Ironman World Championships 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had decided that if any race I could draft, this was going to be it. I was about 4 rows back and in the middle when the cannon went off. I charged into the surf and was swimming before I knew it. I was going to go hard and find some feet quickly. The first 200 meters was chaos!! Bodies everywhere, everyone holding their line. I got smacked in the back of the head once, and elbow to the eye and numerous hand slaps to various parts of my body.

After the first 200 or so, it became less crowded, but people were still in a huge pack. I found Orca boy (red right side with blue goggle strap) who was swimming a bit faster than me. I hung onto his right calf for my life. For the first time, I was actually able to draft and hold it. It was like I was on a recovery swim sitting there. I immediately knew when I lost him because it became harder to swim and I didn't see the red flash. I didn't sight at all until the turn buoy.

We each did a spinning turn and I continued to stay to his inside. After the turn back to the beach, I lost him because the Sun was right in my eyes and we all took the turn wide to the left. I decided to stick to the bouy line and was all by myself. I thought I was wrong at first, but eventually everyone came back to me. As I approached the pier, I came across Orca boy again but lost him when I got side swiped by a slower swimmer. Basically, I was too close to the buoy line and ran right up on him. By the time I got around, he was gone.

Problem was that I ended up relaxing way too much after the turn around because I was concerned if I was going the right way and trying to find more feet. I should have just swam hard and waited for feet to come by me.

Came out of the water well and struggled through the sand. I could hear my friends yelling at me and it was very encouraging. I got my top off and headed to the strippers. They did an awesome job and I grabbed my bags quickly.

I had placed 2 sets of gloves in my bag because of the potential cold. Also a set of arm warmers.(NO...not the she-beest) I decided to go Sans arm-warmers because I knew it was going to get warm out there. I took probably 30 seconds more than I should have in there, but it was worth it to make sure I had the right gear...like socks!!

Nothing really. Run to the end of the changing tent because it's less crowded there. (near the exit).

Ok...this was a very intense ride. I started out and got my feet into my shoes without too much issue. It still amazes me how many people get to the mount line, stop and then fiddle with their shoes. Going down course even at 2 mph is better than standing in one spot.

After speaking to Jorge, I decided that I was going to go as hard as I could and see where it took me. I told everyone that my plan was either to have a great race or be walking at mile 10. Either way I would be happy. The first 5 miles or so, were a blur. I got into a routine and felt comfortable pushing the pace. I knew going out of the city was a false flat with some rollers (from my recon drive before hand) so I kept the cadence high but the pressure on. Then the road narrowed down and it became kinda tight quarters.

Around mile 5 or so, I came by Jorge. I didn't recognize him until I was by him and then noticed the fast splits sticker on his helmet. I nodded and we kept pushing. This is where a pack started to form. There were a handful of us that basically didn't want to wheel suck and didn't want to get wheel sucked from. So I would drop the hammer, get out in front and about 5 of us would set up a distanced pace line. Then the wheel suckers came by tightly. When I saw a break in the pack, I pulled out and hammered again. I figured that if they were going to suck wheel, I was going to make it hard for them to do it. Plus I was feeling very comfortable amazingly enough. So many carrots out there it was nuts!!

A draft marshall came along just as the wheel suckers shot by me so I watched what he was going to do. He handed out some penalties but the problem was that now a pack was forming behind him. We didn't want to pass the motorcycle, so we were kinda stuck. After he rode off, it was hammer time again. This happenned a couple of times until the turn around. Then it was GAME ON!!

I knew this section was flat and fast!! No turns, just head down, follow the white line until you explode. What made it even better was that there was a tail wind at about our 5'oclock. I had been with 955, 1047 and another rider pretty much all day, so we kept exchanging the lead and pushing each other. It was like mucsical leap frog!!

Saw the marshalls a couple of more times and he nabbed some more blant wheel suckers. When I Passed the first penalty tent, it was literally standing room only. Women, men...didn't matter. I gave a silent smile to myself. Once the road openned up, it was heaven! For the first time in a race, I was one away from my smallest cog (12/13) in the rear and not mashing. I purposely didn't put the speed up because I didn't want to look. Only distance and the markers were within .1 each time.

