Ironman St. George - TriathlonFull Ironman

The swim start was fine. I made my way to the front row and decided to sprint from there. I wasn't planning on racing the swim, but I've decided I'd rather be swum over than run into the back of people and then be swallowed up from behind. I'm not the fastest, but I'm fast enough to hold people off one at a time and not have to deal waves all at once.

The first leg was excellent. Nice and smooth. Great temperature. Not overly crowded. I made the first turn though and all the sudden you could tell something wasn't right. There were big swells that started coming across us. It was a short leg though, so no problem. I muscled through it and made it to the next red turn buoy. As I rounded it though, I immediately realized that today was not going to be the day I thought it was.

By this point the wind was full force and throwing non stop swells right into our faces. I have no idea how big they were and if you read some forums they were 20' feet tall, but I know they were absurd. there was no breaks between them and it was just one after another picking you up and dropping you down like you were in the open ocean. Amazingly, it wasn't disrupting my stroke as much as some other unpredictable chop I've been in at other races, so you could actually swim fairly smoothly. The issue is that you had no idea where you were going and you weren't making much progress getting there even if you did.

I tried not to feel sorry for myself and push through it. I worried at first for all the beginners and first timers out there. It's a badge of honor to survive an IM swim, but I'm not sure this is what they should have to start with. After 20 minutes or so of swimming, I started to think that it may be me that has to worry. I had zero indication of making any progress and for the first time in an Ironman, started to really wonder if I was going to make it through this one.

I resigned myself to just keep swimming for 2h20m and if I didn't make it I didn't make it. I was feeling ok physically, so if I didn't make it there were going to be a lot of others who wouldn't make ti either that I could commiserate with. There was no way to sight on anything, but thankfully there was the sun rising to the NE and the island you had to circumnavigate to the NW, so as long as I swam between those, I may be off by hundreds of yards, but I was at least going in the general direction.

After what seemed like 2 hours, but was actually only about an hour, I was past the island and at an orange buoy that appeared to be the end of the line. Even after treading water for a few minutes and discussing it with ~10 other swimmers, we were still unsure. We eventually saw a boat circling in the distance pointing us to head into shore. I still didn't know if that was right or if we would be dq'd once we got there, but I had been swimming pretty long already and was ready to head in.

The swim in was much better now that we were no longer heading into the wind. I saw the final red buoy that had moved into line with the orange line, which explained why we made the final turn at an orange instead of red buoy. that made me feel better and I aimed for the waving flags to get home (I found out later that they had to take down the arch since it was in danger of blowing away in those winds).

I got out of the water and saw Nate and Amy immediately. I asked Amy if I was last assuming that everyone would have beat my time. She said I was first which was unnerving. I went into T1 knowing there was nothing I could do and thankful that our group was seasoned triathletes with 25+ IMs between the 4 of us. I can't imagine what it was like to be a spectator with a first timer or weak swimmer out in that water.

?

I was a bit out of sorts. There was a decent amount of room and I had a great volunteer. Unfortunately I let him take my bag away before changing my shorts, so when I was finished, I had nothing to put them in. I decided to take the time to write my number on them hoping to get them back. Then a volunteer made the excellent suggestion of making me a separate t1 bag. He wrote my number on a spare bag, threw in my stuff, and off it went.
In addition, I forgot to put chamois butter on until I was out int he transition area, but I was able to do it before I got going.


Everything. Not my best work.

I started on the bike and we immediately went into the monster headwind. I had visions of the third loop at IMAZ and how bad that was. This was twice as bad and it was at mile zero. I thought for the second time, "not sure I'm going to make it through this". Nothing I could do about it though, so I pedaled on.

It was an awesome course though with great scenery, so I decided to just settle in and enjoy it. I made it to town in decent shape and then started the long climb on the first loop. It was a direct headwind and uphill which made it physically challenging, but mentally I was ok since I was not being frustrated by being blown around. The wind also kept you from overheating, so that helped as well. I just kept on cranking away. Slow as shit, but moving along.

I finally made it to the Veyo wall which was on paper the toughest climb of the day and signaled the end of the climbing. The funny part was that you took a big u-turn to come onto the wall, and with the help of the wind, I wasn't any slower than the rest of the loop. In fact, after the wall was another section of climbing that was back into the headwind that I felt was the toughest section on the whole course. More grinding away though and I was able to make my way to the glorious sight of the pie shop on the top of the mountain. That was the true end of the climbing and a nice break. I took a split and saw that I had been riding at 12.5mph for over 2 hours. That was sobering, but it was time to fly.

I put it in the big ring and hit the gas. The next ~30 min was a mix of spinning out and tucking to get as much free speed as I could as I flew down the mountain at 30-40mph. It was a nice break and a crazy experience. I was definitely happy to have the wind at my back and not a cross. I'm not sure how we would have made it down that road with cross winds.

The break was nice, but I was starting to dread the start of the second loop and had not seen anyone I knew or had any news of the others for ~4hours. I made it back tot he park to start the second loop and was so happy to see Amy, Bennett, Nate, and Sloan again. I pulled over and talked with them for a few minutes. They were a bit taken aback at me stopping as I rarely do, but I was happy to chat all day. It was great to hear everyone made it out of the swim, and I eventually got back on the road. I made it a point to find a tent with sunscreen at the end of the rest stop before the second loop, though as it was definitely heating up.

