Tempe, Arizona United States Ironman North America 70F / 21C Sunny

Total Time = 11h 01m 49s Overall Rank = 447/2516 Age Group = F25-29 Age Group Rank = 9/74

*DISCLAIMER* This is going to be a VERY VERY LONG race report.*
So, back in 2007, while in Iraq, my dear friend Blythe tells me that she was going to race an Ironman. She had registered for one that year, but the whole deployment thing pushed that back. She then persisted on telling me that I should become a triathlete. I told her she was CRAZY. I had started endurance running there and planned on a marathon, but I told her that doing an Ironman is just crazy. Well, it didn't take much longer for me to decide that maybe this triathlon thing would be kind of cool. Come April '08 I had done a sprint and a 1/4 tri and was planning on two HIMs that year. Blythe's husband, then fiance', Joe, and another good friend, Liz, raced IMAZ April 08. I was at Blythe's house and we were talking about it, and I mentioned that I wanted to do an Ironman by the time I was 30 or the same year, so why not 2010. Joe, still on his high from finishing his first at IMAZ, told me "you will do one next year." I again told him, he's crazy, not next year. Next thing you know, I am in Florida with KathyG cheering on Socks and AimeeP and more, and signing up for IMFL myself. Yep, I just kept chugging the kool aid that Blythe and Joe were feeding me. I was all signed up for IMFL and trying to determine the coach issue. I had a few options, but honestly, it wasn't in the financial cards for me. Then, Stephen (smilford on BT) offered to give it a shot coaching me, and I took him up on it. In DEC, I started some training, and was registered for the Boston Marathon in April '09. A little tumble on my bike resulted in a stress fracture to the head of my right fibula, and no Boston. But, I kept training without running--IMFL was the goal for the year. I did a HIM Aquabike (cause of the stress fracture), and then once I was recovered, I did several Olympics and the Redman HIM all in preparation. I was getting in a lot of cycling miles and having a blast at long cycling. It was all about IMFL. I was doing my last race of the year pre-IM at the Longhorn 70.3 on 25 Oct 09. Because it was only 2 weeks before IMFL, I was doing it as a relay with my friends Mike and Steve. After I finished up a decent swim I got a horrible phone call. One of my Soldiers, SPC Brandon Steffey, a Military Working Dog handler that I had deployed to Afghanistan in June '09, and his dog Maci, were both Killed In Action by an IED in Afghanistan. I immediately left the race course and headed back to Ft. Hood to work through all of the things I needed to as a Commander. Life was very busy and crazy and sad during those days, and it started becoming clearly evident that going to IMFL was not something I should do. Attending my Soldier's funeral in Michigan, as well as then being asked to speak at his funeral, was my top priority. I could *maybe* have whirlwinded it down to IMFL, but I was in no state of mind or emotional fitness to do that. I expressed as much to two awesome people--Socks and Aimeep--and I sent various emails to WTC sponsors, and without going into details, let's just WTC is very military friendly as are some of the sponsors, and I was able to switch over to IMAZ '09. I had alread intended to come out to IMAZ to cheer, so I already had a place to stay, and now I'd get to go to my grandparent's and aunt's houses for Thanksgiving. Well, literally as I was getting off the plane from returning from my Soldier's funeral, on 5 Nov 09, the Ft. Hood shooting was taking place. I couldn't even get onto post initially. I am the commander of a Military Police Law Enforcement Detachment...my troops played a VERY large role as first responders to the scene. I cannot imagine the anxiety and craziness I would've felt if I had been in FL and not at Ft. Hood. My Soldiers did PHENOMENAL, and we got through a very crazy week of extra law enforcement duty, Presidential visit, and then the Ft. Hood Memorial Service for SPC Steffey. I didn't even have a chance to whine about not being at IMFL, and that was fine, cause I was okay with it. I had priorities, and I was able to fulfill them, and due to some awesome people, I was totally comfortable with IMAZ becoming my race. I had to shift out of taper and back into training for a little bit, but it was no big deal. FINALLY, on 16 November my Mom and I headed out from Killeen to New Mexico and Arizona for my Ironman. FINALLY.
