This is a brief look at how my race day went:
My initial goal early on during training was 14-14.5 hrs to finish, but towards the end of my training I really wasn't feeling like that goal was achievable (Remember this is my FIRST full Iron). So, I just kept joking to my friends...You know, 16:59 would be just fine if I can avoid drowning.
This is kinda how I came up with my goal:
1)2:00 Swim: Nervous about making the 2:20 cutoff but, figured I could beat that.
2)7:00 Bike: Pace I am used to training at plus maybe an hour
3)5:30 Run: Not knowing how my legs would feel by then, I tossed out a number of my worst 26.2 + 1hr=5.5 hrs
=14.5 hours to finish not including transition times.
RACE DAY:
4 A.M. wake up call ! Christine is the veteran, so I followed
her lead today.
5 A.M. Body marking & Bike rack to put final items on the bike
and air the tires, dropped special needs bags off & return to the room.
Video gives you a glimpse of what was going on during this time:
5:30ish I walked up a couple blocks and grabbed a breakfast sandwich and was only able to eat half, and went back to the hotel to chill out and get into race mode. Continuing to sip on fluids and just relaxing.
6-6:15 We put our wetsuits on, grabbed our morning bags and started back down to Tempe Beach Park.
6:30-6:50 Back down at the swim start, we dropped our morning bags and finished zipping up and putting our caps/goggles on. Chistines friends Scott & Karen that live locally got up extra early and where there to wish us luck, they snapped a few pics. In the meantime the Pros were starting out and and it was almost our time !
6:50 Started down the path of no return with the other age groupers....jumped in and started to swim towards the start. I had planned to get in earlier and hang to the side, but didn't have time now and just said screw it ! I swam more towards the buoys and treaded for a few.
7:00 Go Time ! Pray I survive this.....
Swim Start: 2.4 miles
SWIM TIME: 1:52:32
Better than I thought, no telling how much extra I ended up swimming, but I got it done. Nothing to talk about here except that I survived.
T1: Swim-To-Bike 16:22
Ok, That's terrible ! BUT, I had planned on it. I decided before I packed my transition bags that I was gonna swim in my Landsharks kit and then change to my BlueSeventy/Hammer kit afterwards. I took my time and got changed, dried my feet really good before putting my socks/cycling shoes on and then I applied my spray sunscreen ! HOLY SHIT THAT BURNS !!! (not the exact language I used either). Lesson learned, don't spray back of my neck after some major wetsuit burns ! I then put my shades on...locked my helmet and off to the bike rack. running to the rack I grabbed my bike and hustled up to the mount line. I jumped on and off I went for a little 112 mile ride with my new friends.
Some of my friends think this is what I was doing in T1 :)
Bike Start: 37.4 mi x 3 laps (112 Miles)
Begin Lap #1
I was told..Take it easy on your first lap ! No problem, cause my legs weren't ready anyways. Figured I would take it easy and just spin awhile and see how it goes. It was now time to get to work. My Garmin which was set to beep every 5 miles as a reminder to take a drink of that lovely tasting Perpetuem !! Yum, a tasty treat every 5 miles !! That for sure would make me want to get done faster I figured :)
On the way out I kept looking for Cheetah Girl aka Christine, I knew she had to be way ahead of me after my terrible swim and T1 time. I finally saw her returning to town and I had a bit before the turnaround. At the turnaround 18.8 miles in, I finally got my cycling legs and with the slight downhill I maintained 23.5mph for the next bike split and that really felt great ! After that I just tried to take it easy and not push too hard and shoot to maintain around 20mph rest of the day knowing that I still had a marathon after I got off the bike.
End Bike:Lap #1 Completed-37.4 miles total
Back to the "Hot Corner" and turn and head back out again. I'm feeling pretty dang good now ! I noticed my first bottle of Gatorade had hardly been touched...this is not good..So in between the perpetuem I made myself drink more until I finished up that bottle. so far to this point I had blown every single aid station on the course because I had everything I needed on the bike, but later into the 2nd lap I felt what I thought was leg cramps coming on and decided to slow at an aid station and grab fresh water and perform, then I went on to alternating water/perform between my perpetuem ...No problems after that and I kept on pushing.
At this point there were still some pros out on the bike and they were zooming past me...some polite.. some NOT...I was passing most everyone I came upon and the super fast swimmers and pros were the ones knocking on my back door finishing up their last lap while I still had another to go. I am not super fast, I do OK...So I am just assuming I was catching some people ahead of me and also passing the ones on their first lap, so I spent most of my time in the "Passing zone". My biggest pet peeve of the day was trying not to draft and follow the rules & some RUDE Pros's..Commit to pass and complete within 20 secs , or if you get passed , you have to back out of the draft 4 bike lengths etc... So, I am passed by several pros without any problems...one example, Leanda Cave was over my left shoulder as I am in the middle of passing a slower bike..she says "On your left" I am almost done with my pass and we are 3 wide at that point and slide over when the pass is complete, Leanda rolls by and says thanks...and she is GONE! But, then there were a couple jack asses... One day they are gonna get what they deserve..I really wish I had remembered their numbers..But, Same scenario..male pro coming up on me, I could hear his wheels humming. He came up and drafted the bike I was passing and then sliced between us passing me on my right as I was making my pass ! What a Fool ! He could have wiped all of us out....Just really shocked at the behavior of a few of the Pro's out there that day and not gonna waste anymore time mentioning the other ones.
