My alarm went off at 3:30am I think, but I was already up waiting for it. The first thing I did was eat! I had to get down at least 1000 calories! Then I put on my swimsuit and warm clothes, checked over my stuff, mixed 7hrs worth of Perpetuem, and loaded the remainder of my gear (whatever I didn't drop off on Friday) into the car. I made sure I was ready then looked at the clock...4:25am....T1 (transition 1) doesn't even open until 5am (its 10minutes away from my house)!! So I sat, tried to watch some TV but finally gave up and decided we would just drive slow, and get there early.
At T1 I checked in my stuff and got body marked (they write your race number on your legs and arms). Then I opened my toe warmers and stuck them into my toe covers on my bike shoes. By this point there was about 1:30 until race start so I drank 1 serving (260calories) of Perpetuem. I also filled up my water bottles, put my Perpetuem on my bike, checked my tires and pedals, then I was done. I got my wetsuit on and put some warm clothes over it. Mike had to stay in transition to help out with bike support, so I said goodbye to him and hopped on a bus to go to the swim start.
Finally at the swim start I found people I knew...all them actually. I found Nick first, soon enough we found Brian. By the time we were standing on the beach waiting for the horn Billy, Jim, Bobby and some other guys were with us too. During this time I sipped on Heed just to get in some more liquid calories before the start. I think I drank probably 150 calories worth. The beach was freezing, it felt like they made us stand there forever. As soon as I took my shoes off to put them in my gear bag, my toes were frozen. Finally after the national anthem and some talking (I don't remember what was said, I think I was too "in the zone") the horn went off. Luckily I was mid conversation with somebody, so I never had time to get nervous. I was swimming in an Ironman before I knew what was going on!
SWIMThe swim went wll. I found the current (great research went into this in the weeks prior to the race) and roared up the channel. That was the fastest 2.4miles I will ever swim. Beacuse I knew something most people didn't, I didn't get too beat up. All in all it was a pretty uneventful swim, which is always a good thing. I did swim right into one of the anchored floating yellow markers though. I'm glad no one saw that one!
T1
At Seapath (where you get out of the water) I put a pair of shoes so that I wouldn't have to run barefoot to the changing tent. The concrete was
freezing!! There was also NO WAY that a wetsuit stripper was stripping me of my warm wetsuit when I still had to run to my clothes! So I ran in my wetsuit and my shoes. At T1 I grabbed my changing bag and headed into the way too small and way too crowded changing tent. Changing took an eternity. All of my clothes were sticking to me, it was cold, I had no space, and I had to put on a ton of clothes! (This is what I get for doing a race in November). Finally I get on a bra, base layer, jersey, arm warmers, shorts, leg warmers, 2 pairs of socks, shoes, jacket, headwarmer and earwarmers, helmet and gloves. I ran over to my bike, carried it over to the grass and ran out to the mount line. That was the hardest 16minutes of the whole damn race!
BIKEWith in the first 10minutes I realized my pedal tension was too tight. DAMN IT!! I stopped TWICE to loosen it, somehow I can loosen my pedal tension with my fingers, I don't need an allen wrench....I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Then I remembered that once again after I pulled my bike out of my car I forgot to re-align my brake pads...they always get knocked around in my car. So I stopped to do that too. Then I was really on my way. I'm sure that was a total of 5minutes wasted. The ride though was AWESOME. There was no wind for most of it, and the day warmed up as I went. I nailed my nutrition too. In the beginning I had a splitting head ache but luckily I had aleve in my bento box. That kicked in and I felt great. I only took one because I was worried about how it would affect my stomach while exercising.
After about 2 hours I started stripping clothes off. First my gloves, then the sleeves off my jacket (I'm SO glad I had them in the beginning), then the arm warmers. It all went into the big pocket in the back of my jacket vest. About 50miles out I pulled my leg warmers up over my knees. Finally at mile 55-60 I stopped at Special Needs and dumped all this stuff and the jacket vest and toe covers into my SN bag. That felt GREAT!! I felt so much lighter.
Up near Harrells I found Jim and Bobby and hung with them for a bit. I was leap frogging with Brian for the entire race also. It was really fun to be mid 112mile bike ride and see people you know constantly. At the turn onto 421 I expected to turn into a head wind as usual, but no...almsot no wind, and sometimes even a cross-tail wind! It was unreal.
I only really got frustrated twice during this race, both times were on the bike. the first time was the supper bumpy road off HW41, I really thought that thing would never end. (Very convincing reason to invest in a carbon bike!). The second time was the 20mile stretch on 421 waiting for it to turn into 4 lanes. Those were my mental hurdles for the day. Finally it came and went and I cruised back into T2. Towards the end of the ride I was passing a bunch of people that looked like they were really hurting.
