Ironman Florida - feagajk - TriathlonFull Ironman

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! The first 3/4 mile of the swim was a boxing match. I was kicked in the face about 5 times, had my goggles knocked off, was punched in the head about a dozen times, and in the back about a dozen more. I can certainly see the benefits of waiting on the beach for the mob to die down for a minute before going in if you're a marginal swimmer. Either way, it was too late now I was in the thick of it. Just one arm, then the other while doing my best not to get beat up too bad. It was pretty congested through the first two turns before it thinned out. There was a moderate current and I don't think some people realized it. This resulted in them swimming straight, getting pushed to the left (on the way in) then cutting back hard to the right. This was of course frustrating to the people that made a slight turn into the current the whole way (thus traveling along a straight course), when the over adjusters kept swimming into us.

Lap 1 was about what I expected, a lot of people trying to swim in the same few yards of ocean. The heart rate was through the roof most of the first lap, but settled in towards the end. The water was pretty warm and I kept pulling on the collar of my suit to let more cool water in so I wouldn't overheat.

Between laps one and two there was a short jog on the beach with a timing mat. There was also water available to rinse your mouth out. I definitely took advantage of that.

Lap 2 was much lest congested. My second lap time was actually significantly slower than the first because I didn't have as many feet to draft off of. Actually, I didn't find a good person to follow on the second lap until about half way through. People were either too fat or too slow. Finally, after an hour and 15 minutes or so it was done. I had swum 2.4 miles for the first time in my life. I reached the beach and ran right past Mike Reilly into the transition area.


All-in-all the swim was pretty good. I finished right in my target time and was pleased with my performance.

T1 was a mad house. I finished the swim with the vast majority of people so the changing tent was filled with a thousand of my closest buddies. This one guy was pissing me off because he kept pushing on my back while I was looking for a place to change, but there just was wasn’t anywhere to go to get out of his way with people in front of me. Once I found a spot, I took my time getting changed. I toweled off a little, drank some water and ate a Hammergel to help settle my heart rate and start to focus on the bike. I put on my heart rate monitor and long sleeve shirt, then packed my wetsuit in my transition bag and handed it to a volunteer on my way out of the tent. I ran to my bike and my dad was standing next to the fence. He told me I looked good and had a great swim. Was good encouragement coming out of T1.

Nothing.

I jogged my bike to the mount/dismount line, jumped on, and started spinning. My heart rate was still pegged from the swim, changing, freakishly cold air, and excitement, so I just left it in a low gear to get settled as I rolled down the beachfront. I kept this up for probably the first 3-5 miles or so. It worked! My heart rate started to fall and I was beginning to get settled. Bike objective one complete.

Not long after we got off the beachfront I came up on a pretty bad multi-bike crash. I think everyone looked ok, but I'm not sure how the bikes faired or if they were able to continue. What a rough way to start or end the day.

I began to get into my normal riding rhythm after the wreck, but something seemed odd. I was just was moving pretty darn slow. Around 13mph to be exact. The headwind we had been told that would die down after the first few miles was very much there and pretty much a direct headwind. The headwind (and my slow riding) would continue for the next 50 miles. I just focused on riding my plan (keeping the HR in zone 1 or very low 2 until the last 1/3 of the race (more to come on this)) because I wanted to make sure I had enough in the tank to finish the race. This proved to be successful and completely demoralizing at the same time. At IM FL 70.3 in May I averaged 19.9/mph and was doing a lot of the dropping, here I was getting passed like I was standing still and it was pretty hard on the ego. I was even more frustrating to watch the number of cheaters out there. I was passed by no less than 100 people in pace lines or large groups. I saw a couple get busted for drafting, but I guess what's a 4 minute penalty if you save 20-30 minutes (more?) on the course.

Anyhow, the headwind sucked and was in your face the whole first 50 or so miles. There were also some very mild rolling hills, but nothing worth writing home about. I followed my nutrition plan to letter for the first 50 miles. I would drink as often I felt comfortable plus my magic mix with water every 12 minutes; then a Hammergel every 36 minutes. It worked like a charm. It worked so well in fact I had to pee after about every 1.5 hours. It seemed a little excessive at the time, but I felt good and that’s half the battle.

