First IM race report, and this will probably get long……so click “BACK” if you’re in a hurry (as Tribodyboarder suggested).
I arrived in PCB on Wednesday night, after what I thought was a long 9hrs in
the car. I would soon see license plates from Maryland, Ohio, and Texas, to
name a few, and quickly realized 9hrs was no sweat. Stayed at the Majestic
condos, which was just 1.5miles west of home-base (Boardwalk). Highly
recommended by the way, we had a very nice 1BR – book directly with a condo
owner @ www.vrbo.com. Went to the Gatorade swim on Thursday and Friday and
met up with the ST gang at 8am on Friday. (Thanks to the announcement by
TomZ) Air temps were pretty cold (for those of us from Miami at least),
though the water was VERY nice, especially after you got about 100yds out –
it must’ve been 5-10 degrees warmer farther out. Water was quite clear and
flat both days, so I figured we’d have the opposite on race day.
Race day:
Awake at 5am for the usual breakfast for me, some banana pancakes, oatmeal,
and a banana. Got down to transition at about 5:45am to add a few more
things to the transition bags and double check the bike. Damn was it cold
though. I waited until we got down on the beach to 'suit up and eventually
had to peel off the fleece to give to my wife. My feet almost froze in the
sand – so it was actually very nice to get in the water and get going!
Some pics from the beach:
TomZ singing the anthem…
MASSive start:
I lined up on the beach as far inside as I could get, around the middle of
the pack, figuring it might be a bit less chaotic than the outside. So I
ended up taking an inside line pretty much the entire way and I avoided most
of the flying elbows and feet. No idea how much farther I swam by swimming
inside and then back out at the turn buoy, but it was worth it to stay out
of traffic IMO. The water wasn’t too bad, some “nice” rolling swells once we got out to the turn, so I could see how some people came
out feeling sea sick. Thought I might’ve gotten a few jellyfish stings, as I’d feel an acute burning on my arm every once in a while – but I only saw one jellyfish the whole time. Anyways, out of the water for the first lap in about 35:00,
which was right about where I’d expected and back in for loop two, which went pretty much like Loop 1, albeit a little slower.
Making the short jog on the beach and back into the water (that’s me in the white cap):
Finally, finished loop two and looked up to see
about 1:13 for the swim. Damn, few minutes slower than target, oh well.
The peelers at work:
Peeled, but looking a little too serious:
On to T1, grabbed the T1 bag and into the changing tent, if you could call
it that. My oh my what chaos. Standing room only, not a seat in the
house – barely room to walk around! Well I was “that guy” who layered up,
as I knew I would have big problems if I ended up shivering uncontrollably
for the first few hours on the bike – especially since there was a headwind
for the first 40 or so miles on the bike. Some folks went out with wet tri
tops and bottoms on with arm warmers – must’ve been Northerners. 
I guess
they made it alright though! But I decided I’d rather be too warm and peel, than be miserably
cold and have that affect my nutrition/hydration/etc. So, cough ~10 minutes later I emerge from T1
(yeah, I know, I’d would like a few minutes back there).
BIKE:
Out on the bike the goal was to stay settled and not ever to feel like I was
working, which of course meant watching tons of folks go by. As far as
drafting goes, I really ‘only’ saw about 2 packs go by That’s ok, I kept
thinking “I’ll probably see you on the run.” So for the first 40-45miles the wind
was not too favorable and I think I averaged a meager 18mph. Went through
special needs like a TdF rider – thanks to the volunteers there, I
didn’t have to stop!. Soon, we turned the corner onto 231 and the wind was
now our friend – game on! The legs were feeling really good so I picked up
the speed from there until 112. No surprise with the tailwind on the
return that I negative split the bike, 19.4 mph avg – 5:45. A bit slower than I’d hoped, but given the
conditions I think that was about right for me in order to save some legs
for the marathon to come.
Got off the bike feeling very good, into and out of T2 in much better time
than T1, around 3:00 for T2, including the obligatory porta-potty stop.
RUN:
Finally, as crazy as it seems, what I’d been looking forward to. The
adrenaline must’ve been flowing for that first mile and crowds lining the
streets tend to do that-- 7:10/mile, whoops. I backed it down and settled in for
the next few, and soon pulled up next to Austin79 for a few minutes to chat,
and after speeding her up for the next mile, she shoo’d me away (sorry!).
I felt great though, clicking along 7:30’s and 7:40’s for the first lap (of
course, paying back quite a few people who passed me on the bike)
On to the second lap, having fun, just after making the turnaround to start lap 2:
I was feeling good up until mile 22-23. At that point, my stomach started churning,
and I wanted nothing to do with my Infinit or anything else – just a sip of water every once in a while.
So I hoped that would be enough to bring me in to the finish. At about the same
time, my legs went to mush at the pace ground to a halt ….as I saw 8:30’s
for the last few miles. Still, I was pleased to see 3:26 (1:40/1:46) on my
watch for the marathon. The last 0.2 miles are a blur, except the part
where my groin and hamstrings started to cramp as I came around the parking
deck and up the ramp! Oh sh*t! Luckily I arrived at the finishing tape without a
total lock-up, but I never even heard my name as I came down the chute. I
imagine he called me an Ironman
After a short massage, I found my wonderful wife waiting for me – of course I’d never made it to the line without her constant support and incredible patience during all the training. She’s a pretty damn good photographer too! I went ahead and checked myself in to medical to warm up – as all those folks in there laying down on cots looked much warmer than I was standing around with a flimsy foil emergency blanked. Since they couldn’t seem to find a vein (after 3 attempts of digging around), I just agreed to drink plenty of broth and keep the warm IV bags around me. No more shivering after about 20 minutes so I was good to go. Pizza time! (Much thanks to the guys and girls in medical.)
Overall, looking back at the race/conditions/etc I feel like execution and
pacing were pretty close to perfect for my first IM – within my abilities. 10:39 was the
time, which was good for 19th of ??? in M25-29……just a few minutes shy of the ~9:30
needed to KQ Got a little work to do……
Thanks for reading.
Andy