The wind was letting up a bit on the second loop so although my legs were starting to lose it, I actually negative split the second loop. The crowd was thinned out and pretty desolate, but we were all silently suffering back up the mountain. I tried to enjoy the scenery though and made my way back to the pie shop again. I was behind schedule as far as goal times went, but I knew I was now going to make the run and that was all that mattered.

Charge my Garmin. I thought it had enough juice, but it died halfway through the first loop.

Didn't have any real problems in T2. Took my time a bit to make sure I had everything taken care of, but still moved quickly. Made sure to get full sunscreen from the volunteers again here.

Nothing.

I was happy to be off the bike and ready to run. It finally looked like I was definitely going to make the finish. It had been a long time since I have 'raced' a marathon. The last one was IMAZ in 2010. I hadn't done any stand alone marathons since then and last year at IMCoz I had stomach issues early and decided to just cruise the marathon and enjoy the day.

I started the run ~8.5hrs into the race, so With a 3h30m run, I could still hit may arbitrary goal of sub-12. I felt like my nutrition was spot on and I was ready to run. I hit the roads and started very steady. The opening mile is mainly downhill, and I hit the first marker in 6:43. Yikes. A bit fast. I cut back, but still held 7:11 and 7:06 for the next 2 miles. My legs and spirits were feeling good, but things were starting to go downhill as I was now out of the wind and still in the blazing sun. I began to overheat fast.

There were people with hoses on the side offering to spray athletes. I told him "just my head" as I have issues with chaffing when wet below the waist. Hoses have no control though and no fault to him, I ended up taking a direct shot to the chest and immediately was soaked head to toe. Not 3 steps later, I started to chafe down there. Luckily I had special needs coming up and I had an entire huge plastic bag that contained one single indispensable thing: an extra bandaid. The volunteer almost didn't give it to me as she exclaimed "your bag is empty", but I snatched it and went straight into the port-o-pottie.

That taken care of I was back on track. I slowed down to 8:24 pace for the next 6 miles as I continued to struggle with the heat, but it wasn't the pace that bothered me as much as how much it stopped being fun. I can tell when I am mentally not into it that my body is physically about to give in. My nutrition was ok, but the heat (and especially the sun) finally got to me. I started walking aid stations trying to cool down and saw K and Heidi together starting their first loop. It was a welcome sight as I had not seen anyone in hours and decided I wanted to hang out with them. I was on my second loop, but they were about 1/2 mile ahead on the course, and it took a lot of effort and time to catch them. I had to dig pretty deep and not give myself any chance to recover, but I knew once I made it I could ease up a bit while at the same time they would keep me honest.

It was great to chat and talk about the day so far and the next few miles went by fairly quickly. Unfortunately I still wasn't feeling great physically, and mentally I was getting concerned since we hadn't seen Craig yet today. He had always pulled through in the past, but the wind and the hills on the bike were ungodly so there were no sure things that Sunday.

We did a lot of run-walking t tick off the miles. We would run to the bottom of the out and back legs and then walk back up the hill. Repeat 12 times. The issue is that K and Heidi are insane speed walkers. I could run faster, but I just could not keep up with their walking pace. I had to run ahead and let them catch me in order to stay with them. They kept thinking I was finally taking off, but I would just get up the road 20 yards or so and then let them come back up to me. It was a painful dance, but better than dancing alone.

At the finish of the second lap, we saw the gang on the wall near transition and Craig was with them in plain clothes. I felt pretty bad for him knowing he had a tough day, but it going to be an even longer night. At least there was solace in knowing that if you weren't going to make one, that was probably it. With a 28% DNF rate, substantially larger than any other IM, there was no shame in not making it that day.

Luckily, that meant I had just one lap to go. K and Heidi were still by my side, but they had two laps to go. We had all the time in the worrld, but I thought to myself, "I have no doubt they are going to make it, but I honestly don't think I could do another 2 laps." I was just in survival mode. .

By the time we hit the final out and back I was ironically feeling better than I had in hours. The sun was getting lower though and I was taking in what I could at every aid station. Water, Perform Sports Drink, grapes, pretzels, chomps. Never a lot, but just a bit every time trying to claw my way back to life. I was finally cooling off and getting some nutrition in me. I checked my watch and saw I could still break 13hrs. That was respectable and certainly sounded good at the time.

The final turn around signaled ~1.5 miles left and mostly downhill. I gave Heidi and K both a hug and thanked them for their help. I told them that they were fucking bad ass and meant it. It was time to go.

I am pretty sure I was sub-7:00 pace for those final miles. It was the first time I felt human in hours and I flying and pushing to break 13. I sprinted by a few racers at the opening to the chute, but when I saw I had 3 minutes to spare, I stopped in my tracks and let them go. I wanted to enjoy this one. I walked the finish slowly, slapping hands along the way. When it was finally clear, I ran the last 20 feet to finish it off and then turned to look back up the chute and refelct on the day. #8 was in the books and it was a memorable one

Nothing really. I may ahve been faster overall if I took the time to recover properly and then run it out, but I appreciated being with Heidi and K that I'm not sure I would trade a faster overall time for that experience.

Met up with the Johnson's and Hogans. they took amazing care of me as I started to go downhill fast again. They got me all settled with clothes, food, etc. and I finally recovered a bit.


Heat acclimation?


Other than the weather tearing up the course, this is one of the best races I have ever been to. Amazing scenery, course, volunteers, everything. Everything you would want and more. Sad to see it go.