For anyone who watched Stage 17 of the Tour de France you saw a pretty amazing bike race.  Tactically it was special and physically it was one of the most amazing displays of strength I’ve seen in endurance sports.  To have the focus and endurance to go all out (but not too hard that you pop) for about 5 hours on varying terrain (huge hills & huge downhills) is pretty special – mentally and physically.

 

Unfortunately the news today about Floyd Landis and possible “doping” (high levels of testosterone) really burst a big bubble.  It was all I could do NOT to run out to the garage and jump on my bike after I watched Stage 17.  Now I have to wonder if what I previously perceived as an inspiring display of heroics was just a drug induced binge on the bike.

 

Bummer.

Ironman Arizona 2006 Race Report

 

I could hardly believe that race weekend was here and I was about to do an Ironman race.  It had been about a year since I got up at 2am to log on and sign up for IMAZ.  Now here I was in Phoenix/Tempe getting ready for raceday.

 

As an individual one needs to put in lots of time & energy to train and make sure that the body (and mind) is prepared to do the 140.6 miles of the IM.  I felt like I did the right amount of training and preparation given the work/life/family balance I wanted and needed to maintain.

 

What really got hammered home during the week leading up to the race and the race weekend was the equal, if not greater effort put in by the family, friends and other various support networks surrounding the athletes.  Up until race weekend I knew that my family and friends supported me.  They had made lots of sacrifices so I could train to prepare and wanted me to finish, but the visible support during the race weekend really took the appreciation to a whole new level.

 

The day before the race Amy surprised me with two special posters that she hung up on the hotel room wall.  One was a collage of encouragement from friends and family – quotes, mini-cheers, and pictures.  The other was a poster signed by all the kids in my daughter’s daycare class that said “Go Allyson’s Daddy!”.  It was about all I could do not to cry I was so overwhelmed by the support from everyone.

 

Thanks guys – I really felt like I had the support of everyone during the race.  I was definitely going to put out my best effort on race day.  How could I not?

 

Race Day

I slept pretty well considering.  Just the day before I had a last minute pep talk with my coach.  She reminded me of all my training and that I was ready for this race.  It must have been the way I asked if there was “anything else”, but her parting words were something to the effect of: “Lots of people wake up almost every hour the night before their IM and have great races.”  So I’m thinking ok, good chance I might not sleep great.  No worries though.  Allyson slept well and I think I squeezed in 6 hours of sleep – pretty typical.

 

Up at 4:00-ish am to eat.  My oatmeal isn’t quite the same when you heat the water in the little coffee maker from the hotel room, but it will do.  I got dressed, put my T1, T2 and special needs bags together and we were out the door – totally on time. (which by the way was just one of 50,000+ little (and big) things that my wife and daughter did for me that day and the days leading up to IMAZ)

 

 I had expected parking to be tough given ~2,000 athletes and their families wanting to park near the start/finish, but it was easy.  Bonus point for IMAZ and less stress for me.

 

Swim – 1:07:35 (no HRM)

I didn’t jump in the water until a couple minutes before the pros started.  I was already dreading wading around in the water for 15 minutes until the start.  The water temp was fine with a wetsuit, but mostly I just wanted to be in the water the minimal amount of time.  A bunch of people had swum over to a ledge under Mill Ave. bridge and were sitting down and waiting.  I did this until about 5 min before the start and swam over and “seeded” myself what felt like 1/3 of the way back from the front and about in the middle of the course.

 

There was someone talking over the PA but about all I heard was what sounded like the teacher from those old Peanuts cartoons… blah, blah, blah, <insert loud cannon-like noise>, blah, blah, <lots of arms going and kicking>.  And the race was off!

 

I don’t think the “seeding” mattered much because the first ½ mile was a blur of bodies and churning water.  I tried to politely ignore the bumping, kicking and pointed elbows and focused on the swimming.  At one point the water seemed to be churning so much I actually felt kind of sea sick.  It passed and I managed to keep my goggles on and make it to the turn around buoys in one piece.

 

After the turn-around things seemed to sort themselves out and I felt like I had much more room to myself.  I pretty much tried to stay on path and draft as much as possible.  I maintained a consistent effort most of the way back between the Rural Rd. and Mill Ave. bridges.

