Ironman Augusta 70.3 9/27/2009 - Race Report

I'm including some extra detail in this report for anyone who hasn't done one of these before. Feel free to skip on down to the race part if that's what you're here for :-)

The first thing I saw when I got to the race venue on Friday afternoon was this truck for Ironman Kansas. I thought it was pretty funny considering that we weren't in Kansas. We entered the hotel and got Emily registered as a volunteer. All the volunteer shirts had already been given out, which was a pretty big bummer and a bit crazy as Emily had registered months ago and it was only Friday afternoon for a Sunday race. My first step was to attend the pre-race briefing which gave a pretty good run down of the course. I asked how long we had to finish the race and they said 8 hrs from the last start. Seeing as my wave was next to last, it didn't give me much of a buffer. My goal going into the race was to finish healthy within the time limit. I thought it was theoretically possible to be around seven hours but a time of 7:30 would be fabulous. Two years ago I weighed 360 pounds and this race wasn't to win my age group but to set a new standard for my life. After the pre-race meeting, I showed my USAT membership and got a paper that I took over to get my race packet. Because I was racing in the Clydesdale division, I weighed in, then got my packet, then picked up my t-shirt and an Ironman 70.3 backpack that they gave out. It included a Gatorade water bottle for my bike, which I thought was great. There was an expo there that was pretty cool and I should have bought a couple things on Friday because by Saturday it was packed. Something else that was nice is that the local FOX news station had a video on fast forward of the entire bike course. I watched it several times to get the visual of the course, as I hadn't ridden it pre-race.

We left to head to our hotel and stopped at Target to get some yellow t-shirts for Emily and my Father-in-Law and Mother-in-Law who were coming to volunteer the race. Emily is an amazing artist, so I figured with some t-shirts and Sharpies, she could design her own t-shirt. That seemed to lift her spirits and we picked up the supplies at Target, along with some CranGrape juice, Trail Mix, and water. We headed back to our hotel, which was about 12 miles from the race venue and Emily started drawing. Here's a picture of the shirt she designed and my original.

We went downstairs to the Mexican restaurant in the hotel and we were treated like heroes! The manager was all excited that I was one of those Ironman athletes and the hotel staff really treated us well. For anyone heading there in future years, I do highly recommend the America's Best Inns and Suites in Grovetown. The people were great, the room was nice, and the restaurant served good, fresh food.

We watched the movie Falling Down and then crashed around 10 pm and got a good night's sleep.

On Saturday, I took Emily over to volunteer at the race check-in. I headed over to the riverfront with my wetsuit to try it out before the race. I've got to give a BIG shoutout to wetsuitrentals.com who worked with me to find a suit that fit a 6 feet 6 inch triathlete. I wore a suit by Akona and wetsuitrentals.com sent me a 3x, 4x, and 5x to get the sizing right. The 3x is the one I used. They just started carrying bigger wetsuits and I'm betting it will be a great market for them. Major kudos to Akona for designing suits for those of us not sized like the masses.

I'd never swum in a river before, though I do like open water swims much more than going back and forth in the pool. There was an incredible nervous energy going on with athletes milling around, swimming, biking and running to test their preparations.

I went down to the dock, got my wetsuit on, and jumped in. The river was pretty cool but with the wetsuit on I was warm. That's the only challenge with wearing a wetsuit. I'm tend to run hot, or swim hot as the case may be, and I was very concerned that with the wetsuit on that I might overheat. After swimming a 1/4 mile or so in the suit, I figured it was cool enough that I'd be alright during the swim. There was a little current heading the direction of the swim and it was more difficult coming back to the dock than swimming away from it. The picture is facing the direction of the swim from the dock.

Next I got on my bike and tested the wheels. I've got an amazing bike that I call Gary Garcia. Yes, it's a mountain bike. I realize that there seems to be a prerequisite of spending over $2000 on a carbon fiber race bike prior to doing these events but I didn't have the cash. I'd ridden a couple of metric centuries (100 km 62 miles) on the mountain bike in Thailand and here in the states, so I knew that I could do it. Also, I don't seem to get flat tires on the bigger wheels while often when I ride skinnies (skinny tires on racing rims), I get flats. I'm guessing my weight is just a bit more than the skinnies want to support OR I'm so hyperfocused on the ride that I'm not paying attention to potholes and gravel in the road. I'm expecting that it's case #2. I did spring for some Richey Slicks 1.4 tires from Performance Bike for the mountain bike. During training when I put these on, my speed increased from 14.5 miles per hour avg to 15.5. It's a much smoother and quieter ride. Anyway, things were looking good for the bike and I heard that they opened transition early to put the bikes in, because of impending rain. I went ahead, got my bike put in the transition rack, grabbed some lunch, got Emily and headed back to the hotel.

