Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

Wow, what can I say about this swim. It was what I expected in terms of mass start and the washing machine, but it didn't last as long as I expected...guess I got out front and out of the masses.

I knew swimming was going to be my best discipline, but I never expected a time like this. I expected that my "best case" swim would be 1:15+. I just felt comfortable the entire way, never tired, and never did I kick. I was so bouyant in my wetsuit, I didn't feel the need to kick and decided to save the legs and not chance any cramping.

I did get crushed by an errant foot early in the race...and the first thought that came to mind was... "that bitch hit me with a toaster!" It was a masssive blow in which I lost my googles for a bit, but quickly got them re-settled and was on my way. Thought I might have been bleeding from the nose (evidently not), but decided that if I was, the water would clense it away, so I kept on pushing! Made the turn (a little less than half way) at 32 mins....at that point I knew I was good. Had thoughts of pushing th effort to see if I could break 1 hour, but that was short lived as I decided to save energy for the rest of the day. Soon you will see that this was the theme of the day.

Side note: Peed DURING the swim. That takes being very relaxed to pull off...definitely a first. More peeing to come later in the day...another theme.

Not a thing. I am very impressed with this time and have to give all the credit to my coach (Andrea Fisher) who is not a big fan of mega swim training yardage. I never did anything longer than an hour swim in training and never got higher than 3325 yards. I definitely like this type of training and I guess it worked well for me. I can improve here though...and will try.

Took my ol' sweet time in transition. Got the wetsuit stripped but walked the entire T1. Went to the bathroom before getting dressed. Took much longer that I ever expected, but I wanted to take my time and stay relaxed and see if the HR would come down. Also I fought with my sunblock spray that I had in my bag. It never worked, so I went to the volunteers for sunblock and only got it in patches....I have some funky sunburns to prove this!

Speed up....and make sure the sunblock is working! Having your own spray is much better than relying on volunteers...especially if you have fair complexion like I do and sunburn easily.

"Holy Headwind Batman"

You have all heard the horror stories by now of the brutal winds that we encountered today on the bike course. Those stories were absolutely true, so I will not repeat them.

Took the first lap very easily on purpose (bad mistake today) as I wanted to get my HR under control and just stay in the small ring and ride off of my HR and cadence. This felt really good, but I lost a lot of time here and didn't realize it until I got to the turnaround and noticed the F-ing headwind for the first time. Fought it back to town, then pushed the effort the next two laps (big ring) with the tail-wind and just survived the headwind portions and tried to remain calm and positive during these sections.

My nutrition worked as planned. I took three bottles of my IM cocktail with me (Cyto-Max & Carbo-Pro) for drinking on the bike with 3 more at special needs. I also put Red Bull in two of them, one for each 3rd bottle as a pick me up during each half of the race. This worked good in training and worked good during the race too. Did the handups of water to refill my aero bottle at every aid station. Took two Thermolytes every hour.

More peeing on the bike course. I stopped each lap around miles 26, 50, and 87 to use the bathroom. I could have been faster if I peed on the bike, but hell with this wind, why hurry? Also lost time at special needs too...but oh well.

I knew going in that my bike was going to be my biggest limiter of the day, but I didn't expect this slow of a ride. I thought 7 hours at the absolute worst. I knew that I would be able to do the distance, but not being able to do continuos 70+ mile rides left my riding strength a bit low. I did several long rides and felt good during all of them, so I had the confidence in my ability to finish the ride, but I really needed more long rides to give me the leg strentgh to push harder on the bike. I rode to cadence and HR all day which worked well for my ability for the day, but I need to improve in this area, and will.

Things to work on....more longer rides, and more shorter rides at higher watts to build bike strength/speed. I need to get out of my comfort level.

Again took too much time here. I felt good coming off the bike and was running through transition and never felt bad in my legs. Got into transition and changed shorts, put on my sunblock (this bottle worked), then chatted it up with the other guys in the tent...as we bitched about the wind conditions.

Speed up!

Felt good starting out on the run, but was watching my HR a little too much. I should have let it settle down some on its own before walking to let it settle. The plan was to walk all aid stations and take in my nutrition and then to walk a minute after getting everything in to let it settle before shking it up in my system with the run. This worked great until mile 11. I was running around a 10 min/mile pace when running and then walkin gthe aid stations as planned. At mile 11 I decided to walk until my stomach settled down. I couldn't take in any more nutrition and started to feel sick, but new I needed the nutrition, so I walked the next two miles to get my system back under control. Started with the cola and broth at this point too and this really seemed to help. Picked it back up after mile 12 and was back running at my normal pace again and at a comfortable HR. I would stop and talk to Mom and Rhonda at every passing (twice per loop) and let them know I was doing good. They, of course, were extrememly worried about me since they were with me during my sickness a few months ago. So I went out of my way to make sure they new I was doing fine. Then again, the kisses from Rhonda each lap didn't hurt either!

Kept pressing with the "run till the aid station" strategy and this seemed to work great. I was tired, but I never felt like I couldn't run, and my legs gave me whatever I wanted when asked. This really surprised me.

It started to get dark and was getting cold out on the course and all I had on was my tri shorts and tri top. I saw a few people coming the other way on the run with the mylar blankets and wanted to cuss them for rubbing it in that they were finished...but then I realized I was on the other side of the lake....what the hell are they doing over here....then I relaized that they wer cold and were given a mylar blanket BEFORE the finish to stay warm. As I approached Mom and Rhonda again on this last lap (still 3 miles to go), they handed me a brand new Ironman Arizona windbreaker to wear....but I wouldn't take it. It had the m-dot logo on it too, and I didn't want to put that logo on me until after I finished the race, so I refused to take it. So then it was off to finish my last 3 miles....but that is when I saw it.....it was my rose! Rhonda had grabbed it for me as I requested.

