Before and After . . .

JUST A LITTLE FLASH BACK!

Let's Ride 112 miles!

This is the link to the IRONMAN video – I show up about the middle-ish. Red Transition black spuik helmet – BIG OLE BOY – eating a sandwich!!!

If you want to go directly to where I am in the video – PUT the play cursor (the circle that moves while video is playing) right above the A in ironmAn.

http://www.ironmanflorida.com/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imfla&vidname=RaceVid-2009-FLA-low&playtype=mov&w=320&h=260

Let’s go ride 112 miles!

Before I begin my Ironman race recap – Let me apologies for taking so long with my Race Report. It is a very busy time at the end of the year, but I will complete this in its entirety by next week.

Now to the good stuff!

As I jogged through transition I repeated my cycling mantra – EASY DOES IT!

Again, I had good people sharing their experiences with me (Which I suggest everyone do.) regarding the do’s and don’ts of an Ironman. I heard loud and clear from each of them . . . Don’t go out too hard on the bike. They warned me of the experience and the push you may get from the cheering spectators and then once that is over I might experience the desire to push hard when someone passes me in the first couple miles. “Stay focused, stay calm, stay easy” is what I was told and I did just that, but it wasn’t easy.

As I jumped on the bike I could hear the screams of people around me, “GO 1129!” or the same ole “Go Big Boy!” (I think I will always be big boy!!!) When you ride through the chute it is exciting and remains so until you get on the first stretch of road along the beach. People are cheering you on non-stop in that stretch on Thomas Drive, but I just settled in remained calm within myself and began to think about the day.

Once I was on the gulf front road I was surprised at how low my HR was while I was holding 23mph? Odd? I was passed about 4 or 5 times and it WAS difficult to sit back, but I had my plan and I was going to stick with it. The good news was that I was passing many more folks (Not that I get pleasure out of that, but If I am being passed, I don’t mind passing!) After about 4 miles I felt ready to roll. My sea legs were gone quickly, which I didn’t expect.

As we turned North headed to the only real hill on the course (which is an overpass) I noticed the wind pick up slightly. From this point it would be about 20 miles until the turn east. They have been doing a great deal of work on this hwy. I have ridden the Gulf Coast Half course many times and this road has changed over the years.

There was a guy with a cowbell wearing a cowboy had and an accent. I am not sure, but I think it was Australian? He would park across the hwy, come over and cheer us on with his cowbell. Then jump in his car ride ahead 20 miles or so and cheer us on again. He did this the entire ride. I appreciated it, A LOT!

I saw him the first time about 3 miles before the overpass. My goal on the overpass . . . SPIN BABY SPIN! But some may argue with my spin method. See, I never ever get out of the big ring. I know I am working on it! As I reached the top of the overpass I felt great. As I descended at a wicked speed I used my same old boring on bike conversation starter, as I would fly past people – I say “Man if this were an all down hill triathlon!” I know, goofy, but for some reason I feel guilty flying by everyone!!!???

The road surface after the overpass was smooth as a baby’s butt. The next 15 or so miles were heaven. I thought to myself, (self) if this is what the day has in store for me – Today will be a GREAT day!

JINX!

It wasn’t 2 seconds after we made the right turn east onto hwy 20 that I was introduced to some really sucky headwind! I told myself it wasn’t going to last . . .

As I passed the first penalty tent I hollered out to my peeps! Luke, Vanilla, and all those folk were working the first penalty tent. It was nice seeing them if only for a second.

The wind never let up. The long stretch on Hwy 20 was miserable. There were a couple highlights.

As I was at about mile 50 a van pulled up beside me and the rear tailgate was up and there was a guy with a camera. I said hello. Of course I am eating!!!! Speaking of . . .

I am a planner. It is what I do for a living. I plan everything to a T. Here was my nutrition. At the top of every hour I had an Uncrustable peanut butter and honey sandwich, 200 calories. These are great. My friend Caroline introduced them to me. They are in the frozen section of your supermarket. At the 15 minute mark I would take in 2 endurolites from Hammer Nutrition and lots of fluid (I use NUUN cola). At the 30 minute mark I take in one gel which I use Hammer Banana and again, lots of fluid. At the 45 minute mark I take 2 more endurolites and more fluid. Then repeat this every hour!

This is the link to the IRONMAN video – I show up about the middle-ish. Red Transition black spuik helmet – BIG OLE BOY – eating a sandwich!!!

