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Ironman World Championship
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Ironman World Championship - TriathlonFull Ironman
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 Swim
Comments: No cannon? GO GO GO Mike Riley is yelling and half the field is swimming. About 5 seconds later I see the cannon blast but it was to late. If I waited for that I would have been run over. Well I was run over anyway. Pushed under, grabbed and then I had enough. I swam over a few slower swimmers and got right to the front of the main field. Some grossly incorrect estimates on how people seed themselves. I mean if Im going right over your back only 5 yards into the swim? Maybe re-think your placing. After the first 100 meters I made sure to keep an eye on the stand up paddled board guy leading the swimmers. I was in a big pack swimming controlled but hard to the sail boat at the turn. I would say that the lead swimmer never really got more than 25 meters on me at the half way point. But y the end the gap grew as I had some calf issues that came up. At that point things honestly felt pretty fast even with the solid 1-3 foot ground swell. There was hardly any tidal current to deal with. On the way back in my calf muscles decided to mess with me. Cramping. So at one point I was swimming with a straight foot. Like Franken'foot! Yikes. Then about 500 meters out my right calf locked up completely. So I stopped and had this odd feeling of being in the middle of the ocean and drowning with a calf cramp. No lane lines to grab onto. A moment later I got moving again and charged to get back with the pack I was in. I have to say I was a bit worried at that point. Not even one hour into the day and I'm cramping? I just kept reminding myself to stay on top of hydration and not fall behind. Out of the water and felt ok. But was worried about the cramping for sure.. What would you do differently?: Nothing. This was my first mass Ironman start. It was tough but it does not need to be that way. Smarter seeding would help but you can't save people from themselves. As for the cramping Im still quite perplexed on this. I was hydrated all week and stayed off my feet the days leading up the event unless I had a light workout or had business to attend to down at the expo. Possibly the major time change could have done it but Im not sure.  Transition 1
Comments: Ran up to Matthew Rose in T1 and said hello. Told him I was cramping and he offered up some great advice in the quick passing. T1 was a bit of a blur. I hit the shower, had a volunteer help with my speed suit and then it was on. Off to the bike, grabbed it, helmet on and was running. I hit the carpet mount line area and had this odd feeling. Like we should be mounting maybe a little further up the road. In any event I didn't feel 100% comfortable on the wet carpet. It was also a zoo and ocean of people screaming and yelling in the stands. I finally get on my bike and drift too far right and boom. Tumble over. I didn't hit the deck but I grabbed the fence and cut my right thumb. I thought I was going to take the fencing down but thank god I didn't. Once I got my bearings which was not long if you look at the video and photos I was off and up the bottom of Palani and into my shoes shortly after the left onto Kuakini Highway. What would you do differently?: Not eat the fence!  Bike
Comments: Once on the bike and moving I hit the small up hill section, got my shoes strapped in and was off. I made sure to really watch watts, effort and pace over the first few out and back sections in town. I did ride a touch higher watts over this section but I made certain to cap things and really focus and not be reckless. I also used the downhills to get loose and not try to keep my power up in this section. Once I came ripping back down Palini Rd and then left onto Kuakini Highway I wanted to really be in control up that hill. I made it to the top and was shocked at how easy it was and I was only averaging about 225 watts at that point. The downhill was super fast and then I took it really easy up Palini. Once out onto the Queen K I reset my lap time and it was time to start building the power and effort slowly. Heading to the airport I was picking people off like crazy and power was really low. I get out past the airport and I'm averaging about 28 MPH and only about 220 watts. OH Shit this is not good. About halfway to Hawi I hit the lead group of cyclist in the AG race. Probably about 15 guys all spaced out perfectly with a slight gap in the middle of the group. The marshal was with us the entire time like a hawk. So when I caught the back of the train I sat there for just a bit to see what my power looked like and see how I was feeling. At this point we were still flying. So I made a move to the gap in the middle of the pack. I passed Brian Duffy at