OK, y’all. My report from the back of the pack. It seems like a lot of you are either world class athletes or at least knocking on the door. I, however, am one of those hacks that just wanted to earn the title IRONMAN.
Given this is a one-and-done, bucket list kind of thing for me, I was very selective in which course I chose. For one, it needed to be fairly flat, because I suck on the hills, particularly on the run. The other is it neede to be low humidity, so that ruled out Florida. My decision came down to Tempe and Sacramento. I ultimately chose Tempe because it’s a little easier to get to for me. It’s about a six hour drive away so I don’t have to hassle with packing a bike to fly.
Now there is some backstory that is relevant to me finishing an Ironman. First, about 20 years ago, I very nearly lost my left foot in a car accident. Fortunately, I had a fantastic surgeon who practically worked miracles putting that ankle back together. I was warned at the time that even walking from then on might be “tricky”.
Then in 2010 I was diagnosed with throat cancer. Between the damage from the tumor and the damage from the treatment, I have a very difficult time swallowing just about anything. This is particularly relevant when you consider hydration and nutrition throughout the day.
I’m 54 and only began my triathlon journey four years ago. I do remember watching Kona way back in the 90s on ABC’s Wide World of Sports (who remembers that?) and thought it would be cool to do. But in the 90s, how do you learn more about something that, at the time, was a relatively obscure event? Not like you had a mini super computer in your pocket.
But life went on and I got fat. Then a doctor told me I needed to lose weight because of the damage I was doing to my health. That was about 10 years ago. Now, back when I was young, I was in the Marine Corps. I had the attitude that I wasn’t going to let anyone judge me on my size or gender so I was determined to do anything any of the big guys could do (within reason, of course). I was largely successful but it did take a toll on my body. And that brings us to the story of Ironman Arizona 2024.
Moving on to race day, it was quite chilly at 7am when the first athletes hit the water. The water temp was actually warmer than the ambient temp. This is when my first set back began, although I didn’t know it yet. I’m pretty consistent in swimming about 2:25 minute per 100m. Not particularly fast but that’s been my average in previous events for the last year or so. Based on that, I anticipated a total swim time of right at 1 hour, 45. Just passed the second turn buoy I took time to check my watch. 52 minutes. Ok. That’s pretty much on target.
Now I don’t know what happened on the way back but it took me an additional 20 minutes to make the return swim. It’s a man made lake, so there is no current to speak of, and I didn’t feel like the swim was going to hell. But for some reason, I didn’t get out of the water until right at 2 hours.
In to transition 1. I had already planned to take a couple extra minutes to suck down some hydration and eat a banana so I could keep my energy up for the ride, given the aforementioned difficulty with hydration. Since the swim took so much longer than planned, I cut some of that out. I worried about it but it was a calculated risk that, fortunately, paid off later.
I get out on the bike course and take off. I notice I’m going faster than I had planned. My goal was to keep my average pace below 18mph so I didn’t blow up on the bike and then have nothing left for the run. I didn’t realize it at the time but the reason I was able to hold so much faster pace with little effort is I was already feeling the effects of a gradually increasing wind.
I really dislike wind, particularly a head wind. Now I went to Tempe earlier this year with the sole intent to ride the route and figure out if it was something I could do. Unfortunately, that experience was a bit misleading as that day was nearly ideal. Yesterday was not. By the time I got to the turn around, the wind was already a pretty consistent 10mph and only increasing as the day went on. By the third loop, it was a fairly consistent 15-20 mph head wind on what should have been the fastest section of the ride. Where I was expecting to be able maintain a lazy 20+mph pace became a struggle just to hold a steady 15. By the time I finally finished the bike, I was a good 30 minutes behind where I hoped to be, but more importantly, I was gassed.
That all becomes prescient on the run. I know my run sucks. It’s my weakest event, and it gets steadily worse the longer the course. That’s why I was kind of banking on those times for the swim and the bike, to give myself some cushion for what was inevitably to come.
The run actually didn’t start off too bad. Maintained a comfortable jogging pace around a 14 minute mile. It was actually my plan to start the run slow while I rehydrate and then pick up the pace as I went. That plan went to shit around mile 8 when I felt my left knee blow out. My knees have been kind of a wreck ever since my Marine Corps days, and that has a lot to do with why my runs are always so slow. But this time was significant. I reinjured the ligaments in that knee and I knew as soon as it happened my hopes of an Ironman title were in serious jeopardy.
I could still put weight on the leg, I just couldn’t really bend it without considerable pain. So I changed to “power walk” strategy. Some quick calculations told me that if nothing else went wrong I still had a decent shot at finishing before the cut off. Of course no plan, especially a Plan B, goes off without a hitch, and that hitch was cramping starting around mile 15.
Guys, I have to tell you I was almost in tears. Partially from the pain, partially from the idea of missing the cut off by mere minutes.
But I pushed on. and on. And on. By the time I got to mile 24, according to my watch, I had just under 30 minutes. 30 minutes to go 2.2 miles on a leg that hurt so bad I would have cried if I wasn’t so dehydrated. But fuck it. Pain is temporary. Ironman is forever. I began a run-walk-run strategy that had to be the weirdest looking thing you can imagine.
Another competitor caught up to me about a half mile later and we kind of paced off each other the rest of the way in. Ultimately, he pulled away and finished about 30 seconds ahead of me. But I checked my watch, I could see the finish chute and I had just under 60 seconds (according to my watch). I pushed it. It was the ugliest thing I’ve ever done. But damn it, I made it with literally just seconds to spare. And when I say seconds I really do mean seconds. Can’t even round up to “minutes” (plural). Chip time had me at 16 hours, 38 minutes and 38 seconds. I was 82 seconds away from missing my Ironman.
It was physically the single hardest day of my life. To my surprise, I’m actually not even all that sore. Except my knee. That thing is the size of a cantaloupe today.