If you want to go directly to where I am in the video – PUT the play cursor (the circle that moves while video is playing) right above the A in ironmAn.

http://www.ironmanflorida.com/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imfla&vidname=RaceVid-2009-FLA-low&playtype=mov&w=320&h=260

I was holding my goal of LOW heart rate. Taking it really easy. This was my first IM and I wasn’t going to blow up. But, I was a little frustrated to be going 16-17mph heading east on Hwy20. BUT THEN . . .

We turned South.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! I averaged 25mph on the short stretch south before heading to 388 west. I felt great. I had just stopped at my special needs bag and re-lubed (you can’t do this enough!) I dug into my small bag of Pringles (yeah yeah – I’ve heard enough from you skinny tri freaks of nature on my Pringles – It worked for me!) and I was off.

How funny was this – My Momma drove all the way out to the turn to see me pass – I was literally making the turn and she was getting out of her car with her chair and all to set up shop!!!! How funny! I love you Momma!!!!!

I held a pretty nice speed and a low HR all the way up to 388 where we turn right for about 6 miles then make a U-Turn and come back. THIS ROAD SUCKED!!!!!!!!

Not only was the wind back in our face but this road surface was miserable. MISERABLE!!!!!!! I think the only good news was that I THINK the road was so bad at a perfect place in the race (about the middle) and it made the remaining bike spectacular!

When we did make the U-Turn . . . The road was still crappy, BUT the wind was beneath our wings!

My next concern was the Gulf Coast Half IM course on 388 heading west is UGLY and the road surface is not pretty. But to my surprise . . . THEY have redone the road surface and this road is now like BUTTER!

I couldn’t have been happier. As I passed the last penalty tent ON THE COURSE I hollered out to my friends Susan and Nancy and Greg Cole who were working that tent.

I was having a hard time holding back and keeping my HR at the 145 to 155 I had set for myself. But I knew I had to because my run is so horrible.

As I came to the overpass I powered up it and knew I was home free and feeling well. Just before we turned onto the Overpass road I saw my friend with his cowbell and he gave me a “Cheers! Good job!” I thanked him and headed to the house!

When I hit gulf front road and headed towards transition . . . I admit – I picked it up a little. I also did what I said I wouldn’t . . . As I hit the chute off of Thomas Drive I was a little hyper. After New Orleans 70.3 I thought I had learned not to act a fool and exert a lot of un-needed energy. NOT!

I hollered and screamed like a moron. I flew into transition – gave up my bike and headed to get my transition bag.

As I did I saw my friend Will. He is a hell of an athlete and a better coach/trainer. I don’t plug things on here. This is his website and he does a hell of a job.

http://www.4thdimensionfitness.net/

I was all kind of pumped up! I grabbed my Transition bag and headed into the transition room.

Good news was – Not so many swinging Richards this time!

I sat down and took off my cycling shorts. I wore my tri shorts underneath and I think it worked out very well. I lubed again! This time I hit my toes and between my toes really well. I thanked the transition team and headed out to run 26.2 miles.

Up to this point I am loving life!

Run Race report coming soon!

RACE DAY!

Let’s have sum fun!

3:13am Wake.

3:15am Eat micro waved breakfast burrito – Begin hydrating

4:00am Shower

4:45am Meet Greg and Nancy in Lobby for ride to Race Site

5:00am Double check bike, inflate tires, fill Speedfill, relax!

7:00am GO TIME!

Sounds easy enough right! Right?

Here we go.

I woke right at 3:00am which was fine and threw my breakfast in the microwave and double checked my special needs bags. My friend Vanilla left me with many pieces of wisdom and one was – LESS IS MORE – and I took it to heart. I had minimal items in both special needs bags and on my bike. I had the most stuff in my bike special needs bags. And minimal items in my run bag. I will post in another post what I had in all of my gear and special needs bags .

After eating my breakfast slowly and sipping on Gatorade with Hammer pre race fuel in it I decided I didn’t want to wait for my show and jumped in about 3:30am.

After a LONG hot shower I LUBED BABY! I was determined not to have a single chafe issue. I had Boudreaux’s Butt Paste in every crack and crevasse on my body. I thought I might slide out of my tri shorts when I put them on!

All morning I visualized my day. One sport at a time seeing myself finish with smiles at each point. After having a good 5-minute one on one time sitting on the balcony I headed down to meet my friends Greg and Nancy. How awesome are they. They were volunteers on the bike course, but woke extra early to take the stress off of me worrying about driving and finding a parking spot etc. They were also full of wise advice for me.

