Why I'm Here

Hello All,

It's me, Scott, from the great state of Virginia.  If you've stumbled upon this site and don't know me, I doubt you will enjoy it (you may not enjoy it if you do know me).  This is a repository of all of my race write-ups from over the years.  I like to write race write-ups so that I can look back on them and remember what I went through on a given day.  It's also for my son to look through as well.

Thanks for tuning in, more to come,

Scott

P.S. The posts appear as they were written.  I only changed last names to be last initials and formatting to improve readability.  If it was written poorly back in the day, it's still poorly written today.

Ironman Maryland

The Why

Why on earth would someone do this to themselves?  Who would ever want to cover 140.6 miles via 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run?  It sounds crazy to think about while sitting in front of a computer - hell, it sounds crazy to me and I’ve done it - but, when you are on the other side of the finish line it doesn’t look that hard any more.

Why did I decide to do it?  A woman in the snow, a lady from Chicago, doubts from inside and out, and a young boy named Alex.

The Background

I’ve had the idea of attempting an Ironman for so long that I don't remember when I got it.  I remember watching highlights of a race on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.  I don’t remember what I watched back then, but it could have been this:

I was too young to race, or even understand what I was watching, but a seed was planted.

Over the next 20+ years, I grew from an athletic kid to an nonathletic adult.  Growing up, I was a soccer player and as a teen, I quit soccer to take up smoking (bad choice).  Smoking was a rebellious hobby and I’m sure I looked cool doing it (it sure looked cool in the movies).

After college, I moved out of my parents house (late bloomer) and got my first real job.  It was while at that job, Whitlock, that I met some mountain bikers and soccer players.  I don’t remember the timing of which came first, just that I stuck with biking.  I still ride with Chris T. and Rick D., I think it’s the only reason they put up with me.

From Whitlock, I moved on to Richmond.com (in it’s first iteration).  On a drive to work one snowy morning, I saw a woman jogging in place on the corner, waiting for the light to change.  It made me wonder what she was doing.  Why would you run in this weather?  What was it about running that would have you doing it on a day like this?  That day didn’t make me a runner, but again, a seed was planted.

I signed up for my first 10k in 2004.  I still remember when I ran my first mile in training.  I'd never run a mile before.  For training, I started with running a half mile every day and every a week I’d increase the mileage by a half mile.  I kept increasing my distance every week until I got to 6 miles.  I remember like it was yesterday coming home and almost getting emotional as I told Carrie that I, ME, this guy, ran 6 miles!!!!  I couldn’t believe it.  At the time, a friend didn’t believe I could make the transition from lazy bum to runner and didn’t think I had it in my to run a 10k.  I not only ran it, I ran it in under an hour, a common measuring stick for 10ks.

Meanwhile, I was still mountain biking and playing soccer.  I had a road bike too, but I didn’t ride it that often.  I started to get into running a lot and signed up for my first marathon.  I gave up soccer because the discomfort in my ankles from playing was affecting my ability to train for the marathon.  

About this time was the rise of mountain biking in Central Virginia.  Xterra came to Richmond ~1998 and the trail systems in and around Richmond greatly expanded.  There were several mtb races to choose from and I participated as often as I could.

So I liked running, I liked biking, if only there was some sport that brought it all together.  Hey, what’s this triathlon thing?  But, ah, swimming...

Growing up I knew drowning was bad.  In order to not drown, I never went the water, any water.  It wasn’t really a fear per se, just intelligent recognition of my limitations.

Of course, if you want to go to the ‘next level’, you have to swim.  I took some swimming lessons to get comfortable in the water.  Some lessons were good, most were a waste of time.   I learned more from watching the Olympics than actually being in the pool.

What do you do when you want to go to the next level in Richmond?  Well, super-awesome mountain bike race director Laurie H. M. (whose mountain bike races I’d participated in for years) started putting on triathlons and in June of 2008, I gave it a try.

To say I was a slow swimmer would be insulting to slow swimmers.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been passed by someone walking in the pool, but I have.  Every length of the pool, I would stop to catch my breath and wonder what in the hell I was doing.  I finished the swim in 352nd place.  I think I beat 3 people.  From there I would go on to finish in 106 place - yeah bike and run.

