Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

The swim was a blast. Hearing the crowd, the music and Mike at the start was simply awesome. I'm normally nervous at swim starts and this being my first IM was expecting major nerves, but I was just pumped and ready. I positioned myself all the way to the left, outside the buoy line and about halfway back. I'm a very slow swimmer and seeded myself accordingly. There was plenty of contact the entire swim, but not nearly as rough as some describe. I just settled into my space and swam straight. I took plenty shots, but again, not bad. I'm a pretty big guy as far as triathlon goes(6'1"--195#) and it seemed to help me just swim straight with so many people around. People would run into the side of me and just kind of glance off. One of my biggest problems with tri swimming is sighting--I'm normally all over the place. With so many people, there was no way to get off line, and sighting was simply not needed.

I paced myself at my normal slow pace. It's slow, but I never get tired at that pace. I exited the water nice and warm and ready to ride, except for one thing. I apparently gulped/swallowed lots of air and water because I had a major stomach ache/gas pains running through transition.

Nothing, swim was as good as I could have expected.

Standard T1 stuff here. All the volunteer help was nice. I took my time since it was going to be a long day. Stopped in the crapper to try to get rid of stomach ache--no dice. Off to the bike.

I loved the bike course. So different from where I train(Louisiana) that the scenery made it real interesting for me. The roads are butter smooth and the course is very fast.

The ride started off fine, making great time on low watts until mile 10 when the stomach cramps started. Bad. Like debilitating, making me groan bad. The would come for 3-4 minutes and then be gone. 10 minutes later they would be back. It seemed like each time I passed a port-o-potty I was OK, then they'd return. Finally at the turn around at mile 19 I decided I had to stop and try again, which I did and felt a little better. I'm now an hour into the bike and can only stomach water at this point, and salt tabs. My infinit makes me want to puke. This first trip downhill was the most fun part of the race. As I'm getting back on my bike the lead pack of pros pass on their 2nd lap. They were hauling. My legs felt great, I just had a 5-10 min break and I decided to hell with it--I'm going to ride downhill with these guys. I stayed 20 yards or so behind them, but paced them all the way down the Beeline, holding 34-36 in the tailwinds. It was a blast. Of course it was short lived b/c I had to make another pitstop at the bottom of the mountain.

The rest of the bike ride went the same, the ride was easy, easy to my legs and back and shoulders. I couldn't believe how easy it was. The problem was that I have to make 4 more stomach stops, and it KILLED my time. Of course, all the breaks may have been why I felt so good?? Normally a 5 hour training ride ruins me for the day, but on this day my body(except my stomach) held up well. I was unable to get much of anything in the way of calories/electrolytes on the bike and knew it would catch up with me.

This is a huge lesson from me to you---carry Tums, Rolaids, immodium, etc on the bike or special needs bag. It would have saved my day. I never dreamed my legs and back would tolerate this day as well as they did, but stomach problems probably cost me at least an hour...

Standard stuff, changed shirts, socks, shoes, added glide and rolled out.

Took off running at a nice 9 min pace walking the aid stations. I knew I was way in the hole on calories(I had none) and would pay, so I was taking Coke at all stations playing catch up, although it wasn't sitting very well. I continued this for the first lap(9 miles). As the miles went I beacme more and more nauseated. Saw my wife at mile 9--gave her my heart rate monitor b/c anything touching my stomach made me want to hurl. The good news was that my legs, amazingly, still fresh as can be. I talk to her for a few seconds and jog off.

I get 100 yards away and break out in a cold sweat, dizzy, wobbling, can't walk straight--no avoiding it, I puke into a cactus. I'm worried that I'm becoming "that guy" that falls all over the course, so I decide I better walk a while and recover. And walk a while I did. I think I walked 4 straight without running a step. Gradually, very graually I was feeling better. Legs were still fine, just couldn't run without puking. After mile 14ish I started running again. About half running/half walking, hitting up literally every other port-o-pot. I wanted to stop at all of them, but made myself skip 1 out of 2. Continued this to mile 22 at which point I was done. Walked to mile 25. I knew I couldn't crash too hard in 10 minutes, so I ran the last mile. I was totally bummed out with my performance, especially considering how well my legs felt, and was feeling pretty sorry for myself. As I rounded to corner to the finish, all that changed. The light, the music, the people, realizing what went into getting this thing finished, I looked at the crowd and they didn't care how slow I was. They were yelling their arses off for me, and like that I was as proud as I could be. I ran the last .1 miles on nearly a dead sprint, fist pumping and high fiving every person in the crowd. What a great moment. I felt great when I finished, and went out the chute to meet the wife and kiss the kids. It was great having them out there to cheer me on. I know it was a ton of trouble for her to lug 3 small kids around all day, but it meant a lot having them with me, so thanks to her for that.

Get control of my stomach. It ruined my race, at least as far as finish times are concerned.

Five Guys Cheeseburger, fries, chocolate milk. Not too shabby!


EXCELLENT race. I can't imagine that there's a better venue for an Ironman race. WTC does a bang-up job of putting these races together, and as expensive as they are, I always feel like I get my money's worth. A very fine product IMO