Ironman Florida, Saturday, November 5, 2005
3800m swim, 180k bike, 42.2k run
Nutrition (I usually do this last, but as it plays such a big part in Ironman racing, I’ll do it first here)
Up at 4:00am for my standard breakfast of oatmeal with brown sugar and a little milk. Today I also had a bannana and a ClifBar. Drank a bottle of Cytomax and ate another ClifBar in the time prior to the race start at 7:00am.
Bike nutrition: 3 ClifBars (two in the first hour, another just past the 90k mark), 10 ClifGels, 5 bottles of Cytomax, two bottles of water and 2 or 3 bottles of Gatorade Endurance (served on the course), and 6 Endurolyte tablets. Set my watch to remind myself to eat every half hour and did just that.
Run nutrition: Water and gatorade at every aid station, Hammer gels whenever I could stomach them in the first half of the run - approx 5 or 6 Hammer gels. After mile 16 took chicken broth when I could get it in addition to pretzels, 1/2 a bannana, and continued to take water and gatorade at every aid station (despite having to pee every mile from mile 17 to mile 25).
Overall nutrition: 8/10 never dehydrated and no stomach issues.
Swim: 1:08:25 (1:49/100m) 587th/2058 8/10
I had told Jen that my best case scenario in the swim was 1:05, so to go 1:08 on a relatively slow and wavy day made me pretty happy!
I started out wide to the right in an attempt to avoid the “washing machine” effect of a 2000 person mass start, and it worked pretty well. I angled towards the last of six buoys in the line on the “out” leg, and just tried to relax and focus on good stroke mechanics. The first turn was INSANE. People were at least 20 or 30 wide going around the buoy, and I got sucked into the main pack of swimmers. I found a pair of feet to sit on to the next turn and just put my head down and swam, as we were swimming directly into the sun and I could not see the next buoy. The turn towards shore was equally chaotic, and I took an inside line and made the turn without too much contact. I swam to shore on the outer reaches of the main pack to avoid contact, counting the buoys as I went. I looked at my watch as I ran across the beach to start the second lap and saw 33 minutes (and a heart rate of 155 - running in sand in a wetsuit is hard work), and was pleased. The second lap was more of the same, although the turns were a little less chaotic as the pack spread out a bit (not much, but a bit). I went a little off course on the swim back to shore, but I made it.
T1: 4:03
I ran up the beach and dropped on my back in front of the first available stripper I saw (wetsuit stripper that is :-)). My wetsuit was off in no time and I headed for the showers to rinse off and then grabbed my T1 bag and headed for the change tent which was total chaos. It was absolutely packed! I found a spot to stand, dumped out my bag, and started to put my shoes on. A volunteer helped me get my jersey on, I grabbed my helmet and gloves and ran towards my bike (forgetting all about sunscreen on the way). Oops.
Bike: 5:03:23 107th/2058 (35.5km/h) 10/10 (184th position after the bike)
Best case prediction pre-race: 5:15. 5:03? Woo-Hoo!
My plan for the bike was to use the first 1/2 hour to get settled and then to get down to business. We had a tailwind for the first 20k so I flew along at 42kph or so with my hr in the 139-142 range. I had a swig from my gel flask and ate a ClifBar, and managed to get the taste of saltwater out of my mouth. Once we crossed over the bridge at about 20k (the only “climb” of the day), it was down to business. I initially found myself in a loose group of about 5-10 people, and we started taking turns leading while staying draft legal. Over then next 20k, the group got larger and larger, and tighter and tighter. I would take my turn at the front, and upon getting passed would drop back to a legal distance, and then would get passed by 20-30 more people riding in tight formation. I would drop back to the point where I was 10 metres or so off of the back of the group (well outside the “drafting” zone) and then would let them suck me along for a while before going to the front to either pull the group or attempt to break away. Over the course of the day, I attempted to break away from the pack several times, only to get reeled in every time. Each time, I would drift to the back of the pack and sit 10 metres off of the back and get pulled along. Every now and then the pack would start to splinter and I would then simply bridge to the front group again. I was careful to stay legal, but I was of course getting a benefit from the pack pulling me along. I did not, however, at any time, sit in the pack, which at one point was at least 100 riders strong. I stopped at special needs to grab two more bottles of Cytomax and a full gel flask, and was quickly off again. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that I had covered the first 90k in about 2:31.
The out and back at about the 110k mark was brutally bumpy and my computer stopped working as the wheel magnet moved out of range of the sensor. It did eventually start working again, to my great relief. I tried to break away one last time between 120 and 130k, to no avail, as I was reeled in again, although by a much smaller pack at this point.
