Florida Ironman Race Report 11-5-05
Fair warning, this is pretty lengthy but I've got a lot of ground to cover here.
Where do I begin?!
My journey toward
an Ironman finish really began in the fall of 2004 during some off-the-cuff discussions with a couple of my firefighter training buddies, Rick and Dave. Next thing I know, I'm spending a Saturday meeting a group of triathletes in the Tricats club at a Mexican restaurant discussing who's going to commit to the event and who's interested in hiring a group coach. Before I know it, it's Sunday, November 7, 2004 and I'm dropping $450 to enter an event I'm not sure I can even complete. Although the entry is pretty steep, it does offer some serious motivation to train or risk throwing away a bunch of money.
I decided to jump in for the group training plan with Eric Sorensen (& Gail Lohman) at Principle Fitness (www.principlefitness.com). There's no doubt in my mind this decision really was the start of setting myself for a successful journey. Over the course of the next 10 months, Eric would provide me a monthly training plan and join our group in 2 workouts a month to offer little pearls of wisdom along the way. It was also great to have someone ride by on 99 degree day after 6 hours of training offering up an ice cold water bottle. Priceless!
There is one person in my life whose support proved more valuable than I could have ever imagined. That would be my wife, Igda. Also known as my Ironsherpa, coach, motivator, caregiver, massage therapist, laundry doer, chef, and nutritionist, well, I could go on forever, but my point is that she has been amazing through this whole ordeal. I'm so fortunate to have her by my side. She's been through it all with me and was patient enough to never stop listening to my whining or incessant talk about why I needed new play toys to help me go faster. I can't fathom the idea of someone training for an Ironman event without such an incredible sup
port system. I’d also like to thank my wallet. It never kept spending. For those that may not know it, be prepared to spend heavily. My analogy for this is it’s similar to buying a fixer-upper, except your body and race gear is the fixer-upper you just purchased. I think I tried every nutrition product under the moon and then some. I even convinced myself (and my wife) I needed a new bike for this race.
Ok, I could go on forever with the emotional stuff, but let's get to the race.
I'm going to call this little part of my story the Introduction:
Igda and I arri
ved at our resort in Panama City on Wednesday afternoon and we were ecstatic about our condo. Somehow we ended up with a 3 bedroom condo overlooking the ocean that was off the hook. We were about 2 1/2 miles south of the Race Site.
I received some sad news from a good friend, training partner and fellow racer, Rick. He called to tell me that he had just thrown out his back bending over his couch to get a blanket on Tuesday and wasn’t making it to the race. What a complete bummer! But that does lead me to believe that in the final weeks leading up to an Ironman, all sorts of weird things happen that potentially can wreck the journey to becoming an Ironman. You work so hard to be injury free in training that I think once you really start to worry about it during the taper, certain events happen that would never happen otherwise. For instance, as I’m walking to the Metro reading the paper, I nearly walk smack into the middle of a tree, stubbing my toe on a metal grate in the process. Never has this happened before, but 2 weeks out from an Ironman, I think the brain st
arts to wonder, subconsciously saving every ounce of energy it can. I started forgetting where I put my keys, leaving my swimsuit at the pool after a swim or forgetting where I parked my car, etc. Igda would say something to me and I would look at her with a blank stare. Essentially I was heading to lala land.
Now I know another reason why Eric had me complete a race plan, because it starts to become so much to soak in, your mind becomes overloaded and the more you have pre-thought out the entire process, the more at ease you will be (and the less things you will forget).
I swung by and picked up my bike from the transport company and then we head to Wal-Mart to load up on groceries since we had a full kitchen. The funny thing I never figured out until Thursday morning is that Panama City is on CST time zone. Who knew? I went for the Gatorade pre-swim that started at 7 a.m. and was supposed to meet a couple of my training partners. After waiting until about 7:10, I finally called Charles and he informs me that it's 6:10 a.m. No wonder there was only one other guy getting ready for the pre-swim with me. I must add that Igda told me she thought the time changed, but in my typical male fashion, I brushed her opinion off as nonsense, after all, we flew into Tallahassee and it is on EST time zone. So, off I go on my own little pre-swim by my lonesome. The jaws theme song only crepted into my head once. Later that morning, we headed to the Expo to officially register. We were feeling a little hungry afterward so we headed over to Spinnaker's to grab lunch. We ran into Kevin, Lori & Ana and joined them for a nice lunch. We walked home along the beach and I grabbed my bike for a test ride. I laid down for a little nap around 4 p.m. thinking life was good and I was feeling great!