 

The swim exit was basically an entire section of bleachers stuck on the side of the reservoir – with hand rails and about 2 or 3 of the steps/seats under the water.  I aimed for the 3^rd step, got my knee on the bottom one, pulled myself upright and made my way up the stairs to the “strippers”.

 

I wondered how this whole wetsuit “stripper” thing was going to work.  But, since I usually have a hard time getting my wetsuit off after a swim I thought I would give it a try.  I ran off the steps, went left and took off my swim cap, goggles and pulled down the top of my wetsuit.  Before I knew it I was on my back and some people were ripping my wetsuit off.  Sweet!  Much better than the usual run to the bike w/ the suit on and step on it until I get a cramp in my calf and have to sit down.  Yea IMAZ volunteers!! (Random IMAZ fact: There were 3500 volunteers – for 2000 athletes.)  They handed me back my wetsuit and I ran off to grab my transition bag.

 

T1 – 8:54

It takes me a bit to get my “land feet” back after a long swim.  I guess it must have taken me longer than I thought because I can’t for the life of me figure out what I was doing in transition for almost 9 minutes.  I heard Amy yelling words of encouragement, but I was too out of it to find her in the crowd (sorry sweetheart J).  I took my stuff to the changing tent and sat down.  I pulled on the Garage jersey (from the cycling team I’m on), stuffed some food in the pockets, salt tablets as well, put on my socks and cycling shoes and started out the door to my bike. 

 

Bike – 5:37:31 (Avg. HR 144) – “Jingle Bells”

The bike course was 3 laps of an out and back loop, a little over 37 miles each lap.  I had ridden the course with Gregg (a friend from Boston who got me into this whole triathlon thing about 10 years ago – Amy you can blame Gregg J) about a month earlier.  So I pretty much knew what I was in for on the bike.

 

1^st lap – This one felt great.  It was a little windy going out to the turn around and up the hill.  I saw Stacia (my coach) on the way out to the turn around.  I was wondering if I was going to see her on the bike.  She yelled some words of encouragement, but seeing her immediately made me think about nutrition and what she (and my wife) had warned me about going out too hard/strong on the bike and making sure I had something left for the run.

 

I made sure to keep my HR below 160 even into the wind and hill and stayed on top of my nutrition by eating GU packets & bananas when I could grab them from the aid stations.  Once I turned around the wind was at my back and I really flew.  Before I knew it I was back at Mill Ave. and I heard someone call out my name.  I barely caught Amy, Allyson and the big “Hello Kitty” bunny balloon tied to the stroller out of the corner of my eye before I rode by.

 

2^nd lap – About ½ as great as the 1^st lap.  It seemed like the wind switched up, so the ride out and up the hill to the turn around and aid station felt better, but the ride back down wasn’t nearly as “fun”.  I stopped at the turn-around aid station to pee, so I figured I was doing pretty well with fluids.  My special needs bag at about mile 60 was pretty much useless – except for the chamois buttr (great idea Aaron Woodman!).  A day earlier I thought having a frozen Snickers bar in my special needs bag would be a good change of pace from the GU’s and Gatorade – but it was completely melted and almost the last thing I wanted.  It was back to GU & Gatorade for me.

 

As I passed through the start/finish area I saw a bunch of friends (and their kids).  This totally helped to put a smile on my face, but this didn’t last.

 

3^rd lap – I love riding my bike.  The thought of riding for 5 or 6 hours in the sunny AZ weather is one of the big draws of this race in my opinion.  But at this point, I was just ready to be done with the bike.  I don’t remember much from the 3^rd lap.  My right foot started to hurt pretty bad on the outside just behind the ball of the foot.  This had happened to me in other longer triathlon races, but had not been an issue at all in my training leading up to this race.  Now I had 25-30 more miles to ride on it like this.  I had to get my mind off of it.  I tried to think of a song that I had listened to in training to help – but I couldn’t think of anything.  I had spent hours listening to my Rio player and not one song came to mind… wait, here’s one – “Jingle Bells”.  Yep, that was the only song I could think of – your mind does some weird things under stress.  So I proceed to sing Jingle Bells for a bit and it seems to help.

 

I pretty much ride the rest of the bike portion going between “damn my foot hurts” and “you only have X# of miles left, keep it up”.  In fact, in some mad-triathlete sort of way I was really getting fired up to start running the marathon.

