Friday night I didn’t sleep much but I didn’t expect to so it was no stress. Woke up at 4:30, ate almond butter and jelly on wheat a banana and coffee. Grabbed another coffee at Starbucks, picked up Cathy Morgan at T2 and headed out to the river. Set up my transition and noticed the line to the porta john was long so I headed that way. As I was in there taking care of business I heard the announcement of 10 min to the start of the race. That added a bit of stress but still no pre race stress that I expected before an Ironman.
I brought my full wet suit as well as my new speed tube to T1 . I made the decision to go with the speed tube to avoid any overheating or dehydration worry (thanks ironclm and DeSoto). It felt good and gave me most of the advantage of the full suit (I think).
Swim- 1:15:41
Swim start was calm and off we went. Some bumping and grinding but nothing like the sprints and ½’s I have been doing. It wasn’t even as bad at the Del Valle aqua challenge last week. Got into a groove but couldn’t seem to get a draft for much of the race. Seems everybody in my swim class can’t swim straight to save their life. This is the same issue I have at many races. I know it isn’t me because while I may not be fast I can swim in a straight line slowly. So I just swam steady and caught a draft when I could. The speed tube gave me the leg flotation but I felt cool the whole way which was a nice change. I did my best not to kick too much but that is a hard habit to break. The water was shallow in many spots and I scraped bottom a number of times. I stood up at the turn around each time to clear my goggles and stretch my legs. I got a good draft on the last .6 of the swim with a guy who could hold his line.
T1- 0:3:36
I have never felt this good walking out of the water. Low HR, nice and cool, feeling like I could do the swim again, family standing right there cheering me on. It didn’t even bother me that it was a slow swim (but I would love to hear it was long). Got my stuff together quickly but not too rushed. Took the time to put on gloves and chamois butter which is something I have not done in a race before and that helped later on.
Bike- 6:05:36
Out of T1 and up the hill getting my legs moving and I look down and my HR is 151. Not bad considering the excitement and the small hill. I spent the next 8 miles getting rolling and sipping diluted Gatorade. My HR went into the mid 140’s and stayed there for most of the next 30 miles. I was the only person I could see who did not come out of the saddle on chalk hill. I just cruised up everything and pushed it going down hill and re-passed all the guys hammering up the hills who now needed to recover. First lap I had 3 Gatorades, 3 waters, 2 gels, 3 salt tabs and a few sports beans. My average HR was in the low 140’s or high 130’s for the lap. I was a bit surprised to see my time for the first lap a bit under 3 considering how easy I felt I was going. That gave me a boost for the second lap where there were a lot less people on the course. The heat was getting bad but I kept drinking and just cruising along. I ate some cliff bar pieces in addition to what I ate on the first lap and started dumping water over my head to keep cool. I found I needed to get out of the saddle at the tops of a few hills so I could tell some fatigue was setting in. I really eased up on the last 5 miles to come into T2 as rested as possible. My HR for the 2nd lap was even lower than the first averaging I think in the low 130’s.
T2- 4:19.4
I changed everything for the run. Shirt, shorts, dry socks, visor and water bottle belt. This was something I had wondered about before the race but I now am sure was the right decision.
Run- 4:58:31
I felt good but the legs needed some time to figure out what was going on. I had to work to slow down so I would not burn out too quickly. I settled into a pace between 9:00 and 10:30 depending on the hills. By the way, there and no flats out on the run, just some degree of up or down the whole way. I ran into the family who were all working the first aid station wearing their “Race Official” t-shirts. That was a huge boost seeing them and knowing they would be there 4 more times. I filled up my water bottle with ice and water and drank some Gatorade. I had planned on walking all the aid stations as they were not all 150 yards long like CDA. I looked for a gel but all I had were the 2x caffeine and all the aid stations had was cliff shots and they taste like day old ass. So I ate pretzels and grapes for a while. They ran out of ice at the last aid station and I didn’t see any until the mile 3 aid station on the second lap. So it was warm water or warm Gatorade for 7 miles in the 90+ heat. My first lap was right under 1:30 so my goal of a 4:30 run was looking good.
The 2nd lap was really hot (79F my ass, it was well into the 90’s) and started off OK for the first 3 miles. I ate a HOT Cliff gel and almost lost it. That stuff is nasty cold but hot it is unreal. This is where things went bad for a while as I got dizzy and had trouble moving forward. I had nothing cold for over an hour and it was getting to me. I got the chills and noticed the goose bumps on my arms and got a bit worried. So I broke out the 2X Gu gel I had in my waste pack and washed it down with ice water that finally arrived. I slowed it down walking all the hills so I could get the wheels back on. It seemed to work and I also went to the flat coke on ice for the rest of the race. I dumped ice water over my head every time I felt hot. My HR was way too low as well but I just ignored it as there was nothing I could do at that point I was not already doing.
Lap 3 and the home stretch was much better than the 2nd lap. The ice, caffeine combo was kicking in and there was now shade on the cooling course. On the way to the 1st aid station my kids and Bret’s kids were running along the curb with me. Katie (my 7 yo) fell down and bloodied both her knees and started crying. Without thinking about being 18 miles into an Ironman run, I picked her up and carried her 100 yards to the aid station. Not a great idea to walk 100 yards carrying 56 lbs when you are close to collapsing but I wasn’t thinking too clearly nor was there any other option as a dad. I handed her off to Lexie and took off as best I could. I felt better heading out and began passing people again. With 3 miles to go I figured it was too late to drop if things went bad so I started speeding up as best as I could, passing even more people. I didn’t walk a step in the last 2.5 miles and I think I did a sub 9 on the last mile. Crossing the line I thought I was running hard but looking at the video I wasn’t really going fast. Crossed the line and my legs buckled some and I grabbed onto the rail to hold myself up until I could get things under control again.
So I took 1:30 off my first IM on a more difficult course. I did not crap myself, throw up or need an IV. The only blood was from my nipple and not in my crap like CDA 04. I also feel like I could have done much better had I put more time into my run training. Overall I am happy with how it went, enough so that I don’t have to go out and sign up for another one to prove anything to myself. Next year is back to the 1/2IM distance and a lot more time with my family.
Post race note. YOU NEED TO APPLY SUNSCREEN HERE BEFORE AN IM! (edit to remove crack)
