Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

BOOM goes the cannon. I start off with a water polo stroke, head up, and I am having a great time. I am near the wall so I can hear the roar of the crowd on the wall. I have a shit eating grin on my face. I can see clear water about 3 people up but can't quite get to it. Overall, it's much better than the scrum that was April along the left buoy line.

My strategy worked pretty well, we hit the right curve pretty quickly and the water opened up to my left. I was angling closer to the buoy line, but never got onto it all morning long, so never got a decent draft. Even though I was in clear water, there was a guy to my right... and a guy to my left... and we were all going the same speed, and no one was giving an inch. We'd bump and grind now and then, but nothing too bad. It was just annoying. Of course, I could have slowed down as well, but... Eventually I did slow a bit, swim over the guy on my right's legs, and get to the outside.

I ended up just off the buoy line, and finally made it to the Scottsdale Rd bridge. I was constantly monitoring myself. The technique is to find something stable on shore - a building, a pier, whatever - and see if it was spinning. No spinning, that's good. At one point, just past the pier, I took a breath to the right and see my old friends Southwest Ambulance and the EMTs. I knew I wasn't through the swim yet, but I gave them a one finger salute as my right arm came over. Nothing personal boys, I just won't be needing your help this time around.

Hit the far buoy, rounded it to the outside. I had no idea where I was, hard to tell who's up and who's back, and I had taped over the chron portion of my watch. All I had was heart rate.... up oh. Looked at it for the first time, 155. oh, crap.

It should be 145.... The entire back side I used to bring my HR back down and settle down. Got it down to 150, was as low as i could get it. Nothing I could do about wasted heart beats now. The Mill Ave bridge looked so far away, but I was used to this. Swimming pier to pier, the far pier always looks a lot closer than it is, but never seems to actually get closer. On those days, I pick out something on shore, a palm tree, a street, and swim to that. Pick out the next one, swim to that. Next... next.... Breaks it up into bite sized chunks.

As with the swim out, I was right of the buoys, but when we crossed under the Mill bridge, suddenly I was on the buoy line, and no one was to my left. I glanced over left to see the swim exit. The scene I had been envisioning for the last 7 months. The "first" finish of my IM. Other things may go wrong, but at least the monkey was no longer on my back.

I exited at the far left stairs, the great volunteer helped me up the stairs, and I was elated. I hit the lap button on my Polar, and could see a "5" peeking out from the back of the tape. Excellent.

I had planned on going to the biggest, beefiest wetsuit stripper I could find. But as I was running up, a woman about 5'5" pointed at me and said "get on the ground!" Uhhh, OK, I was down, legs up, woosh, wetsuit off. ha!

Ran through the crowd, saw Wendy and Cat... said something, I am told something like "I did it!" Who knows.

182d overall out of the water
25th AG

Nothing

What the hell. 7:48? Ran through the bag section, stuttered out my number, and got my bag.

Transition tent was relatively empty, plenty of room to dump the bike stuff out. Changed into bike shorts, threw on jersey, stuffed pockets with salt pills (that I never took) and a tube, and headed out.

It was actually here where I had my only rude experience. As I was finishing up, guy came next to me and said something like "move out buddy." First of all, there's plenty of chairs asshole. Second, I'll move out when I fucking well feel like it. I just stared at him. I was leaving anyway, but damn.

Had to go down the racks to grab my bike.

move faster. 2 or 3 minutes in an IM transition doesn't mean much to me right now. I'm not K qualifying or anything.

One major benefit of coming out of the water quick is a relatively uncrowded change tent and bike course. There weren't a whole lot of people ahead of me, but there were a LOT of folks behind me, and I saw them go by.

IMAZ is three loops of about 37 miles. My goal was to go sub 6, but I had never gone sub 3 in a HIM, and my training rides always included stops and traffic lights and other obstacles, so I really had no idea.