that point and hoped he would come with me. Now I'm on the back of the top 8 and started thinking, am I at the front of the AG race? I knew Brian probably swam a minute or so fasters than me and he's a fast and aggressive biker. I roll past a spectator and he counts off, 1,2,3,4,5.... Holy crap I'm number 5. Now what to do. I'm not going to the front and going to pull these guys all day so I'll sit in. Problem is my avg watts are now really low in fact about 20 avg watts lower than where I thought they should be. The next aid station comes up and the top guys slow way down so I jumped on it and increased my pace to raise the effort. As I did this I noticed the wind for the first time. BOOM a huge gust come's out of the east off the mountains and almost blows me across the road. Holy Hell! Scary but manageable. Another 5 miles down the road it starts to get worse. Now I'm re-passed by some of those top guys and they all make a break for it. Now, I'm a pretty strong rider but what theses guys did to me was nuts. They rode away from me like it was my first time on a road bike. At this point the wind is getting really scary. I'm riding less aero and holding on for dear life. On a few sections I'm going downhill and should be riding 30+ mph but instead I'm STANDING up and grinding. I've never gone down hill into a wind that's made me do that before. Oh man! Left onto 270 and then the climb starts to Hawi. At this point I'm really questioning the 11-21 I've got in the back. Half way up the 18 mile climb the wind is now things are badI'm stressing about bike control and not crashing. On the east coast the only thing I can compare this to is a Nor'easter or Hurricane winds. Trees are sideways, signs are shaking and it's just swirling and ripping. Now I'm starting to get passed. Yikes. I see the lead pro men absolutely ripping down the descent and Im thinking how the heck are these guys riding that fast in this wind. I didn't realize it was mostly a tail wind for them and a head wind for us heading up. The winds seem to swirl and blow in every direction. A few times people are standing on the side of the road cheering or some of the local residents are on their front lawns and all I could think was, these people are nuts. They live here in this wind? They must have been thinking... these guys in spandex are nuts riding bikes up these hills in this wind... A fair trade I guess... I finally make it to the turn around but the damage was done. On the descent back down the pace was blistering. Avg speed was well over 30 mph. To see the look on the riders faces coming up doing what I just did was an eye opener. The rest of the descent was pretty good with the tail wind. Then the climb back to the queen k smashed me. Hot, headwind and long. Just brutal. I was warned by Jeff about this one so I knew it was coming and planned for it but I didn't plan for the wind to come in off the mountains like that. Once back out onto the queen k it was just a nasty head wind the whole way back to t2. David finally caught me just before the airport and I let him know how I was feeling about the wind. He can quote me quite well and has reminded me a few times while we were on vacation. As we got closer to the airport my both big toes started to kill me. I could not figure out if it was blisters or just pain but man it hurt. I finally made it off the queen k and was just outside of the town chaos. I made my dismount and felt really bad off the bike. Feet were just killing me. What would you do differently?: A few things... No 11-21 for this ride, not ever again "if" I do this race again. The 808 front wheel is NOT a good idea either. Maybe it's just my frame but my bike was very sketchy for this ride. I spent way to much time out of the aero bars struggling with bike control. Lost energy in more ways than I'd like to admit. Transition 2
Comments: I got into the changing tent and had 5 guys helping me. Unreal support. One guy cleaned my feet, another put Vaseline on them, then another guy put sunblock on me. I headed out got some liquid and was off... took a little longer than I wanted but in retrospect taking care of my toes and feet was priority number one with a marathon looming in the heat. I did still want to finish the race regardless of my condition. What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: It took about 5 minutes for my feet and legs to come around but once they did I felt great. I just remember Jeff telling me. Take it nice and easy and build the pace. BUILD the pace. Oh well I tried. First mile 7 flat and I felt like I was pulling back a lot. Next mile 7:09... Not worried but still a little to fast. I finally started to slow it down to 7:20's and that felt just right. HR was about 14x when I looked. Alii dr was hot and hilly. I made it to just before the turn around and caught David. I went past him and was feeling really