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Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman


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Tempe, Arizona
United States
Ironman North America
62F / 17C
Sunny
Total Time = 13h 52m 42s
Overall Rank = 1606/2106
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 279/369
Pre-race routine:

I remember the date, Saturday April 9, 2005. I went to watch my Wife and Mother in Law run in a local 5k race. At the time I weighed almost 300 pounds and probably couldn’t have walked the 5k that day. As I stood and waited for them to finish, something finally snapped in my brain to make a change in my life and that there was no reason I couldn’t do what all those people were doing. Now 3.5 years later, I’ve dropped over 75 pounds, done numerous 5k’s, 10k’s, and half marathons along with seven full marathons. And now, I’m officially an Ironman. Are you kidding me?

In short, this race couldn’t have gone better. If there’s one thing I learned out there, it was to trust your training no matter what thoughts go through your head. My goal was to finish, but as every other hard headed athlete goes, we all have expected times we plan to finish in. While my times were off slightly I look back to the race and cannot remember one time where I was wondering to myself if I would finish. I never once panicked on the bike about having to go out and run a marathon after riding 112 miles. If anything I look back and ask myself why I didn’t push it a little harder as I had plenty left in the tank at the end it seemed. I purposely took it easy on the bike and run in order to make sure I just finished as I didn’t want to push it too hard at any point in the race to jeopardize my finish or put me into a zombie walk the last 13 miles of the marathon. You might think 13 hours and 52 minutes is a long time, but to me that day it seemed to all go by way to fast. It really seemed like I was out there 4 or 5 hours at the most. If anything I wish I would have taken in more of the race itself as the hours just seemed to click off way too fast.

Event warmup:

Race day the alarm went off at 4am. Breakfast consisted of 2 Banana’s, 2 cliff bars and 4 ensures. Also, took one gel right before the start of the swim. Just about 2000 calories. Figured that would get me started! Made sure I ate early enough as your mom always use to tell you, don’t swim on a full stomach! All was well and we walked down to the staging area around 5:30am to get set up and ready to go. My wife was nervous as could be as she witnessed them pull a swimmer out of the water at Gulf Coast this May and lose the guy on the shore. Although I think it was later determined that the guy in Gulf Coast had a heart condition, she knew this one was a mass start so that didn’t make things any easier. I think I did an ok job of calming her down, but I knew that she would be nervous the entire time I was in the water.

Swim
  • 1h 24m 31s
  • 4224 yards
  • 02m / 100 yards
Comments:

All you hear about in an Ironman swim start is the chaotic start of 2200 people starting a swim all at once. I was prepared to get trampled on, kicked, hit, molested etc at the swim start, but it really wasn’t that bad. I waited to get into the lake until about 5 minutes before the start as the water temps were around 62 degrees. I was ready for cold as I went and swam in the lake Friday morning so I knew it would be cold at first but would eventually warm up. I started right in the middle of the pack. I got kicked, punched, molested and run over a few times, but nowhere near the amount I anticipated. The swim seemed effortless and it wouldn’t have surprised me to get out of the water and see 30 minutes on the clock as it really didn’t seem like I was in the water for any longer than that. I am not a fast swimmer by any means, but every stroke seemed effortless and my sighting was good. Everything worked out well. I even stopped to take a pee break halfway through!


What would you do differently?:

Nothing. I was extremely pleased with my swim.
Transition 1
  • 09m 19s
Comments:

Just took my time. Why rush, to make up 2 minutes. Not worth the risk of forgetting something important in the T1 bag. Still 9+ minutes is a loooong time!
What would you do differently?:

Nothing
Bike
  • 6h 32m 44s
  • 112 miles
  • 17.11 mile/hr
Comments:

Expect nothing, anticipate anything. That is how the bike went.

The bike was a 3 loop bike course which ended up being more mentally fatiguing than anything else. The first loop I decided to just go out slow, get into my pace and then push the 2nd and 3rd lap. My avg for the first loop was around 18 mph a little slower than I liked, but again wasn’t going to push it. There was a decent head wind going out that kept me around 12 mph going out, but then I caught 30-32 mph effortlessly coming back into town. Unfortunately the first lap would end up being my best lap. After that I never could get the wheels really turning. I think it was primarily me being afraid to push it too hard knowing I had the marathon yet to run and knowing I had never done the Ironman before. A little fear of the unknown there.

Starting on lap 2 the bathroom became a factor. All I was told all week was to drink drink drink because it is so dry out in the desert that you will quickly become dehydrated and not even know it because you don’t sweat out there like you do here in Louisiana with the humidity. So, I was just pounding the water at every aid station (every 10 miles). Well in a way it kind of backfired on me because I stopped once on the 2nd loop to use the bathroom. Stopped once on the 2nd loop to switch out my nutrition bottles from my special needs bag and that just killed my pace.