The Half Ironman I had signed up for later that year was cancelled due to a hurricane (starting a trend).  Looking back, I think it was a good thing, I don’t think I would have finished it.

Around this time I met Sarah S. (now Sarah M. from Chicago).  She was my running partner and part time spinning instructor.  She taught me that it was possible to do an Ironman and I taught her how to use gears on her bike (literally, I did, she was hopeless).  She did her first Ironman in 2009 and I silently set her time as the one to beat (11:50, wth!).  Maybe someday I will beat that time, but that’s getting ahead of myself.  I fed off her passion and insanity and a month later did my first Half Iron distance.

My first was the Patriot Half in 2009 and I came in at 7:28 - cutoff was 8:00.  A slow swim almost prevented me from getting to the bike.  Only one other person finished the swim after me and continued racing.  I kept charging hard that day, managed to pass a few people and happily became a Half Iron distance finisher (or 70.3 finisher in today’s lingo).

My second 70.3 was the Richmond Rox Half in 2013 and it was hot.  I completed the swim faster than my first 70.3.  Somehow, the race was wetsuit eligible and that made a huge difference.  The swim was a brisk 1:05 for the 1.2 miles, a 29 minute improvement.  The bike course was all hills and headwinds.  The run killed me and on the second loop I wanted to sit down and quit, but I kept going.  My finish time of 7:19 was a 9 minute improvement.

My original plan was to compete in an Ironman in 2014, the year I turned 40, but my poor showing made me determined to lose weight and improve my fitness before I attacked the longer course. Doubts crept into my mind on whether I’d ever have it in me to do a full Ironman.  I was never further from the starting line after that race.

I had started my training on 12/24/2012, spent time working back from nothing to walking up to 6 miles, HIIT workouts, and then I fell off the wagon.  I gained 15 pounds and lost interest in steady workouts.  On the outside I seemed normal, but inside I was distressed.  I had doubts, I injured my knee and I just wasn’t that into it.  During this time I did a Super Spartan and a Tough Mudder.  These aren’t my thing and they didn’t pick up my spirits.

Sometimes you can’t get out of bed.  The walk to the closest is far away.  The morning sun doesn’t light the way.  You feel as though you can’t carry on.  Then something happened, I don’t know what and I crept back out of the hole and back on the path.  To quote Dumbledore, ‘Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light’.

  (Of course, I’m only referring to the path to my Ironman, not my well-being in general.)

In September 2014, I volunteered at Ironman Maryland and watched the race the next day.  I can’t express how much fun I had volunteering and watching the race.  Being there from 10:00 pm to the finish was electric.  I signed up for the race the next day.  The next month in October 2014, I did a local triathlon and like that, my path was set.  My horse was righted and my goal was in sight.

After one training session at the Patrick Henry YMCA, I met Chris W. and he told me about a tri training team at the Y coached by Central Virginia Endurance.  The first few months focused on swimming and that’s what I needed most, so Carrie and I both signed up.  It was well worth the price of admission.

After a bout with the flu in February which reset my training back to zero, I found this site online and used it for my training.  I will never train based on mileage again.  I fell in love with time based training and will carry that torch going forward.

Fast forward to September 30th and it was time to travel to Cambridge for my race.

The Cancellation

The plan for Ironman Maryland was to head down with my Mom on Wednesday, hang out for a few days and race on Saturday.  Hurricane Joaquin had different ideas apparently.  My mom and I arrived and checked into our hotel at 3:00 on the dot and within 5 minutes the race was cancelled due to the scary storms path.  What followed was 60 minutes of confusion, anger, bewilderment, anger, incredulity, and finally, acceptance.

I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself.  Ironman never reschedules races, as in they had never done that, ever.  They said that the race was cancelled, but they were trying to reschedule for two weeks later.  I grabbed Mom and all of our gear and we headed home.  There was no race and no reason to stay.

As I drove home, I broke the law (in MD) to call Carrie and talk to her about it.  I asked her to track down another hotel room for the possible stay and to make sure it had a cancellation policy.  (Side note: we lost the money on our hotel because we had checked in.  Had we not checked in, we could have gotten our money back.  I don’t recommend using Hotels.com and if you have to, don’t pay up front.  Hotels.com and Best Western gave us the run around as to who could refund our money.  We only used 1 hour of our 5 night reservation.  In the end it was all a game played at our expense.  That money is gone now and I’ve moved on too.)