When we made the turn for home and crossed over the bridge once again, we were smacked in the face by a brutal cross-headwind, and the pack splintered to pieces as many tired riders simply couldn’t hold the pace. One last left turn and across Front Beach Road into a killer headwind straight to T2, where I heard Jen cheering as I got off my bike.
T2: 3:24
The transition tent was a lot more empty in T2 than it had been in T1 (understandable given that I passed over 400 people on the bike). I changed my jersey, shorts, shoes and socks, and remembered to stop for sunscreen this time. As I crossed the timing mats to head onto the run my watch said 6:20. Excellent.
Run: 4:25:33 572nd/2058 (10:09/mile) 5/10
Lap 1: Easy does it: 1:57:04 (8:56/mile)
I knew I had perhaps gone too fast on the bike and I decided that I would take the first lap of the two lap run pretty easy in an attempt to save something for the last 13 miles. The sun was shining and it was pretty hot, so I made sure to take water and gatorade at every aid station, and I also took ice whenever I could get it. Despite my fast ride, I actually felt prety good for most of the first lap of the run. I took gels at every other aid station, and occasionally my stomach would briefly protest, but it never became a real issue, as my somach would settle down after a couple of miles and I would take another gel. As I ran towards the finish chute for the first time, I was feeling pretty good about the last 13 miles, as I had not had a single bad patch all day.
Lap 2: The Port-a-Pottie Tour: 2:28:29 (11:20/mile)
My watch said 8:17 as I ran over the timing mats at the halfway point of the marathon, and from miles 13 to 16 I had delusions of grandeur. At mile 15 I even decided to try and pick up my pace! All of that came crashing to a halt as my left leg started to cramp at about the 16.5 mile mark. I stopped to stretch, and then walked to the mile 17 aid station and started to down chicken broth and pretzels in an attempt to get the cramp to go away. However, once the cramp resolved I simply could not get going again, and while I continued to run between aid stations, I wouldn’t really call it running. Mile 17 was also the start of the Port-a-Pottie tour. I visited the Port-a-Potties at every aid station from mile 17 to mile 25, as my bladder decided to go into overdrive. With three miles to go, the sun finally set, and finishing in the dark became a reality. I started to see some glow sticks, but only on people going out towards the park, and not on those going in towards the finish. I crossed the highway for the final time and saw the ocean again, and I really wanted to just walk in and soak my legs, but I knew that the finish was very close now. And then I saw it, the mile 25 aid station! One mile to go. Never have I been so happy to be that close to the finish line. At one kilometre to go I could see the lights and the crowd started to thicken, and I began to really run for the first time in almost two hours. All of the fatigue of the day seemed to fall away all at once as I realized that I would finish. I continued to pick up the pace all the way to the finish, and I didn’t even notice the “hill” up into the expo area. I tried to find Jen in the crowd on the way to the finish but was not able to, so I just turned towards the line, pumped my fist, and ran across the line. The fatigue of the day came flooding back as soon as I did and I went from running to barely being able to walk a straight line in just a few steps. It’s a good thing that they have catchers at the finish line!
Overall: 10:44:47 54th/270 AG, 295th overall 8/10
Despite falling to pieces on the second lap of the run, my main goal in my first Ironman had been to finish in under 11 hours, and I did just that. Obvioulsy, I will continue to work on my overall fitness, and especially my ability to maintain a decent pace past the 9 hour mark, which is about where I started to falter.
Note to first timers: Plan where to meet your family after the race! This was the one thing I failed to plan and because I got shuffled straight to massage, I was suffering from Ironman brain, and Jen (my wife) got some bad info from a volunteer, it took me over 2 hours to find her after my finish. Needless to say we were both a bit frantic by the time I finally found her.
Post script:
Ironman is a completely different beast when compared with shorter distance racing - up to and including half-Iron distance. Nothing in my 6 years of triathlon came close to preparing me for what happened to me in the last 9 miles of the race. Your subconscious will ask you a lot of questions during an Ironman, and you need to have the answers ready beforehand. For me, in those last 9 miles, it came down to a simple mantra - “There is no pain, there is only the finish line”.
Make no mistake, I truly enjoyed my first Ironman experience (especially the bike!), but I completely underestimated the physical and mental demands of the race. I truly believed, upon starting the second lap of the run, that it would be as routine and as “simple” as the first, and nothing could have been further from the truth. It was an object lesson in humility.
I am reminded of someting a friend told me about Ironman racing. In the end, it is more about mental strength than physical fitness or strength. I thought I understood that, but I was wrong. Only upon having completed the race do I truly understand how true that is. Until my leg started to cramp, I had never really considered the idea that I would not be able to finish the race. It took a lot more mental energy than I had anticipated to get over that hurdle. What had once seemed so simple, became an enormous task.
Thanks for reading,
Mike