good and was feeling like I had this type of pace for a better portion of the marathon. Then, right about mile 8-9 my stomach had enough. So I ducked into the porta pot and then back out. Still about a 7:46 mile. It was hot in there but I was kind of glad to have gone and gotten it out of the way. Probably since I didn't go to the bathroom on the bike was more worried about hydration due to my early race cramping. Not to mention, every stride was a balance of too hard and I'll be that guy with the messy photo finish and too easy and pace was dropping. As Forrest Gump said...it happens! Then the heat started getting to me but I was still on a decent pace and felt some what ok. Started the climb up Palani and saw the best cheering section ever. At that point I decided to walk the rest of that hill. I got to the top and saw David's dad. Not even 100 yards onto the queen k and my stomach was officially DONE. I hit the next porta pot and was in there forever. By the time I came out it felt like I was in an oven baking on the side of the road. I again saw David was up the road at the next aid station at mile 11? I said, "hey numb nuts what's up?" He laughed and asked where the hell I came from. At that point we decided to try and run together and walk the aid stations to see if I could get my stomach back in order. The next handful of miles was the same. At the base of the climb into the turn for the energy lab I started to feel good. On the descent into the lab I left David for a bit and was back on 7:28 pace. By the time I got back to the climb out of the lab I hit the base of that hill and boom my quads were on fire. I started to walk a little and passed Duffy and Matt Coleman going the other way. Matt picked me up with some kind words. David caught me again and it was back to running together again. This time the pain was shifting from my stomach to my quads and legs. With 10k to go it was hard to focus. It was hot and running was getting harder to do every time we stopped at the aid stations. With 3 miles to go I was pleading with David to slow the 8 min mile pace down. Funny but not fun! We did run the rest of the marathon including Mark and Dave hill. Turn right down Palani and left for the last section to Alii Dr. By the time I made it back to the crowded streets I was miserable. All this time I've been dreaming about a great finish and the pay off and all the hard work. The long weekends away from my wife and kids and how many times I've envisioned what it would feel like to get to that finish line. All I could think of at that moment was, we need to slow down or I'm going to keel over. I was a mess. I put my best smile on and high fived a bunch of kids. Got to the shoot and was relieved as hell to be there and done. A great photo finish with David and then a hug. I owe him a lot. This report does not reflect how I really felt that last 10k. Only he knows. I can only thank him so much, but I hope here realizes that he got me to that finish line in one piece in much less time then it would have taken me alone. What would you do differently?: Figure out why my stomach was such a mess... I suspect that it was the Ironman Perform. Once I stopped that on the run and went to water and coke my stomach was much better. Post race
Warm down: Post finish damage control. Staggering. Yup. Could not walk a straight line. I sat for a bit near the swim steps and could only think of hitting the water to cool off and help with the pain in my legs. No such luck. We meet up with a few guys we knew and started chatting by a palm tree over by the med tent. I look up and everything starts to go white. Um, guys? I'm gonna be sick and I might black out..... Next two hours in the med tent. The doc was great. I only lost about 4 lbs from the morning. So, was I dehydrated? Not sure. I've lost a lot more on training days. Needless to say I was a mess. They finally released me and I made my way over to Kim and everyone else. She had a beer for me. Thank you Kim! We hung out on the lawn at the King Kam for a while and exchanged stories. Then we went to get bikes, medals, shirts and all of the other goodies. One notable is the doughnuts and french fries they had in the food area. Oh man that was good post race food! Finally got home and had the best Mexican post race dinner ever. Off to dream land! Ouch What limited your ability to perform faster: No excuses its a long day. Lots of opportunity to correct mistakes and take things one step at a time. A true challenge on many levels! Humbling as well! Event comments: Support?! Unreal, the level of support this town gives. The aid stations on the bike and run were absolutely unreal. A huge thank to everyone of those people who when above and beyond. The course is a tough test and I can clearly see why they hold it there. Last updated: 2012-06-15 12:00 AM
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 2012-10-22 10:58 AM |