 

T2 – 5:56

I felt more comfortable with the whole changing tent/transition thing.  Made the good call to take off the Garage bike jersey. (sorry guys, but the black doesn’t do so well in AZ heat – although I overheard one spectator who saw all the logos on the jersey mistakenly say “he’s one of the pros” as I ran through the transition - <insert smile on my face>)  I quickly pulled on my shoes, put on my hat, put some GU’s in my pockets (which I didn’t touch), forgot my salt tablets (whoops), stopped to get lots of sunscreen and off I went on the run.

 

Run – 4:26 (Avg. HR 148) – “thank you sir, may I have another”

I had only run one marathon before and this was ages ago when I was living in Boston.  I ran that one in about 3:40, but it was a disaster.  I ran the first ½ in under 1:25, bonked and barely finished.  So, the run for IMAZ was a bit of a wildcard.

 

The course was kind of a “figure-eight” and was 3 laps.  This gave me lots of chances to go by transition and see friends/family.  Spectator friendly, but each lap was a painful reminder of how much further I had to run.

 

1^st Lap - I started out too fast.  The collective wisdom from past IM triathletes (and my own race experience) was to settle in to a sustainable pace, keep your HR in check and if you feel good later in the race – pick it up and finish strong.

 

Not more than 5 minutes in I saw a sign for “Mile 9”.  I was immediately thrown into a panic – did I go the wrong way?  The thought of running one inch longer than 26.2 miles frankly made me sick.  Before I could get too worked up about it I saw the next aid station so I knew I was on track.  Clearly after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 I was not thinking totally straight – but at least I was running straight…

 

2^nd Lap – I was definitely starting to slow down a bit.  I saw the #1 woman finisher (Michelle Jones).  She was flying and looked really strong.  She had a huge lead because the #2 woman didn’t pass me for quite a while after.  At this point I had a pretty good rhythm going.  Run, walk through the aid station grabbing sponges, drinking a cup of water, Gatorade and if I felt like it dumping another cup of water on my head/back, then running again.  Rinse, repeat.

 

At about mile 12 the dry heat caught up to me.  My nose started to bleed.  This required me to walk/jog to the next aid station while I tried to stop it from bleeding.  I wasn’t having much luck, but I found some Vaseline which I promptly shoved up my nose.  Some success and I started to run again.  I now had blood on my face & legs which drew some odd looks by spectators, but I used sponges and cleaned most of it off by the next aid station.

 

I saw Toby as I ran under the Mill Ave. bridge.  He was snapping a picture and yelling “Go Lavin!” – which was great, but I didn’t feel like I was going anywhere fast.

 

Jedi mind trick #2 hit me about mile 15 or 16.  I was passed by a runner who seemed like they were going really well.  I wasn’t about to pick up the pace and stick with him, so I wanted to throw him some words of encouragement.  I looked down and saw the #38 written on his left calf.  So, I said “Great job # 38, keep it up.”  Those of you with some triathlon experience are smiling right now.  It was about 3 seconds later that I said to myself – “That wasn’t his number Aaron… (It was his age.  They write your age on your leg so people know which age group you are in – in case you care.)

 

3^rd Lap – The first section was mostly a blur.  My parents were at the start of the 3^rd lap – which was cool since I hadn’t seen them all day and wondered if they were coming up for the race.

 

I think I was starting to get a bit behind on calories/food because my energy level dropped a bit at the beginning of the 3^rd loop (if it was possible to feel less energy…).  I had only eaten one GU the entire run, but the thought of more didn’t make me happy.  I tried to fill in w/ bananas and oranges at the aid stations. 

 

I saw my parents, Allyson & Amy as I came through the start/finish area for the last time.  It tried to smile and wave a little, but I’m sure I looked pretty beat up.  I decided that I needed to mix things up a bit, so I started to drink Coke at the aid stations.

 

I think this helped a bit because at about 3 miles out I realized, I’m not going to die.  In fact, I’m going to finish this thing.  That, plus seeing the sign my wife, daughter and friends Brett & Lo made (thanks guys!!) seemed to snap me out of the funk I had been in since the bloody nose episode.  I barely stopped at the 2^nd to last aid station and cruised through the last aid station onto Mill Ave. bridge toward the finish.

