Ironman Texas 2012: Once More Unto the Breach

I remember a few things about the Ironman Texas 2011 triathlon.  One of my most vivid memories was during the marathon as the sun was getting low in the sky I distinctly remember thinking to myself, “This is not fun.  How did I ever think this was fun?” and then shortly afterwards, I finished the race and Mike Reilly told me I was an Ironman and I got all caught up in the excitement and three days later I had registered for the 2012 Ironman Texas.

Well that was a year ago.  In the meantime, a lot had changed.  Some things changed for the better, like my overall fitness and my education when it comes to endurance nutrition.  Some things changed for the worse, like my general enthusiasm for swimming.  I’ve never enjoyed swimming workouts and it still holds true.  I just get bored out of my mind swimming lap after lap in the pool.  So, after finishing my winter running calendar with an incredible Tahiti marathon in February, I threw myself half-heartedly (well, more than half-heartedly, maybe ¾-heartedly) into training for Ironman Texas 70.3 in Galveston at the beginning of April.

You see, I had gotten this idea in my head that I wanted to do the “Texas Sweep” as I called it.  Ironman puts on four M-Dot branded races in Texas every year.  Three of them are half Ironman races and then the big one, Ironman Texas in May.  The race in Galveston in April went very well and I raced it with my new low-stress attitude towards racing.  I told myself I was going to take the same approach for the big one, but I think really I was making some early excuses for some low-intensity training.  It wouldn’t have been so bad except that so many of my friends were knocking out phenomenal training weeks and I just didn’t have the dedication to match their workouts.

Of course, the day came, as it always eventually does and none of what I did before mattered because it was time to race.  Even before the race started, I knew a few things would be different this year.

·        It was going to be hotter - Bad

·        It was going to be sunnier – Bad

·        I had been slacking a bit on my training - Bad

·        My base fitness was better – Good

·        I had the benefit of knowing what I was getting into - Good

·        I felt like I had finally figured out my nutrition – Very Good

So just like before, we all crowded into the water in Lake Woodlands watching the big timer clock tick towards 7AM and when it got there a cannon went off and the PA system cranked out “Jump” by Van Halen and the muddy brown water of the lake turned white as 2500 arms and legs churned the surface and off we went on our 2.4 mile aquatic journey which made up the first leg of the race.  As expected, the mass swim start was crazy.  It was hard to find a piece of water to take a decent stroke without having someone crawl up your back or without you going up over someone else.  I kept myself calm and told myself that I just needed to keep breathing and protect my face and eventually things would thin out.  And of course they did.

None of my training swims had been over 2000 meters and the Ironman swim is just shy of 4000 meters.  I had a hunch it really wouldn’t matter though, because once I got into my swimming rhythm, I felt like I could just go forever.  My goggles eventually fogged and I did the same trick I did last year.  I pulled them up, rubbed my thumbs on the inside of the goggles, and then flushed them out.  I don’t know if my thumbs were greasy or the water was just that filthy or what, but sure enough, they stayed clear for the rest of the swim.  We swam from North Shore Park down to South Shore Park and then turned around to come back.  Just before we returned to the beginning, we took a right turn into one of the canals and swam through part of the river walk as fans lined the sides of the canal cheering for us.  I swam right by our apartment and I knew Alida would be up on the balcony, so as I got close, I shouted out to her and sure enough, she heard me and saw me and gave me a wave.  I yelled out, “See you in six and a half hours!” and finished up my swim.  I got out of the water in 91 minutes, which was within a minute or two of last year’s swim time.  Hey, at least it’s consistent.

Just like last year, I took my time in transition.  I put on my cycling gear and slipped on a pair of cycling shorts over my tri shorts, which has always proven to be a good thing.  I strapped on my hydration fanny pack, got on my bike, and off I went for the 112 mile ride.  T1 was about 10 minutes and that was just fine with me.