Expert  1296   |  Subject: Ironman World Championship |
| 2012-10-22 11:23 AM in reply to: #4463408 |
Melon Presser 52116  | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship HOT DAMN, hot man! High-rollin' swim ... dolphin-fast ... smoked the bike (your feet, too) ... killed the run (and nearly yourself), but so glad you came out all right from the med tent ... and SUPER CONGRATULATIONS on pulling off a fantastic race, THE race, in a very tough year. You're tougher than this race |
| 2012-10-22 11:25 AM in reply to: #4463408 |
Master 1411 Lexington, KY | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Top 8% at the IMWC! Was that your first IM? (You said first mass IM start...) Either way, great race. |
| 2012-10-22 12:30 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
Expert 1296 | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Yes this was my first full Ironman as well as my first Marathon. Thanks guys! |
| 2012-10-22 12:53 PM in reply to: #4463600 |
Master 1411 Lexington, KY | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship gadzooks - 2012-10-22 1:30 PM Yes this was my first full Ironman as well as my first Marathon. Impressed! |
| 2012-10-22 1:57 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
Champion 10550 Austin, Texas | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Wow!! What a great initial IM race for you! Very impressive, indeed!! |
| 2012-10-22 2:12 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
Master 1565 SMIBville | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Great job out there! Congrats on an awesome race on the big island! |
| 2012-10-22 4:41 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Very impressed! Great job. |
| 2012-10-22 5:34 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Master 10208 Northern IL | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Great job Mike! Any more attempts at this in the future? That white-out can be freaky. It's happened to me before as well. Saw you in the Slo-Mo Vid of athletes out there. Age-Groupers are in the 4th vid on the page, and FF to 4:12 in. |
| 2012-10-22 6:01 PM in reply to: #4464235 |
Expert 1296 | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship brigby1 - 2012-10-22 6:34 PM Great job Mike! Any more attempts at this in the future? That white-out can be freaky. It's happened to me before as well. Saw you in the Slo-Mo Vid of athletes out there. Age-Groupers are in the 4th vid on the page, and FF to 4:12 in.
Thanks for the video. Yeah I saw that. My buddy David is in the frame just before me. Pretty cool stuff.. |
| 2012-10-23 11:24 AM in reply to: #4463408 |
Member 52 | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Congrats on finishing your first Kona! It was an amazing experience to run with you/finish together. I was truly thankful to have someone to run out on the Queen K. Now, about the second one... |
| 2012-10-23 12:33 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
Champion 7704 Williamston, Michigan | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship gadzooks you are FAST!!!! Congratualtions ona job well done!! |
| 2012-10-23 7:50 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
Master 2314 Gulf Shores, AL | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship wonderful read and an unbelievable race! |
| 2012-10-24 2:58 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
Master 1420 Reston, VA | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship That is a great way to experience your first IM. Sub 10 at Kona. Congratulations on a superb season. You put it all together this year and it was fun and educational watching you do it. One of these days we will hopefully meet in person - hope you enjoy the off-season! |
| 2012-10-24 2:59 PM in reply to: #4467581 |
Expert 1296 | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship docswim24 - 2012-10-24 3:58 PM That is a great way to experience your first IM. Sub 10 at Kona. Congratulations on a superb season. You put it all together this year and it was fun and educational watching you do it. One of these days we will hopefully meet in person - hope you enjoy the off-season! Yeah for sure man. I've hung out with more than my fair share of your friends now... LOL would be nice to finally meet you as well! Thanks! My Off - Season is over already! |
 2012-10-25 5:35 AM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Subject: ... This user's post has been ignored. |
| 2012-10-25 2:09 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Veteran 214 Barrington, NJ | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Awesome! |
| 2012-10-25 2:22 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Master 1927 Guilford, CT | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Great report! Great race! What a good read. I just zoned out and went to another world reading that. |