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I got to Arizona on the afternoon of 19 Nov after visiting family in New Mexico, and we picked my brother up at the airport. We then went straight to registration as I wanted to try to get in on Thursday vs. the lines on Friday. Sure enough, I was one of the last people through, and no line at about 4PM that Thursday. Getting the wristband, my packet, taking pictures with the M-Dot, and more made it seem so much more real. "Holy cow, I'm going to do an Ironman" kept running through my head. We then made it to the house that I, Judy (jkholden), and Dave (Dave699) were sharing that weekend and settled into the house. My Mom, my brother, Dave, and I hit Pei-Wei for dinner that night and called it day.
20 November- That morning Judy and I headed to the race expo to get in a practice swim. Word was the water was cold, like 63/64 degrees cold. Besides racing, I hadn't done much OWS and definitely not in cold water, so I was a little nervous. Once I got onto the steps heading down into the water I was afraid I was going to freeze when my feet got wet--but it wasn't too bad, so I just hopped in and went! Yay, the water was NOT going to be an issue for me!! Excellent. Had a great little 30 minute swim, did some Expo stuff, and then Judy, Dave, and I drove the bike course to get an idea of what we were going to be up against. When we got to the house the three of us took our bikes for a little spin to make sure it all worked well. I then packed my transition and special needs bags while watching Shrek. That night, my Mom, Ben (brother), Judy, and I headed to the Athlete's dinner. The food was "eh" but that was expected, but it was nice to get the feel of Ironman and to hear different people talk, even though the Tempe Mayor is a true odd-ball, and best of all, I got to finally meet Sally (riorio). It was then off to bed.
21 November- I didn't want to do too much, but I did do a 15 minute spin on Juan (my bike), and a 10 minute easy run. Then it was off to the race site for bike and transition bag check in, plus I gave Mom and Ben the lay of the land so they could figure out where to cheer. When I came home I thought of going to the BT get-together with Dave and Carise, but at the same time I just wanted to sit around with my legs up. That is pretty much what I did the rest of the day. I tried to get to sleep early, and while I was in bed early, it took quite a while to get to sleep between being excited, nervous, and my brother lacking some general "be quiet, there are soon-to-be Ironmen in the house sleeping" understanding. I finally got there though, and thankfully I set two alarms, cause I never heard my watch, but my phone alarm went off at 3:35AM. I got up, ate my two PBJ waffle sandwiches, a boiled egg, a cup of coffee, and grabbed my bottle of GU2O and a banana for a bit later. I got all dressed, grabbed my special needs bags, ate my banana and sipped on the GU2O (would end up drinking about 1/2 of the bottle). At 4:50AM we were out the door headed to Ironman! We finally got in the parking garage, and during this time it was no longer "Holy Cow I'm going to do an Ironman", it was "Holy cow, I'm DOING an Ironman TODAY." But at the same time, I wasn't anxious, and overly nervous. I hit one of the park restrooms (which was still clean and flushed) taking care of my final necessary business (very important to triathletes!) and went and got body marked, checked in my special needs bags while praying I wouldn't need to see them, and then headed to the transition area where I aired up my tires, put my water in my aerobottle, and my nutrition bottles on the bike. Saw Sally and said hi--we both did the Janus Charity Challenge, and thus had low bib #'s near each other. It was then wetsuit time, and I did that over near the edge of transition near my Mom and Brother, and instead of checking the dry clothes bag, just gave it and my pump to them. Met Tanya (Standswithfists) I was doing pretty well till I got ready to tell Mom good-bye and after a quick prayer, she started getting teary and I told her she can't do that or it'll make me teary!! Haha! So, off I went, I felt like I had to pee--but there was no way I was waiting in that line. Besides, Tempe Town Lake is cold, I will need to warm myself up, let's wait till the swim start. I meandered into the area where the athletes were gathering, and waited for Mike Riley to call us forward thru the swim exit and chip starter. They started wanting us to get in at 6:40AM...well, I don't want to be in the water that soon, but it is about a 200yd swim to the start line, so after eating a GU I finally, after waiting around a bit, I went on ahead and jumped in and made my way to the start line. Again, it wasn't as cold as I had braced for it to be. This is IT, let's do an Ironman.

Swimming from the docks to the start line and then peeing in my wetsuit, yep, that warmed me up. It's an Ironman, I don't think much more warm up is required.