Pre-race:
4:15 am arrived really slowly for the first time in my life, usually it feels like the alarm goes off as soon as I hit the pillow, but not today. This day I awoke at 3:15 and couldn't fall back asleep. Shoot! It would have been really nice to have that other hour of sleep today, but oh well, my nerves and the excitement wouldn't let me. I got up and went to the bathroom while being really careful not to stub my toes anywhere (I had just read a story of someone braking a toe the day before their ironman so I was a little paranoid! Also, it was pitch black in the basement I was staying in and I didn't want to turn on a light and wake up my brother). I made it safely back to bed then spent the next hour thinking of everything i'd need to bring down to the race and of course worrying about everything that could go wrong, and mentally reassuring myself that it was just a long training day, a popular mantra i'd heard before and that I decided to adopt.
The alarm finally went off and I got up, covered myself liberally with bodyglide (I've learned the hard way from a few half irons), then slipped into my race clothes and warm-up clothes. Then went upstairs and checked the weather outside. I was happy to see it wasn't raining or too cold or windy out. There had been storms throughout the night, but they looked to be passing now (phewphh!!!). Breakfast was next, usually that's a highlight of my day, but at 4:30 am I had to force myself to eat. The night before we had had a lot of pasta and garlic bread so I was not especially hungry. The menu for today consisted of (this is just for my own records so i remember) toast and peanut butter, a glass of gatorade, a banana and a bowl of oatmeal. I was originally planning two pieces of toast, but the second got burnt and decided that was a sign (I know....but the weirdest rituals and thoughts go through your head on race morning!). After that Chris and I put all our stuff together and...wait, while on that topic, if you've never done an Ironman one thing I'd recommend is to arrive early at the race city. There's sooo much to do and logistics to get ready. Making sure your bike is working well (one of my wheels wasn't balanced right), scouting out the bike course and run course, swimming some of the swim to get used to the water (which was 58F for us on the days before the race...chilly, but refreshing once you got used to it), registering, planning out and filling all your transition bags and special needs bags, buying any last minute things you've forgotten, etc. Anyways, back to about 5 am, we have all our bags ready and Mike, my brother, drove us down to the race start (thank you!!!).
One of the cool things about Coeur D'Alene in the summer (well, at least cool on race day) is that it gets light out at about 4:45 am, so that made it soooo much easier to do everything (including waking up that early - I'm not much of a morning person usually!). There were tons of people everywhere and we dropped off our special needs bags and then headed over to the porta-potty line before they got too long. Then it was off to our bikes to pump our tires and put last minute food and stuff on the bike. Then off to find body marking and finally over to the dry clothes drop off area (for your warm up clothes to have after the race). That completed the total to 6 bags we had dropped off with different stuff that we'd be seeing at different parts of the race. We put our wetsuits on and found Chris' friend Whitney by luck and then headed down to the water. I had a gu about 20 minutes before the start and then waded in a bit to get used to the chill and then waited for the anthem and announcements. We had decided to go wide to try to avoid the mass of people on the inside, although I'm not sure that helped in the end. I was talking a bit with some of the people in front of me and then the next thing I knew the cannon was going off and the craziest swim of my life began!
Swim: 2.4 miles
Whoever decided that it was ok to have 2300 swimmers all starting at the same time should have their head examined. I had by this point built the swim up to be so crazy in my mind that it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but only barely. It was pretty light in terms of the hitting for the first 5 minutes of swimming because we had started out on the sides, but then everyone came together and the craziness started. I think there was only a handful of times in the first ¼ of the swim where I actually took my normal 3 strokes before breathing. I did however find several people to draft off of and followed each for a few minutes before getting pushed off or sandwiched by people and having to find someone else. The worst was the turn buoy where everyone converged and I literally had to stop and half tread water and fight people off as we all tried to go around. This was probably the worst part of the swim and the most claustrophobic. Despite all the craziness I kept reminding myself of the day ahead and tried not to push myself too much. By the end of the first loop I was sure I had lost some serious time because of all the battling, but it turned out I was pretty much right on target with 33 minutes. I started the second loop knowing I just had to keep the same pace. The second loop was a little easier for the way out, but as soon as the turn buoy hit everyone clustered again and it was mad chaos. I kicked something pretty solid by mistake (probably someone’s head, sorry whoever you are!) and had multiple people try to swim over me before I had to strongly discourage them with some stronger kicking and high elbows (swimming IS a contact sport!!).
I was so relieved once I exited the water to be done with that part and also happy that I had a decent time of 1:06, completely even splits! I started worrying about Chris (my girlfriend) a bit since she had only been swimming for 2 years now, but was hoping she had a good swim too. I felt like I took it pretty easy effort-wise and this was also the time it took me in practice so I was pretty happy. The volunteers guided me to the right place as I grabbed my transition bag and they stripped off my wetsuit. Thanks volunteers! Oh and I forgot to mention, there were hot tubs set up! The water was so cold that they set these up to warm people up in case they wanted it after the swim. They really do think of everything at these races. I was continually impressed with the volunteers (all 3000 of them!) and organization, best race I’ve ever been to that way. I got my bike stuff on and went through a little sequence of things in my head to make sure I had everything, took a quick pitstop, had another gu and some water to wash it down. I also put on my gloves, which I hadn’t planned to do before I got to the race site, but it fit with the “just another long training day” theme I was going with and mentally it helped me to put them on and convince myself of the lie I was telling myself. Then it was off to the bike start. A terrible transition with almost 7 minutes, but I was feeling good that the swim was over and now the fun part about to start ( I like the bike the most).
