Emi's first race

Emi a little over halfway. Running Strong!







Igda & I chilling out









Emi getting his pre-race pep talk



Igda & I heading out for dinner in Downtown Richmond.

Richmond Xterra Race Report

Richmond Xterra Sport Course:
Race Report:

Wow! What a fun race! This was my first off-road tri and I must admit it was a total blast. Rather than bore you with the mundane details, I’ve compiled a list of my experiences from a rookie perspective. Some items are just things I learned from the experience of the day while other items are just pitfalls to avoid the next time and/or general observations.

1. I’m not sure if this is true across the board, but Xterra competitors are generally very friendly people. Lots of hello’s and smiles abound before the race and during. It’s a very cordial lot. I don’t regard myself as a super swimmer, but I actually think swimmer’s got out of the way if they saw me behind them. I think I bumped into 1 person the entire swim and that’s after catching up to the 1st wave. I also think mountain biking causes others to communicate to each other in a much more civilized manner. You see, in order to pass someone on a single-track path, you have to holler out that you’re there (or be hollered out to) and want to pass. So, you do your best to help out because you never know if you’re going to need to pass that same person at a later time. About every time, you get or give a “Thanks, Man!” during this process. How cool is that!

2. Don’t wear dark-tinted sunglasses when the bike course is through the woods where there is NO sunshine. It makes visibility a huge struggle.

3. Xterra racers are TOUGH! I thought I had a few bad spills and even considered bagging the run because my knee took a nice shot on a rock, but one look at the finishers in the med tent made me feel like a total wuss. These people have unrivaled perseverance and nothing is going to stop them from finishing. Not even broken bones or post-race stitches!

4. Do pre-ride the course beforehand. Gaining a grasp of the terrain first hand is a far cry from hopping in the car to drive the course in preparation for the race. I went for a 30 minute ride the day before and told myself, “This isn’t too bad”. Come race day, I was kicking myself because I missed most of the hard stuff and I was astonishingly surprised at how difficult other parts of the course were.

5. Don’t think for a minute that the shorter bike leg makes it a cake walk. 9 miles on a technical mountain bike course felt like 25 miles on the road. You really use your upper body and core muscles to a far greater degree.

6. If you want to feel like a kid again on the bike, race an Xterra. The adrenaline really gets pumping when you look down a steep, twisting descent and let it all hang out. Sure, I had moments of “I think I may die!” But once you’ve done it, you’re like “that was so crazy! I can’t believe I just did that”. Let’s do it again.

7. Ties into # 6: If you want to feel like a kid again running, race an Xterra. Although some of run is on pavement and across bridges, the exhilaration of running where cars can’t go was pretty sweet. I actually looked forward to the run.

8. Don’t get discouraged if you take a spill. I think its part of the initiation into Xterra, but if you happen to fall, pick yourself up, wipe off the dirt and debris and get back into the saddle. You’ll regret it if you don’t. I saw Pro’s that were pretty dirtied up where they clearly had taken a spill along the way.

9. Don’t forget the Advil.

10. The volunteers and medical staff are incredible!

11. You don’t have to wake up at 4 a.m. to get ready for the race. The Sport race started at 8 a.m. and the Full Distance race started at 10:30 a.m. A few extra hours of zzz’s made it feel like a vacation.

Well, that’s about all I can think of off the top of my head. I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting, but I highly recommend this race if you are looking for a fun, challenging event.

Eagleman 2006 Race Report

(Transition Area)

Eagleman 2006 Race Report:

Date: June 11, 2006

This is going to be my 3^rd time racing Eagleman and I think or hope I’ve learned a few things about myself and my approach to racing this event. My first crack at Eagleman was my first Half-Ironman and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just trying to squeeze in as much training as possible and read every article posted on the web about Half-Ironman training and racing. My second race was serving as part of my IMFL training and I completely wilted on the run in the heat.

My only real goals were to try and break 5 hours and have a good run. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to see the news in the week leading up to the race that the heat factor was going to be a non-issue. I already knew that the wind factor would be a coin toss. It turned out mother nature wasn’t going to let us off too easy by sparing us the heat, so she drummed up a nice stiff wind just to make sure we were challenged.

I spent much of my taper distracted by work to get in any training, but I figured at least my muscles will be well rested.