As I was climbing the hill getting close to the half-way turnaround of Lap #2 there goes the Cheetah again ! Chris is maintaining a good pace still and this is about where I saw her on the 1st lap. I make the turn and start heading back keeping my eye out for her and finally caught up a few miles down the road. I said hi to her and stayed back as not to draft and paced her for a while..honestly I was a little nervous to pass her ! Would I still have somewhere to sleep tonight ? Would she bust me in my nose ?? After a little while I decided I needed to just go and I passed and don't think I said anything, I just went on.
End Bike:Lap #2 Completed-74.6 miles total
Turning at the "Hot Corner" and heading out for my last lap I was still feeling great, although I have been on the bike around 4 hours now and taking in fluids the whole time... I'm still sticking to my number #1 rule... "NO Peeing on my bike"
So, somewhere around 80 miles I decided it was time for a pitstop. I knew about where the bike special needs bags are, but that was a ways out and I didn't really need anything out of mine, so I just went ahead and made my stop which cost me atleast 4-5 mi/h on that split, but was worth it ! I loaded up another water and Perform and off I went again. I was so happy to climb that hill for the the last time knowing all I had to do was bust it on back to town and wrap this up. Once again I made it back to the "Hot Corner" BUT, this time I got to go thru and onto T2.
End Bike:Lap #3 Completed-112.0 miles total
BIKE TIME: 6:04:51
T2: Bike-To-Run 11:52
Another slow one, but who care's !! I have no idea what I did in there. I changed my socks and switched from my 2XU race belt over to my favorite fuel belt brand race belt because it holds my gels. I slipped my shoes on and shades/visor...handed my bag to a volunteer and off I went again.
Run Start: 26.2 Miles
Run:Lap #1
I know how I felt after some brick workouts and really expected my legs to be just shredded from the bike when I got going...but, that was not the case at all. It was something ELSE ! My legs felt great, it was my stomach now and it wasn't ready for 26.2 miles . So there I am all ready to run and feeling blah...I checked the time and laughed..OMG I have 9 hrs left ??!! At that point finishing didn't seem to be an issue, it was more back to the time goal I had in mind. I knew I wasn't going to maintain 9-9.5 min/mi pace for the marathon, so I just tried to do what I could and stop at the aid stations and take sips of perform as I went. The volunteers were just AWESOME out on the run, and I finally gave into one that offered me the chicken broth ! At first it didn't sound like something that I wanted in my belly, but after a little sip and some magic cola, I knew things were things were turning around. I continued this the rest of the run and alternated this every other aid station with perform too.
Further into the the 1st lap I came up on my friend Ryan from Bremerton(Seattle Area). I was really glad to see him and we chatted a few mins about how the race was going. Ryan was a lap ahead of me at that point and only had 1 more to be finished. We finished chatting and I moved on, not knowing I would be seeing him again.
Run:Lap #2
As I came past transition I saw the signs on the path..left to finish and right for Lap1, Lap2, Lap3......This Blows ! You can hear Mike Reilly as your passing...Oh well! Let's get this 2nd lap knocked out.
I continued my new plan of aid station to aid station alternating my drinks and a few porta potties along the way, seems like about 1 stop a lap. I knew I had this and figured why be uncomfortable anymore than I had to be and just paced myself and stopped when I felt like it.
I knew going in, the sun sets early in Tempe, so there wasn't a chance of finishing before dark unless I did like a sub 11 hour and that wasn't happening ! So, I had hoped to be around 13.1 on the run before dark. About halfway into the 2nd lap the sun was gone...How about that ! 13 miles in and the sun is gone just like I had planned. As Hannibal Smith would say "I Love It When A Plan Comes Together". Although my plan was just a guesstimate, I felt good where I was at that time.
I kept on going and finally saw Christine on a section of the path where we pass each other, so I stopped and talked to her briefly to see how she was doing and then I got back to it again.
I continued on and got back on my pace when someone with afterburners on came up from behind me, then I heard "Hey Matt" It was Ryan...he was flat out moving ! So I jumped in and ran with Ryan for awhile. Ryan was feeling great and was finishing up his 3rd lap and heading to the finish line ! I ran almost a mile with him and then dialed it back and wished him luck on his finish.
Run:Lap #3
Alright I'm passing the sign again ! Last Lap !!!
Not much different than the first two...just survival.
I slowed down when I came upon Fireman Rob walking in his full fire gear, I told him good luck ! And then got back on my way again...
http://www.firemanrob.com/
A little later on I ran into Sarah Reinertsen, and I also wished her luck. She's pretty amazing, I had also seen her out on the bike earlier in the day. One tough lady!
http://www.alwaystri.com/
I just kept on chipping away at the miles and around mile 20 or so I was close to the Run Special Needs Bags and decided I would grab mine because I had a new pair of socks and my other pair of Mizunos packed in there, so I stopped and changed into them and got back on the road.
Off to finish up the last 6 miles !!
I was getting fairly excited now, and when I got down to the last mile I picked it up and just wanted to get onto the finish line. I got to those signs on the path again, but this time...I went LEFT !! HELL YEAH ! I headed left and followed it up and around to the chute and I finally heard Mike Reilly yell my name and say "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN" I was DONE !!
FINISH TIME: 13:52:21 / 140.6 miles
I really wasn't all that tired and then turned my attention to waiting for my race partner Christine who wasn't too far behind me. I chatted with my finish line catcher and she got me a bottle of water and I asked if I could stay near the line and wait for Chris and she said it was OK... My race wouldn't be complete until I saw Christine finish. So, I was afraid to step away from the line and miss her,and waited until she finished before going to the tent for some food. It wasn't too long before she came in and finished another Ironman AGAIN !
Mission Accomplished !
Highlight Video of the race:
Special Thanks to the Volunteers who made this day so awesome:
