not only AZ report. Sorry its LOOOOOONG…
After two seasons where I raced only one IRONMAN a year, the 2005 season is somewhat different for me with two IRONMAN races scheduled on my plan. The first one was scheduled for IMAZ, so this meant I was going to the USA for a third time.
I left Portugal to Phoenix on Tuesday March 15th with two races on my mind, Ralph’s HIM and of course IMAZ. Travelling with me for the first time was my coach Paulo, he had never seen me race an Ironman before. As I arrived to Phoenix, things turned for the worse, as we were informed that both our bikes hadn’t made the trip. Nothing unusual for me or any other triathlete I guess, but I started to get worried when they said that I wouldn’t have my bike until “maybe” Thursday. Sophie, my host for most of the time in Phoenix, picked us up from the airport and we immediately rushed to the store to buy some running shoes and swim gear, since I had all my training stuff in the bike box and I needed to do my usual post-flight run.
After a couple of days and some bike rides missed in the process, we drove with Brian Thompson, a super cool triathlete, to Oceanside, California for the HIM and stayed in a condo 300 meters from the race expo, right on the beach. I think Brian must have said “This Is Perfect!” 123 times and I said to Paulo “isto é que é vida!” 124 times to Brian “this is AWESOME!” 127 times. After those brief moments of joy, my concern regarding the whereabouts of my stuff returned. I had to think on an alternative to be able to race on Saturday and I must say that Herbert from Quintana Roo, Shawn from Asics and Gary from Rotor Cranks where absolutely awesome in trying to set me up for the race in case my stuff didn’t arrive on time. Fact is that the bike box didn’t show up on Thursday and that meant a bad nights sleep even knowing that I had an alternative and I would race no matter what. On Friday I received the good news that the bike would arrive on time for the race, the only question was if I would be able to ride a bike one time on the race week. The answer was yes, the bike arrived just in time for a spin in the daylight and some final adjustments. A bit more relaxed I had a fun rest of the day with Paulo, Brian Thompson, Steve, Brian Stover, and Jason, all the triathletes sharing the condo.
On race morning everything was different from what I expected. Rain, cold and wind, I (and all the athletes) couldn’t ask tougher conditions for racing, but it’s the same for everyone so I just kept myself cool and proceeded with the usual pre-race routines. I will keep myself short on the description of my race.
The Swim: I felt good on the swim from the beginning but that doesn’t mean that the swim split was good. I was absolutely lost in the course because I couldn’t see a thing and after a 120º turn when it was 90º and a missed right turn to the swim exit (yes, for the guys watching the race, I was the one that went straight) I left the water with a poor time for my expectations.
The bike: This was where the nightmare started. I felt ok in the bike and was trying to get my heart rate down after the swim and when I managed to accomplish the task BANG, my back tire was flat. I was able to change it quickly and I knew that it was a good idea to take it easy in the corners but I wasn’t able to do many because I got a second flat a couple of miles down the road. “The race is over” I thought. I stood in the rain, cold and wind for too long as I waited for the support vehicle and started to freeze. When the support vehicle showed up, I took the wheel knowing that I could pull up a good training session out of the race and moved on. My body had a different opinion though, and halfway through the ride I felt like crap, cold, weak and starting to feel my throat scratchy. I knew that my health could be at risk so I decided that I wouldn’t go for the run and headed to the medical tent after leaving the bike at transition. I lied in a stretcher in the medical tent the time enough to raise my body temperature from 91ºF to 97ºF. Paulo came up and tried to cheer me up, he knows how pissed off I get when I have a bad race. He told me that it was just a bad day and that I should keep my eye on IMAZ. He brought warm clothes and I rushed back to the condo in order to stay warm to avoid a possible cold that could jeopardize the true goal that was IMAZ.
Fortunately I woke up the next morning not feeling too bad, even though I’ve had better days. We drove back to Phoenix where in that same day a training camp put up by Paulo, Francois Modave and Brian Stover started. The star of the camp was Olaf Sabatschus, one of the most experienced Ironman athletes out there and IM Brasil ‘04 winner, and I was very excited to meet him and to be able to train with him. Attending the camp were also Jonathan Caron, Ian, Jen, Mariana, Khai, and Andrea, along with two Portuguese triathletes, Sérgio and José.
At the end of the camp, I moved back to Sophie’s house where I stayed until race day with tapering in mind. I feel these last two weeks were very important in preparing my race, since I was able to rest a lot and focus totally on the race. Jen was also staying in Phoenix until the race and was super nice to give me a ride anywhere I needed. During this two week period I got my new RENN Madeira disc wheel: sweet, light and named after a Portuguese island, nice!!.
On race morning I followed the usual procedure for me, ate my breakfast 3 hours before the race start and then packed up all race nutrition and accessories in the bags and headed up to the race site with Jen and Paulo following Sophie’s car. Everything went down smoothly and despite my normal excitement before races, especially IM, the minutes flew by me until just before warming up for the swim, Charlie and Dotty (one of my hosts for IM Wisconsin last year) screamed my name. I was very excited to meet them again but time was ticking away and after some words of encouragement I dived into the task ahead.
I felt good while warming up but the water was getting choppy with the increasing wind. The gun went off and my terrible sprinting ability showed, making me do a lot of work in the middle of the pack. My approach to the swim was a bit different since I’m a faster swimmer this year and ended up going at an easier pace till the turnaround point, where I shared the lead of the group with another athlete. After the turnaround buoy, and with much tougher swim conditions, I noticed that a big group was about 100 meters ahead and felt comfortable enough to catch that pack. I managed to sit in someone’s feet at a very comfortable pace until the end of the swim. As soon as I hit the stairs I looked to my watch where I noticed that my heart rate was a full 15 beats lower than in IMWI, the immediate thought was “hmmm maybe I went too slow” but seeing who was around and behind I knew that it was a good swim and that I definitely improved from last season.