After arriving at the race site (which was like an ant farm!) I dropped my bike special needs bag at its point then walked my run special needs bag off down by Alvin’s. I felt like I should have been a little more stressed, but I was reasonably calm with all things considered . . . Would that last?

After pumping my tires up to 110 and filling my speedfill hydration system, I went through the rest of the check list . . .

I had my cycling shorts on over my tri shorts and was wearing my race top as well. Bike was in race mode. Computers all zero-ed and head was on my shoulders.

As for my bike and transition area . . . Good to go.

I headed up to the boardwalk condo where my wife, sister, and baby girl were in a dead sleep when I arrived! I kissed Amanda on the cheek and rubbed Melaina’s belly as I have done every morning since her birth.

My friend Lance, who Amanda was staying with at Boardwalk, was also racing today. We hung in the living area for a bit, took some pictures, and I am sure we were both thinking about our day.

It was time.

Our wetsuits half on and my gonads in my throat we headed to the beach. I met Lance’s Mom and Dad on the way and we again took a few more pics of Lance and the family.

I saw my friend Andy and a few others as I hit the cool white sand. “Here we are” I thought to myself. “Hew were are.”

As I walked down the beach to the swim start I was visualizing and I was really caught up in the moment. I don’t want to say I was overwhelmed, but I was absolutely on the verge of suffocating inside of myself.

Here were my thoughts.

“I was 453 lbs 5 years ago. I am still so big now at 240lbs. Can I do this? I can do this. I WILL DO THIS. Shit. (BIG SIGH) Where’s my wife? My Dad? (Big Sigh) Wow there are a lot of people out here. (I laugh to myself) I forgot my 2^nd wave starts here – sign! (Laugh again – out loud I think) This is going to rock. Remember to smile all day. “

Then a familiar voice from behind. It’s Gloria, Scott, and Charles (Vanilla)!!! What great faces to see just before I take off.

I was having problems with my wetsuit and how awesome to have the two people I trust the most when it comes to triathlon right there to help me. They pulled my suit up and got it into a perfect fit position for me. Zipped me up and offered some encouraging words. Scott suggested I take off my chain with my cross off. He was worried about chafing – But call me crazy but, I couldn’t do it. Yes – I regretted later when it came to the pain and chafing, but mentally and spiritually I am glad I had it.

After hugs to them I head the announcement that the pros were about to start . . . WHAT!!!!!

I wasn’t even close to the corral yet. How do I get into the Corral?????? Oh man! There were so many people. I was politely saying excuse me for a while then PURE PANIC SET IN!!!!! I think I put a little old lady in the sand face first at one point! I ran to the front and went into the water and then into the corral. Whew.

About this time I am standing in the very back of the racers. Wow. I was taking in all of the red caps. All of the people. Then I heard my wife yelling for me.

I can’t explain exactly what happened here, but I just saw them. I simply walked over and looked and my wife and child and this burst of emotion took over and began to pour out of me. I didn’t begin to cry, but I had a physical reaction to this little emotional episode. Like I said I can’t explain it, but I was as close as a big grown burley man can be to tears without actually crying?????

Then the National Anthem began and I sang like a rock star!

Here we GO!!!!!!!!!!!

The cannon went off and I began to walk. My mind told me what was going on, but my legs were well in front of me. They were on a mission.

The water was cool but not cold. The churn ahead of me was less intimidating than I thought it would be, but more beautiful. All of those bodies with their red swim caps, fighting to take full swim strokes while someone else was stuck in their arm pit . . . It was awesome.

I’d say the first 250 meters was not really swimming, but more surviving and half stroking. I hit a few people and felt bad. I was kicked and then I didn’t feel as bad about those I accidentally hit!!! HA! The water was pretty nice on the way out on the first loop. I finally got into a rhythm at about the 600 meter mark.

I spoke to soon.

I had a guy who was a faster swimmer than me, but a much worse spotter. I stayed positive even after the 3^rd or 4^th time he crossed literally right over top of me. The poor guy probably ended up swimming 3 miles since he zig-zagged the entire course. I decided to sit up for just a second and let him get a little in front of me. MISTAKE!!!!!

There were more people behind me and around me than I thought. I quickly got back into my stroke and battled with a few folk for another 200 or 300 meter until we hit the first turn to the left. The water had begun to sell just a little. It was getting kinda rough. But after the first turn I began to hit a little bit of a rhythm.

