Gun went off and the washing machine began. It took about a minute to get into a decent stroke but it wasn't too bad after that. Not much worth writing about happened during the swim. Typical crashing into swimmers as we did our mini zig-zags. For the life of me I can't understand why some people feel the need to GRAB your feet. I can see brushing up against your feet by mistake, but GRABBING them? WTF is up with that? I actually had to kick people twice when they tried to grab me. Annoying. I felt like my stroke was going OK and when I pulled out of the water at 1:12 and change I was pretty satisfied. All summer long I worried about minimizing my losses on the swim and felt that if I could get under 1:15 everything else would take care of itself. So, I accomplished my swim mission. I looked for mndiver to strip me but couldn't see him so I layed down for the nearest wetsuit stripper and let them do their thing. Jogged a decent pace up the helix and felt things were going pretty well.

Not much.

Last year's T1 was 10:08. Grabbed my T1 bag with no problems and headed to the changing room. Last year there were no available volunteers to help me sort things, but this year a guy helped me out quite a bit by taking things out and laying them on the floor. I really appreciated it. Not sure why last year's T1 time was so slow, but I was happy to get going this time around fairly quickly.

Nothing.

Started down the helix and got stuck behind a person that was going very slow. I remembered the "no pass on the helix" pre-race talk by the race officials and stayed behind her. Then all of a sudden an idiot tried to pass us both and I yelled "no passing zone!". He put the brakes on and got behind me.

I don’t remember many details of the bike leg, but it started out fine and I felt in a comfortable zone. At about 5 miles a friend of mine from back home passed me and said, “Hey I know you” and we chatted for a bit. He’s a very strong biker so I didn’t try to stick with him. I yelled for him to “go get that Kona slot”. Turns out he got a slot, his first one, on his 7th Ironman attempt. A little while later I came up on PeterAK and we also chatted a bit. The aid station volunteers were great as usual.

There were a lot more spectators on the hills this year versus last year due to the nice weather this year. I saw Tom, Carolyn and Wally from my Wed evening OW swim group at the top of the second hill and gave them high fives as I passed them. I wasn’t hammering the hills too hard and I was keeping my HR within z1/z2 most of the rest of the time.

In the last 10 miles of the bike I could feel my stomach start to feel a little sore. Since I didn’t feel as though I hammered the bike too hard I figured I just didn’t hydrate enough and I could sense that my stomach was beginning to shut down. I started to labor a little bit and knew that I was about to hit a rough stretch. It became harder to stay in an aero position the last few miles and I started to feel crappy. Finally I could see Monona Terrace across the lake and was relieved the bike was nearly over. Up the helix and then handed off my bike. I was pretty satisfied with a 5:37 considering how I felt towards the end.




Be more mindful of my nutrition plan.

Last year's T2 was 5:21. T2 went pretty smoothly and I was on my way in no time.

Nothing

Exited the inside transition area and hit a porta potty. This was the first time I peed since the start – not a good thing. Made my way around the Capital building and heard someone yell to me from behind. It was Rob (pseudoyams)!! How cool was that? We chatted briefly about potential run splits and then I decided not to try to keep up with him. He was looking strong.

At the 2 mile mark the crippling side stitches began to hit me. The last time I had a side stitch during a race was…hmmm…let me see…Ironman WI 2006!! Why is that? Have to get it figured out before 2008. I slowed down to try to get rid of the stitch and it finally subsided to the point where I could at least breathe without pain. They started up again and I was forced to start walking. That was the kiss of death. I did a run/walk strategy for a while but by the time I hit the aid station after Camp Randall I knew I was going to be in trouble. I tried to alternate water and Gatorade at aid stations but it was rough going for a while.

I have always read that you should expect rough stretches during an Ironman that you should be able to work through. I figured I could get through this and maybe get close to 10:45. Suddenly I started to feel much better – I guess my stomach started functioning enough to allow me to absorb some calories from the aid station. There was about a 2 mile stretch where I felt great and got really hopeful that I had weathered the storm. It was short-lived however and I was soon forced to start run/walking again. I knew that the “race” was now over and it was time to try to just survive this thing. As I approached the Capital again I could see Tom, Carolyn and Wally on the side of the course yelling to me. I gave them a wave and headed to the half marathon turnaround. I was seriously thinking of quitting. I just couldn’t imagine that I could run another 13.1 mile feeling the way I did. It wasn’t until I went around the orange cone and made the turnaround that I decided to stick with it and try to finish. When I came up on Tom, Carolyn and Wally for the second time I stopped to chat with them and told them I was in serious trouble and almost quit. They encouraged me to continue on and that helped me get going again. Shuffled for a while and then started the run/walk again. After going around another one of the turnarounds I came up on a garbage can and puked several times for the first time. At the next aid station I tried drinking some water and Gatorade but puked it up a little while later.

It seemed like I did a ton of walking and my mile splits confirmed it. I couldn’t believe how slow I was going. This run leg was without a doubt the toughest physical thing I’ve ever done in my life. When I saw the racer with a prosthetic leg I thought to myself that a sore stomach and bonking is nothing compared to what he had to face every day of his life. There was no way I was going to quit and get a DNF next to my name.

