Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

The Washing Machine...

Googling, "Ironman-Arizona-Swim-Start" was probably not the best way to ease the nerves of an already daunting task...And to be quite honest, I probably did not get a whole lot of benefit by watching the videos over and over again during the days coming up to the race. "The Washing Machine", a term often used to describe the start of a triathlon swim when you're starting in the middle of the pack...This is usually a place that I try to avoid at all costs, but when there's 2,940 other athletes trying to share the same water space, that "pack" is a little too large to avoid. Don't get me wrong, I tried to avoid it; I swam my way towards the back of the group thinking that I was somewhat in the clear...And then I took a look at my surroundings. Nope, I was not in the clear...I was in the middle of the washing machine. For those of you reading this who have never seen what the start of this swim looks like, here is a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFOzA1x23Sg

Luckily, the swim was not that bad...In fact, all of the anxiety that I created for myself most likely worked in my favor. I was expecting an all out, full contact free-for-all and what I got was...well, a regular 4000m swim. Sure, I got knocked in the head a few times, a few people grabbed my legs and I took a foot to the side of my head. (the person was wearing neoprene booties so I was hardly affected) Just another day in the office...I think that the relief of realizing that this was not going to be as bad as all the videos made me think it was going to be wiped out any of the normal anxieties that come along with swimming 2.4 miles in the open water. My breathing never became rushed, my stroke stayed smooth and I never became fatigued to the point of having to stop and take a breather. The real benefit of having so many people in the water with you is that you're never short of people to draft off of. Not only that, but sighting becomes much easier when you're looking for a group of swimmers right in front of you versus looking for small buoys that are off in the distance. My goal was to not see 1:3X:XX coming out of that water so I was very happy to come out and see something in the 1:20's...

Holy Shit...I'm out of the water


There is nothing else I could have done differently or better at my current swim level. I drafted off of the people I could, I sighted as frequently as I needed to and my breathing stayed relaxed and steady. I'm good for about a 1:20:00, 2.4 mile swim when there are about 100 people swimming around me; Coming in at 1:25:08 with 2900+ swimmers is fine with me...2013 will be focused on becoming a much better, and much faster swimmer.

This was like no other transition I'd ever been in...First of all, there was a pretty long gap between the swim exit and the transition tent itself. A gauntlet of screaming fans and volunteers cheering on the athletes as we moved on to the next leg. I peeled off the top of my wetsuit and made eye contact with the first wetsuit stripper I could find who wasn't busy to make sure he knew I was coming at him to get stripped...(To this day, I still think wetsuit strippers are the best!) I was so happy to be out of the water and caught up in the moment that let out a loud "WHOO!". This, of course, resulted in an eruption of cheers from the awesome spectators...

The transition process was so organized...as I'm running up to the pile of "SWIM TO BIKE" bags a volunteer would shout out my number and before I knew it another volunteer was handing me my stuff. I took the wise advice from Coach Seth (WannaTri Coaching) and sat outside of the changing tent instead of going inside...Found a nice spot to sit down, and with very numb hands did my best to put on my gear for the 112 mile bike ride. It was a bit chilly, so I put on arm warmers and a bike jersey over my tri-top. I also threw on some socks and my compression calf sleeves. Doesn't sound like much, but some how it took me over 9 minutes to get all situated...Running through the tent out to the bikes I was very happy with my decision not to change in the tent...It was hot and so humid I could barely breath. There was too much excitement buzzing in the air and somehow, it already stunk like gym locker room after a game of basketball...Thanks for the advice, Seth!!

Probably not much...Believe it or not, I thought I was moving pretty fast. My numb hands would only allow for so much. I think next time I will do a little more to try to get out of there a little bit sooner.

The Beeline...

Every local triathlete who has done Ironman Arizona has, in one way or another, made a joke about the Beeline Highway. It becomes our best friend and our worst enemy for the many weeks heading up to race day...While the athletes from different parts of the country comment on how beautiful the desert backdrop is to look at, for us Arizonians it's the same, boring scenery that we see all the time in our daily lives...The course has a reputation for being one of the fastest courses in North America partly due to the fact that the bike leg is flat. Well, almost flat...There is a decent hill that starts about midway up the 11 mile stretch. It starts out in a way that you don't even realize that you're climbing until you notice that your heart rate is raising and your legs are starting to fatigue. And then right before the turn around you've got two decent climbs that always seem to come with the wind in your face. On the other side of that, "what comes up, must go down". I think my max speed on the way back was about 28 mph and this was while I was allowing my legs a bit of rest. A fast course, indeed...