Uh, oh! What's this? After waking from my nap, I start experiencing some stomach pain and nausea. I felt this before and it usually ends up not so well. I try to fight it off and ignore it, but the nauseousness was growing stronger. I plan on meeting my teammates at 6 p.m. at the Expo, but I need to run Igda to the store real quick. As we're walking into the Winn-Dixie, I let Igda know that I need to go out to the car because I think I'm going to hurl. I jumped in the car and pulled to the corner of the lot. Before getting more than a step out of the car, here it comes. Yep, I start vomiting right in the parking lot of Winn-Dixie. Needless to say, I spend the next 4 hours back at the condo running back and forth from the bedroom to bathroom. I realized my only hope was to try and rest and start getting some liquid back into me ASAP on Friday.
I still felt pretty nauseas most of the day on Friday and ate very little, but I was at least holding down my liquids. I packed up my transition bags and dropped them off at the transition area. I also finished packing my special needs bags before I went to bed. I slept on and off most of the afternoon and managed to get a lot of sleep before awakening at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning.
RACE DAY:
Pre-Race-
I was feeling better upon awakening and downed my usual pre-race shake and half a bagel at 4 a.m. Grabbed my gear and drove over to the race site. I dropped my special needs bags off and proceeded to get body marked and get my tires inflated. Note to self, bring my own pump next time. I waited about 20 minutes to get my tires inflated. I also realized that I forgot my bottle of Perpetuem (fuel) for the 1st half of the bike. I tried to see if I could ride my bike back to the hotel, but they won’t let you out of transition with your bike on race day. Oh well, move on to plan B. Thankfully, Eric and Gail’s advice to pack extra nutrition in your special needs bags paid off. I ran to my bike special needs bag and grabbed an extra Powerbar, leaving me 2 Powerbars for the first half of the ride which should equal out my loss from the Perpetuem bottle. No worries.
Bike is ready to roll and I start to pull on the wetsuit. I walk over to the beach with some buddies and start to feel the excitement as the music is blaring and there’s a couple thousand other races all standing around, some with smiles, others with the mysterious look of “what’s about to begin”. I see Lori and we give each other a hug and wish the best.
Race Start-
Bang, the cannon goes off and everyone plunges forward. I sort of snuck to the front on the far outside and I think I got lucky because there was a pretty large gap that opened up and I just took off. The swim was much easier and less boisterous as I thought it was going to be. Maybe this was due to my wide right starting position, but I managed to even split the 2 loop course with a steady Heart rate of about 140, well in my aerobic range. Time: 1:09; Goal time: 1:10-:15
I hustled to T1 and put on my bike gear. The volunteers were amazing in the tent. They even packed up my bags for me and handed me my gear as I was dressing.
I jogged out to my bike and head out of T1. Igda waved hello as I passed by. Following my plan, I don’t eat anything for the first 30 minutes, just some H20. The one thing about a 112 mile bike ride that occurs frequently is the fact that you get to talk to yourself quite a bit. I had scripted out beforehand all the nifty motivational and race plan self-talks I was going to use. My overall plan was to Pace myself, averaging around 20 mph with a steady cadence of 90-95 rpms and keep my Heart rate around 140 or so. I kept repeating to myself that I still have to run a marathon after this, I need good legs. I wasn’t going to worry about the racers passing me.
For the first 30 miles I felt really pretty good. I managed to eat a Powerbar and a half and was drinking H20 with a little Gatorade as planned. Somewhere between miles 30-35 the wheels started falling off. Everything I ate and drank would just come back up into my mouth where I would have to swallow it again. I tried to brush it off, but it only kept getting worse. I also managed to drop my electrolyte tablet holder (which has never happened) and decided not to stop and get it since I had packed more in my special needs bag (thanks Eric & Gail for that tip).
At the bike special needs stop I grab my bag while cruising by, nearly knocking my bike off the road since I forgot that I had a full water bottle of Perpetuem in it. I had not thought of practicing this during training, but next time I’ll just stop. Aaah, more electrolyte tablets as well.
Ok, I think to myself, hopefully the cold bottle of Perpetuem I now had would cure me and go down smooth. I take a couple of pulls and oh no, the Perpetuem is not going down either. I start to realize that I’m in serious trouble. The only thing I can tolerate is water with some electrolyte tablets. Needless to say, the suffer fest is on. My speed is dropping rapidly and I can’t even hang on to any rider around me or passing me. It became demoralizing. At one point, I seriously considered just pulling off the road and lying in the grass. I was severely nauseous by mile 90 and couldn’t even get in the aero position. I knew at some point during the race my will & desire would be tested. I had no idea it would be on the bike, typically one of my favorite and best sports of the three. My friend Eduardo came by me with about 4 miles to go and offered some words of encouragement which were much needed. I think he was a little surprised to see me since I had passed him around mile 40 or so. I just kept repeating to myself…get to T2….get to T2. I needed to get my feet on the ground. Time: 6:10:17; Goal: 5:30-5:45
Side note: I guess when you’re testing your physical limits, there come along moments of weakness that if you’re not prepared to face it head on, you will succumb to the misery. I think this is one of the biggest challenges to racing a triathlon to your full potential. The mental tenacity it takes to compete cannot waiver or you simply will miss out on the fun and joy in performing. Sort of sounds like life in general.
