My First 70.3 Yesterday....

Hey There Everyone,

     I am sitting on a plane flying home from Orlando, and have had a full day to recall and replay one of the most gratifying and exciting days of my life. On all of my race reports in the last year, I have made mention of my battle from Obesity. I typically reference where I came from (400 pounds to 200 in 14 months), the trials I overcame with losing my weight, and then would reference my results. This race report will be the last I do that with. I have thought about this a lot over the past 24 hours, and I have come to the conclusion that completing my 70.3 Ironman in Florida is the moment in my life I hammered the final nail in the coffin of Obesity in the life of Dan Benintendi. I will now be the Triathlete that improved upon his results, not just the obese guy turned Triathlete. With that in mind, let me take you through race day through my eyes.

     Saturday evening was a time filled with much anxiety! My brother Jeff from Arizona raced along with me, and my sister, Shawnah, flew in from Utah to hang out with us and get some good photos of our day out on the course. I went through my game plan over and over in my head, and had 100% confidence in my nutrition, strategy, and positive reinforcing thoughts. I ended up falling asleep at about 1:30am Sunday morning, and awoke at 2:45am to begin getting ready. That was the most solid sleep I have ever had, no joke, I felt like I had slept for a week when I got up! So, I double and triple check everything to be sure I didn’t forget anything and I was set. I started off with a big bottle of Cliff Shot Lemonade (My Electrolyte drink of choice). I then had a whole wheat baggle with crunchy peanut butter on it and then a Vanilla Boost drink to get the day going. My brother’s stuff is ready, my stuff is ready, let’s roll!!!

     We head over to The Magic Kingdom parking lot to catch the shuttle that would take us to the race start. We were among the first there so we got good parking and had plenty of space to set up transition and be comfortable. By this time it was about 5:00 am and the temperature was only in the high 70’s, however, humidity at a staggering 90%!  I knew it was going to be a scorcher! I go down to the water’s edge, survey again the swim course, again check my points of reference for sighting, go pee, meet up with my buddy Brent Paulsen who is a pro and took 7^th at the race last year, wish each other well, and head to the start for the singing of the national anthem and the pro start. I cannot tell you how “Electric” the atmosphere was. Once the DJ turned on the famous “Sandstorm” techno song by Darude, there was not a person in the crowd that could not feel the adrenaline as the clock clicked down from 3 minutes, two minutes, 10 seconds, BANG!!! The cannon blows and the race has officially started on time to the second at 6:20am. There were a total of 22 waves that were determined by age group. Guess what wave I was in… YUP, dead last. I got to see my brother head out and do his thing, which was really cool. 4 waves later it was my turn to go, I am so excited. I am at the front far right of the beach to get out of the way of the “Washing Machine”. There were 3 waves starts that were for my age group alone, each having a little over 120. My game plan for the swim… Take it nice and easy, relax, enjoy the swim, and conserve my energy for the bike and run. It worked out to a “T”. The swim went by quickly, pretty uneventful and very relaxing. Sighting was not a problem. I was weaving in and out of people without incident, and only had one “Issue” on the last 400 meters. I caught up to people that were in my brother’s wave and as a dude swam back onto the course from going outside the buoy, he decided he wanted to do a random breast stroke and ends up “Scissor-Kicking” me dead in the middle of my thigh! The pain went away in a few seconds, I kind of laughed about it, and a few moments later, touched down on sandy ground and began the 400 yard run into transition, it seemed like it was longer, WAAAAYYYY far away from the swim exit, which is probably why swim times were a bit higher than normal, but it was all good, my heart rate never got above 110, and I felt as fresh as a cucumber going into transition...