Plan was to carry two 3 hour bottles of Infinit, plus one water bottle to be replaced at each station. Watch on bike set to beep every twelve minutes. Sip infinit, follow with water. Water as needed. Gel from flask every hour or so. King sized payday broken into thirds for variety. That has always gotten me thru all my long rides, hopefully it would work today. I had one extra 3 hour bottle of Infinit in special needs as my just-in-case-the-day-goes-to-shit bottle

This course is ideal for me as I can break it into chunks. Out of town, Beeline up, Beeline down, back to town, repeat 2X. Pacing wise, it was perfect. I was in the big gear through town, then about half way up the first trip up the Beeline, we had a bit of headwind, so I just moved down to my little ring. Most people passing me were in the big ring. I had to race my own race. I was having a hard time keeping my HR below where I wanted it to be, and added on top of the swim, I was still worried.

The day before, after dropping off my bike, I spoke to my friend Chris who had been here in April. He's been with me training and knows how much I obsess. His words, which came back to me all day, were "no pressure, just go out and have fun." Every time I felt like I was going backward as I was being passed, I just heard his words, looked around, and enjoyed it.

Saw the first pro going the other way sometime after Shea, so I was doing OK. Hit the turnaround, saw bryancd and his wife and dogs there. That turned out to be perfect. One hour out, get support from bryan, one hour back, get support from Wendy, Cat and Jeff. After the turn, the ride back into town was sweet. The Beeline uphill had gotten a little tiring, the trip back to town was mostly free. Lots of speed and recovery in the big ring. Had 1/3 payday on the downhill. The outbound leg looked REALLY crowded from this perspective, I was glad to have gotten out of the water ahead of all of those cyclists, catch me or not.

At the end of the first loop, no idea of the time, but going through the Hot Corner was such a boost!!

Second loop, more of the same. Wind was a little lighter going up the Beeline, but it started to shift to a headwind coming down. At the second turnaround, about 58 miles, I made my one stop for the bathroom. I thought about going on the bike, but decided a quick stop might be nice. Second 1/3 Payday on the downhill. Passing special needs on this loop I assessed my Infinit and figured my nutrition was fine, so I passed it by. Weird, I always just assumed I'd stop.

Soon after, at the McDowell aid station, I finished the first Infinit bottle, tossed it and grabbed a gatorade to get a different flavor. I think I drank maybe half a bottle of gatorade during the bike.

Coming back into town, one more loop. Bryan wasn't at the third turnaround, but that was all right, I just had to get back into town. the wind had nearly fully turned and it was work getting down the Beeline. By this time, actually in the middle of the second loop, my lower back started aching, and I had to stand up often to stretch it out. By the third loop, I could only be in aero for a minute or so before having to get up. I spent a lot of the third loop on the bullhorns and up on the pads. Came through Hot Corner, and loved the attention :). It was comfortable, so I was out of the saddle, but there is a danger to hot corner, looking down my HR had gone up to 161. Damn...

Last loop, nothing much to report. Same as the last two :). I though I was slowing way down but turns out I wasn't. My HR was under much better control for laps two and three. Other than my back, I was fairly comfortable. I never felt this ride in my legs. The Beeline did look substantially steeper the third loop, and I heard Paula Newby Fraser's description of "significant hills" on the course and thought, "well, OK, i'll give you this one but only on the third loop"

In addition to my back, the bottom of my feet started to get hot on the third loop. It was getting slightly warm, but not bad. I did wet my arm coolers and head 2 or 3 times on the return trip. Thanks DeSoto!

Drafting - I saw a couple big packs go by on the first outbound leg. One guy was clearly accelerating to try to get on the back of one of them. "Nice pack" I said as one came by. Whatever. Race my race. Another woman grabbed my wheel, when I got pissed and slowed down, she passed and said "i was using you to get rid of a cramp." uh huh. passed her again, she came by later sucking someone else's wheel.