| 2012-10-26 1:41 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship You are speedy! :D Great job! Now, next time...do a little bike training in Abilene, TX. It was just another training day out there for me after riding in Abilene all summer....I didn't think the wind was all that strong...annoying, yes...but not the worst I've ridden in by far. :D |
| 2012-10-27 6:35 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Not a Coach 11473 Media, PA | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Congrats on a tremendous performance! Nice job holding it together better than many would be able to do. I'm sure David's presence helped. But so did all the work you've put in over the years. You've clearly got a gift for this stuff. But you're also clearly not doing anything to squander that gift. Fun read. Thanks for sharing it. |
| 2012-10-29 1:37 PM in reply to: #4472019 |
| Master 1770 Bedford, MA | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Mike, great race report! I go an impression of some wind from the replay on NBC, but it sounds a lot worse than what it looked like. Awesome job for a first IM! I'm hoping to get to Kona next year, so this was a good read, and very informative. |
| 2012-10-30 4:43 PM in reply to: #4473863 |
| Expert 1224 Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa. | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Incredible time!! Kona in under 10? Epic! natethomas is dead on. From the NBC broadcast that wind looked intense.
Great Job!! |
| 2012-11-03 11:05 AM in reply to: #4473863 |
| Expert 1296 | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship natethomas2000 - 2012-10-29 2:37 PM Mike, great race report! I go an impression of some wind from the replay on NBC, but it sounds a lot worse than what it looked like. Awesome job for a first IM! I'm hoping to get to Kona next year, so this was a good read, and very informative.
I finally got a chance to see the NBC broad cast and it shows the winds in a few spots on the section up to Hawi. The point there Macca packs it in for the day or right around there. I wish there was a way to explain it to someone who's not use to riding in that sort of stuff but there really no good way to explain it. My deeper firecrest wheels were not a good choice for that wind. Possibly a 404 in the front might have made a huge difference but who knows. The 808 was not a good idea. The best word I could use to describe it was: erratic. You never knew where the heck the wind was going to come from. Especially on the section up to Hawi. 18 miles uphill and it's blowing really hard from the north and from the east all at the same time. LOL Laughing about it now but man was it nerve wracking on race day when your trying to actually race other people. If I really didn't care about my time, I probably would have been less stressed and rode a lot easier and just "went with it." |
| 2012-11-14 5:06 PM in reply to: #4463408 |
| Regular 103 NYC/South Jersey | Subject: RE: Ironman World Championship Just getting around to reading your report. Printed it out and read it on my train ride home. Made my dreary commute quite pleasant and made me smile! Happy you had a fun time and were able to take some positives from your race. I knew you were having trouble during your run but had no idea how much trouble. Congrats and I know you will look to improve in the future. Oh yeah, your race pics are awesome too! I guess they bring the pro photogs out for the race also. Seems like everything is top notch! |
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United States
World Triathlon Corporation
80F / 27C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 155/2000
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 32/217
Flight out to Kona was early Wednesday morning and pretty easy. One minor mistake was that we left out itinerary bag in the Pheonix airport some place. Lost baggage did find the bag and called us. Nothing that major was lost. We eventually got it on the return flight. We met up with Bryan Dunn at the terminal as he wound up on our plane.
We arrived at the airport and it was nice and hot. The humidity was really high as well and you could just feel it in the air. Temps are a lot like mid summer here in NJ. We got our bags and rental car and were off to the condo. The place we stayed is located on the far end of Alii Drive right up by the grocery store. The condo was in a perfect location and the units were practically brand new. By the time we got settled at the condo it was already about 9 PM EST. I actually felt pretty good and decided to head down to the local beach. I ran from the condo and then swam for about 10 minutes and then another .75 mile run back to the condo up quite a big hill. David Morris joined me on the way out but his ankle was a bit sore and he walked back with his parents.