The transition was smooth despite having some trouble finding my transition bag, nothing much, and in no time I had my helmet on and running towards the bike rack.
I had the chance to drive the course before the race and my immediate impression was that all the talk about this course was exaggerated. The town loop was very fun and easy to negotiate, the only exception was the narrow stretch that went under the bridge. As usual my goal for the first 15 min of the ride is to settle down after the swim and find my own rhythm. I saw Christophe Bastie getting away very quickly and after the first town loop my team mate Dave Harju blazed by me with one guy right on his wheel. I was feeling good but looking at my HRM I knew that I still needed to take it easy for a few more kms. I was able to keep Harju in sight for a long time although he was pulling away, but I didn’t worry and kept my own pace as usual, always according to plan. After the turnaround and back to Tempe I felt the reason I was flying going out, I had a monster tailwind and now it was headwind and it was very strong even though it was early in the day. I was able to stay relaxed and after seeing that the czeck duo Vabrousek and Strangmuller were behind me I knew that I was doing well so far. I saw Paulo at the end of the first loop and he yelled out not to worry about the first two in front and to stay cool. I was able to pass some guys in the first loop and was feeling strong, now was the time to handle passing the lapped age groupers in the next two laps. I must say that I had zero problems with the slower athletes, every single athlete was respectful, although I had to scream a “on your left” a couple of times. I was kind of lonely on the course despite all the athletes that I was passing and was only able to pass some pros when Harju punctured at the end of lap one, the “Harju wheel sucker” that finally got a penalty and another team mate, Lewis Elliot, around mile 90. Bastie was already losing time after a strong first laps and I had Vabrousek and Harju chasing me hard. I was able to spot this in the turnaround points despite all the people on the road and also with the help of some spectators on the course. I started to struggle with all the wind on the last back section and even ate some dust in some sections but everything was the same at the end of the third lap. On the final city loop I gained a lot of time to Bastie and got into T2 on his tail.
My transition to the run was lightning fast, but my legs were feeling stiff, nothing unusual for Ironman racing. Leaving T2 I was in 6th and with Bastie in my sight already. Paulo was at the beginning of the run and right there he told me that it was possible to catch three guys that exited T2 in bad shape: Tom Evans, Luke McKenzie and Christophe Bastie.
I never had the chance to know the run course other than the flat section on the beginning of each lap. There was first an out and back loop of about two miles and on that short section I gained a lot of time on the guys in front. Paulo told me that Evans was “only” 12 minutes ahead of me but I could catch him, but I was a bit worried about how I felt, since I still wasn’t feeling running at 100%. Around the 4 mile mark I started feeling much better. Shortly after that I caught Bastie and I entered the park section of the course. This part was not easy at all, with a lot of up and down and very twisty. It was also very dusty and with loose dirt trails, which made for a slower course. Near the turnaround on mile 8 I saw the guys in front of me. I was now in fourth and feeling really good. Faris was too far away in front, and I thought that catching Evans and Michael Lovato would be really tough. As I completed the first lap, Paulo shouted that I was only 6 minutes down on Evans and I started to believe that I could get to the podium. On the short 2 mile out and back I made two minutes on him, and that made me feel really confident. I caught Evans at the mile 18 aid station and at the turnaround on mile 21 I realized that I was really close to Lovato. Shortly after that I saw Keith and Dave from Team Timex and they told me that I was only 1:30min down on Lovato and that I could catch him. At that moment I thought I could get second place, but the combination of starting to feel really tired and also Michael digging deep to keep second place made the time difference grow. As I was comfortable in third place, I only thought about crossing that finish line. Coming up to the end of the loop and just before entering the final road to the finish line, I saw Paulo jumping up and down like a madman, his usual self, and shouted to me that I had the podium in the bag but there was still one km left. I remember thinking “Still one km left??? DAMN!!!”
Coming down the finish line, I grabbed a Portuguese flag that Charlie and Dottie had for me and ran with it to the finish line. I felt happy, proud and exhausted at the same time. As I crossed the finish line I just collapsed, it was all over and I had left it all on the course as usual. After feeling better, I congratulated Faris and Michael, they had raced amazing races. The people from Team Timex were ecstatic with the result and congratulated me. Paulo was there but didn’t say much, just a huge smile on his face. We had the podium ceremony shortly after and right there I began to feel much better. I was sharing the podium with two of the best Ironman athletes in the world, and that felt just great.
After the podium I got a massage and some food and then stayed on for the finish of my friends doing the race. Sophie finished her race and shortly after that she learned that she was second in her AG and was going to Hawaii, I was very happy for her. We then went down to the finish line to wait for the others. I especially got a kick from seeing Brian finish with a PB.
It was a long day and I needed to sleep. When I got home I logged on the Net and all my Portuguese friends were waking up. They all congratulated me, they watched the race on ironmanlive and were totally stoked with my performance. That felt good.
The next day we had the award banquet. The high point of the day, besides being on stage with such great athletes, was to have the great Scott Molina sit at our table. He came up and congratulated me, that was really cool.
Later that night I went up to the Carefree Resort to join the Team Timex Training Camp. I had a great time there, a chance to meet my new team mates and also to relax after the race. A perfect end for this close to perfect month.
My next race will be the Sater Triathlon in July, which this year is the European Long Distance Triathlon Championships. I’ll also be racing LD Worlds in Denmark in August, and will make my debut in Kona in October. Hopefully I’ll be as successful in these races as I was in Arizona.
Sérgio