I am not sure I mentioned this yet . . .

My goal for the first 127.5 miles of this day was to keep a LOW LOW LOW Heart Rate and never feel I was exerting too much at all. I was afraid of that proverbial “wall” everyone talks about. So I was taking it easy on my swim and felt great up to this point.

As we began the stretch back to the beach on our first loop I ended up right next to a female swimmer. We were stroke for stroke. Our cadence, speed, everything was identical. It was nice having her on my right. I didn’t have to worry about anyone or anything on that side. Thank you nice lady from England who ever you were.

When we came up to the beach to cross the timing mat on our first loop I saw my family.

Here was what happened throughout the day when I saw family . . . Stop, hug, kiss, tell them how happy I am that they are at the race . . . Move on. We will talk about this more in the report, but I would say I spent about 20 minutes of my day doing this – BUT I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!

I felt strong after the first 1.2 miles of the swim. I was a little faster than I thought I would be and I was happy about that. I talked to the nice lady I swam beside for a second – Hence me knowing she was from the UK. Then It was back into the swim!

I am not sure how this happened and how many others noticed this, but the water was ROUGH on the second loop.

Spotting was very difficult on this second loop since I couldn’t see over the swells at some points. People were all over the place on the second loop. It wasn’t too bad on the way out, but when we made the first turn, it was obvious what we were in for and it were not purdy!!!!

At one point I came through my stroke and as my right hand came over and I went to breathe on my right side . . . There was no water?!!! I looked ahead and the front part of my chest was in the air and I was looking down at the water and BAM! I was drinking a nice mouth full of gulf water! Oh it sucked! I buckled in and tried swimming with the waves timing my spotting so that I was looking ahead when I was on top of a wave.

I don’t want to over blow the waves. They weren’t surfing height or “Perfect Storm” crazy, but they were 3 footers with white caps and I wasn’t really happy about it.

The turn back to the beach was a welcomed affair, but the waves were still a pain in da booty since I wasn’t able to ever really able to get into a rhythm. I like swimming with some type of rhythm. I know you can expect that in an open water gulf swim, but this was a little more ugly than I expected.

The other great part about the stretch back to the beach is the spotting. It is so easy to spot since you just have to pick out the condo at Boardwalk and swim to the building to the left. EASY.

As I stood in the water – knowing I had finished round one – 2.4 miles of gulf swimming – I was happy. I saw my friends and family! It was so easy to spot them now!!! WHY? Because I am so slow in the water most people had followed their friends racing into transition and I was one of the few still in the water!! HA!

I’ll give you one guess as to what happened next?

Yep. I hugged everyone! EVERYONE!

I headed into transition. I decided to strip my wetsuit myself. I don’t like sitting on the sand and getting sand all over. I do a standing wetsuit removal. And I think it is just as fast as laying down having someone rip off our suit and standing up, then going. I don’t know?? But I stay sand free.

Second EXCELLENT piece of wisdom from my friend Vanilla . . . Take your time in the shower. Get all of the sand and salt water off of you. I almost took a shower I was under there so long! I stood far to the right so I wouldn’t be in the way, but I showered and showered!

What an experience the transition room is . . . Swinging Richards everywhere! I was worried about sitting down. I had my race gear under my wetsuit so I only had to re lube a bit and put on the shoes, helmet, glasses, and rub down with a little pain gel . . .and I was OUTTA THERE! There was just too much nakedness in their for me. Maybe I was having an inferiority complex? Nah!!!!!!!

As I ran out of the transition room I saw several people I knew and was ready for the sun-screen application. I asked the nice volunteer to lather me up and she did for the most part.

SUGGESTION: When you ask the volunteer to apply your sun-screen ask them to get under your race bib a little. She covered me very well – except for on my back right by the race bib area. Jump ahead to the next week and I had 2^nd degree burns with blisters and all. Take time to handle this right in transition or it won’t be pretty.

I saw my family up on the hill and blew them kisses. As the volunteer was bringing my bike a recognizable face ran up to me. It was a volunteer, BUT it was also the guy I rode the sag wagon with at redman half after my third flat. He flatted twice as well. We had a good ride back in the support vehicle in Oklahoma. Neither of us was happy, but it was nice meeting him and nice seeing him in the transition area. He is from the Boston area I think . . . Wish I’d gotten his name. Nice surprise.

Swim done. T1 Done.

Bike race report soon!