hay mna you guys i got my seckratary to rite up the race recap. short word is im a fuckin irenman.
First off ¡V my goal was to come in around 14 hours, given that my best half was in the 6:40 range, just doubling that would be 13:20 and really can you just double it at that distance? Add that my plan would have a slower bike by design and 14 hours is completely reasonable.
Pre-start ¡V we had a friend who was going to take our morning clothes bags for us, but I got separated from the rest of the group and couldn¡¦t find him, and they wouldn¡¦t let me out of transition with the bag. One of the security guys agreed to watch my bag while I went to find him. I couldn¡¦t, so I went back and asked the security guy if he could just throw my bag in the bin, which he agreed to do. Then I made my way to the beach, pulling on the top of my wetsuit as I went. As I neared the beach I realized I had dropped my goggles somewhere between transition and the beach. So I retraced my steps looking for them. All the way back to transition ¡V no luck. I turned and headed back to the beach cringing at the thought of swimming 2.4 miles without goggles. Then on a bench ¡V there they were! Someone must have found them and placed them there, rather than carrying them around.
The start ¡V this is my first mass start, rather than the age group waves, and let me tell you it is absolute chaos with 2300+ people toeing the line. My plan was to get out on the outside edge and avoid as much of the chaos as possible, so I got to the right side of the bullpen where it curved toward the beach and waited. Well, guess what? It only curved toward the beach for a while. There was probably another 150-200 feet of beach to the right. Of course I didn¡¦t know that til we started hitting the water. So I adapted my plan to the situation and figured I¡¦d just make do.
The swim ¡V The gulf was like glass, which was a relief considering how the past two day had been, and what I heard on the forecast (2-3 feet in close). Friday we went out for a swim and had 3 foot waves in close and 5-6 footers just 600 yards off shore. Anyway, I ended up starting dead in the middle left to right and near the back. I knew I¡¦d have to dodge some serious furniture along the way, and maybe play the bully to get through from time to time, but there were way too many people who overestimate their swimming ability, or just don¡¦t give a damn. Hell there was one old guy doing an easy backstroke 300 yards from the start. And let me tell you guys this: if you¡¦re ever in one of these races DO NOT FUCKING BREASTSTROKE! I almost had my head kicked in twice. Once I thought my goggles got kicked so hard it would draw blood (and every shark in the area!) Also, I had the Spongebob theme song going through my head with all the jellyfish I passed ¡V well over 100. Basically the entire first loop was chaos, and I¡¦ll admit a little disappointment when I came out of the water and 48 minutes on the clock already (ok I didn¡¦t find this out until I checked the final times, but I forgot that included the 10 minutes the pros started ahead of us.) The second lap was a lot cleaner as far as traffic, though it did get crowded again near the finish. Out of the water in 1:26 (which was really 1:16) and my goal was 1:20 ¡V 1:30, so everything is going according to plan.
T1 ¡V if the swim was chaos, then I don¡¦t know what to call transition. There was a changing area in the conference rooms of the host hotel (right next to the bikes) but it wasn¡¦t nearly big enough for T1. Fortunately they had wetsuit rippers near the beach, because if we had to remove our wetsuits in the area provide it would have been worse than chaos. Anyway, the 10 minutes in T1 was as much about finding room as it was getting changed. A bit of a crimp in the plan, since I hoped to keep it around 5 minutes.
