What a ride this has been...
If you would have asked me five, three, even two years ago if I had any desire to compete in this sport I would have sprayed beer out of my nose in laughter. Last Sunday I raced a half-iron distance triathlon that we labeled a "tune-up" race for Ironman Texas. Tune-up. The definition of tune-up is 'to refine or adjust for better functioning.' The more I thought about that definition, the more I am reminded why I do this sport. It's the process of setting a goal, pushing your body to its limits to meet that goal and the feeling of release when you have achieved the goal. My takeaway from this achievement is that we should always be tuning-up...it's applicable to everything in life. There should always be a goal and hard work to get there. Most importantly, you must step back and enjoy crossing the finish line because that's what makes you set the next goal. That being said, I have made a list of things that I am going to accomplish in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and I know going into this exercise that it will be difficult to achieve the majority of these things but I will be a stronger and better person after trying.
Now to the race recap for IMTX 70.3:
We arrived in Galveston around 12:30pm on Saturday, just in time for packet pick-up and the mandatory athlete briefing (which by the way was not at all mandatory). On a side note, the swag that Ironman puts out is pretty incredible...they have become a full-on brand name, manufacturing everything from hats to shot glasses. Mandatory bike check-in was at 2pm, so we stickered and racked our bikes and kissed them goodnight, then headed out of the expo. We were very fortunate to have been able to stay at a dear friend's beach house in Galveston on Saturday night before the race, which happened to be along the seawall where the bike course passed. The wives stayed at the beach house and the athletes stayed in a hotel room which was much closer to the transition area. Late dinner, salt and carb loading, some SNL and then lights out around 10pm.
Alarm went off at 4:45am and I immediately grabbed my water bottle that was full of Perpetuem. Slammed that down, along with a banana and a hammer gel. Then grabbed my oatmeal and forced it down with 20oz of water. At this point the nerves are pretty high so eating is not a natural habit, but more of a chore. We left the hotel and arrived at transition around 5:40. I tried something new for this race: on the Friday before, I packed my nutrition for each stage of the race into sandwich bags and labeled them with magic marker. This proved to be extremely useful throughout the race and I was able to shave off time by not having to search/remember what I needed to ingest. Filled my speedfill with water, filled my aero-bar bottle with Gatorade and Perpetuem, greased up with shampoo and put on my wetsuit. The last thing I did in transition was pack my morning clothes bag (which was crucial in order to change clothes after the race). Time to swim.
We headed to the swim start just as transition was closing and saw the pros take off at 7am. Damn these guys can swim...They were around the first buoy before the next gun at 5min later. They announced our group and we dove off of the dock into the water at 710 and waited until our gun at 715. Bang! No time to think, be scared or quit, just have to move forward and do it quickly. The course was easy to navigate and the sun stayed out of view, which helped to sight the buoys. The water, however, was extremely salty and I was thirsty after about 15 minutes of swimming. I would figure out later that the salt was also a dehydrator and gave me calf cramps. I was able to rhythm fairly well until the half-way point at which time I caught up with the group ahead. The last half of the swim was a washing machine until I exited the ramp. Total swim time was 38min.
T1 was a disappointment. I struggled to get my heart rate monitor to sync to my Garmin and I was so thirsty from the salt that I made myself drink half a gallon of water to avoid late stage cramps. I also ate a hammer gel and took electrolyte tabs. I finally got out of T1 about 6 minutes later. This was 3-4 minutes too slow...For some reason a guy with a camera and a microphone was posted up behind me the whole time which made it worse. He then proceeded to attempt an interview after I unracked my bike and I politely reminded him that this was a race.
The bike course was a flat and fast 56 miles. I had preconceived notions that the wind was going to be atrocious and that my legs were going to be hamburger meat after reading the blogs from last year's participants. It could not have been further from the truth...I was flying. That is, until the half-gallon of water that I drank made a reappearance at mile 16. My first #3 ever in a race, and I felt like I handled it gracefully by holding it until I found a port-o-john. My average speed on the out was 21.7mph and on the back was 19.9mph. Not too shabby for the leg of the race that I struggle with the most. I was able to see Emily along the seawall at mile 13 and again at mile 40, which was a saving grace and helped me to refocus my energy on the race. I love my wife for many reasons, and one of those is her willingness to always support this crazy hobby and watch my events. The end of the bike leg takes you through an airstrip and down a runway and you really do feel like you are flying (I probably should not admit this, but I got a picture in my head from that scene in Top Gun when Tom Cruise rides motorcycle along the runway and jets are flying over his head). Then I remembered two things: I am not Tom Cruise and I now had to go run 13.1 miles. Bike time was 2:52.
T2 was successful for all intents and purposes. I was out in a couple of minutes and had sufficiently ingested all of my nutrition and grabbed my water bottle. Shoes tied and off we go.
The run course was 3 loops throughout Moody Gardens and was empty when I arrived, and by the time I finished, I was surrounded by athletes running for their lives. The support along the run was amazing and I laughed a few times along the way at characters who showed up to cheer. Think speedos, bikinis and some dudes drinking Guinness while listening to Gangham Style on a repeat loop. By mile 6, the heat was sweltering and there was no wind to cool us down. Thank God for the ice cold sponges (I found one after the race inside my shorts) and the ladies with squirt guns who were blasting people in the face. My pace was quick out of the gate, around 7:45/mi but slowed down to 8:50 by the last mile. The winding loops and hairpin turns helped to break up the run, which ended with a chute full of people screaming for you and giving out high fives. I felt like a professional athlete with the support that I received along the run. Run time was 1:54.
Special thanks to Julie and Dan for the beach house, Emily and Nikki for watching us and cheering us on in this journey and Chris and Cathy for making the trip down to watch the finish--I am lucky guy and so very thankful for the people that God has put into my life!
Official race time was 5:47 and change, an improvement of 20 minutes over my time in Oilman's back in November 2012. I loved this race and will be back in 2014! Lessons learned from this race are to work on T1, keep my nutrition plan as is (I never cramped, knocking on wood), NEVER drink that much water at one time, and most importantly, go out and treat everything in life as a tune-up!
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