Like I said earlier, my plan was about 6:30:00 on the bike.  I knew this year would be hotter and without the benefit of cloud cover, which we had last year.  I had my water all set and I had my secret weapon this time—the coconut date balls.  My nutritionist, Penny Wilson, had devised these last year as a “food on the go” solution for long-distance endurance running and they worked so well, I decided to work them into my cycling routine as well.  My watch beeped every five miles and that told me it was time to pop another one of them and chase it down with water.  Not only are they high in carbs, but high in salt as well.  If I could keep my salt up, I thought I could keep my energy up.  I was right!

The bike course was absolutely predictable.  I had ridden it last year in the race and I had done much of my training on the race course—an advantage of a local Ironman race.  The upside was that I knew every bump, curve, and hill on the course.  I knew where the roads were bad and I knew where I would get a headwind.  Unfortunately, it also meant I got to spend all of the fun parts thinking about just how long it would be until the next lousy part.  The sun baked my shoulders despite applying generous amounts of sunblock.  The hills were heavy and my butt ached from hours in the saddle.  Then my legs ached from hours of turning the gears.  Then everything ached.  I kept watching my GPS to see how far I had gone since the last time I looked at it.  70, 80, 90, 100 miles and finally I was back in The Woodlands.  Just 12 miles to go, but what a long 12 miles.  By the time I got back to transition, I truly wondered how I was going to have the strength to get off my bike, let alone run a marathon.  Total time on the bike: 6:33:52 — about 8 minutes slower than last year.

Despite my concerns, I got off my bike just fine.  I hobbled back into the changing tent and my buddy Rik was there volunteering, as was my father.  They talked to me as I stripped off my helmet and cycling shoes then put on my socks and running shoes.  Another round of sunblock and off I went onto the run course.  T2 time was again about 10 minutes.

Heading out on the run course, I waited for the nearly instant feedback from my body telling me I simply would not be able to run.  This is what happened last year.  This year it was a little different.  I think it was the nutrition, but I was actually able to run a bit.  Of course, I still needed a lot of walk breaks, but it wasn’t like before where the marathon seemed hopeless.  I was in high spirits and joked with strangers and high-fived friends when I saw them.  It took me a good 7 or 8 miles, but eventually, I actually found my legs and I was able to carry on a sub-11:00 pace and sometimes even sub-10:00 pace for a few miles at a time, before having to take a few minutes of walking to recover.  I stayed on top of my hydration and even choked down some of the awful-tasting mango Ironman Perform (relabeled Gatorade essentially)

I started my marathon at about 2:30PM and it was absolutely cooking out there.  I remember that as the afternoon went on, the trees along the side of the course cast longer shadows and that was where I ran.  It wasn’t so bad in the shade.  One aid station had fresh0cut watermelon and in addition to tasting wonderful, it gave my mind something to think about as I dug out the seeds and spit them out.  The run is a three loop course of about nine miles per loop.  By the time I finished my first loop and started on the second, I felt like I had a pretty good rhythm going.  Every time I would run by friends, I would give a big thumbs up and smile and tell them how great I felt.  It was only kind of a lie because I really didn’t feel too bad—just tired.

The second loop went the same way and some of the aid stations started cooking up big pots of chicken broth.  When I’m tired and dehydrated, a nice hot cup of chicken broth is like a magic potion for me.  Never mind the fact that temperatures outside were still in the high 80s.  The hot salty broth was just what I needed and it kept be going from aid station to aid station begging for another cup of broth.  By the time I was on my third loop, I felt better than I did on the first two.

Several times, the course makes an out-and-back path so you will be running one way and cross paths with people who are a decent ways ahead of or behind you.  On the last loop, I crossed paths with Sylvia.  Sylvia almost didn’t race this race.  She had gotten injured recently and her training had not been up to her standard.  She was extremely discouraged and many of us pushed her hard to start the race.  We told her that even if she dropped out, she should start the race and see how far she could go.  She was hurting, but when I saw her on the run course, I knew she was going to finish.  I stopped and gave her a big hug and we went our separate ways.