So here is the story....all of you may know that I signed up to do this race because it was on the 5 year anniversary of the death of my good friend Marla. Well, if you haven't noticed the title to my blog, it states that her name is Marla Rose Angotti. And I decided months ago, that when I finished I wanted to cross the line with a rose in my hand for her. So I never said anything to anyone until the day of the race when I asked Rhonda to find a rose to give to me to take across the finish line.

Thing is, I didn't think about what I was asking of her. I mean it was a Sunday and the race was going on, so I found out later that it was very difficult for her to get the rose. She spent many hours of the day walking around Tempe trying to find a florist (all closed), going to hotels to try to get one, other stores...no luck. Well, she is one not to let something like this win, so she was deteremined to succeed, and that she did. She just happened to see one in the VIP tent at the finish line and went and asked for one, but they said no. She wasn't going to give up and she asked for someone else to come up...well after the third or fourth person, and telling them all about my story and why I wanted the rose, someone gave her one....and actually they went and searched out the best one they had and gave it to her....it now became the talk of the VIP tent.

Well, once I saw the rose waiting on me, I didn't say anything as I didn't want to carry it for the last three miles as it would have gotten damaged in the wind and with my running, so I went on without letting them know that I saw it. Well about 5 steps after I left them (and with my back to them) I started to cry again. Just the tought of being able to cross the line with me and what it signified was too much for me to handle. Hell, i am even getting teared up again as I type this.

OK, back to the race....so there I was on the last little jaunt of the race. I was tired, emotional, and beginning to really hurt as my achilles started to lock up on me. I made it to the next-to-last aid station got some nutrition and then started my walk, but this time, there was no more running. The achilles was shot. So I walked the last 2+ miles to the finish. Thing is, I didn't mind. I didn't want the day to end. I wanted to keep soaking up this feeling. Never during the day did I have doubts about not finishing...never. I was confident and relaxed the entire weekend and during the entire race. Now it was about to end, and I wanted to get my money's worth out of it. I kept walking till I hit the Mill Avenue bridge and started a slow jog into the finish line. At the bottom of the bridge and at the start of the finish line chute stood my Mom and Rhonda with my mother handing me my rose. I lost it here again and started to cry....took my rose, kissed them both, thanked them for everything and started my jog down the chute to the end of my jouney and to the line in the road that would them give me the title of Ironman. I couldn't hear a thing with all of the noise from the crowd...i had my rose in hand, and tears in my eyes as I crossed the line...there it was, I did it! I finally made it...I was now an Ironman...after 4 attempts to get to the start line, I finally made it and made it to the finish line and pretty damn healthy all things considered. What a day, what a journey!

Now here is another side note. If you see my finishing photo (see photo album), you will see that I am looking to the right as I crossed the line. Thing is, as I crossed the line, I noticed someone watching me finish...it was Heather Fuhr standing there in the VIP tent watching me finish, and I could swear (I maybe wrong here) that I saw her with a tear in her eye too. Was she watching me finish because she heard my story when Rhonda was given the rose from the VIP tent??? I don't know...either way, she was there to watch me finish a little after 9:30 pm...which was pretty cool in itself!

As I crossed the line some old guy came up to help me, but I wasn't having it, I wanted to see Aaron and he found me and assisted me over to get my medal and photo, then congratulated me after making sure I was ok. Thanks again Aaron...great to see a friendly face at the finish line!

I felt pretty damn good after the finish, so I walked over to get a slice of pizza, then I walked out of the finish area, turned the corner and walked a block to the nearest irish pub and sat down and had my post race Guinness. Now the day was complete! Mom and Rhonda came and joined me after dropping some of my gear of in the car, then Aaron and Shane also came in and joined us! Drinks with friends and family post-Ironman! BRILLIANT!




really don't know if I would change much since this was my first IM and I wanted to be cautious and go easy to ensure a good finish.

For my next one, I will know how to settle into the run a bit better and possibly know how to keep my nutrition under control. I know I can do better than this run for another IM, but I am not disappointed in this effort!

oops, I listed my post-race warm-down description up above in my race finish comments. If you have forgotten already, go back up and read some more. ah hell, I give it to you in one word.....GUINNESS!!!


Wow, I could list so many things here, but the one that could be used the best was my need to start completely over with my training after getting out of the hospital back in September. Guess the "Deathbed to Ironman" program as Dale calls it actually did work out.

truth be told, that can't be an excuse either. I had plenty of time to train and came up with many excuses as to reasons not to train, too cold, too tired, too busy, and many more. My ability to not perform better was solely up to me. I wasn't going to let my training get in the way of my life and I didn't. I know I can do better, but I also know that I need to do more training and better/consistent training to achieve those goals....and I plan too....but my life will still come first!

I would also like to take this time to thank all of my coaches (and I have had a few in the last couple of years!). Each of them helped me get to where I am now and I appreciate all of their help.

Brett Peterson, Mike Plumb, Mike Ricci, and most of all Andrea Fisher. each of you helped me in this 2-3 year journey to the finish line of my first Ironman. without your guidance I would have never made it across that line and definitely not in as good spirits as I was during that day.

Anyone looking for a coach, please contact one of these coaches...you can't go wrong with any of them!!! Thanks again to all.


This was a great race for a first timer. I would highly recommend it. Don't know if I would do it again. The run course and the many loops was not my favorite, but for a first timer, the multiple bike and run loops were a great benefit so that you could get the adrenaline ruch from the crowd on each passing.