 

Entering the “finishing chute” and crossing the finish line was a great feeling.  Just finishing was awesome, but hearing all the spectators and race announcer saying something about “being an Ironman” put the icing on the cake.

 

Overall: 11:25:54 – 290^th overall, 50^th in my age group.

 

Goals – in order of importance

1)      Finish

2)      Finish under 12:00

3)      I kept it simple, anything else refer back to #1.

 

What an experience.  The three-year hiatus starts now.  IMAZ 2009 anyone?? (Just kidding Amy!)

Congratulations to my cousin Lori & Chuck on the birth of their beautiful baby boy!  I only wish we were closer to share the day.

 

Here's to October 3rd babies - lots of them

 

Every once in a while you come across a product that just works.  I mean really works.  Yeah, my car "works", but it can let me down sometimes.  MSN Messenger works GREAT most of the time, but even that service has some downtime .

 

I'm talking about NexCare Waterproof bandages.  These things are rock solid.  You hear about "waterproof" stuff, but would you really feel great about dumping it in the water and splashing it around for 15-20 minutes?  Probably not.  This is the way I felt about bandages before NexCare. http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/nexcare/index.jhtml 

 

My catch-22 was Sunday before the Escape from the Rock triathlon on Mercer Island.  I had cut my hand earlier in the week and a bandage was in order.  Only problem was I had to swim a 1/2 mile with the bandage on.  I scoffed at the "waterproof" claim on the box I found in my daughter's bathroom medicine cabinet, but the bandages did have Little Nemo fish characters on them so I figured they had that going for them...

 

I didn't notice the bandage once in the entire race - swimming, grabbing the handlebars on the bike or running.  In fact I forgot it was there.  It held tight the entire time - and in fact lasted through a day of dishes and hand washing.  These bandages rock - go get some!! - http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/nexcare/waterproof.jhtml  

 

Karl - they also come in plain colors, so the Nemo characters are optional!

Sometimes you need a little motivation and a reminder of what is really important.  Below is a photo of how I "decorated" the headset on my bike during a recent race.  The CU logo reminded me of college, but mostly of my Aunt Joan who isn't feeling so well right now.  Of course there is the photo of Allyson which not only reminds me of her, but of her mother who I love dearly.  Then I rounded it out with the Kent State "Golden Flashes" logo.  Both my parents are from Ohio and this reminded me of my grandparents who are are both dealing with different types of cancer.

This year the "Better Every Day" folks at Dannon Yogurt sponsored a half-ironman triathlon at Lake Stevens, WA.  The past couple years the race has been a sprint distance triathlon partnered up with a duathlon event as part of a broader Dannon Duathlon series of races throughout the US.  Last year Karl Isaac and I did the sprint distance race– and Ted Dworkin dragged himself out of bed early to “check it out”.  (We secretly knew he was scoping out the course and competition for next year’s event.)  This year Ted continued his strategy and participated in the ¼ Ironman event (one loop of each sport) and Karl and I went for the ½ Ironman event.  It is fun to share in these races with these guys who make all the training and early mornings go by much easier.

 

Thankfully the race coordinators pushed the starting time back to 7am (from 6am).  This made it more feasible to stay @ home in Seattle on Saturday night and still make the drive up to Lake Steven’s in the morning.  Although, waking @ 4am is never any fun – and now that we’re on the downside of daylight savings, it was pitch black outside to boot.

 

We arrived at Lake Steven’s with plenty of time to organize our gear and pick up our race packets.  Usually you get a timing chip with your race packet, but in this race you pick up the chip as you go into the transition area to set up your bike.  Someone mentioned that this was to prevent fraud, but I’m convinced that no one would spend 5 hours exercising for someone else for some really small triathlon cash prize.  At least spending 5 hours taking someone’s SAT tests has an option value much higher…

 

As usual, I spent too much time strategically placing my gear in transition and hurried down to the water with a couple minutes to spare before the race start.  Karl zipped up the back of my wet suit and we were off.  The swim was two loops of a rectangle course outlined by four yellow buoys.  The water was warm, but had the typical NW murkiness.  The swim was fairly uneventful.  I got in a groove and tried to focus on breathing.  I survived this year without the terrible leash burn I got at Pacific Crest, but the leash of my wetsuit still drags on my right arm.  (Hmmm, maybe a more expensive wetsuit would help that?? – Amy, don’t read this…)

 

I got out of the water in a bit over 37 minutes – 2 minutes faster than last year’s ½ ironman distance.  Hmmm, did I really get faster in the water this year?  Or, more likely, was the swim course a bit short?  (Note: it is difficult to measure out exactly 1.2 miles in open water…)  More on slight distance imperfections later.

