Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

With the sun rising in the east, sighting on the first half of the course was nearly impossible. I caught up with Chris Bost a few minutes before the start, and we traded nervous pleasantries for a bit. I had somehow managed to seed myself in the very front row, which was a bit aggressive considering my time goal (1:15). Floated around for a few minutes, then I was hearing the 10 second countdown. BOOM! The cannon sounded and I was thrust into the washing machine. I got banged around pretty good for the first 5 minutes or so, then I fell into a group of 15-20 guys who gave me good feet on which to draft. My arms got sore pretty early, but I felt decent. The open water sighting went okay, although I apparently have a tendency to drift to the right, at one point ending up on the far edge with only 2 or 3 people outside of me. We hit the turn in what felt like 10 minutes, but was probably closer to 30. The return loop felt much better; I hooked up with one guy's wake and drafted on him for the majority of the second half. Before I knew it I was nearing the 2 Mill Ave. bridges, which then gave way to the final turn and the stairs up to T1. I think managed to swallow less than 1L of the lake, which was definitely a good thing. Although the water tasted surprisingly good despite it's clarity.

Draft a bit better, work more on bilateral breathing so that I'm not constantly inhaling someone else's recovery spray. On the whole, though, an excellent swim.

I got right to the wetsuit strippers when I exited the water. They unzipped me and I immediately sat down for some reason. So they had to finagle the suit off of me while I was laying on the ground. They seemed a little confused by me sitting down; I'm not entirely sure why I did it. Wetsuit in hand I hoofed it to my gear bag and into the change tent. Bike shoes and helmet on, sunglasses on, I hit the sunscreen ladies. Once I was slathered up (not the forearms, though. Bad choice on my part not to say anything) I went out to the bike racks. Despite yelling my number I had to go in search of my bike, which was okay. Jogged with the bike up to the mount line, then got clipped in while avoiding catastrophic mass collision.

Not sit down before my wetsuit was past my butt, get sunscreen on my forearms.

The first half of each loop was unbelievable. The wind was a crossing tailwind, which allowed me to push a big gear in the big chainring, probably averaging 21 or 22 mph. Pavement was pretty rough, and a lot of people took to riding on the very wide shoulder with much smoother concrete. The first 1/2 of the entire ride I kept getting dropped by the aero helmet/P3C crowd, which was fine by me. On the out portion I was able to maintain a good cadence in a big gear, which felt great. I had to make sure I wasn't going out too hard too early, which thankfully wasn't the case. I hit the first aid station and was able to stock up, despite almost being knocked over by a volunteer who held a water bottle a bit too tightly. My nutrition plan was GE every 15 mins (and according to thirst, if needed) alternating 1 Hammer Gel/.5 Clif Bar every 45 minutes w/H20. Nutrition was spot on, and I never even felt the first twinges of a bonk.

First loop was pretty uneventful - fought hard through the 30mph headwind on the return portion.
Second loop was decent - got caught by PKKC heading out to the Beeline, and he reminded me to eat my french fries after the race. The kind/funny were much appreciated, and kept a smile on my face. Headwind on the way back was rough, very demotivating. I hit the SN bags to restock on gels/bars, which I wasn't sure I would needed (but didn't want to risk running out). At one point I had to pull off on the side of the road to take in GE, since I didn't want to risk a hand off the bars in the wind.
3rd lap I slowed down a bit, especially on the way back. I rode for a while with #272, and found out on the downhill part we were going 13.2mph. Yowch. Coming back off the Beeline and seeing the "Mile 104" sign wasn't cool...I knew the last 8 miles meant probably another 28-30 minutes.
At the very end of the bike I saw Nina on the last bridge, and gave a wave with a big smile. Seeing her was a definite plus. I hammered down the bridge, through a tunnel of spectators at the "Hot Corner" and barreled my way into T2. It felt bloody fantastic to get off the bike, and I was ready to run/slog.

I stopped to pee 3 times - would have liked to only stop once or twice, especially as the onesie doesn't lend itself to an easy removal.

Possibly wear something other than the Orca onesie. My sunburned back tells the tale of how the mesh portion covering my back apparently doesn't pretect against UV rays. Hooray.

Got off the bike, took exactly two steps and nearly fell over. Stood a second, said something along the lines of "whoa," and then jogged to my gear bag. Jogging apparently pleased the crowd, especially seeing as I was the only one not walking to the change tent. I was drawing on my baseball experience where we always had to "hustle out there." Into the tent with the bags to switch it up to my run clothes.