For those of you interested in my peeing strategies... I would suggest just pulling off on a side road a few feet and letting it fly. It worked for me and many other men/women I saw doing the same thing. I also tried the porta potty route, and that was more trouble than it was worth. I wouldn't recommend it, due to the amount of time wasted. There's also the peeing on the bike option. It’s not really my style, but it’s certainly a time saver.

The special needs bike stop was at about mile 50ish. I stopped, grabbed my extra bottle of magic mix, refilled my bento with gels, put on my short sleeve shirt I had in the bag on. The volunteer told us we could get our bags back, so I put my long sleeve shirt in the bag. Come to find out you could get it back, but not until the morning after the race. I was staying too far away to justify the trip back to I lost one of my favorite training shirts!

Again, up until this point I had been averaging around 13 miles and hour, but suddenly after the special needs bike stop we turned. We got a tailwind and a slight downhill and it was AWESOME. I was in the 20/mph's for a few miles and it felt great to be moving again. All the fun was fairly short lived as the course flattened back out and I was reduced to upper teens. But, no hard feelings, anything was better than the headwind.

Around mile 70ish I saw something that nearly brought me to tears...a gas grill with hotdogs and hamburgers at an aid station. It was for the volunteers and they seemed to be enjoying it, but man was that a dirty trick when people are riding by sipping sludge from water bottles. I remember smelling that aid station for the next few miles. I used it as motivation to get finished.

Shortly after the hotdog aid station another group of three passed me. They were all wearing matching jerseys. The guy in front was obviously very fit and there was a guy in the back that was pretty fit as well. Sandwiched between them was a young woman. It appeared that the guys were helping her along by providing a nice draft. I was a little pissed, but at the same time got to thinking that's how triathetes are. They help one another whether in training, or inspiring people, or whatever. Don't get me wrong, they were cheating and it was wrong; it was just something else to think about for a while.

Getting a little further along, something really twirked me off. I was probably getting a little irritable by this point, but none the less, a young teenager at an aid station says to another guy “I can't believe there are STILL people out here" implying that we were really far back. I didn't mind so much since I had accepted that I would rather finish slow on the bike and run, then blow my legs out on the bike and walk. But, it just was just a kick in the balls when I was getting tired.

I picked up a group of people that were going about my pace from mile 80 or so until the finish, there wasn't any drafting going on, but we just paced each other. It kind of felt like you had some friends out there for a while and gave you something else to do.

We turned back down the beachfront and it was the longest 5 miles of my life. I honestly thought I was in a time warp. A guy in front of me blew a tire about 3 miles from the transition area, felt REALLY sorry for him. I turned the last corner and there were crowds cheering. I couldn't wait to get off the bike. I got off the bike at the mount/dismount line and jogged over to the volunteer that took my bike. The bike was over and so was my first 112 mile bike ride. The legs felt surprisingly good as I ran over to get my run transition bag.


There were two major performance limiters on the bike, both of which I realized well after the bike was over. One had to do with my heart rate. Everyone says don't try something new on race day and I didn't. I tried something relatively new...

In training, I never use a heart rate monitor, I just train by feel. I know some of you are thinking "my god, how can you train without a HR monitor?” I’m sure it's not the best way, but it works for me. Regardless, I knew for the race I wanted to make sure that I maintained the correct zones early on the bike, so I had to wear the monitor. So, a few weeks before the race I did 2 (just to be sure) LT threshold tests using the Joel Friel method and got my zones all mapped out. Then I tested the results on a few long rides before the race. Turns out my "by feel" training was right on the money. Anyhow, it was still fairly new to me so the zone numbers were in two places. In my head and on my laptop. I left my laptop in DC and only brought the zone numbers in memory with me. Of course I didn't even think about them all taper week until the night before the race when I was refreshing them in my head. But, I couldn't remember if the top of zone one was X or Y. I'll make a long story short here and just say I erred on the side of caution, and didn't think of it again.

The moral of the story was that I was chasing a zone 1 value that was never going to happen because it was about 8-10bpm lower than it should have been. You can imagine the cascading effects because each subsequent zone was about 8bpm or more lower than it should have been too. The effects on my pace are quite apparent in my blazing (please note the sarcasm) bike leg.