Then began the hard part... The logistics of an Ironman size event, full or half, is daunting. You've got to think of your nutrition for each leg of the race, what you'll need in the transitions, how to get from transition to race start, where to park, what to do for breakfast, how early to get there, what to do between getting there and race start, where to put your car keys while you're racing, where to store sunblock for the bike ride, which water bottles you're willing to throw away at the bottle exchanges, etc. You can see from my bed that there was a lot to organize. I went to Wal-Mart on Saturday and bought some slippers that I wouldn't fret about losing. That way you have something on your feet when you're getting over to the swim start.

I crashed about 8:30 pm and slept remarkably well. I woke up once or twice during the night but went on back to sleep. At 4 am the alarm went off. It was time to start moving! We had talked about going to Waffle House and getting some food but Emily had to get to body marking at 5 am. We decided we'd figure out something between body marking finishing at 7:30 am and my race start at 9 am. Bad move. Once you're in the flow of the race morning, the last thing you're going to do is drive somewhere for breakfast. This was one of my biggest mistakes of the planning but thankfully was recoverable. Emily got to body marking and I went and parked. The race organizers had done a good job of providing a lot of parking and my spot was about 1/2 mile from the transition area. At 7:30, Emily and I walked the 1.2 miles back to the swim start. Ann Bynum, a dentist and fellow triathlete was there with her husband Matt. It was great to connect up with them. I was feeling the effects of no breakfast and no caffeine. I had a headache and was nervous. I went up to a store at the waterfront and the best option was a couple of packs of crackers. Toastcheese and Peanut Butter Crackers powered my Ironman 70.3! Ann gave me some of her super techie drink w/protein, caffeine and electrolyles for pre-race. That helped take the edge off my headache. A few minutes before the swim start, I had Emily take this picture of me in the wetsuit. Note the stylin' slippers! It was time for our wave, number 24 of 25. We went down and jumped in the water. They had buoys to mark the start of the swim. The announcer said "About 1 minute 10 seconds", then 5 or 10 seconds later the air horn blew! We all looked around to see what the deal was and saw the race organizers waving us downstream and heard, "Swim, go, go, go!" Not sure what the timing issue was but it was a frantic way to start the swim. I worked immediately on getting into a maintainable pace. I remembered that I hadn't hit start on my Ironman watch, so I went ahead and hit the start button about 3 minutes into the race. The wetsuit started to heat up a bit and I backed my pace down a notch. I cooled down and swam. I passed a few people and got passed by about as many. I swam past a few triathletes hanging onto kayaks, felt their pain and swam on. I continued to do the crawl as I passed some who were doing backstroke or catching their breath. For me, swimming is all about a rhythm and I had gotten into a rhythm that could be maintained. It was amazing as the swim finished and I was reaching the exit from the water as I jockeyed among the other athletes for my exit spot. I exited the water and looked down at my watch.... 28 minutes (plus the few I had missed by turning on my timer late). My official swim time was 31:22. I got my wetsuit 1/2 stripped off by the time I entered transition. There were wetsuit strippers who helped us get the suits off the rest of the way. Here's a video.

I put away the wetsuit, put on my helmet and gloves, took a quick portapotty break, and hit the road on my bike, Gary Garcia.