Two weeks later and my mom and I were back on the road to Maryland.  This time our hotel was in Cambridge itself and not 45 minutes away like the first time.  Carrie is a wiz at working the phones and the new place was great.  It was packed with other competitors and Mom and I loved chatting with them.

One question I’ve been asked was how I dealt with the two week delay.  Before big races like this, you taper your workouts so you will be fresh come race day and I was in the midst of that when the race was rescheduled.  One thing I didn’t want to do was a four week taper, so I needed a new plan.  

We got back Wednesday night (9/30) so from that day through the following Tuesday (10/6) I kicked back up my workouts.  It just so happened that it rained both Saturday and Sunday that weekend so I spent 4.5 hours on the bike trainer on Saturday and 2 hours on the treadmill on Sunday.  It was as riveting as you could imagine.  On Monday, I went for a really long swim and on Tuesday I did a relative short hour ride, but with max intensity, the fastest I’d ever covered my normal route, 20.3mph.  And with that, I restarted my taper.

The Race

Race Morning

Cambridge is a nice small town.  It has that two part feel that some small towns have: the fast food restaurants/Walmart on the strip and the small historic town center that’s walk-able, filled with nice shops, restaurants and old houses.  The race didn’t showcase the main strip, but the historic part of the city, which was nice.  The swim course started at Great Marsh Point at Great Marsh Park.  I’m sure the park is beautiful on a warm, breezy day, but race day wasn’t warm, and the wind was not ‘breezy’.

I woke up at 4 am, having only gotten to sleep around midnight.  I never sleep well before big races, so that wasn’t surprising.  Overnight, the sound of beep-beep-beep kept me awake for awhile.  It took over an hour to trace it to my mom’s flip phone.  It was one of those short beeps that didn’t last long enough for you to figure out where it was coming from.  I almost broke it like they do on TV.

I headed into breakfast area which was already filling up with racers and family members.  It was still before 4:15 and some people were already heading out for the race.  I brought my own Thomas’ English Muffins, Smuckers Strawberry Preserves, and a banana for breakfast.  I sat down and forced my way through three muffins and that banana.  During training, I always had a hard time with the third muffin, but not today.  It’s a lot to eat at once.  I started training using bagels, but they were too dense and having to eat two made me dry heave, so I gave that up.

As I sat in the room and met more racers, I had a fun time.  There was some poorly acted drama on TV and one woman dared to change the channel, asking if anyone was watching as she wanted to turn on the news.  I replied, “Well, I was going to watch the show and not do the Ironman…”  Trust me, it killed at 4:30 am.

Pre Swim Transition

I finished eating and headed back to get Carrie.  Mom and Alex were still zonked out and Carrie probably wished she was as well.  We got my gear and were out the door a little after 5am.  Transition opened at 5am, but I had no plans to arrive that early.  I didn’t need to do much before the race, so I wasn’t in a rush.  The night before, I found a guy renting out his yard for racers to park, it was close, so I knew I wouldn’t have to go far to get to the start.

I brought four bottles mixed with Gatorade Endurance powder and Carbo Pro for the ride.  I kept them in the tiny hotel freezer overnight where they didn’t freeze.  As it turned out, keeping them cold wouldn’t an issue.  I put the bottles on the bike and pumped up the tires.  My tires always gave up 10-20 psi overnight, so I wanted to top them off in the morning.  A lot of competitors didn’t have a pump and asked for mine.

I brought ribbon to add to my bike and run bags to make them stand out, but decided I wouldn’t need them.  By the time I got out of the water, I didn’t think there would be so many bags left it would be hard to find my bike bag.  I added a second towel and some warm gloves to the bag and went to meet Carrie.

Carrie was right where I left her and we headed around towards the swim start.  I guess it was about 6:30 now and the race was to start at 7:00.  The sunrise for Saturday was 7:20ish and I was thinking the start would be delayed. As Carrie and I huddled behind the bike special needs truck to protect ourselves from the wind, we ran into a couple staying at our hotel.  I said before that everyone was nice and shared many tips with me, well, this couple had another one.  I was debating whether to put on an extra swim cap because of the water temperature and they said to do it.  The also recommended putting a small hole in the outer cap to prevent bubbles from getting in there.  I think they said it will help keep the cap on.  The caps stayed on, so I guessed it worked.