The next morning came early and I was up about 3 am local time and then laid in bed for another solid hour until I got up. I got a solid breakfast in my but my time clock was still not right and my body was still on EST. I finished putting my bike together and David and I made our way down to Alii Dr to get a nice swim in off the pier. In the process we ran into the end of the underwear run and that was pretty cool. Once we got settled at the pier we got in and swam out to the coffee of Kona boat and got something to drink. From there we proceeded to head to the next orange turn buoy and then swam back into the beach. The water was very clear and a pretty light swell. I felt really good in the water and the temp was perfect.
Post swim we went over and checked into the race. Ran into Bryan Dunn and a bunch of other people just outside the King Kam. Bryan decided to show me his back side and what he wore at the underpants run... LOL a mistake? My hand print on his right cheek tells the tale! Ole! Once we were all checked in we headed over to the ART tent for some body work. After that was done we made our way to Lava Java for lunch and had a great view of the rolling waves and water.
Back to the condo and we got in another light ride and run up and down Alii Dr. The workouts were nothing hard just an easy effort to make sure that the bike was working and to keep the cob webs off the legs. At night we went up to Sam Choy's at the top of the hill and had a fantastic dinner.
Friday came early again and I decided to get all of my workouts out of the way early and in reverse order. I hit a nice early run and then off to ride for about 40 minutes again. I really felt great on the bike. The roads are flawless around here and it really allows you to haul up and down the hills. Later in the day we made our way down to rack our bikes. Chaos is the word that best describes that. People checking every ounce of our gear over and then getting into the transition area and have someone escort us to our bike racks, bag check area and explain the entire process to us. Similar to a few other WC races I've done but this is just on a grand scale. We did have a little mix up and had to get it settled. One race volunteer told us that we would not have any access to our race bags on race morning. I panicked because I had stuff in my bike bag that needed to be on my bike. We found the race coordinator and she escorted me into the trans are to get it all settled and fixed. Wound up being that on race morning it didn't matter anyway. We did have access to our stuff. Oh well!
We went back to the condo and got ready for a great per race dinner. Matt and his fiancé came over and we had a nice dinner and a good chat after. Off to bed and stressed beyond belief.
Woke up about 3:15 am hit the shower and then started to get sunblock and bag balm all over me. Was suited up, had breakfast which was the normal big bowl of yogurt and fruit and granola. Then a bottle of ensure and a banana. I honestly felt full and it seemed like it was more than enough.
We hit the car and parked on Alii Dr and then walked down to the King Kam hotel for check in. As soon as we got to the hotel we literally walked into the trans area with Leanda Cave. That was pretty cool. Body marked was a stamping process then they moved us down and we had our body weight checked and recorded. From there you are on your own. So I made my way over to my bike, got the tire pressure squared away, water in my new aero bottle and then the other bottle on the down tube. Computer on and synced up and I was ready to go. I went and took care of my bags with my garmin and a few other loose odds and ends. From there it was just a hell of a lot of waiting. The crescent moon up over the mountain was replaced by a stunning sunrise and before you knew it the pro men were under way and then the pro women. David needed to hit the bathroom so I sat down on the left side of the pier and just relaxed to stay loose. Once he was done and we met up with Bryan and Colin and it was time to head over to the steps and get in the water.
I made my way over with David, Bryan and Colin and we hit the steps to get in the water. I went my own way and was off. I seeded myself center left near the two white buoy markers. With about 12 minutes to go it was not crowded. With 5 minutes to go it was getting nuts. I just remember Mike Riley on the PA telling people to get in the water we are about to start. "lets go people the water is wet and its time to get in." I felt like the group I was around all gave each other plenty of room but once we were about a minute out it was just every man for his self. Pushing and lots of jostling for position. I started right in the front row. I was kind of between two other guys and had what seemed like some clear space to hit the gas once the cannon fired.
As far as a warm up goes I got some light swimming in once the women pro's were out on the course and some kicking on my back to get the body ready for some swimming.