Pre-Race:

We (my parents, sister, niece, girlfriend and I) arrived in Madison Friday evening. There was a minor scare because I didn’t read the athlete’s information guide thoroughly and I found out that athlete registration was supposed to happen on Thursday or Friday from 9 am to 4:30 pm. It also stated in the guide someplace that athletes who were not registered would not be allowed to race. Ack! Not the best way to start out the weekend but long story short, there must have been a LOT of people that didn’t read the athlete’s information guide because they did hold another athlete registration session from 9-10 am on Saturday. Phew! Catastrophe averted!

Saturday was pretty busy with race registration in the morning, traveling back to the hotel to prep our bikes and getting our transition bags ready, traveling back to bike check-in, and then staying for the athletes meeting. I only had a teeny bit of time to walk around the expo during all that, but I would find that it was pretty much the same as last year (I watched as a spectator last year). That basically took us to 4:30 in the afternoon. Then it was back again to the hotel where I ate dinner and went back to my room to finish up packing the stuff I needed for the morning and to get some rest.

Oddly enough, I didn’t have any trouble getting to bed or staying asleep that night. I didn’t expect to sleep much so that was a treat! I woke up on race morning and started the day with a breakfast of a bagel with peanut butter and some Gatorade. I wasn’t hungry at all and more less had to force myself to eat. I felt bloated afterwards but I knew that I had to get something in my stomach and I still had plenty of time before the race for it to digest and feel better. I headed down to the race site, did my last minute bike prep stuff, put on my wetsuit and headed down for the start.

The Swim:

“The washing machine.” My friend, who was also doing the race (his 4th Ironman!), and I headed down what I thought was pretty early but trying to squeeze 2187 athletes though a little 5 foot archway just isn’t the most efficient thing. It was quite bottlenecked as we approached the water entrance. We passed the timing mats and made our way into the water with plenty of time to spare. I was pleased to find that the water was colder than I thought it was going to be. I didn’t do any pre-race swims in the lake and was slightly worried about the water temperature as I have a tendency to overheat easily during the swim. We made our way to the start line and joked around for a bit. I glanced over to Monona Terrace, which was an awesome sight to see. Seeing all those spectators line the terrace, spiral, and road was so cool! As much as I enjoyed the view last year from the terrace, the view from the water was equally stunning. I wish I had a camera in the water to take a snapshot from that vantage point.

BOOM! The canon goes off and the chaos begins. With a swimming/water polo back ground, I feel really comfortable in the water and was ready for contact. There was a lot more contact that I thought there was going to be though. I now know what those folks who describe IM mass starts as “the washing machine” mean. I got hit and kicked plenty for the first length and around the second turn, but after that it thinned out quite a bit. I kept a nice easy rhythm through my first loop and found myself back where I started at in 29:30. That’s right around where I thought I’d be.

My second loop, I found myself swimming WAY wide. I looked over to the right and thought it was odd that I didn’t see anyone. So I peaked to the left and off in the distance, I could see a big clump of people swimming. I was a good 50-100 meters out from everyone else which meant that I’d be doing at least an extra 100-200 meters in my swim that I didn’t need to do. Grrrr! Note to self: It’s more important to swim in straight line than it is to swim fast. I got back into the pack of folks and swam a little harder than I did the first lap. I still wasn’t pushing hard, but had a nice steady pace going. The field kept thinning out as the race went on. Soon I was done with my second lap too. I swam up to the ramp, had my hand hit the green mat like they described at the pre-race meeting and started my run up the helix. Swim time - 1:01:33. Had I not swam off course, I could have been under an hour. But I had estimated a 1:05 swim time, so I was happy to be a little ahead of schedule.

T1:

Peelers were awesome. They took off my wetsuit and I was on my way. All the folks lining the side of the road were cheering and the energy was unbelievable! I made my way to the changing tent where my friend’s brother was volunteering and he helped me put my bike stuff on. It was pretty cool to have someone there to help you with your stuff. I got all my stuff on quickly but calmly and headed out to my bike. It was a long run with my bike shoes with cleats, but I managed to get there without hurting myself. They handed me my bike, and I was off. Time - 8:29.

The Bike:

“Crush the bike… walk at night.” It doesn’t really rhyme, but my friend thought it did when he first made it up and that makes the saying even funnier. :) My goal here was to take it out really easy. The bike leg was to feel effortless until mile 40 and like I wasn’t really working until mile 80. Well, my preparation until this time didn’t have me entirely ready for the terrain. The course was a lot of rolling hills with three significant climbs. The hills were about what I expected them to be, but the climbs were a lot longer than I thought they’d be. The folks cheering made it awesome though and helped push me up those hills. The “roller coaster” sections of the course were a lot of fun, too. Nice big downhill sections followed by just enough uphill to get you ready for the next one. I’d never done anything like that before and was having a blast! I had high expectations for passing through Verona, but was actually a little disappointed when it finally happened. It wasn’t as cool as I thought it was going to be. Maybe I just hyped it up a little too much beforehand? It was neat, but for some reason I thought it was going to be a lot longer and a lot more crowded. But no matter. It was an awesome day!