I took to the bike pretty quickly with no real problem in the transition. I felt strong and pedaled quickly. I had put my Garmin 305 GPS watch on the handlebars and turned it on in transition. As I looked down to see my pace, it was faster than I remember seeing. I was cooking at 17.5 miles per hour up to 20 mph at times. I passed several people early in the race. I drank both water bottles by mile 18 and did the tradeoff for two Gatorade bottles. At mile 24, we did a u turn at the Fort Gordon gates and I remember thinking how happy I was to be 1/2 way through... Yes... my math was bad and I realized it a couple of miles later. At mile 28, I realized that it was a different game cruzing at this pace on during the entire bike. This was faster than any training ride I'd done. Gotta give big kudos to all the Army guys from Fort Gordon. For the entire 56 miles, there were two Army guys/gals posted at EVERY intersection, no matter how small the road. At the intersections where there was a turn, there were also Highway Patrol to hold traffic as we went through. At about mile 32, I was heading up a hill and there was one of the ParaAthletes completely stopped on the hill. I asked if he needed help and he said no but I'm thinking the race may have been over for him at that point. It was tough to see. A few minutes later an ambulance rushed past, I'm assuming with an athlete inside. I saw several people with flat tires, some of whom looked resigned to stopping. I pushed on counting my blessings each time. I felt good and the race was going well. I continued to swap out water bottles at the next bottle exchange and got some Gu. I'd already gone through 2 powerbars, 2 sport beans, and 2 Gus on my bike. By the end of the race I'd gone through another 4 Gu's or so from the bottle exchange stations. The last 15 miles had a LOT more hills on it than we'd hit before. It was TOUGH. There was one other clydesdale on a SWEET bike who passed me, then I passed him a few miles up, he passed again with a word of encouragement and I passed again with only 5 miles to go. I kept looking for him to pass me on the run or maybe at the finish... I never saw him again. I wonder about people like that. I don't really know him but we shared this really intense experience together. I want to know... Did he finish? Did he pack it in and quit? I'd love to know.. I finished the bike in 3:30, which meant that I averaged 16 mph over the entire distance on my mountain bike, Gary Garcia. I was thrilled when I saw that I was at about 4:20, including transitions!
I came into transition and began the run. It was TOUGH, right from the start. At this point my race report may not be as detailed. I was in automated mode and the first half of my run was at a pace of 14:30. I remember the first mile seemed like an eternity. I remember thinking that they must not have put mile signs at each mile and then getting disappointed when I saw mile one. I had my Garmin GPS watch on and kept watching the miles going by .1 of a mile at a time.
At the first aid station, they had some ice cold sponges that you could use to cool down. I was grateful for the help and put it in my shirt. That was the last aid station that would have them. At mile 7, the aid station had run out of cups and I began to panic. I knew I wouldn't make it if I didn't stay hydrated. Thankfully, at mile 7.5, I was passing a large crowd of spectators and yelled that I needed water. A volunteer ran to the volunteer station, got a water bottle and ran up to me. I continued on. Around mile 9, a really nice guy was cheering on the athletes and had brought a cooler of cold Powerade and water. I greatfully took a Powerade and continued my slow trek toward the finish. I am so thankful to the volunteer for the water and the nice guy for the Powerade... I'm not sure I'd have made it without them. That encouragement, as much as the liquid really helped me continue on and I got a second wind for a few miles.
Around mile 10, Matt Bynum saw me and cheered me on, telling me that Ann had just passed a few minutes before. He cheered me on a few miles later and I got to see Ann as she headed into her last mile or so. Each mile ticked by VERY slowly. Eventually, I was at mile 12 and heading for the finish. I'd love to tell you that my pace increased and I sprinted through but it continued to be the same pace. It was the same automated pace that I'd started three hours before. As I entered the finish chute, I saw my daughter Emily at the finish line. She was typing in the bib numbers as athletes finished the race.

I ran through and my Father-in-Law, John Phillips, was volunteering and put the finishers medal around my neck. My Mother-in-Law, Ellen Phillips, asked if I needed a medic (which is a standard question for the finishers.) I said no and headed over to the event finish party area, plopped down and had a piece of pizza and a cold beer. It was wonderful! I got a free massage from one of the massage volunteers, it was wonderful. I went over and checked my time.

My run had taken 3:05 and the race total time was 7:25. I was thrilled! Under a 7:30 and I actually felt good. We went out for dinner at Red Lobster and the next morning I woke up slightly sore but otherwise feeling good. It was an amazing effort and my goal was achieved by finishing under 8 hours in a healthy state. My GPS watch / heart rate monitor showed that I burned 10,343 calories during the bike and run. It looks like adding in the swim it was close to 11,000!

Just a post-note, in the 6 days since I have worked out almost every day with light aerobics just to keep the muscles limber. Yesterday, I decided to run a local 5K with Emily. I think the psychology from the Ironman 70.3 event carried over because I set a pace around 10 minute miles and automated it. I was able to manage my psychology and ended up with a new Personal Best of 29:30 on the 5k. The FIRST time to break 30 minutes and an average of 9:30 minute miles.

Life is good and I am blessed.