This was the first time I arrived plenty early to avoid feeling rushed trying to get my transition area pieced together. I had time to stretch a bit and relax. My first year, right before my wave was called, without noticing I pulled my wetsuit on backwards up to the waist while waiting for the swim start, some nice guy commented that “I think the zipper goes in the back”. No anxiety attacks this time!

Since I’ve done this race twice, I knew I just needed to get around the sailboat and head home following the buoys. I remember hearing Vigo say that the first triangle buoy was where you turn to make your way around the boat. I’m cruising along and I can feel the water starting to get pretty choppy the farther we get out. I sight the triangle buoy and round it, even following a few other guys when to my astonishment I see the guy in the paddle boat about 15 yards in front of me pointing further ahead and to my right. Oh crap, there were 2 triangle buoys. I swim back to the right and round the second buoy knowing that mistake just cost me at least a few minutes. I also think I got entrenched behind a wave of slower swimmers in my AG because I couldn’t find a gap to get around until a little bit after the sailboat when the swells and side current really split everyone up. I just tried to go with the flow and try not to work too hard. I was a little shocked when I looked at my watch running to T1 and it said 39 minutes. Yikes.

I was in and out of transition pretty quick and felt really comfortable on the bike. My plan was to keep my HR around 145 bpm for most of the ride which would be entirely aerobic for me. I wasn’t too concerned with my speed since I was gauging my effort based on my HR. I fully expected a windy day, so it didn’t really surprise or bother me too much. I just kept focusing my effort based on HR. At about mile 30 or so, Michael Flanagan whizzed by me so fast he didn’t even recognize me. He was hauling! Nothing out of the ordinary about my bike. I followed my nutrition plan (2 servings of Perpetuem, 4 Endurolytes/hr, 1 goo, ½ a cliff bar, 1 bottle of Gatorade & around 1 ½ bottles of H20). I got off the bike feeling pretty fresh. Looking back, I think I could have pushed an HR of 150 or so for 10-20 miles in the middle and still felt the same.

I didn’t keep track of my splits during the run, but I realized I would need to do run roughly a 1:40 split to break 5 hours. I just decided to mentally break it down into 4 – 3 mile runs and see what happened. I lost about 2 minutes because I had to pee at the first porto-potty. I thought I timed it right since I saw 2 of them standing by the first aid station and about 50 yards in front of me the guy just entered one of them. Cool, the other should open up by the time I get there or be very close to it. Nope. I had to stand there until the guy I saw go in came out. I should have kept going to the next one, but I just can’t run when I have to go and I probably would have had to wait at the next one anyway.

With that out of the way, I cruised the first 3 miles and kept chugging along. This was the first time I was mentally able to stay focused in the moment. Every now and then the negative thoughts would creep in, like, “man, I’m only at mile 5” or “jeez, I’ve got 5 miles left. This sucks!” Breaking the run into segments seemed to really help me this time. For miles 9-12, I was starting to struggle. I told myself I wasn’t going to walk, no matter how slow I was running. It worked. I still had to walk through the aid stations. I have a real difficult time drinking without stopping. I guess I need to practice this more.

Aaahhhh, the last mile. I still have a little bit in the tank. Mike Boorstein came cruising by me with about ¾ of mile to go, looking strong. He was being trailed by another runner and after they got about 25 yards up on me, I decided to try to keep them in my sights and hang on. I finished fairly strong and felt good about my effort. Finishing time = 5:08:46.

Post reflection: Could I have gone faster? Couldn’t we always! I guess that elusive sub 5 at Eagleman will drive me back for another shot. But no complaints or regrets here. It was a great day and I had fun doing it. I had great supporters out at the race (thanks Igda, Emi, Eric & Jenn). I haven’t said that about my other 2 tries at Eagleman, so things are looking up. Oh, almost forgot. My name was drawn for an IMWI entry in the raffle. I thought I was hallucinating, but it was true! I only entered for giggles, since it didn’t cost anything and I never win the stupid things. One of the rare times I’ve ever won a raffle, so it got the blood flowing again. Only downside to winning the raffle is that I now would have to fork over $435 dineros to claim my prize. It’s great to win a raffle, but it sucks to have to contemplate paying a sizeable sum of money to collect your prize with your wife standing by you with that look of, “You’re not really going to do it, are you?” Needless to say, I had to take a pass, plus I didn’t have my checkbook on me. Thank, heavens! Two long, rushed months of Ironman training didn’t sound too appetizing.