Bike ¡V This would be my weak event on the best days, but winds were forecast to be 15-25 mph for the day and we started out with a stiff headwind, which only lasted for most of the first half of the race. To make matters worse, a lot of the roads we were on were cut through trees, making for a great wind tunnel effect with the trees basically forcing the wind down the road. I was completely focused on keeping my heart rate in the 130-140 range for the first half so it was slow going in many places. I forgot to start my garmin in transition, so most of the time/distance were guess work. I figured it was almost 3:30 for the first half of the ride. Even if the second took as long 14 hours was still doable. It wasn¡¦t going to take as long for the second half. We now had a tailwind. And some hills. Especially one very long descent. I had joked to one of the guys I was going back and forth with that coach told me that I should coast if I got to 28 mph ¡V like that was going to happen. It did. I don¡¦t know where I topped out, but it was definitely in the ¡§coast¡¨ range. Even the up hills weren¡¦t too bad, though I did have to take some time to get the heart rate back down. Around mile 100, we started to get a hint of a headwind again. By 106 it was really strong, so I just kind of packed it in a few miles early and let people pass me by. Now it was all about getting ready to run. I will admit to picking it up for a short while when a young lady with a nice looking caboose passed me by. ƒº
T2 ¡V not quite as chaotic, since we¡¦d had 112 miles to sort things out. Though I did lollygag a bit.
Run ¡V I haven¡¦t had a decent run in any of my halves, and I wasn¡¦t expecting one here. I knew I came out of transition damn near 3:00, giving me roughly 6 hours to make my goal. There were times early on I had to force myself to slow down, and I walked through the water/feed zones. About the second time I took a gel ¡V about 6 miles in ¡V I got really gassy. Just a nasty bloated feeling (followed a few miles later by ripping them off left and right) so I decided I had to lay off the gels and get what I could from the Perform drink. I kind of went from mile 3 to mile 11 with a nice looking young lady ¡V she¡¦d run through the water zones, and I¡¦d pass her in between. Somewhere along the line as I was about to pass her, there were some elderly women watching the race who made a comment like ¡§nice legs¡¨ so I thanked them. The gal said she thought they were talking to her, but I corrected her ¡V ¡§Clearly they were talking about me.¡¨ We had an on again/off again debate for probably the next 5 miles. Around mile 8 I encountered one of the female pros, Caroline Smith, who was on her second loop, and not having a great day. She did some walk/run so we passed each other a few times. Once as she passed me I told her thanks for gutting it out and not just dropping out like she could have. She claimed she was little more than a glorified age-grouper, but said she¡¦d never dropped out of a race, and didn¡¦t plan to start even after going pro. Anyway, I think pros who drop out to race another day are dicks. Back to the race: I hit mile 10 at just shy of 1:50, and that¡¦s when I began taking longer walking breaks. I knew damn well that I was going to crush 14 hours. The next goal was 13:30. I hit the turn in under 2:30 and all I could think was ¡§if I can go 3 hours, I can make it!¡¨ I did walk quite a bit more on the second loop, but I tried to keep 15 min/mile pace when I walked. Part of the route looped through a park that wasn¡¦t well lit, and I didn¡¦t want to chance making a misstep and really ruining a decent race. The battery on my garmin started to give out around mile 15, so I didn¡¦t know if I could trust it, though I kept checking it anyway. Around mile 24 I was getting worried that I wouldn¡¦t make it in by my 13:30 mark, so I determined I was going to run to the finish ¡V and I probably put down those last 2.2 miles in around 10 min/mile pace. When I got to the finishing stretch I gave myself as much space as I could, because I didn¡¦t want anyone else in my finishing shot. I looked at the clock as I closed in on the tape and couldn¡¦t freaking believe my eyes 13:17! And fuck I had finished.
Post race ¡V a few of my teammates met me at the finish with some warm clothes. I told them I wanted to go to the med tent ¡V somewhere along the line I had gotten salt or something in my right eye and had been dealing with blurry vision for the last 8 or so hours. After getting the eye flushed out, I grabbed my bike and gear and headed back to the condo for a shower and a brief rest, planning on getting back to the finish line for the last hour, which is supposed to rock. That brief rest lasted until 12:30, so I moved from the couch to bed for a well deserved nights sleep.
I'm absolutely stoked by the time given my expectations going in.
Also, I didn¡¦t find this out until Sunday, but the race winner, Ronnie Schildknecht, put together the first sub 8 hour IM on American soil. So I¡¦ve got a piece of history to go along with my virgin IM.
