What a weekend! Where should I start? I guess this story
really starts early in the year when I decided 2012 would be the year I did the
Ironman sweep of Texas, meaning I planned to race every Ironman race in the
state of Texas—three Ironman 70.3 races and the big daddy, Ironman Texas
itself. I’m pretty sure it sounded like a really good idea at the time.
Back in April, when I was in the height of my Ironman
Texas training, it occurred to me that I was getting some pretty heavy burnout.
I distinctly recall thinking to myself that I wanted to hang up the goggles and
bike shorts and just go get lost in the woods alone at night. Nonetheless, I toughed
it out and raced Ironman Texas and did well.
Then about a month later, my wife and I headed up to Lubbock for Buffalo
Springs 70.3 and admittedly, I coasted pretty hard on my Ironman fitness, but I
still managed to do well enough.
…and that was it. No more biking and no more swimming
after June 24th. Admittedly, I picked up my running in earnest. I put down some quality miles throughout the
summer and enjoyed nearly every minute of it, but when it came time to hit the
pool or dust off the bike, I just couldn't be bothered. Taking July off because
taking August off, then taking September off and then all of a sudden it was
October and the race was at the end of the month. I’m sure fear would push me
back onto the bike for at least some remedial miles and I know it doesn't take
more than a week to get back into 2000 meter swim fitness. But it just never happened.
So the weekend of Austin Ironman 70.3 rolled around and
it was time to quit talking and do this race. It would be my 7th
Ironman 70.3 race and my 3rd time racing this course. I was curious
to see where I would land—I assumed somewhere between the 7:25:43 from 2008
when this race was my first-ever half Iron race, and the following year when I
raced 5:52:48, breaking six hours for the first time ever.
We drove into Austin and picked up my race packet, which
was pretty uneventful aside from me being in line right behind two-time Ironman
world champion Chris McCormack. After that, we drove down to the bike drop-off,
but took some wrong turns and ended up driving the long way around the lake
before getting to where we meant to go. That ended up being fun too because
unbeknownst to us, a truck followed us the whole way. When we finally got to the lake and parked,
the truck parked next to us and the guy got out and made a joke. Introductions
were made and Alida and I met Chris and Mindy from Houston. This would be Chris’
first triathlon and jumping straight into a 70.3 is a pretty ballsy move.
Alida chatted with Mindy by the cars while Chris and I checked
in our bikes. We ended up inviting them to join us for pre-race dinner that
evening with some other friends. Then we checked into the hotel. Apparently
when booking online, I had never specified a non-smoking room, so the hotel was
sold out and we got a smoking room. Great.
That actually didn't end up being too much of a problem. What was a problem was being kept up all
night by a massive college party in every room around us with people blaring
Tejano music starting at about 2AM (when I assume they finally got kicked out
of the clubs) and running until about 4.
Finally Alida and I had enough and we packed up our gear
and checked out and rolled to the race side by about 4:30. Transition didn't even open until 5 so we hung out in the car for a while. It was quite cold that
morning, bottoming out at 44 degrees. I had never done a triathlon in weather
this cold before and I really didn't know what to expect. Actually, I did know what to expect. I was
going to suffer J
Eventually, folks showed up, we got everything ready, and
hung around by the water’s edge to see the pros go off and wait for our
respective wave starts. My group was called, I kissed Alida goodbye and entered
the water, which, thankfully was 71 degrees and I was wearing a wetsuit.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO! I know my swimming is way out of
practice, but I have also been through enough of these to keep my cool and pace
myself properly. I hoped that my
first-timer friend Chris was keeping his cool because a mass start is a terrifying
experience the first time you do it. I swam a few hundred meters, then took a
breaststroke or two and caught my bearings.
I was in no hurry whatsoever and I knew it would be a long day. I wanted
to come out of the water in the 45-50 minute range. That is slow for me, but not excessively
slow. The swim went well and I emerged in pretty good shape in just over 42
minutes.
The wetsuit came off and I was down to just my little
Speedo and quickly started freezing my tail off. I opted not to wear a shirt under my wetsuit
so that I would have a dry shirt to put on in transition for the bike. I
believe this was an extremely wise decision in retrospect. I put on a pair of
cycling shorts over the Speedo and put on my arm sleeves and a little cap to
keep my head from burning through the slits in the helmet and off I went.