Since I'd been on the course countless times before, there were no surprises here. In fact, I'd ridden the course in much windier conditions so the few gusts that we did have were nothing compared to how it could have been. Being that this was my first full iron distance, I wasn't sure how to pace myself. I don't ride with a power meter so I was basing my effort solely on my heart rate. I would keep it in the low 130's on the flats and allow it to get up to the high 140's during the climbs.

I wasn't 100% sure how to handle my nutrition either...I would live off of Honey Stinger waffles, Honey Stinger GU chomps and Powerade Perform for the next 6+ hours. I did my best to consume about 150 calories per hour, take in about 430mg of sodium per hour and consume about a bottle of water per hour as well. This has always worked well for me during training, but for some reason during the race it just wasn't setting very good. I snacked on the GU chomps, and sipped on the Perform until my body started feeling hungry. Then I would try to eat half a waffle without it giving me too bad of a stomach ache...There is still a lot for me to learn here.

Most of my ride went incredibly well...I was happy with how I was feeling and the speed that I was at. There was, however, one moment where I started feeling really worn out. Whether it was lack of nutrition, the adrenaline starting to wear off or if it was just the fact that I had been pedaling a bike for over 3 hours non-stop and knew I had close to three hours to go. It was during this time of weariness that I saw something on the ground that caught my eye...For a second I thought I saw, in giant chalk lettering, "GO JASEN!" I was like, what the f...?? Maybe I'm seeing things. Then, about 100m further down the road read, "I LOVE YOU JASEN" in the same chalk lettering...Kim up to her incredibly nice shenanigans again . A huge smile came across my face, a tear to my eye. This came just at the right time for me...I was back in it and I stayed there until the end of the ride.

I will work on some better nutrition strategies and definitely push myself a little harder on the bike next time. I would love to be riding with a power meter for my next 140.6, but with or without one I still have some tweeking to do...Overall, pretty happy with my bike leg. I would have loved to be just under 6 hours, but just over 6 hours isn't too shabby either.

Another awesome transition experience...Very rare that the chute to the transition is more packed than the chute to the finish line of any race I've been in. I heard my name yelled out from people in the crowd numerous times...I wish I knew who they were so I could thank them personally.

This time I did opt to go into the tent...It wasn't quite as hot or humid, but it still smelled like a gym bag. I sat down on one of the chairs and slowly started taking off my bike gear. Sitting down was nice, but it made me realize just how tired my body was...I peeled off my Bike Jersey exposing my Triple Sports Team logo as if I were Superman exposing his "S". I put on fresh socks and applied Body Glide on all of the inconspicuous parts of my body. (yeah, you probably don't want to share my Body Glide.)

Just a marathon left...

Nothing...The 6 minutes that I spent in transition were needed to collect my thoughts get on to the next portion of this race.

Loop one...

I had a strategy all lined up for this race...As a lot of you know I had been dealing with foot injuries that had plagued me since even before Boise 70.3 back in June. I had adopted a run/walk strategy that had helped me get through some of my longer runs during training. 5 minutes of running, followed by 1 minute of walking...During training, this method resulted in about 9:30 min/miles for runs up to 19 miles. My goal was to try to average just over 10 minutes for the duration of this leg...The first loop went very well. I followed my plan perfectly even during what I refer to as the "tailgating" sections of the course where there are lines of tents and people cheering, ringing bells and grilling food. (Trust me, walking during these sections with all the energy that we got from the spectators was no easy task.) My first loop, I was averaging about 10:10 minute miles...So far, so good.

Loop two...

This is where things started to go wrong...I was tired, and rightfully so. After the day that I had, I was expecting to be tired. Instead of run/walking 5:1 on this lap, my goal was to run to each aid station and walk for a minute there. But something wasn't right; I made the decision that I would continue my run/walk strategy for the rest of my race. After a couple of miles into the 2nd loop, the smiles were harder to come by. The cheering spectators were not giving me the energy that they once were and the chalk writing on the course (Yes, she tagged up the run course too.) wasn't hitting that sweet spot like it did on the bike. I knew that I was supposed to be worn out, but I also knew that things were going south...fast. I figured that my issues were caused by (lack of) nutrition. I needed to get something in my system...I tried GU, I tried Cola...I even broke down and tried oranges and pretzels even though I'd never trained with them before. Not only did this not help the wooziness that I was experiencing, it was upsetting my stomach to boot. And then I hit my dark spot...My lips had been tingling since before I was done with my 1st lap, but halfway through the 2nd lap my face started tingling too. I have to walk. I started taking in deep breaths...it was the type of sensation that you get when your oxygen is being cut off so I was trying to replenish it as much as possible. After a while, my hands started to go numb too. Fuck, this is it. At this point I didn't know what to do...I couldn't stomach another GU, but I tore one open anyways and just "sipped" on it to try to take in something. It wasn't working...People were talking to me, telling me how great I looked and it took everything for me not to let them know I was about to pass out. I started looking for places to sit down...even lay down, but had I done that I know that a medic would have been called over and most likely told me to stop. I just kept walking knowing that "forward" was still a pace. But after close to an hour of this...I had to be safe; I had to check into a medical cart, essentially ending my day...