I came up on the mile 21 medical facility and decided to stop for a while. I sat down on the ground and asked them if they had a foil thermal blanket I could use to warm myself up. They wrapped me in the foil blanket and tried to get me to eat and drink something but I told them I couldn’t keep anything down. Finally they convinced me to eat some potato chips and broth. They tasted good and I thought I could keep them down. The medical official talked to me and made an assessment of my condition. I told them I thought I could finish the last few miles. They urged me not to give up if I felt I could do it. I’m sure they wouldn’t have let me if they didn’t think I could do it safely. I sat there for about 10 minutes and then decided to get up and push on with the foil blanket wrapped around me. About 10 yds later I had to hurry to get to a garbage can because I had to puke about 5 more times – so much for the potato chips. A volunteer came to me to make sure I was OK. She kept asking me if she could get me something and all I wanted was a sponge to wipe my face off. I pushed on past the millions of signs that people posted along the bike path. I made the turnaround on that particular path and then approached the mile 21 med facility again. The official I talked with earlier approached me smiling and said “there is no way I’m going to let you quit at my aid station”. We both laughed and I pushed on. About a mile later I was extremely exhausted and had to stop again and I sat down on the curb. A volunteer came over to make sure I was OK. He asked if I was on my first or second lap. I told him it was my second lap and I felt that I could finish. He said ‘you’ve got it in the bag, just stay with it”. A few minutes later I got up and pushed on. I approached the bike path that goes down below the overpass and had to stop and lean against a fence for a while. Pushed on a little more and stopped once again near the overpass. I spent about 5 minutes there and that was the last time I stopped. Volunteers were continually making sure I was OK. They were great!

I figure I walked the last 8 miles without running a single step. People could see my bib number underneath the foil blanket and urged “you can do it Jim”. I tried to say "thank you" but probably said it so quietly they couldn’t hear me. I remember walking by one woman who looked at me walking with the foil blanket wrapped around me and she slowly shook her head and quietly said, “You guys are just incredible”.

I know I saw a bunch of BT’ers out there on the run but I can’t remember the details of who and where I saw them. I know I saw Bryan (mndiver) spectating somewhere on the streets. Schmize, did I really see you out there, or did I just imagine it? Tammy (tripletmom1) said she saw me but I don’t remember seeing her. I remember Pete going by me and asking if I was OK. Sorry if I don’t remember and mention anyone else.

As I approached the Capital building I could start to hear Mike Reilly's voice on the PA system at the finish line. I made the turn for the finish lane and continued walking to the side by the fence so that I wouldn’t get in the way of people that were running. I didn’t want to look up and see anyone, I just kept waking with my head down. Before getting near the finish line I looked behind me to make sure that I wouldn’t get in the way of someone’s finishing photo. The coast was clear and I approached the line. Just before crossing I looked up and saw the clock tick over to 13:00. I had to laugh to myself on the inside and thought, you dumbass, if you had jogged for just 10 yards you could have broken 13:00. But, somehow the number 13 seemed appropriate for the day.

As I crossed the line a volunteer started walking towards me and looked me directly in the eyes. We both knew. I quietly said, “medical” and he said, “I figured as much when I saw you walking towards the line”. He and a woman volunteer put my arms around their shoulders and walked me to the med tent. As we passed the spot where you can pose for the finisher photos they asked me if I wanted to stop and get my picture taken. I said no and we continued walking to the tent. They weighed me and said that I had lost 10 lbs from the pre-race weigh in. As they escorted me to one of the lawn furniture/temporary beds I saw a garbage can and had an immediate urge to puke again. 5 pukes later and I was ready to lay down – I think I counted 16 pukes for the day. They took a while to find a decent place to put the IV needle in but they finally got it in and gave me 2 bags of fluid as I dozed off a couple of times. After it was done they said I looked much better than when I arrived. The medical volunteers were absolutely fantastic and I owe them a ton.

After leaving medical I went to pick up my T bags and changed into some dry clothes. Picked up my bike and headed to the food tent. I felt pretty good and decided to eat some pizza and soda, which I managed to keep down. I saw Pete and his girlfriend and we chatted a while before heading to watch the finish line. I stayed to watch for a while but was feeling pretty tired so I walked to the hotel, showered and crashed.


Poor execution of nutrition strategy.


It was so great to meet so many BT'ers for the first time. Thanks for all of the post-race inspires and PM's. I look forward to keeping in touch with all of you in the future.

The following is a direct quote from my 2006 IM WI race report:

"I went into this race with very realistic expectations of sub 10:30 based on recent races, race rehearsals, etc. So, it was pretty hard to swallow an extra hour on my finish time. It just goes to show you that you can make all the predictions you want, take half-iron race splits and make projections for your first IM finish time, tell yourself afterwards that if such and such hadn't happened I would have finished 30 minutes sooner, blah blah blah. You take what the day gives you and hope for the best. If you missed your target there is always next time."

I see no reason to change a word for this time around.

This was a very humbling experience for me and it took a few days to get over the fact that I've got another year of waiting ahead of me for IM WI Round 3. In the movie "Rocky", Apollo Creed told Rocky at the end of their epic fight, "Ain't gonna be no re-match" and Rocky replied "Don't want one". Well....I WANT ONE.

Now I need to get ready for a 50 mile ultra on October 20, then x-c ski racing season, and next tri season will be here before you know it. Thanks for reading.