I stumble off my bike and walk to the changing tent. There, I try to gather myself pondering whether or not I should quit or keep going. Looking back, I’m pretty disappointed in myself for ever thinking about quitting. How the hell can I run a marathon right now? I think what I needed more than anything was just to sit, gather myself and talk to someone. The volunteer helping me was great. I sat there for, I believe, about 10 minutes. He would come by and check on me about every 3 or 4 minutes. Finally, he just sat next to me and asked if I was ok. I told him I thought I needed to go to the Medical tent and weigh myself. I knew I was out of energy, but I didn’t know how dehydrated I was. He responded, by grabbing my stuff and we walked out of T2 and to the Medical tent near the finish line. He was so assuring and positive. He said I have enough time to complete the marathon even if I could walk the entire way. I really appreciated him assuring me that it was ok to go on. Eric, who was standing right outside of T2 hollered and grabbed me with both hands around the head, looking me in the eyes, reassuringly stated, “Do only what you can do” (at least that’s what I think he said…I was a little foggy at that point). I believe those words were another step toward adjusting my mental approach to just finish. My goal time was blown out of the water, but stay within myself.
As I arrived at the Med tent, the female doctor asked me what was wrong. I let her know that I had so
me stomach bug which wasn’t allowing me to eat my planned nutrition and that I had lost track of how much fluid I drank on bike. I just wanted to weigh myself. Her next comment is what convinced me to push forward. She said, “Oh, that’s a great idea to try an Ironman a day after you’ve been sick.” I just looked her and thought to myself, “you know what lady, I’ve worked almost a year to get here and I’m not ready to stop now.” I think this was the final push I needed. I weighed myself and I was about 4 pounds under what I’m usually at, so I was somewhat comforted with the fact that I wasn’t severely dehydrated. She said if I received an IV, I would be DNF’d. I thanked her and volunteer and headed out on the run (er…walk).
The first 6 miles were terrible. My stomach started to bloat and it was as a hard a rock. I tried to do some deep belly breathing which seemed to help loosen up my stomach, but I was resorted to drinking water and some watered down Coke. I did tell myself that I wasn’t going to drown in my misery. I realized after about 4 miles that I could finish this race. Pretty much the rest of the run consisted of jogging as far as could before my stomach would knot up…walk for awhile…repeat sequence.
My wife positioned herself at about the 3 mile mark and she wasn’t about to let me quit. She even walked with me for about a mile coming back from the first loop. I think I saw everyone in our Ironman training team out on the run. I tried to make sure to cheer everyone on as we passed each other. I can’t imagine tackling this event without having some familiar faces to chat with during the day.
I managed to start feeling a lot better at the halfway mark and lengthened the time I was jogging. I caught up to Eduardo and we spent the last 6 miles together chatting and sharing our thoughts and feelings about the race. I must say, I think Eduardo had the best cheering section. His wife, mom & dad were going crazy. They kept popping up along the final 6 miles hollering for Eduardo. It was pretty cool. Their joy rubbed off me as well. With about a ¼ mile to go, Eduardo and decided to split up so we could have our celebratory photo finish shot.
As I’m running up the finishing shoot, I hear Gloria – “I will survive” booming over the speakers and I see Igda standing off to the side. I give her a hug and kiss, still a little dumfounded that I managed to make it to the finish line. I round the bend for the final 20 meters and I nearly run into the back of this guy that is walking. Where did he come from? I hadn’t seen him until I rounded the corner. I’m caught in that horrible position of, “do I pass him or stop & walk across the finish, too.” I try to slow down, but end up stopping about 5 meters from the line. I walk across the line as the volunteers are trying to get the finish line banner up for me. Well, I guess I’ll have to do another Ironman to get that good shot. Marathon time: 5:48:49; Goal 4:00-4:15. Finishing Time: 13:27:40.
The finish for me was somewhat bittersweet. On one hand, I was really disappointed in my performance. On another, I was grateful and happy that I stuck it out to the finish. In the end though, the happiness of testing and pushing through my physical limits overshadowed everything else. I’m an Ironman. It was everything I thought it would be and more.
Off to enjoy some of the other indulgences life has to offer for a bit, but I hope to make another run at Ironman in the future. C’est la vie!