Beautiful morning for a swim

I had tips to wear earplugs to keep my brain warm and petroleum jelly for every exposed body part.  Normally with my races that use wetsuits, I want to keep the wetsuit off for as long as possible to stay cool, not so here.  It was in the 40’s with a strong breeze, so I put the wetsuit on early.  The water temp was 63.9 and I was in a sleeveless wetsuit, I don’t own a sleeved wetsuit, so it was going to be a very cold swim.  I opened a new container of petroleum jelly and used about half of it on my arms, shoulders, feet, neck and hands.  I’d been letting my beard grow untrimmed for almost two weeks so I didn’t add any jelly to my face.

Trying to put in an ear plug

Just after I was all gooped up, the race director came on to say there was a small craft advisory in the area due to the wind and the swim start would be delayed and shortened to 1.2 miles.  The length of the swim was later lengthened again to 3000 meters, about 1.8 miles (my GPS and many others had it at over 1.9 miles).

The Swim

I’m not a swimmer,  don’t play one on TV, and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Select.  However, I am a stubborn individual and sometimes that’s just what you need.  The race started around 7:30.  The cannon went off, but with earplugs and two swim caps it sounded more like a nearby fart than a cannon.  About 20 minutes later I was in the water and swimming.  Not surprisingly, the water was cold, but not insanely cold.  I guess the preparations paid off well.  I only had one more thing to do to stay warm for the swim.  I’d been drinking fluid all morning and hadn’t peed since we arrived.  There’s a trick to warming up that I learned from other racers, pee in your wetsuit.  Shortly after starting swimming, I did and I warmed up instantly.  Don’t knock it until you try it.

The funny thing about open water swimming is you have no idea how you are doing.  You could be on your fastest swim or at a DQ pace and you would never know.  I only knew two things: 1. I was going to stay away from the pack; 2. I was going to swim my own pace.  I didn’t want to get caught in the pack because I didn’t want my goggles knocked off.  With my hands covered in petroleum jelly, I didn’t want to touch my goggles and spread that gunk on the lenses.

I kept my head down and just focused on my stroke, a lazy kick and good arm movement.  Because of the waves I lost track of the buoys several times, but by keeping the safety boats to my left and the other swimmers to my right I knew I would make it home.  A funny thing happened as I was heading out for my first loop, I had just sighted and was pointing where I should have been when a swimmer passed in front of me going perpendicular to the swim course.  I have no idea where in the hell he/she was going, but it wasn’t the right direction.

By the end of the first loop I was at 32 minutes with one more loop to go.  I knew right then that I was going to be an Ironman.  The only thing that’s made me hesitant about doing an Ironman was the swim.  On my first Half Ironman, my 1.2 mile swim was 1:28, my second was 1:08.  Here I was at 32 minutes for ~.9 miles, I was ecstatic.

The turnaround was shallow, so I walked a minute before starting up again.  The fast swimmers were already heading to the beach for the finish.  The next loop was the same as the first, although the waves were higher.  When I came into shore, I knew I could stand and walk in the water, but I chose to swim as far as possible.  I was going to need those legs for the next several hours.

If you’ve never had your wetsuit taken off by strangers, you’ve never lived.  As I came out of the water, the volunteers on the shore said don’t worry about the wetsuit, and they weren’t lying.  They peeled it off my shoulders at one station and at the next they yanked it to my waist, then I quickly dropped to the grass and they pulled it the rest of the way off.  It took about 3 seconds.  Amazing.

Running to transition

Coming out of the water

Swim Results (stats courtesy of Athlinks.com)

1:06:07, 2:12/100 m

164 out of 187 in Males 40-44

564 out of 933 Men

715 out of 1361 Overall

Transition 1

I was amazed that so many bike gear bags were left when I came into transition.  Normally, it’s just me and all all the bikes are gone.  This time it seemed like about half of the bike gear bags were still waiting for their owners.  Even though there were a lot of bags left than I was used to I was still able to quickly find my bag.