 

Karl was about 30 seconds back on the swim and passed me quickly through transition.  Ted was already well ahead as the ¼ Ironman participants did only one loop of the swim course (not that Ted can’t smoke me in the pool anyway).  I grabbed my sunglasses and helmet and ran out of T1 onto the bike course.

 

Karl and I rode the bike course a couple weeks before, so I should have known what to expect.  But for some reason things just all go to sh-t on race day.  Life is what happens after you make plans my wife always says.  Well, I had planned to go out smooth, stay strong and hold a good pace through the back side of the course (which was TOUGH!) and see if I could do a negative split on the bike since it was two loops of the same 29.1 mile course.

 

Small aside – most ½ ironman races have a 56 mile bike course.  Ironman bike distance = 112 miles, therefore one should conclude a ½ ironman distance would be 56 miles.  Simple math.  For some reason 56 miles wasn’t enough at Lake Stevens, so they added on a few miles.  Maybe they thought that since the swim might be a little short they should add a bit to the bike course to “make it up”.  I noticed, and I’m sure others did as well.

 

I found myself getting through the 1^st loop a bit faster than I thought – 1hr 22min – and I definitely felt it.  I was not going to negative split this course.  The highlight of the 1^st loop was seeing Ted out on the course.  He was hammering along and was yelling all sorts of things at me when I saw him.  Thanks for the support Ted!

 

The 2^nd loop on the bike was pretty familiar – same roads, same hills – the big difference was how much slower I was riding. L  I finally got back to the transition area – about 8 minutes slower than the 1^st loop.  I also started to cramp up in my left leg, so I wasn’t starting out the run in the best of shape.  The most awesome thing was to see my family, Karl’s wife Marlo, their kids, Ted’s wife Allie, their kids and assorted parents/grandparents as I went into the transition.  I had missed them the first loop around on the bike and was really happy to see all that support as I went into the run.

 

I was not looking forward to the run since I had injured my heel and hadn’t been running as much as I should have prior to the race.  I knew it was going to hurt, but nothing brings that home more than swimming a mile, biking 58 and then trying to run 13 miles.  Add in the cramp and I was a sorry piece of work.

 

I tried to eat a bit since I thought maybe I didn’t have enough food on the bike.  I choked down a Luna Bar (not just for women – these are so much better than the other bars – try the Chai Tea one, yummy).  This didn’t help and I just focused on the road ahead.  I stopped at the 1^st aid station at mile marker #1 to re-assess.  Whoops – I had run the 1^st mile in just over 7 minutes.   Waaaay too fast, no wonder I was feeling so funky.  I was relieved to find the aid station had bananas and ate ½ of one and drank some Gatorade.  Finally something kicked in and I started to feel better.

 

The rest of the first 6.55 mile loop was uneventful.  On the way back towards the start before beginning the 2^nd loop I saw Karl.  He looked good and was sticking to his race strategy.  It was awesome to see him since in last year’s race there really wasn’t a way to know how he was doing until he finished. 

 

The highlight of the run was seeing all the family & friends again before I headed into the last 3 miles of the course.  This gave me a big boost and after Ted (who had finished the ¼ Ironman event earlier – great job Ted!) ran with me for a bit I felt good enough to pick up the pace a bit.  I really pushed it over the last 1.5 miles and held off a couple people to finish up just under 5 ½ hours for the race.

 

It was a tough day, but full of good friends and family.  Thanks everyone who came and supported us before, during and after the race.  Especially my wife who is my biggest fan and best cheerleader!

 

Special thanks to everyone who read this far since you single-handedly are helping to raise the average time-online for MSN Spaces! J

 

Enjoy!

 

THANK YOU to Amy, Ali & Marlo for all their support and energy during the race & after at the party!