I felt pretty good on the ride. I did feel like I was working before mile 80, but such is the way with hills I guess. The second time through Verona, I was getting antsy to get off my bike and getting anxious about the run that lay ahead of me. We had a nice tail wind taking us home for the last 10 miles or so. I was so happy to see Lake Monona again and to be home! Time - 5:58:31 (18.74 mph).

T2:

Another awesome volunteer helped me with my stuff. I got my shoes and hat on and got slathered with sunscreen on the way out. It actually kind of hurt because I think their gloves were covered with salt from coating the folks before me. After that, I was off! Time - 3:39.

The Run:

“Here comes the pain!” This was the leg that I was most worried about as I had never done anywhere close to 26 miles during training. My longest run was about 18 miles and only 150 minutes, so I was entering new ground and awfully late in the game at that! My conservative strategy on the bike seemingly helped though because I felt great right out of the gate; my legs were right there with me from the start. I started running at what I felt like was comfortable/steady pace and clipped off my first mile at around 7:45. Ok… that was a tad quick. “You’d better slow way down or you’re going to pay seriously later,” I told myself. I did and my second and third miles were around 9:30 or so. I thought I could easily maintain that pace for the first half of the race. Then the fun began. I started having pain in my knee after walking through an aid station and trying to run again. It took about 30 seconds before the pain would subside once I started running again, but once I was going it was ok. It made me not want to stop but I knew I needed to get water and food in. So I stuck with my plan to walk through every aid station and every significant uphill, but certainly paid the price for it when starting up again.

Around mile 5 or so, I started flirting with calf cramps. I tried running a little harder because I felt like I had it in me, but immediately I got that involuntary flex of the muscle that had me saying “Uh oh!” So I slowed down even more and started taking in a bunch of salt in the form of Succeed tablets and chicken broth. I hadn’t taken in any significant sources of salt since the bike leg and it was probably 90 minutes or so between my last dosage in the hottest part of the day. Oops!

I plodded along. Each time I stopped, starting was a little harder on my knee. I grimaced and kept trying to move along. I was pretty dispirited by the half way turn around. Here I had injury free months of training and now I’m plagued with a sprained/strained knee or some sort of tendonitis. I knew this wasn’t the kind of pain that would go away a few miles down the road. Nope, it was my cross to bear until I crossed that finish line.

Second verse… same as the first. More plodding and significantly more pain but the mental benefit of being more than half was through was very nice. By about 6 miles out, I knew I was going to break my goal of 12:30. Then it became a matter if I could break the 12:20 mark. With two miles to go I knew I had a chance and in the last mile, I hesitantly picked up the pace knowing that it caused me to cramp before. Nothing. I was moving and feeling great. I didn’t stop for those last few aid stations as I didn’t want that pain of starting up again. I ran my last mile in strong and was so happy when I could see the capitol in front of me. The crowd at the finish line was awesome and I was beaming on the inside. After a bunch of high fives, I crossed the finish line. Run split - 5:05:39.

Final Thoughts:

“I’m an IRONMAN!” I crossed the finish line in 12:17:51, but when I checked the next morning I saw that I received a penalty for something? They still don’t have them posted and I was in no condition to check on the evening of the race so I’m not sure what it was for. I’m a little bummed at that since it’s my first penalty that I’ve ever gotten and I don’t remember doing anything blatantly wrong? The bike course was bunched up at times and on those climbs nobody was riding on the right. Those are the only things I can think of though because I didn’t litter and I didn’t get any outside assistance. Oh well… So my official finishing time was 12:21:51, which was still better than my 12:30 goal time. I’m still quite happy with that.

It was a great first Ironman experience. It’s something that I’ll remember forever, especially considering that I barely got through a sprint triathlon just a year ago. It was a long and tiring journey. I’m especially thankful for my family who came all the way from California to watch me race, for my girlfriend who was so supportive and suffered through my long training schedule which had me tired in all my free time, and to my friend who provided me with invaluable advice from someone that had been there three times before. He finished in just under 11 hours and had a PR that day. Awesome!

I told myself during the run course and at dinner that night that I’d never do an Ironman again. That it was totally unnecessary with unreasonable distances to cover. But such is the event. After all, they call it Ironman for a reason. Two days after, I don’t remember the bad pain during the climbs nor the grueling hot run so much. What is fresh in my mind is the sweet pain in my legs of having accomplished something incredible and the feeling of accomplishment that I’ll have until my dying day. It’s something that nobody will ever, ever be able to take away from me.

I’m having second thoughts about that blanket statement I made. I may be good for another one. It may be worth it. For now, I’m going to enjoy some recovery and some down time. Wisconsin is already closed for next year, just 13 hours after registration opened! I may like to try a different venue anyway. Maybe in 2006? :)