Thursday. The water was fabulous. I picked up some last minute supplies and souvenirs and tried to stay off my feet as much as possible. Thursday night was the carbo athlete dinner. The food was awful but it was fun to listen to some of the stories of the night and talk to other nervous athletes who had millions of questions. Surprisingly, I was calm all week so far. Friday was another quick swim, quick run, and short bike. I got these all out of the way early so I could get off my feet the rest of the day. I dropped off my bike and my transition bags. I headed to bed early not expecting to sleep but I did sleep fairly well. Up at 4am, drink an Ensure and have some pancakes. The butterflies started to kick in a bit but not too bad yet. We walk down towards the race site and the music’s blaring and the tension in the air was so thick as nervous bodies were walking around feverishly. I got body marked and head into transition to pump up my tires, bathroom break, and put my wetsuit on. The time disappeared and we were being pushed out of transition. Sue gave me a zip and I said goodbye. I jump in the water for a quick warmup. The water was calm (good sign). The air temperature was chilly (perfect for me). As soon as I walked into the corral, I saw my parents and said goodbye. I didn’t recognize anyone so I was alone among 2400 other racers and those butterflies really kicked in at that point. I decided to start on the inside (big mistake). I expected this swim to be rough but until you experience it, you have no idea. It was a slug fest. Imagine 2400 people swimming for the same space. It was rough and brutal. I got punched a hundred times. Almost the entire first loop (1.2 miles) was like this. I got out of the water along the sandbar and had to wade through the water to the timing mat. I looked at the clock and read 33 minutes. Wow, that was fast for me. I must have been pulled along in the draft. At that point I felt like I hadn’t worked much at all…..just survival. The second loop spread out a bit so I was able to swim for a good part of it. I get to the final stretch and still felt like I wasn’t working hard so I tried to push it into the finish.

Swim: 1:11 (goal was 1:15)

I bypass the wetsuit strippers because it was crazy at this point. This is when the majority of the people get out of the water. Then I couldn’t find my bag right away so I start yelling out my number and then it appears from a volunteer. The changing tent was full so I got ready for the bike outside. I take my time to make sure I have everything and I’m comfortable. Take a bathroom break and off I go on the bike. My legs felt great. I took my time to settle into my rhythm. I race with a power meter so my plan was to stick to my numbers. They put mile markers every 10 miles and that became my race within a race. I took in my nutrition every time I hit another 10 mile marker. I knew this was every 30 minutes. It felt easy until I hit mile 40 or so and my legs hit a little dead spot. I dialed down my power a touch to allow my legs to recover and I knew special needs was only 10 miles away. I hit the special needs and grabbed a bottle of nutrition, took a pee break, had some fig newtons, and some caffeine. The rest of the ride was uneventful. I felt really solid. My back was stiff but I would sit up every 15 minutes or so to keep it loose. I made the final turn and the last stretch to see an official on a motorcycle handing out red cards left and right for drafting. He looked like he was on a mission so I made sure to be extra careful. I cruised into T2 and took my time to change into another pair of shorts, fresh socks, vasoline on my toes, some sunscreen, pee break, and off I go on the run.

Bike: 5:39 (goal was 5:30-5:45)

My legs felt great starting the run. I had my gps watch on so I knew I was running 7:30-8:00 min/mile. I knew this was too fast for me but it felt easy. I slowed down to 8:30 and it felt really easy so I figured I would just put seconds in the bank because it was unlikely I could maintain that for the whole marathon. My goal was to run 9:00 min/miles. I came through the half way point in 1:50 I think and at this point I started thinking if I could keep up this pace, I could break 11 hours. A few miles later my stomach wasn’t feeling so hot. I drank some coke to see if that might settle my stomach. Nope. I tried just drinking water. Nope. I tried chicken broth. Nope. Well, at this point, maybe mile 16 or so I had to slow down or risk blowing up or blowing chunks. My stomach just had enough sugar for one day. I began walking through the aid stations but running from aid station to aid station. I was happy to see the final turnaround point at the 6.5 miles left point. It was 5pm and I knew I could run 6.5 miles in 1 hour (in normal conditions) to break 11 hours so I increased my pace a little to see how my body would respond but my stomach just wasn’t having it. At this point I resigned myself to have a smart race and finish strong without blowing up. I made one of the final turns on the run course and I could hear Mike Reilly’s voice at the finish line. That was a nice sound. I was almost done. I took some water at the final aid station and I took off for the final stretch. I ran hard, probably one of my quicker miles to finish strong.

Run: 3:58 (goal sub 4:00)

Final: 11:04 (goal sub 12:00)

As it turned out my ironman marathon was 20 minutes faster than my previous stand alone marathon time. I was feeling short of breath after the finish so I sat down for a bit. I headed in for a massage which felt great but I was still feeling a little dizzy and light-headed so I checked into the medical tent more so to lay down and get some more fluids in me. They were nice to let me hang out for a bit as others really needed their attention more than me. After a slow walk back to the condo, a hot shower, pizza in my belly, Sue and I headed back to the finish line to cheer on some friends and the last finishers until after midnight.

I couldn’t have asked for a better first ironman experience. I executed my race plan almost perfectly and I felt really good the whole day which is just a testament to how well I was prepared by my coach. I had a great journey getting to the starting line. It wasn’t void of challenges but it was extremely rewarding and an amazing introspective experience. At this point I can’t say I want to rush out and do another one but I’m already signed up to race Ironman Canada next August so I will be doing at least one more.

A special thank you to my iron-mate and iron-sherpa, Sue, for putting up with me and helping me before, during, and after the race. To Marty, my coach, for thoroughly preparing me for the race as I went into the race with lots of confidence and constantly being available for answering my questions and providing me with advice. And to the boys at Elite Bicycles for prepping my bike and sponsoring me for the 2009 season with a new custom razor….yea, baby!