Winner: Chris Legh. Freakishly fast!

May 21, 2006 Columbia Triathlon

Race Report: Columbia Triathlon May 21, 2006

Distance: 1.5k mile swim/41K bike/10K run

Goals for the race: Beat my time from last year, hopefully place in the top 20 of my age group.

This was my second time racing Columbia, last year being the first. Last year I entered this race during the base phase of my IMFL training program and hadn’t done a whole lot of speed work. This year I haven’t had a formalized training program, but I’ve been fairly consistent with my training and tried to work in shorter intensity workouts with added threshold workouts. It’s been tough getting to pool at 5:30 a.m., but isn’t it for everybody. Needless to say, my plan was just to get through the swim as easily as possible without sacrificing too much time.

After setting up my transition area and duck taping over the vents in my tri bike shoes (I hate cold feet), I headed over to the swim start with my wetsuit in tow. Thankfully, I noticed the TriCAT tent set up at the finish was able to put my stuff down and worked in a 10 minute jog to get the blood flowing. Wow, what a beautiful morning! I squeezed into my wetsuit just as my wave was entering the water and jumped into the lake, trying to place myself toward the front as close to the bank as possible. Unlike other races, I wasn’t going to race with my HRM. I was just going to go on feel. I think I get too psyched out by my HR during shorter races and tend to ease up too much.

I remembered from last year that the start was pretty brutal. There’s about 200 swimmers all aiming for the same 1^st buoy and I believe the course somewhat pinches itself during the first 300-500 meters, almost like a funnel, bringing everyone together. I took a pretty good lick to the face in the first 200 meters, almost knocking my goggles off. Thank heaven for the Seal Mask I was wearing. Any other goggle and I think I would have had them permanently implanted into my eye socket. I took one more hand to the side of my face before getting to the first buoy. Things loosened up a bit from there on out and I tried to get into a comfortable groove. I felt like I was crawling along though. I attempted to draft a few times, but the feet I was following were swerving all over the place. Oh well, I guess I’ll go it alone I thought. About 2/3 through the swim I finally felt comfortable and felt that my heart rate was in the aerobic range. I plow up the bank and begin my run to transition. Although I’m usually in state of dazed and confused following my swims, I do hear Eric’s voice holler out, “Ole is about 20 seconds ahead of you!” Wow, I think to myself. I know Ole is a better swimmer than me, so maybe my swim wasn’t as bad as I thought (little did I know that Ole didn’t have his usual strong swim). I never did see Ole in transition, but I must have beaten him out of transition because I didn’t see him until later on the bike when he caught me. Swim time- 00:24:42.

I head out on the bike in a panic, knowing & feeling like I need to make up some time. I don’t drink anything for the first 10 minutes or so since I usually get side stitches if I drink too early from the swim. I feel pretty good. I’m catching people in my age group right off the bat. I give Eduardo and Martin a shout out as I go by. Great to see familiar faces in the crowd! I didn’t do any reconnaissance of the bike course before hand, other than knowing from last year that it’s a pretty steady rolling course. My strategy was to go like mad on the downhills and flats and stay steady on the uphill sections and try not to go too anaerobic. I was a little distraught when I started because my odometer wasn’t working, but after a few miles it kicked in so at least I would know how fast I was going. Note to self: make sure you wipe down the odometer after leaving your bike outside overnight. I think the nodes were just damp and not registering properly. As I was cruising along, a fella passes me. I think to myself, boy he looks familiar. I ride behind him for a bit and then it hits me, it’s Ole. Sweet! This last half will be just like a training ride. I holler hello and its game on. I follow Ole for a good bit and then pass him on a downhill section and then he comes around me for the last 2-3 miles to pull me along. This helped a lot. I did manage to get goo all over my right hand and break lever which distracted me a little bit. Stupid me, I open my goo and kept it my right hand as I’m taking a turn with my hands on the hoods, squeezing the goo all over my break lever and hand. I try to lick my hand and get some of the goo, but finally realize I should just try and clean up a bit and proceed to take in some water and spit it out on my hand, wiping it on my pants. I roll into transition knowing I had a pretty good ride and hope my legs are still good to run. Bike split: 01:13:14