I knew if I could see the very back tip of the wheel of the person in front of me just under my helmet line, I was safe. There was once or twice when I lost focus and found myself closer than I should have been. I gladly sat up and coasted to drop back. Truth is, when you get 2200 cyclists on a 3 loop course there is going to be some inadvertant drafting, but it's easy to fix that. And the refs give plenty of time to get right. I watched a moto come up on a guy ahead of me, followed for a good 30-45 seconds before he handed out a red card.

I think I did my fastest 100 ever, hitting the 99 mile mark at about 5:00 (I could figure out time if I had to, multiplying 12:00 times the number of reps showing on my watch - hey, it's a long day, you need somethign to think about). One of the bad things about a loop course are the "shared" mile markers. On the bike, the sign says 27 Miles/63 Miles/99 Miles (as an example). Sucks on the first loop. Rocks on the third loop :)

Came in from the bike with about 1/3 bottle of Infinit left. Probably too much. Coming through the expo, knowing the bike was done, and thinking I had done pretty well, I felt great. I've heard stories of people handing off their bikes saying "I never want to see it again!" Not me, I dismounted, heard "Hey Chris," looked up, and there was Tim/Waterdog. I knew he was a bike handler, but what are the odds???

Ran to transition. Yeah, legs are tired. But I didn't have that "how the hell am I going to run a marathon" thought. Not then, nor ever in the run

Overall, very happy with my bike pacing and my overall average
Bike split, 939 overall; 212 AG
now down to 710th overall. Gave away LOTs of spots. But I wasn't finished :)

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 37 mi. (3:02:23) 19.28 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT 37 mi. (5:01:23) 18.66 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 38 mi. (7:03:27) 18.68 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (5:56:11) 18.87 mph


Nothing

yeah, 6:44. sucks, but so what.

Ran in, tent was a little more crowded, but still plenty of seats. Changed into tri shorts for the run (actually, had one shoe on when I realized I wanted to change... ever try to take off cycling shorts, put on tri shorts, on a tired sweaty body, wearing one shoe? In a room full of triathletes?? Smooth).

Volunteers were great. Brought me water. told me to leave my crap all over, they'd take care of it


move faster. dress better

Ran right out of T2 into the portapotty, and my friend Jeff just happened to have his zoom lens on. great

I started the run feeling great. The pics of me are all smiles. I reached the first aid station and started with Gatorade. I was going to alternate between gatorade, gels/water and Infinit I had in my waist pack. That didn't work out so well. Saw Rob/Omega at the first station, he ran with me a bit, said my overall time was great. All I knew it was about 7 hours.

7 hours off the bike. That was right in line with my "secret" goal of a 58 swim (went 59) and a 5:55 bike (went 5:56) I didn't even have to run my "best case scenario" 4:30 marathon to break 12 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!

That excitement lasted exactly.... 3 aid stations. By mile 4 it was clear that 4:30 wasn't happening. The first 3 miles felt great. met a guy whose goal it was to run all but the aid stations, as was mine. The pace we were holding didn't seem unreasonable, but he was a bit faster. Miles 2-3, good stuff, all of a sudden, it just started to hurt bad. Still running, but slower. I had taken the tape off my watch so I could see the mile splits and not go too fast, but ultimately it stopped mattering.

Came thru the run hot corner under the mill bridge and headed out for the 5 mile part of loop 1. This was a gut check. mile 4. Felt like crap, still had 22 miles to go. Longer than any training run. This loop introduced me to Curry Hill. Not much of a hill, but I walked it all three times. And the top is where they place the photographer. Great.

Finishing loop 1, I was actually walking through hot corner, by Wendy, Cat and Jeff. Every time I came by, looking good or like shit, they would go crazy. I was walking through hot corner, and felt like crap about it, but it's what I wanted to do. I told jeff "this is going to be one LONG marathon." He told me "one mile at a time." Between what Chris told me and that, these are the things that got me through the race when I was at the far reaches.