When you are out on a race for hours and hours, you have a lot of time to do math in your head.  With about five miles to go, I realized that I could make a run at finishing under fourteen hours.  My only stated time goal before the race was that I kind of sort of wanted to finish in 13:xx.  I also knew it would mean no more walking.  I needed to start running and keep running so I did just that.  My Garmin started ticking off mile splits as I went.  11:25 one mile while walking the aid station.  9:45 the next mile where there was no aid station.  I ran past Alida and the group around mile 22 or 23 and told them I was trying to finish before 9PM and for her to please call my dad.  It was probably 8:15PM when I said this.  They were a ways from the finish line and I wanted to give them time to get there ahead of me.  I started seeing people on the side of the course wearing their finisher medals and that motivated me even more.  I wanted my medal!

The last two or three miles went by really smoothly.  I really only remembered walking the last aid station for long enough to drink a hot cup of chicken broth and then it was back to the grind.  As I entered the finisher chute, I high-fived people all around me.  I even found my dad in the crowd and ran over to greet him as I went by.  I tried to time my finish so that nobody was very close in front of me or behind me.  I wanted Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman, to give me the full Ironman shout-out.  Well it turns out he did just that and it was great!

I crossed the finish line a little before 8:45PM with a finishing time of 13:42:42.  My good friend Chad, who was volunteering, was waiting at the line for me to cross with a big smile on his face.  He had one more surprise for me.  He led me over to get my finisher medal and the person who put it around my neck was none other than four-time Ironman world champion and world record holder Chrissie Wellington, who did not race but was in town for this race as an ambassador for the sport.  Go ahead and Google her and almost any picture you will find of her will show her with a huge smile on her face.  She is unfailingly positive and energetic.  She congratulated me and gave me my medal and just like that it was all over.  Several of my friends were volunteering in the finisher’s chute and Alida was right there outside the fence.  I was tired and ready to stop running, but I didn’t feel broken.  There was no nausea, no cramping, no shakes or shivers.  It was a warm evening and once my body had calmed itself down, there was nothing I wanted so badly as a chair and some food.  Thankfully, I promptly found both.  My friend Ron finished only a couple minutes ahead of me and another friend Curtis, who came down from New York, finished just a couple of minutes behind me.  It was great.  It felt like a reunion right there in the finisher’s chute.

Eventually, I rested up enough to make the half mile walk to transition to pick up my bike and my gear bags.  Then another short walk put us back in the apartment.  I had a shower and downed probably four more bowls of the salmon quinoa salad Alida had prepared for the weekend.  I really wanted to go back down to the finish line for the midnight finish.  Every Ironman race ends at midnight, which is 17 hours after it starts.  This is the way it works all over the world.  Everyone in the race knows it and if you finish one second after midnight, you are not an ironman.  It’s just the rules.  This, of course, makes for some really emotional finishes as the clock ticks closer to midnight.

Jay at the finish line with his coach Dave Shaw

I’m glad I went.  Several of my friends finished in the last fifteen minutes of the race.  Michael Simpson, who was the next-to-last finisher last year with less than five minutes to spare, managed to slightly better his time this year, finishing with a gracious bow to the crowd.  Jay Farr, 74 years old, was the oldest competitor in the race.  Jay was also the oldest finisher of the race, trotting in with several minutes to spare.  Jay won his age group and secured a coveted Kona slot, meaning he got a guaranteed entry into the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in October.  I never saw Sylvia cross the finish line.  I found out later that she had in fact finished several minutes before I arrived.  I was so happy for her.  It was not her first Ironman race, but she took on a big challenge this time and made good on it.

I also learned that I just don’t really enjoy the full Iron distance events all that much.  I don’t have the focus to train rigorously for a high performance finish and as a result, I suffer out there on the course.  Never say never, but I don’t see another Ironman race on my radar.  The 70.3 (half Ironman distance) races are a lot of fun and I will continue racing them, but I just may be done with 140.6 mile races.  All in all, it was a good day and a day to remember.  I beat my previous year’s time by nearly an hour on a much tougher day when nearly all of my friends finished slower than the year before.