Swim Stats:
Time: 1:06:52
Pace: 1:46/100m
Age Group Place: 39th /201
Overall Place: 277/1942
Bike: 112 miles
As I began to bike I started double checking everything, the adrenaline was so high that I know it’s easy to forget things sometimes. Food was there, tires were pumped, helmet on, sunglasses, race number…shoot…race number was really loose for some reason. It seemed to be staying there so I tried not to think about it at first. That only lasted 2 minutes before I decided I had to try to fix it as I was coasting on a flat part of road at 20 mph. Of course I pulled the wrong strap on the race belt and next thing I knew it was flapping in the wind and then down in my front wheel getting tangled between my frame and spokes. I was lucky enough to hit the brakes before it got completely tangled and not crash or anything and then spent 2 minutes untangling it and putting it back on. I got a little over-excited and started cursing at the belt when I couldn’t get it untangled, but the fans on the side helped me calm down as they reminded me that it was a long day and just to take my time.
The bike was a 2 loop course and the rest of the first loop I was determined to take it easy. Sounds weird, but it’s pretty hard to keep it easy when you’ve been training for this moment for 6 months and just want to go hard. I managed to hold back though and the first lap went by quick and easy. I did find Chris about halfway through the first loop and that relieved any worrying I had. She was only about 15 minutes back and looking strong! I also saw my brother at the halfway point with this awesome Canadian flag sign and this helped motivate me and give me some charge. There was one point that lasted for about 30 minutes with some decent wind, but I kept thinking back to the huge gusts we’d been having in Austin all spring and that kept my mind at ease. First loop took just under 3 hours at around 19mph average, and I began to aim for my 6 hour original goal. Around 70 miles was when I first started feeling uncomfortable on the seat, but it wasn’t too bad and was able to shift around and not notice it too badly. The second loop wasn’t much harder than the first. Felt strong, kept to my nutrition plan of 2400 calories on the bike and finished just a tad slower on the second loop due to some stronger winds. It helped that the bike was really scenic and that the weather was gorgeous, I kept looking around and trying to enjoy the moment.
Bike stats:
Time: 6:01:52
Pace: 18.6 mph
Age Group Place: 83rd /201
Overall Place: 584/1942
Run: 26.2 miles
As I went into the transition tent for the run one of the volunteers grabbed my bag and followed me into the tent. He opened my bag and set out everything for me. While on this note, I want to mention once again how great the volunteers were in this race. In transitions and out on the course they were so encouraging and organized, probably better than any other race I’ve ever been in. Ok, back to the race J I was out of transition a lot quicker this time (2 minutes) and started the run feeling pretty good. The first 4 miles flew by at around a 8:15 to 8:30 pace. I had originally thought I’d try for between a 9 and 10 min/mile first half pace and then just try to keep a 10 or slightly higher pace for the second half. So after the first 4 miles I calmed down and forced myself to slow down. I still kept a 8:30 pace for the next two miles, but finally was able to slow it down to 9 min/miles after that. I’ve had some bad meltdowns late in races before and was determined not to let that happen again. It still felt pretty easy around a 9 min/mile pace though so I decided to keep that for the rest of the first half (two loops). After that I still felt pretty good surprisingly, but was still dreading the crash that I knew would probably come. It started feeling a little harder to keep the pace but not too bad, so I tried to just keep the same medium effort level, but walk every aid station and see what pace that gave me. That stayed at about 9:30 for a little while and then went between 9:20 and 10 min/mile for miles 16 through 20. I was starting to get tired, but still hadn’t hit the crash I was afraid of. So I kept the same pace, but decided to only walk every second aid station. This reduced my pace to around 9 min/miles. I managed to get to mile 23 getting more tired, but still no crash. I decided to take the enervitene and push the last 3 miles a bit more. I felt like I was pushing it quite a bit however it turned out I was just doing around 9 min/miles. The finish line was a down hill ½ mile with the sun setting over the water behind it, a perfect finish setting. As I ran through the last ½ mile I began to smile and pump my fist, knowing that nothing could stop me now and that I had made it. I crossed the line in 11:20:41 and was extremely happy with this. Before I had started I had 3 possible goals depending on how the day went. Goal #1 was just to finish in case I had a bad day or some type of injury or mechanical problem. Goal #2 was to beat 12:30, the original goal I had thought about when I first started my training. The 3rd goal was breaking 12 hours based on the last few months of training and if everything went well. So 11:20 was definitely far above my expectations. The last run loop (last 2 hours) was an effort mentally at this point though so when I got to the finish line it didn’t really register that I was done and that all 6 months of training had ended with this. It was weird, but my excitement slowly grew over the next 2 days instead of happening all at once at the finish line. It reached its peak ironically when Chris and I were shopping for a book to have on the flight back. On the drive down the highway into town I rolled down the window and proudly yelled at the top of my lungs: “I am an IRONMAN!”
Run Stats:
Time: 4:03:38
Pace: 9:18 min/mile
Age Group Place: 47th/201
Overall Place: 347/1942
Overall:
Time: 11:20:41
Age Group Place: 46th/201
Overall Place: 336/1942
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Chris, my wonderful girlfriend, who was the best training partner and who kept me going when I didn’t think I could do it anymore.
To all my training partners, Shawn, Mike, Jose, Ed, Brian, and Noah for pushing me, teasing me and encouraging me.
To my training plan author/coach Brandon Marsh, for the awesome plan and race advice.
And last but not least, thanks to my fans, my brother and Chris’ parents, for cheering all day for us, making awesome signs, getting up at 5 am and making cool ironman trophies for us.