     The good news is, my bike was on the very first rack inside transition, the bad news is I had another 400-500 yards to run with my bike to get to the “mount line”. No biggie, I did my thing, kept my heart rate down, hopped on the bike, and was fully prepared to attack this bike course like no other. The ride was described as flat, which is partly-true, but it did have a few unexpected hills that were no big deal. I am feeling great on the bike. I decided the week before the event that I would wear my Camelback and use my own hydration, rather than the ones provided to avoid the clusters at the aid stations that are notorious for being home to many gnarly accidents. I could not have made a better choice. I was taking my salt tabs every 30 minutes, sports beans every 20 minutes, and sticks of honey every 30 minutes. I am flying by people on the bike! I have never ridden on such smooth surfaces, such flat roads, and without much wind, advantage me! I especially love flying by the guys who are riding P4’s, DA’s, P3 C’s, and Plasma’s with 808’s and full disc carbon wheels. I hit mile 30 and look down at my computer for the first time, just to discover that I have been averaging 23.4 mph!!! Holy cow, I knew I was grooving but “Dang Gina!!!” Anyways, the last half of the course, a lot more hills and we were into a head wind for about the last 15-20 miles. No harm done, I still averaged 20.5mph and I will take it! Hopping off the bike back into transition, my legs felt GREAT! I felt so fresh and was ready to get into a groove on the run. (If you are wondering, I patted my brothers rear end as I passed him at mile 6 on the bike J )

     As I make the long run from the dismount line back over to my rack, I couldn’t imagine things going any better. I really take my time in transition, I made a last minute decision to put my BLACK compression socks on for the run, that took a little bit of time, I visit the port-o-joy in transition, put on the fuel belt, turn my race bib around and head out to the run. Boy was it hot, reached 88 degrees by this point, and I couldn’t understand why my head was so dang hot until I hit the first aid station and go to take off my hat to put ice on my head, only to then realize, I FORGOT MY DANG HAT IN TRANSITION! That explains that, and the bright tomato that is sitting on my neck now. I decided that because of the heat, I would do 9:30 – 10:00 miles and would walk each aid station. Get plenty of Gatorade, plenty of water, plenty of ice cold sponges, and plenty of ice to stuff in my shirt. It was going great. I hit mile 5 and uh oh… Knee pain! Dang-it! Oh well, got to keep going. It was a 3 loop run course and as I complete my first loop, on to my second loop I caught up to my brother who was hanging his head a bit and was on his first loop. He was a little discouraged, and was concerned he was not going to finish in time for the cut-off. I walked with him for a while, talked to him about the fact that he was 415 pounds a few years ago, and here he is 250 competing in an Ironman. I told him to not give up, and assured him that he belonged here and had every bit as much right to be here as any other person on the course. One foot in front of the other bro, and I will be there for you at the finish line. The moment I caught up to my brother, I realized just being there and supporting him in his journey was way more important than finishing a few minutes ahead of schedule, and it was the best decision I had made all day. To put my arm around my brother and realize a couple years ago we weighed almost 825 pounds collectively, and now weigh 450 collectively brought tears to both of our eyes. I told my brother, when we reach that next fence, I am going to get running again and will see you at the finish line. I smacked his butt and headed off. I felt like I could have ran all day at the pace I was running, I really felt great, except the knee. Just before the mile 12 marker was the final aid station. I stop and pour ice all over me and am ready to hit it with everything I got this last mile. I start to run and my knee was completely done. I had Biofreeze, and lathered a whole packet onto my knee, no help, I kept trying to start and run, no good, I stopped to stretch, no good, oh well, I will walk until I can make the left that says “To finish line”. I did just that, I managed to put a light shuffle together to cross the finish line, spotted my sister in the crowd who snapped a photo, and was so proud to cross the line a “Finisher”. Tears did not flow, in it’s place was the same smile I had been wearing all day. I am sure that when this plane lands and my wife and children meet me at the airport that they will flow then, but the joy in my heart is indescribable. I think the only thing that could have made this day better was if my wife and children were there to hug me at the end.

 What a great day! What a great journey! What a great challenge! What an amazing life this is! Everyday we all make decisions that will impact our lives forever, and I am so thankful I made the decision to get my life and health back and begin living again. The pain in my knee is pretty bad right now, but the happiness, joy, and sense of accomplishment I  now feel in my heart makes the pain subside. I am Half of an Ironman now! I have another VERY challenging half Ironman next month in Lubbock, TX, then it will be onto the BIG DADDY in Louiseville, KY in August for the FULL 140.6 Ironman. Thank you to all my friends, family, sponsors, surgeon, and strangers alike who have done nothing but encourage, uplift, and inspire me each and every day. I will never forget this day, the feelings I felt that are too great to try to put into words, and the unavoidable desire I have to do Ironman again, just not tomorrow. Thanks for reading the very long account of my race, but believe it or not, this is the condensed version. Thanks for reading and being a part of this journey with me…..(Total Chip Time 6:15:15)

 -Dan Benintendi
www.trimywill.com