So I grabbed the bag and headed into mayhem.  Mayhem, that’s the best way to describe the scene inside the changing tent.  I found the only open chair out of 50 and started to get ready.  I really wanted to get all of that petroleum goop off my body.  It was everywhere.  I had added a towel just for this before the race started.  I didn’t have a lot to do to get ready, yet it still took a long time and I messed up several things.

I had to halfway remove my tri suit so I could put on a long sleeve under-armor shirt and that went well.  I then added some Chamois Butt’r to help protect the saddle area.  Next it was jacket time and I was ready to go…  Or so I thought.  The more I looked around the more I realized people were really dressing warmly.  I took back off my jacket and added a long sleeve biking jersey and then put back on my jacket.  Then I realized I forgot to put on my nipple protection.  So I had to take back off my jacket, back off my long sleeve biking jersey, lower the top of my tri-suit, and raise up my under armor shirt to put them on.  I had to do it because I didn’t have any protection in the run gear bag and if I didn’t put them on, I would bleed and it wouldn’t be pretty.  For the guys out there, the band-aid brand WON’T come off.  The CVS brand will… just saying.

Finally, with everything on and in the correct place, I took off for my bike.  I grabbed the bike without any issues and headed for the exit.  Carrie chose a very good place to catch me so I was able to give her a big smile as I continued out of transition.  At this point, I knew I was an Ironman, I just didn’t know how long it would be before I crossed the line.

Ready to ride

Transition 1

14:30

The Bike

Other than my not remembering to toggle my watch for a few miles, the bike couldn’t have started off better.  Earlier in the week I determined the computer on my bike had a bad battery and didn’t work when it was cold.  I meant to change the battery, but forgot.  I did have my Garmin, so with that I was able to figure mileage, but it wasn’t as convenient as looking down at the computer, for speed, average, time, etc.

When I finally toggled my Garmin, I found I was riding fast and averaging over 20 mph.  I couldn’t figure out if I was riding fast because of a tail-wind, or because the road was dead flat.  I’d been averaging over 18 mph for a while now on the hills around Richmond and I’ve ridden over 20 mph for an hour ride just the prior week, so I knew I had speed in me.  I thought about my cadence (which wasn’t working on the computer) and the level of effort to push the pedals and neither seemed out of the ordinary.  So I kept the pace up.

I passed a lot of people on the first loop, I don’t know for sure how many, I just know it was a bunch.  I think I was passed 3 times in the first 50 miles.  As I passed people, I made sure to say hello and good morning.  While some people didn’t appreciate the conversation, others seemed to welcome it.  I kept being friendly the entire race.  Is there a Mr. Congeniality in Ironman?

Miles 26 to 43 were when I first found the wind.  Later, I found out that during the race the wind was 20-30 mph steady with gusts up to 35mph.  I’ve never ridden in such challenging conditions because when the wind was that bad, I didn’t ride.  Even with the strong wind, I still did really well on the first loop.

The second loop was harder.  The wind speed kept increasing throughout the day.  There were times that I just laughed to myself at the absurdity of the wind.  Early in the race as I came to a turn, I could see racers stretching out.  Now when I saw racers around that next turn, they were bunching up because of that wind.

The bike route itself is pretty.  When you enter the marsh and look right or left you can’t see a tree anywhere.  The marsh had a funky smell too, like rot, but I think that’s normal for a marsh.  We didn’t get any water on the roadway, something they had last year’s high tide.  There were fans spread throughout the course and I kept passing cyclists regularly, so I never felt alone.

The course was marked every 10 miles.  Early on I was reaching these these markers fast, but as the day wore on, they seemed to get farther and farther apart.  My nutrition plan on the bike was simple, drink often, eat shot bloks every 45 minutes, and take two licks of Base Salt every 10 miles.  Base recommends you take a lick every 5 miles on the bike, due to salt loss.  With the cold weather and wind, I didn’t think that was necessary and towards the end, even every 10 miles was too often.  At about mile 90, due to a queasy stomach, I had to forego any more licks.  I also had aero water that I drank after taking the salt or the shot bloks, which I exclusively drank the last 20 miles.  My stomach was unsettled and I think it was from too much salt.

Have you ever reached a point in a ride where you were over it?  I had and the last 10 miles was it for me.  Since I started my Garmin late and my bike computer was jacked, I really had no idea when I would finish the bike course.  I never test drove the end of the course, which was different than the way out.  I knew that to get out of the wind meant getting back into a neighborhood.