Loop 2, that's when you see the mileage signs that SUCK. yeah, you don't have to worry about Mile 1... but you see Mile 11 and then.. Mile 22. christ. mile by mile. At each aid station, a sponge or two, water, gatorade. I didn't want to start Coke yet. Why? who knows, I heard once you are on it, you have to stay on it. So what? They hand it to you every mile.

Loop 2 was the dark loop. I never, not once,thought about or even wanted to quit, or thought I wouldn't make it. I knew I could walk and finish before midnight. Or thought I could, I even asked one aid station what time it was. "don't even worry about it," was the response. It was about 6, and I had about 10 or so miles to go.

I stopped at special needs on this loop, just shy of 13.1, and grabbed my bag. I sat down, pulled off my shoes, put new socks on. Didn't feel as heavenly as I thought or expected it would. Didn't change shoes as my shoes were dry and I had been good about not soaking them with the sponges. I walked much of the bike path up to the dirt berm. Ran a little, walked up the short hill to the bridge, and then just walked the bridge. I felt a little insolent. Yeah, I should run, but fuck you, I ain't going to. I'll run when I want. Which doesn't look like anytime soon, thank you very much.

That 5 mile section of loop 2 was the worst of the day. All of loop 2, frankly, had the memorable miles. Miles 11-12 were the Nausea Miles. All I could do was choke down a little gatorade and water. I had been eating a pretzel or two, but I took a gel, walked with it, opened it, looked at it, my stomach turned a bit, and I tossed it. I thought of Annie in her IMAZ 2007, and saying how she felt better after throwing up around mile 14. Oh, how I wanted to throw up. By mile 13-14, however, I didn't want to throw up anymore, I just wanted the tingling in my hands and scalp to go away. Never felt faint, just a bit off.

But somewhere in there, maybe starting mile 15 or a little after, things started to turn. I've read these reports, "I felt like crap but then at 17 I started to get a second wind," and never related. Now I did. Maybe it was the chicken broth I was taking, or the coke, or both, or hitting the Mile 17 marker and realizing I was SINGLE DIGITS FROM AN IRONMAN FINISH!!!!!!. Just after this I recognized BTer sportyj at an aid station. I was going to run out of the aid station, but she walked with me, seemed like a fine idea, so I walked a bit and we talked. She said that she had been tracking BTers for the thread that morning, and people were stoked at my swim finish. that lifted my spirits, and just having a normal conversation with someone lifted my spirits even more.

I passed by hot corner for the last loop, and yelled "Single digits baby!!" Wendy, Jeff and Cat yelled with me, but later Jeff confessed "what were you talking about.. single digits???" They were going nuts with cowbells and rhythmic chants ("Go Chris.. Go Chris"). Found out later they were doing this for everyone, whether they knew them or not, or could read their name....

As I started loop 3, my friend Kevin came by (for the second time that day), heading left for a 10:40 finish. "Is that Kevin?" fist pump "Finish strong!!"

But this loop was all for me. Those high mileage signs? mine baby! I held off saying "man that sucked passing those on the second loop, huh?" cuz you really don't know where people are. In fact, I talked to a least 4 or 5 people, much fitter than me, who were on their second loop as I was on the third. You just never know.

But third loop is good medicine. Met a guy also on his third loop, shuffling the same speed, walking the stations. He was finishing too, we both wanted sub 13, so we had to run a bit. 1:30 or so to do a 10K (I think). We ran together a bit, talked about races, IMAZ, the kind of stuff you talk to strangers about while running a marathon in the dark :^

One final pass by Wendy, Jeff and Cat. As I ran by, Jeff said "5 miles and you get your Ben & Jerry's!!" Just after, passed special needs again and took the opportunity to ditch my waist pack, from which I had maybe taken 5 sips. Dropped salt tabs I had not taken at the next trashcan. time to finish. This loop I started running more of the little hills I had been walking. Ran over the bridge. Still walked up Curry :)

Passing under the Mill Bridge,north side, I could see the lights across the river. I could hear Mike Reilly's voice. I could hear the crowd screaming. That is going to be mine. All I have to do is run back to the Scottsdale Road Bridge, over it, and back to the Mill bridge for the finish. the pain was starting to go away. I hit Scottsdale Bridge. Last April, we drove back that night to get my bike, and we passed by people running here. I so wanted to be one of them, and here I was, getting ready to finish.