I dash out of transition, ok, it’s more of ramble. I try to keep Ole in my sights for as long as possible, but he’s just too fast for me. I think I’m in a little bit of trouble because the first hill seems much harder than last year. I get into a nice steady pace and I’m following another age grouper about 20 yards in front of me. I think to myself, just stay in contact with this guy the entire run. I think this strategy sort of back fired on me later in the run, because my pacer started to walk up some of the uphill sections around mile 3. Well, I took this as a signal that it was ok for me to take a quick walk as well. Bad strategy now looking back. My legs felt fairly good, but I felt like I could never get my breathing rate down under control. I was redlining up the hills, but then I’d hit the steep downhill portions increasing my speed, never allowing me to get my breathing rate down. Oh well, it’s Columbia, right? After feeling like I was going to puke up the last hill, I realized I didn’t have too much farther to go once I saw the lake. Just hang on! It’s almost over. I managed to pull out a decent kick to the finish, right behind about 2-3 guys in my age group. Run split: 00:47:16

Finishing time: 02:29:21.

I managed to hit my goal for being faster than last year (by a little over a minute), but I fell short of my goal for making the top 20 in my AG (29^th / 199 in AG). I was fairly pleased with my race, but a little disappointed I didn’t suck it up more on the run. Mentally, I know I caved in a bit and didn’t focus well enough to have a stronger run. Guess I’ll have to wait until next year to improve my run.

Thanks for reading….

Checking in

Well, it’s official.  I’ve made a week commuting to work on my bicycle.  It’s roughly 15 miles each way along a nice path.  The weather has cooperated and I haven’t ridden in any rain, yet.  It’s pretty convenient having a shower facility in the building.   I had my first flat tire on the way to my swim session at 5:30 this morning.  Lucky for me it was happened about a ½ mile from the pool, so I just kept going and changed it after my swim. 

 

Kinetic Half Ironman 4-21-2006

First race of the year turned out to be wet one. The forecast was calling for Thunderstorms throughout the day, but luckily it only rained somewhat hard during the bike and stopped by the time I started the run. Igda drove down Friday to Fredericksburg to go to the packet pickup. We stopped in at TGI Friday's for dinner and then headed to the Ramada. Not exactly the best choice of motel but it was ok.

When I signed up for this race I really only had the intention of using it as long training day. Leading up to the race, I encountered a flare up with my IT band in my right leg. I think it had something to do with my move up 3 flights of stairs and racing the 10 mile Cherry Blossom the following morning. So, I didn't know if I was going to have the same problems at this race.

Since I haven't been swimming much since IMFL, I really didn't know how I would hold up on the swim. After the initial jolt from the cold water, I was able to get into a pretty good rythm and managed to end the swim around 34 minutes (which I was really happy with).

Headed out on the bike and totally forgot to adjust my speed/distance sensor to my race wheel, so I ended up riding the entire course without knowing my speed or how far I had gone. Lesson learned. The bike course was very scenic. We cruised around the Lake Anna for two loops. It was a rolling course with some nice flat sections. I felt really pretty good and my back was holding up well for being in the aero position for so long. Stupid me, I pull into the transition area, coming to a complete stop and then realized I didn't unclip from pedals. Yep, I fall over still clipped into my pedals. What a moron! I brush off the debry, and head to the transition.

Now, was going to be the interesting part. How would my legs feel? Would my IT band flare up? To my surprise, I felt pretty strong. The run consist of two 10k loops inside the park. It's pretty much a steady uphill climb out of the park to the entrance and then a gradual decline back to the turnaround/finish line. I had no idea of the pace I was running other than feeling fairly comfortable. After about 5 miles, I decided since I wasn't having any IT pain, I should cut the run short and stop after the first loop. After all, this was a training day, not a race for me.

I packed up my stuff and we headed to Olive Garden for nice lunch. The drive back was pretty miserable due to traffic, but that's life in DC. I probably should have signed up for the Olympic distance, but it was nice to get in a long swim and bike. I guess I'll know in the next 6 weeks if this helped me or not, since Columbia is May 22 and Eagleman is June 12.

Ironman Florida Nov 13, 2005

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 some 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!