Bad times will come, but they too will pass.

A great coach and my friend, Toby, (Camelback Coaching) made it a point to stress this lesson during one of his clinics. And by the time I reached that medical cart, I repeated his words in my head like I was reciting a prayer.

Bad times will come, but they too will pass

...As I approached the cart, it was like my entire year flashed before my eyes. All of the work I put in, all of the support that I had received, all of the friends that I had waiting for me at the finish line.

Bad times will come, but they too will pass.

I walked to where the cart was...and then I just kept on walking. I couldn't bring myself to it. I couldn't end my day now...not this way. So what if I didn't break 13 hours?...I've got 17 hours to finish this bitch and I'm doing it one way or another!! It was at this point I found what I believed saved my race...grapes.

Loop three...

There was something about these grapes that went down incredibly well. They were juicy, they were sweet yet not sugary and most importantly, they were not upsetting my stomach. I grabbed a handful of grapes and stuck another one in my jersey pocket. Before long, the tingling in my limbs started to go away. My face started to feel normal again and as I looked at the sun setting over the city, I started to enjoy myself...I'm actually going to do this thing. That was all I needed...As soon as I felt human again I took off. Not only was I moving forward, but I was running! I looked down at my watch and realized that I had over 2 hours to run 13 miles and still come in under 13 hours. Not only am I not getting pulled from this race, I'm beating my goal time...For the rest of the way I just ran until I started feeling a little light headed and then I'd walk and eat grapes until my heart rate went back down below 120. My legs were surprisingly not too beat up and it started to become more and more clear that I was going to do this. My friend, Nick, caught up to me for part of the last loop and we had a good time talking about our day. I told him about what I'd gone through and how I solved it...I eventually separated myself from him, but our little conversation served its purpose. Apparently he went through something similar towards the end of his race as I did...Once again grapes saved the day.

I believe that what I had to do differently happened on the bike, not the run...Better nutrition strategy could have prevented what I went through, but who knows. As I was told the next day, "it's very hard to pinpoint when things went wrong"

Sure, I would have loved to finish the marathon in closer to 4:40, but a finish is a finish and it could have been much worse...

I wish I could vividly explain my experience of coming through that finishers chute...I wish the memories were as clear as so many other parts of my race are. But honestly, it's pretty much a big blur. I do remember letting out two large "WHOO!"s coming down that lane pumping my fist...I remember the crowd erupting the same way they did getting out of the water and I also remember telling myself, "If you yell one more time you're going to pass the hell out!"

My good friend Steve coincidentally was my catcher. (For those of you not familiar, they have people waiting to catch you at the end in case you pass out or collapse) I had joked with him over the last few days saying that he better be there to catch me and I was super stoked that it happened to work out that way. One thing that was surprising to me, though, was the lack of emotion I felt crossing that line...In fact, I think I'd felt more emotional watching other athletes finish the year before than I felt finishing myself...Steve escorted me to an empty chair, I drank a chocolate milk and I just sat there tired, relieved and motionless.

When I felt that I could safely move around I went to find my fiancee and my friends who came to watch me finish. As I left the exit area, I saw my group; I had some very close friends show up to watch me finish, I saw my son standing there and then Kim started walking towards me. This is where all that emotion was hiding...As soon as she got to me I put my head on her shoulder and the tears just starting rolling down my face. I'm not sure why... Maybe it was the fact that at one point I thought I wasn't going to finish, or if it was the pain that I just endured or maybe it was just being in the presence of my loved ones just made me feel that good. I was done...I was an Ironman.


Experience (can you ever get enough experience?) and needing a better nutrition strategy. My next full Ironman will not be until 2014 so I definitely have some time to figure that stuff out. Sub 12-hour, here I come!!


This race is known for having the best spectators and volunteers around...I couldn't imagine a race being any better from a racer's standpoint. Sure, it's the same drab scenery that I've trained in for years, but it's my home turf and I loved every minute of it.