In case you think people are just being over cautious, like I did, believe me, "Don't try anything new or relatively new on race day." You might ride about 1-2 mph AVERAGE slower than you would have otherwise.


Item 2. I didn't mention much about eating on the course other than my 12min/36min strategy. It worked very well. So well in fact I felt comfortably full the entire ride. I was so comfortable in fact that I forgot to reset my count down timer the last 1-1-1/2 hours of the bike. I felt great on the bike, but it came back to bite me on the ass on the run.

T2 was much less congested since I was now in the BOP. There was plenty of room to change, and I took my sweet time. I could tell I was a little tired at that point because I started putting my running shoes on before taking my tri shorts off. I realized what I was doing before I got my second shoe on and took the first one back off. I put on the long sleeve shirt, running shorts, hat and had another gel and some water before heading out. I gave my transition bag to a volunteer and headed towards the arch.

Nothing.

Loop 1:

I came out of T2 feeling pretty good. Anything other than sitting on a bike seat felt good actually. I ran under the run course arch and took a right onto the main drag in front of the hotel. The crowd was loud and encouraging and I saw my mom and sister who managed to find some room along the fence. I trotted on for about a mile before I realized I had two problems. One, I couldn’t breathe and two, I was awfully hot. I solved the overheating problem by tying my long sleeve shirt around my waist and running in just my sleeveless top. The breathing problem was also pretty simple. I removed my heart rate monitor strap.

I felt much better at that point and got started on a long evening. One of the most memorable things from the first loop was the bunch of tailgater's in their front yard pounding beers with a sign that said, “Free Beer! All you can drink." Definitely evil and I felt the need to tell them so. They laughed and I told them about the aid station with the gas grill and they laughed harder. Pretty fun bunch.

The next few miles were uneventful until I got to the neighborhood section of the course. There, I passed right next to all the women leaders. It's a pretty cool sport when you get to race right next to athletes of that caliber. A few miles later near the state park, I get passed another athlete with a 'P' on her calf. I heard her tell a photographer that she was having a bad day and she proceeded to run/walk. Since her running was significantly faster than mine, she'd pass me when she started running and I’d pass her back when she started walking. This went on most of the way through the state park and back toward the neighborhood until I started having a few problems...

One, I kept kicking rocks up into my shoes and they managed to start forming blisters on the balls of my feet. I would clean my shoes out, and then kick more in. I was a vicious cycle really. Two, my hip was really getting tight. I could feel my ITB rub back and forth over my hip every time I took a step, so I started taking a few seconds to stretch every now and again. Three, I was starting to feel just a tad lightheaded (remember the last hour on the bike). Not lightheaded like I was going to pass out, but more dehydrated and hungry. I slammed the last 2 Hammergels I had with me and took some Endurolites. After a few minutes I felt much better. With all that going on, the steady jog turned into a run walk until I got back to the beach where I transitioned into a solid run for a while. This was probably one of the must difficult parts of the day mentally. The crowds were pretty thick about the last few hundred yards before the turn around and they were all yelling, "Finish String", "You're about to be an Ironman", etc. I know everyone mean well, but, for me, it was completely demoralizing knowing I had 13.1 miles to go. I reached the turn around and saw my mom, sister, and dad. Dad asked how I was doing and I shot him a glance. (He told me afterward that that look was worth a thousand words) I was definitely frustrated with the hip and blisters by that point and the fam could tell.


Loop 2:

I ran back past the crowds and transitioned back to the run/walk I been perfecting towards the end of the first lap. I ran back past the free beer people and said hello. Back down the strip and into the neighborhood the runwalk became more of a walk-waddle. Here was another discouraging thing. They had taken down one of the aid stations and combined it with another. While I’m certain there was a good reason, it really took the wind out of my sails. At the time I felt like they were saying "Well, all the real competitors were done; let's just get the rest of these people through."