One time, we were all hammering along and the draft marshall came along side. I didn't pay him much attention until he stayed there. I figured no biggie. Then I started to second guess my distance. After about 30 seconds, he continued on his way. This told me that I was dead on and made me confident in my spacing visual. This came in handy on the headwind section.

Finally, we turned back north into a nasty headwind that was also a 7 mile false flat. Again, if I felt comfortable, I pushed harder. But then I decided to be smart. I kept my distance from 955 and caught what legal draft I could. If he slowed down, I shot around him like a bad habit. But then, he would regroup and come back by me. That's fine. I just made sure that I kept my distance. You could tell that people were starting to fry at this point because the delta was increasing. We were passing people at a 3-4 mph difference before and now it was probably twice that. More people sitting up, etc.

I looked at my watch at the 50 mile mark and couldn't belive it! I was on track for a massive PR. I refused to let the thought enter my mind and just kept pushing the pace. I knew the run was going to be hell, but I had 10 running miles before I could blow up.

Coming over the bridge, I dropped into my small ring and kept the cadence up. Hit the top and flew down the other side. After coming around the traffic circle, I got out of my shoes and coasted into the dismount line. I glanced at my watch and still couldn't believe it. 10 min bike PR!!

Nothing. Went hard, kept pushing the pace. Drank when I needed to and left an empty water bottle on my bike.

I had to wait a second or two as the volenteers had about 2 bikes each. No problem as when the second round of them came through, I was off to races. Grabbed my bag and I would like to Thank the guy that kept yelling "Red Bag...you need your Red Bag". Made sure I didn't grab my swim to bike bag (blue) instead.

Got to the tent, and was SO happy that I had my race shoes in there...at least at that point I was.

Nothing. Went by fast and relaxed.

I felt really good coming off of the bike and was still in shock from my watch glance. I knew that as long as I didn't do anything stupid, I had a great chance at a PR. I was not going to be conservative, but I didn't want to be stupid.

Remember that new shoe comment I made...yeah. Well, not only were they new shoes out of the box, but they were laced by a friend of mine without me even being there. I headed out and set out a pace that felt comfortable but pushing. I decided to go off of HR and keep it just under my LT for as long as possible. My run LT is 171 and I averaged 163/4 the entire run. So that part I did well. One point for listening to your coach!!

The first time I noticed my shoes was on the back side of the bridge. The shoes felt tight and my toes kept rubbing against something inside them. Came to find out later that the front portion was laced WAY too tight which caused it to bunch up right over my "toe knuckles". I tried to keep my mind off of it expecting for blood stains to show up soon. Never looked down because I didn't want to know. I just kept rearranging my toes in my toe box. It wasn't a debilitating pain, but I could feel it on the down hills and when I pushed for surges. Bottom line is that I ended up with 3 blisters on my left toes and one huge on on my right toe. They were fluid filled, not blood. All in a days work right? So enough of the Don't do Dan lesson. Back to the run.

I knew that I was going to encounter some gazelle's, but Good Lord! My first mile was 6:39 and people were pulling away and passing me like I was running a 10 min mile. No matter, I was going to run my race and maybe some of them would come back to me. I just had to find my target. On the back side of the bridge, (about mile 2), I get a tap on my shoulder and a grunt. It was Jorge. I was hoping to hold him off until like mile 4 like I did at FL, but now that he had an intact leg, no go. He was out of sight before the next half mile.

I found a guy in a red top from UBERLâNDIA MINA BRA REP. He and I kept trading spots on the run from mile 4. I would pass him, he'd pass me back. I purposely took a walk break at miles 3 & 6 to take my gel and ensure fluids were getting in me. Then I would catch back up to him. It didn't dawn on me that I should take my gel right before the aid station and then drink...DUHH!! Things you see on race day that make sense.