Nothing. T2 was smooth like butter. Solid gold dancers, even.

I guess I didn't need my Fuel Belt - in it I had 2 gels and a Clif Bar (no bottles) which I never ended up touching. Oh well.

I didn't really have a nutrition plan per se for the run, which ended up working out for me. I figured I should take something in at every aid station, lest I dehydrate and start to bonk. I started out doing GE/H20 then H20/banana for the first 6 stations or so. Then I just did it by whatever I felt like. I tried the cola and chicken broth, which never really did much for me. In fact, I very nearly puked up the first chicken broth I tried. It just wasn't doing it for me at all.

The first loop felt okay, as evidenced by how it was considerably faster than the second two. I jogged for the first 4 miles or so, then adopted a strategy of run 5 minutes / walk 1 minute. That worked for a while, as it was interspersed with walking the aid stations. I walked all the steep downhills too, since I had some latent calf pain from early on in the bike that never really went away. The last .5 mile or so of the run course was great - you come off the bridge through a chute of roaring spectators, which was great motivation for bypassing the "to the finish" signs.
The second loop felt okay but not great. My 5/1 became 5/2, and occasionally 5/3 while still walking all of the aid stations. The stations felt a little too close together, and occasionally I would hit them and not really want to take in anything. That's when the cookies came into play - I have never tasted trans fat so tasty in all my life. I altered the nutrition plan to GE/H20 then H20/cookies, which worked for a while. I took in coke a few times, grapes a few times, and still stayed away from the broth. At about the halfway point of loop 2 I got my SN bag, and just took a handful of Mike and Ikes from the giant box that I put in. Best decision of my life. I commented on how they were the "Greatest Things Ever" which got a big laugh from the crowd. Stole a quick kiss from Nina, then I was back on my merry way. The sun was dipping behind the horizon at this point, and knowing that I only had one more lap to go felt pretty damn good.
The third loop saw me walking more than on the other two laps, despite the fact that it was faster than loop 2. I was leap-frogging with a woman who was a lap behind me and trying to break 15h30. We kept encouraging each other to continue pushing, and to smile. The winds were still howling, but I knew that with each step I was one closer to the line.
On the last crossing up over the Priest Ave. bride I hooked up with 2 people (the guy was named Eric...don't remember the girl's) and we ran the last length up to the final bridge together. One more aid station, when I finally kept down some chicken broth. We came up that last brutally steep hill, past the motivational scoreboard dealy (#161 T. VanWormer - "Run Tyler Run!" Infinite thanks to my awesome wife Nina!)and then I was crossing the Mill Ave. bridge for the final time before the line. There were fewer spectators as the hour was getting late (8h15p or so) but I got a lot of high-fives. One guy said something to me that will stay with me for a while. After we shook/slapped hands, he said "there goes an Ironman everybody." The feeling was indescribable. Pure exhiliration and joy - the most positive non-crying catharsis you can imagine. Down the last hill, hard right and turn and into the chute. I made the turn and saw I was right behind a guy crossing with his wife and little son, so I slowed way down so as not to ruin their picture. Some guy zoomed past me for some reason, but I figured I'd stop and give him his photo op to. I wasn't gunning for Kona, so another 10 seconds wouldn't change much. I came across the line, fist pumping for the photo. 13:16:58!


In retrospect, nothing. I finished well over an hour faster than my estimated time of 14:30 - 15:00, so I was obviously psyched about that. The by the seat of my pants nutrition strategy worked out, in no small part due to the Ironman gods smiling on me. I thanked as many volunteers as I could, ran as much as I was able, and tried to soak in every minute of it.

Crossed the line and was met with a space blanket and another photo up. Met up with Nina who had my parents on the phone. I tried to eat a piece of pizza, and got about 1/3 of the way through it before stopping. Nothing could keep that in me. I walked a few minutes, then put my name down on the massage list. My right leg was absolutely wrecking me, and the massage didn't help much. 2 days later it hurts even with crutches.


The wind, not being used to riding an aero front wheel or a disk, and never having run farther than 19 miles. Can't complain, though.


The people at NA Sports do excellent work. The whole thing was exactly what I wanted my Ironman experience to be. Nervous, gut wrenchingly difficult but oh so worth it.

One spectator had a sign that I think sums up the whole day pretty damn well:
"Enjoy the pain."
I enjoyed the hell out of the pain. I can't believe it's over, but in a way I'm thankful it is. Another IM may be on the horizion, but probably not until IMFL 08 at the earliest.