At that point I was mentally defeated. My feet and hips were killing me, I was way behind on eating, and Ironman was not so much fun anymore. Anytime I started running it would only be for a few hundred yards before I started walking again. There was more than one occasion where I seriously contemplated saying screw it. I almost didn't want to finish knowing that I had walked the vast majority of the second half. The walk-walk-walk/run continued through the park, back through some of the other areas, when I just had to stop. It felt like someone was sticking needles in my feet. I dumped out my shoes again and continued on, but the feeling continued. Then it hit me. Joe, you moron, there are rocks in your socks. I stopped and took my socks off and got the rocks out. Much better, but the damage was done. The blisters were like marbles all over the balls of my feet and toes. The walking continued, back toward the beachfront. With about a mile to go I resumed running. Really slow, but it was running. I ran back through the crowds and there was a woman playing 'Ironman' on her accordion. I was pretty neat. I ran through the rest of the crowds, past the turn around, and up onto the parking deck. My sister was there jumping up and down and running up the parking deck beside me. It was the one time in her life she's ever run faster than me(-: I got some spacing between me and the guy in front, so I could get a good finisher photo. I crossed the finish line: 14:18:58 and heard Joseph Feaga from Ashburn, VA (no "you are an ironman", though). I'd done it! My first Ironman, first 2.4 mile swim, first 112 mile bike, and first marathon all in one day.


The main performance limiters on the run were nutrition, blisters/hip, and overall conditioning.

I already mentioned the last hour to hour and a half on the bike that I didn't really eat at all. That was such a mistake. Sure, it burned up the energy, but it was also a huge mental drain too. I could tell I was extremely irritable the whole run and just wasn't having fun. I attribute much of that to the nutrition being off. For run training, I generally only need/use water and a few gels, so this was somewhat uncharted territory. However, I know what to expect now.

The blisters/hip were severely painful. No question about that. I injured the hip a little about 2 weeks before the race. I went on a 6 miler and didn't follow my normal stretching routine. Very stupid. About mile 4 I had a slight twinge and it was sore right up until the race. Not much I could have done about it except not be a dumbass that close to the race again.

The blisters were directly as a result of the tiny rocks in my shoes. This was new to me because my normal running path doesn’t have gravel, but I didn't think it would be so much of a problem. It was...for 3 days after the race too. I guess in the future I’ll just have to clean my socks out more.

Overall conditioning. I don't know how closely you read my report, but I’ll recap, "My first Ironman, first 2.4 mile swim, fist 112 mile bike, and first marathon all in one day." I was a little light on my preparation for the race. Mostly because of work and other conflicts beyond my control, but I did what I could. I'd probably do a few more long runs, long rides, and long swims if I make another attempt in the future; but I think a lot of it just has to do with endurance experience. This is only my 1.5 seasons after getting off the couch. I think I did ok all things considered.

A volunteer grabbed me at the finish, congratulated me, and then asked me a number of questions. I don't recall all of them, but I remember he asked me if I was cold and I said "no." He must have thought it was strange that I wasn't cold because then he asked me two or three more times if I was sure I was alright. I got my finisher medal and goodie bag and found my dad right near the finish area exit. He congratulated me and my mom and sister soon followed. The only thing on my mind was that massage tent. I walked around for a minute and headed over. I don't recall their names, but the ladies that performed the massage were awesome. I nearly fell asleep right there on the table. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and my time was up. My dad and I gathered my stuff from transition. He took my bike to the truck and my mom, sister, and I walked over to meet the bus to the parking area. My mom and sister walked away for one reason or another, and I was all alone sitting on the curb next to some folks. Then I'll never forget this elderly gentleman, he turns to me and says, "I remember seeing you out there today. You did one heck of a job, Ironman!" I don't know why it meant so much or even if he was confusing me with someone else, but it just validated the whole day for me. That old guy was my Mike Reilly.



It's now 6 days after the race. Blisters are gone. Hips are recovered. Time to ease back into it. All in all I think things went pretty well considering it was the first time id ever swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, OR run a marathon; much less one right after another.

A few do's don'ts:

1) Do stay close to the venue. One less thing to worry about.
2) Bring a few people with you. If not for moral support, at least to help carry stuff.
3) Bring your bike pump race morning. Nice not to have to rush and wait in line race morning.
4) Don't forget Bodyglide on your neck. Can't even count the number of wetsuit kisses I saw.
5) Don't try even relatively new things on race day.
6) Don't forget to eat lots on the bike.
7) Don't forget it's supposed to be fun.


I'll update as I think of things, but enjoy!