My nutriton on the ride worked perfectly:
The first 20min was just water
:20-:30 1 hr of Perpetuem
:50-1:00 Hammer bar
1:20- 1:30 1hr of Perpetuem
1:50- 2:00 Hammer bar
2:20-2:30 1hr of Perpetuem
2:50-3:00 Hammer bar
3:00- 4:00 1hr of Perpetuem
4:00-5:00 1 hr of Perpetuem and 1 Hammer gel
5:00- 6:00 1hr of Perpetuem
6:00- 6:30 alittle Perpetuem and water
I drank almost 1 bottle of water an hour also. I'm not sure if that was right or not because I pee'd 4 or 5 times. Twice on my bike - the first time because I couldn't hold it to get to an aid station and the second time because I was almost done and I was frustrated that it was wasting so much time to get off my bike to pee! At one stop I had to wait for someone else to get out of the ONE porta john they had there. You can probably take 10minutes off my time for pee breaks!!
T2Riding into T2 felt awesome. All I had to do was a run a marathon and I'd be done! (Everything's relative...) At the dismount line a volunteer took my bike and helmet. I grabbed my GPS from my bike mount, which I luckily didn't have to use. (It was back up incase my bike computer died). I had already turned it on so that it could set it self up while I was riding, and not while I'm running, when I need it. I found my changing bag on the hooks and ran into the changing tent (which was anything but private.) I got all my clothes off and put on my technical t-shirt and running shorts, GPS strap, race belt and hat. The I took the time to wrap my ankle, this also meant I had to readjust my shoe to make the wrap fit just right....time ticked away...10minutes or so after arriving in T2 I was finally out on the run course!
RUN
First of all, I ended up holding my little pouch with the Accel gels and Elete tablets, because having that thing attached to the race number belt, bouncing up and down as I tried to run, drove me crazy within 2 minutes! So I took it off and held it. That was fine.
I had set my watch to beep on 4min/6min invertals. This lasted for all of 4minutes! I got to the first bridge and I was still in a "run interval"...yeah right!! I immediately decided to speed walk the bridges. I didn't want to sky rocket my heart rate at all. So I walked up and ran down with every intention of continuing my intervals, but after the mile 2 aid station, that I walked through to drink some water, I got to downtown. And downtown was lined with people all screaming for ME!! (Or atleast thats what I like to think). So, obviously I had to continue running! And I did...it was probably more of a jog, but it got the job done. I ran to each aid station, then walked for probably 2 minutes while drinking and eating or whatever I was doing. I stopped twice I think to use a porta john.
The whole time I think I just couldn't beleive I was running! Every mile after mile 14 just flew by! At each mile marker 15..16..17... I just kept thinking "Holy shit! This is my longest run EVER!!" That thought was interrupted by the occasional "Holy shit!! I'm running a marathon! And I'm still RUNNING!" I don't think I knew it at the time, but apparently I was smiling the ENTIRE time, all the volunteers on the course kept commenting on how happy I looked. I think I was just completely floored that I was running at all, and on top of that I was seeing mile markers like 20 and 22....thats crazy!! And 24 and 25...and I just kept getting more and more excited!
My nutrition on the run must have also been stellar because I came out on top!
Here's what I did:
Aid station mile 1 - water
mile 2 - Heed and water
mile 3 - Accel gel and water
After I had gotten that far with no stomach problems I settled into a plan. Each hour I made sure to take 2 gels, spaced about 30minutes apart. One Accel gel (for protein), which I carried with me, and one Hammer gel from an aid station. In between those stops I alternated Heed and water and also took 2 Elete electrolyte tablets.
Sometime during my second lap of the course the sun started to go down. That was an odd feeling. I started swimming that morning right after the sun had come up! I remember thinking that the swim felt like it was a month ago. Even the bike ride seemed like it had happened the previous day. The darkness brought cooler air, so when I went by Special Needs I grabbed my long sleeved t-shirt along with the other Accel gels I would need for lap #2. The dark was kind of nice, I always feel like I'm running faster when I'm running in the dark. There were a few parts of the trails around Greenfield Lake that were hard to see though. Soon enough I was on the last bridge and on my way back to the Battleship for the last time.
The finish line was crazy! I heard my name over the loud speaker and my brother and my friend Nate jumped out of the crowd and ran next to me for a minute. I ran down the finish chute and couldn't see anything but that big word "FINISH". It was incredible. It was insane. It was by far, hands down, the coolest experience of my entire life! There are no words that describe how you feel after you challenge yourself to move your body 140,6miles in one day, in under 17 hours, as fast as you think you can, and you DO IT!! CRAZY!!
Me hugging my mum
Thats the volunteer on the right, wrapping me in my silver blanket
Jim and I
Then it was over. I got my silver blanket and my medal and my finishers t-shirt and a cup of Recoverite (very nice touch!). Then I kind of just stood there, with a bunch of people all around me. My parents, brother, most of Mike's family, friends from PT's, Hugh and his sister, Robbie from the shop, Jim and Bobby...I don't know who all else. It felt completely surreal. Part of my wanted to still be out on the course, not done just yet. It was all too much fun. I didn't want it to end.
Mike and I at the finish
I was/am thrilled to be done though! I..Me....ME...I finished an Ironman! That still sounds crazy and I think about it everyday. I have never been so happy. For 13 hours and 19 minutes I think I was smiling. (Except for maybe that bumpy road off HW41). I had the best race you could ever ask for. There are always things you can improve on in a race, but I am nothing but happy and grateful about how this one turned out.
My finishers t-shirt and medal
My very own hand made posters from my cheering section
(artists: Ally and Julie Grissom)