At the outside turn around, I spotted my friend JC. To my surprise, she was only about a half mile in front of me. She started 30 min in front of me in the race and now I had another carrot. Normally, she runs really fast, but she just did the New York Marathon 6 days earlier, so I had a chance!! Coming back to the turn around, I saw my friend Jay and his girl and they were jumping up and down. So awesome to have people cheering for you. Makes you forget the pain and smile for a moment. Then the massive crowds where there. Nancy, James, all the other jockstrappers from the condo jumping up and down. And then just as I made the turn around, I hear some shreiking from behind me. I looked back and it was my MOM and some of her friends. She actually made it down!! That really motivated me. I got the time check from Joey that I was only 2 min back from JC. I knew I had to go if I was going to catch her.

Back up the bridge was brutal and I dropped behind red guy and caught back up on the down hill. Despite the protest from my toes rubbing raw against my shoes. I pulled in front of him around mile 8 and he didn't come back on me. I though I might have dropped him...but I was wrong. At mile 10, there is a turn around and then a slight uphill. He came by me and surged up the hill. I tried to respond and my body said...NO...not happening.

At this point, I had a mental breakdown. I knew it was mile 10, I knew I was in pain and I had to make a choice. Do I suffer through this and just make it home, or do I keep going and try and go for it. Unfortunately, it took me about a half mile to make the right decision. That was by far my slowest mile.(7:50). I got my head back in the game and literally shook it off. I yelled out loud..."let's go" and got some reaction from the crowd.

I worked the hill as much as I could and didn't focus on the people flying by me. This was a race against my will and against the clock. No more giving up at the last part of the race. I was on track to go where I never though I could ever go. And there was only one person that could keep me from getting there...ME.

As I approached the chute, a couple of people went by me and I noticed that they were not in my Age Group. So I decided to do what I did not do at Wisconsin...enjoy the chute. People were screeming and yelling...it was great. I looked behind me and there was no one for about 50 meters. I slowed down a bit for a good picture. When I crossed the line, I had NO clue what I had just done.

Nancy was the first one to bring me back to reality. I took about 5 steps and saw her jumping up and down. Then I heard her words: 4:26...4:26!!! I snatched my arm up and looked at my watch. Oh dear lord...4:30 was my no way in Hell goal. I couldn't believe it...I had done what, to me, was the impossible. Sub 4:30 is for people that are super fast...not me. At the beginning of this season, my goal was to go sub 5 hrs. I'm just someone that works hard and gets lucky. It really still hasn't hit me to be honest.

Nothing. I went for it and did what I could. I would relace my shoes the night before at minimum.

After getting my chip removed, I walked over to Nancy and gave her a huge hug. I could not have done this without her support. All my friends flew in to see the race. They all had me convinced that they couldn't make it only to fly in the night before to surprise me. You can't ask for anything better than that.

When we left there, I was still in shock as to what I had accomplished this season. It still amazes me to this day. And to think that 3 yrs ago, I was walking around in a leg brace and was under going 4 months of hamstring rehab.


On this day...Nothing.


Just a couple of things overall. First for those that have read my race reports this season, Thank You. It makes me perform better and observe things so that I can put them in here. I am thinking about you as I'm on the course. You have gotten me through some tough times not only in a race, but in training as well. It might sound dumb, but I know your watching me and that motivates me.

In the end, it comes down the the Athlete vs the course. That is a fact. But what often does not get pointed out is the people that helped to get you there. The IronSherpa that told you to suck it up and finish that last mile repeat, that carried your bag to transition so that you would have those extra 5 calories to use on the course and 10,000 other things they do to make your life a bit easier on race day.

And I would like to personally Thank Brett Daniels (Rocket_Man) for coaching me the last half of this season. He said that he could not take credit for my last 3 min PR at Steelhead. But he can definetly take credit for my 12 min PR this race. But...be careful...he lies!! He told me that I was not going to have any more step increases this season. Well, I guess through great coaching and work on my part...I made him a lier. If you want to get faster and want to race smart.... Talk to Brett!!