It occurred to me pretty quickly that I had not thought
this through properly, as it was a cloudless sunny day and I had on no
sunscreen whatsoever. About ten miles
into the ride I hit the first aid station and discovered they had
sunscreen. I pulled over to happily
exchange three minutes of lost bike time for a good coating of sunscreen on my
shoulders and face.
The ride wasn't too bad and I was happy to remember much
of the course. Lots of rolling
hills. Not a lot of wind to speak of.
What I had forgotten about were the roads. Some of the road surfaces were
pretty horrible. I ate every half hour and stayed on top of my water and Gatorade.
Actually, I think my nutrition and hydration were pretty spot-on for the whole
day. Just like I expected, my performance improved as my legs warmed up. I kept
my gears low and my cadence high and tried not to overdo it, but of course I failed
and pushed way too hard because no matter what happens before the race, when
the gun goes off, it irritates me every time someone passes me and I want to
chase them down.
At around mile 45, something happened. I don’t know if it was the wind or the roads
or the hills or what, but I felt strong. I was pushing and holding over 20 mph
for stretches at a time. I caught my friend Mare as we rolled into the final
mile leading back to transition. As I passed
her I asked how she was doing and if she wanted to run with me. Running in with
her sounded like a good idea. She is a little slower and I had a feeling I was
really going to pay the price for hitting the bike harder than I should have.
Final bike time: just under Three hours and 23 minutes. My goal going in was to
come in under four hours. I had one of my stronger rides despite not training
for it. I think it was the weather.
I rolled into T2 and did another full clothing change.
This was where I decided to have fun. The bike shorts came off and so did the
tri top. I put on a short tank top and my Netwon running shoes and off I went
in my blue unicorn rainbow Speedo. I had no idea how this would go over, but I
really didn't care. On my way out of transition, I called for sunscreen and
about five ladies assaulted me all at once, which is every bit as fun as it
sounds like.
I ran out onto the run course feeling surprisingly
strong. As I ran by Alida, she led a
chorus of wolf whistles and supportive comments to my unconventional running
garb. It was a lot of fun. I covered the
first mile feeling pretty good in about seven and a half minutes, which is
entirely unsustainable and my quads reminded me of this as they started to
cramp up. I tried to slow down my pace
even more and go easy, but by the third mile, my legs were cramping so hard I had
to talk a walk break. I rubbed them as I
walked and focused on breathing and eventually I got my legs under control
again and was able to run at a much more reasonable pace. So began my afternoon
of running. I would run for a while, feel strong, walk the aid stations, and
then have to walk briefly every 45 minutes or so to get the cramps down. No doubt this was because I went too hard on
the bike. Leg cramps like this were a new experience for me so I tried to treat
it as a learning experience.
The run course is three loops of a little over four miles
and by the time I started my second loop, I realized that there was a chance I could
finish the half marathon under two hours. I think of a two hour half marathon
at the end of a half Ironman race as a good indicator of a strong race because
it also means I didn’t wear myself too thin on the swim and the bike ride. I had only ever gone sub-2 on the run twice
before so it was an accomplishment worth pondering. Lots of people made
comments on my shorts—most of them positive. I stayed on top of my hydration
and tried to take some electrolyte drink (read: Gatorade) to help my cramping
quads, but I knew they weren't cramping from a lack of potassium. They were just overworked.
I made good time on the run and stayed strong as I watched
my clock click closer to two hours. In
the end, I worked it out and came across the finish line in 1:58 with a smile
and a sense of satisfaction. My total time
was 6:19:47 and I had completed the Texas sweep.
 |
| Galveston 70.3, Ironman Texas, Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3, Austin 70.3 |
I think this will draw to a close my relationship with World triathlon Corporation and the Ironman brand--at least for a while. I still feel like all I really want to do right now is run and I have all kinds of running adventures planned for 2013 and beyond. Never say never, but for now, the bike goes into the garage.
Now I have to rehab these legs quickly because I have a
50k trail run this coming Saturday and I don’t intend to miss it!
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