By the 3rd lap I was just ready to be done. Once again, took it easy. Actually had to stop twice on this lap to utilize the porta-potties. At the first stop of the 3rd lap is when the mechanical difficulties came into play. I have a water bottle system that is on the back of my seat post that holds two water bottles, extra tire tubes, co2 cartridges etc. Well I pull up to the porta-potty and boom, it literally breaks into two. It is metal so I’m wondering how the heck that happened, but no time to ponder, had to improvise. So, I had to ditch my two bottles (had 700 calorie drink mix in each so there went the nutrition), grabbed my two spare tubes and stuffed them in my back shirt pockets and took off. Thank God I had some back up nutrition with me on my bike (payday bar and PB&J) now that I had to ditch my two bottles. Otherwise it could have been a long day.

So, I rolled into the bike finish happy that I finished of course, but I knew that my secret sub 13 goal was probably out the window at that point.
What would you do differently?:

Probably not much on my first IM. Maybe trust my training more. I held back knowing that I had a marathon to run after. Didn't want to take a chance of "blowing up" on the bike.
Transition 2
  • 05m 25s
Comments:

Again, long time, but no big deal. Sat down changed into my shoes, grabbed a drink of water, pee'd and headed out.
What would you do differently?:

Probably nothing.
Run
  • 5h 40m 43s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 13m  min/mile
Comments:

Ran through transition, changed shoes, grabbed my hat and took off running. My plan was to run and stop at each aid station if needed. I pretty much stuck to this a good portion of the race with a few exceptions. The legs coming off the bike didn’t hurt as much as I thought they would and I had plenty of energy, but now I had major cramps in my lower back. Something that has never happened to me before in marathons, training rides, half ironmans etc etc. So for the first 5 miles I had to stop a lot to try and stretch out my back as my breathing was really suffering from the tightness. I had planned to run 10 minute or so miles, but never would see that number. Part of the problem was as in the bike, I had never been in a race like this before so I didn’t want to blow up the first half of the race and then do the marathon death march the 2nd half of the race. I was fine with taking my time in order to make sure I felt good the entire race, which is what ended up happening.

The run course was also a 3 loop course and this was just brutal as well. The first loop of 8+ miles I spent trying to loosen up my back. It really sucks to start out a marathon and pass a sign that says mile 20 right before you hit mile 1. After 8 hours that really starts to mess with your brain. The first loop came to an end as the sun was going down. I passed the wife, gave her a big smile and started loop 2. Loop 2 was definitely the hardest loop of all. Loop 1 you were excited to finally be off the bike doing something else and I had my back to worry with, Loop 2 was just miserable because you knew you still had 1 lap to go afterwards, loop 3 you knew you were done afterwards. But lap 2 was done (my slowest of the three) and I rolled around again, actually stopped for a second to talk to my wife and tell her that at that point I was going to be in just under 14 hours and to go ahead and go up and get a place at the finish, call everyone to watch online etc etc. The third loop was the easiest by far in that you knew when you came back around that you were done!! So this time around I took the lane that said “to the finish line” rather than the lane “to laps 2 and 3” and I ran around the curve to the big glitz and glamour of what’s known to be the Ironman finishers chute. I slapped a bunch of hands, high-fived a bunch of people and finally heard the announcer say those words I have been waiting almost a year to hear - “Lance from Baton Rouge, LA, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in at 13:52 which I will take any day of the week for my first IM. I learned a lot out there and will definitely take that knowledge into my 2nd one coming up in June.

Post race
Warm down:

Pizza, HMMMMMM Yummy! and the IMAZ people had plenty of it left even for all of of slower folks!!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Nothing really. Just decided to take it easy out there and make sure I finish my first one. Will push it some more on my 2nd IM for sure as I now know I can trust my training.




Last updated: 2008-12-03 12:00 AM
Swimming
01:24:31 | 4224 yards | 02m / 100yards
Age Group: 279/369
Overall: 1606/2106
Performance: Good
Suit: Full Length Wetsuit
Course: Tempe Town Lake
Start type: Deep Water Plus:
Water temp: 63F / 17C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting: Good
Waves: Good Navigation: Good
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 09:19
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? No Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
06:32:44 | 112 miles | 17.11 mile/hr
Age Group: 275/369
Overall: 1492/2106
Performance: Average
Wind: Headwind
Course:
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills:
Race pace: Drinks: Too much
T2
Time: 05:25
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
05:40:43 | 26.2 miles | 13m  min/mile
Age Group: 278/369
Overall: 1590/2106
Performance: Average
Course:
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2008-12-03 8:06 PM

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Veteran
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Northern Virginia
Subject: Ironman Arizona


2008-12-03 8:23 PM
in reply to: #1837562

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Expert
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Mississippi
Subject: RE: Ironman Arizona
Awesome man, congrats on being an Ironman!  I'll get there one day!  And you're from BR, awesome!
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