I ran through the Phoenix tri club aid station, where a large guy with an apron yelled "do it for the big boys" every time I came through. This time, I gave him a high five, and said "another mile and a half and I am an IRONMAN!"

One last aid station. Yeah, still going to walk it. But from there in... Ran along the river, mostly alone, mostly in the dark. Woman sitting on the edge said "you're flying, relatively speaking compared to other people." It's the thought that counts, I suppose.

As I ran by special needs, and under the Mill Bridge one last time, I was alone, Wendy, Cat and Jeff had moved to the finish. People in the crowd saying "looking good Chris, keep it up." I wanted to say "no, you don['t understand, another 1/2 mile and I am FINISHING!!!!!" It all went by too fast.

I felt like a hero making that left turn instead of going straight. The last BTer I saw before making the turn was trixie. I knew she was out here, but hadn't seen her until now. But that is the weirdest transition. You go from the south shore trail into a dark, mostly deserted parking lot. A few folks standing here and there. "200 yards" "looking good.," "don't let her pass you!" I looked back, a girl back there closing, yeah, I am not sprinting someone to the finish. Let us all have our spotlight, we congratulated eachother as she went by. that's what it's all about.

I looked left and saw tim. He had found my wife, and then come out to recon where I was, then he sprinted to the finish area to let Wendy know I was coming.

From the dark parking lot, you make a sharp left, under a banner, into an explosion of sound, color and light. I wish I could bottle and relive that moment and feeling. All the pain, worry, tears, work, cramps, stress... all just melted away. Beforehand I thought I might be emotional, but i wasn't. Just elated. I recall looking up and seeing 12:45. raised my arms and gave a yell, ran by the crowd and gave some high fives. Looked for Wendy but it was all too much to take in, so I gave up trying and soaked it in (turns out I ran within inches of her) felt the tape go by, and I was done..............

312 AG, 1547 overall.
gave up 436 spots, down to 1146

Listen for my name :)

IM is a long day, a lot of opportunity for shit to hit the fan, or to make mistakes, or... there's just too much that goes into it to say it was X Y or Z on the run

They do say there is no such thing as a good bike and a bad run. I duno, maybe if I gave up 15 minutes on the bike. Who knows?? For this race, for this one time, I don't really care :)

But I am motivated to work on the run for 2010 (no IM plans next year) and go sub 12 :)

Ate pizza, walked around waiting for a massage, got an anemic massage, and then bought some finisher's gear.

Basked in the glow.

Collected my gear (I was impressed that I did it on my own) as wendy paid for the finisher's stuff. Jeff and Cat were kind enough to make a McDonald's run and bring it back to the hotel. Pretty damn good.

In April we had come out with a group of 10 or so, and Cat had special t shirts made up with the race name, date, our names, and "IMAZing!" on teh front.... I didn't ever feel right wearing it. As we were walking around the finisher's area, she pulled out a "Special Edition" shirt dated 11/23/08, just for me.


Weight and body composition. Pacing?


First, thanks to Wendy for putting up with me training for April, for getting me through April, for dealing with me afterwards, and for putting up with another round of training. I know I am gone a lot, I appreciate being able to do it. And for standing around all day, I think that might have been harder than doing the IM. Can't imagine not having you there to support me. I love you.

Second - thanks to Cat and Jeff - I was nervous about you guys coming out in case I didn't make it again, but I was so glad you guys did. don't think I've ever had friends like you.

Third - BTers, for your thoughts, encouragement and support after April,and for the inspiration of watching all of you race throughout the year. I don't want to name names for fear of leaving someone out, but you know who you are.

Say what you want about NAS (and I know other races do it well too), but they sure know how to put on a good party.