Somewhere in that last 10 miles, a tall dude passed me.  It was quite funny actually.  I had finally struggled my way up to 16+mph and he passed me going a good bit faster.  I felt bad for him being so tall as he was essentially a big sail.  Anyway, he goes by and there is a right turn just ahead.  We both make that turn and wham, nailed by a strong headwind.  I went from 16 mph to 12 mph in a second.  He was hurt a lot more than me and I caught back up to him and passed him… doing 12mph.

Shortly after I passed him, a group of three women came by, all drafting.  On the back wheel of the last woman was the big dude that had passed me and I passed in the wind.  I looked up ahead on the road and I could see other riders drafting.  With less than 10 miles to go, probably 5 miles at that point, riders started drafting to get back to transition.  The drafting penalty didn’t seem to be that big a deal versus staying in that wind.  I hopped on loosely to the back of the pack.  With the strong cross wind I don’t know that anyone got any benefit from drafting.  It just felt better to be near other riders.

For most of the race, drafting may not have been helpful due to the high crosswinds.  I talked to a couple riders with solid rear discs and they both said the discs were killing them today.  I can believe it.  I’ve never heard the wind whistle through my front wheel before, but I did a lot on race day.

That last few miles took forever.  Once I finally got within the safe confines of houses, the wind did die down some.  I backed off and cruised to the finish.  I saw Kris, Scott and Megan cheering hard and I knew, it was all going to be alright, alright, alright.

Bike Results

6:16:02, 17.87 mph

116 out of 187 in Males 40-44

513 out of 933 Men

620 out of 1361 Overall (I passed over 300 on the bike!)

Transition 2

I’ve done more than a dozen triathlons and I love fast dismounts.  When I was a kid I would jump off my BMX at high speeds so I wouldn’t be late for dinner.  As I came into transition this time, I decided against a speedy dismount.  It wasn’t that I didn’t feel it, it’s that there was no need in a long race for a middle of the pack racer. It’s a good thing I didn’t do it.  When I got off the bike my legs almost gave out on me.  It was a new experience and didn’t last more than a couple steps, but had I gotten off the fast way I would have kissed the ground.

What I love about Ironman branded races is that valet your bike and rack it.  It’s a simple thing, but I think it adds to the brand.  Because the race was rescheduled, they lost a lot of volunteers and we had to rack our bikes ourselves.  It was a long, long trip back to the bike rack to rack my bike.

As I was walking (not jogging) to the bike rack, I felt a cramp on the outside of my right foot.  I took two licks of Base salt and hoped for the best.

I didn’t have much to do for the bike to run transition, just get out of clothes, put on shoes and go, but it still took a long time.  Looking at my Garmin time, it took almost 6 minutes to get to the change tent and then 8 minutes to change.  I guess I napped or something too.  I remember sitting down in the chair and thinking that I’d never sat in such a comfortable chair in my entire life.  It’s possible that’s what made it take longer than normal.

For run attire, I decided to keep the gloves, the long sleeve under armor shirt and add a pair of shorts to carry nutrition.  This is the very outfit I trained in multiple times

Transition 2

14:26

The Run

Marathons are long.  Even on my best day, it was over 4 hours and this wasn’t going to be my best day running.  I noticed as I started to run that my foot cramp was gone.  This marathon would turn into the only marathon I’ve ever run where I didn’t get a cramp.

Before the race, I decided I would break down the run into 5 sections, four 10ks with a 2 mile kicker.  I’ve run so many 10ks in training and races that no longer phase me - mental games.

One more decision early in the run would make a huge and welcome difference in my run.  I switched my watch mode from timing to heart rate.  I know that ~142 is 75% of my max heart rate.  I decided I would do my best to keep my heart rate in the 130’s for the entire race.  What this meant was I wouldn’t care about pace at all, but only effort.  An easier effort would make for a happier me.

The wind was all out of the north for the run.  There were a couple sections where you headed straight into it, a couple crosswind sections and a couple of tailwind sections before you got back inside the houses and out of the wind.  The run along the coast was beautiful.  I don’t know if anyone bothered to look though.  It was so windy that I almost lost my hat a few times.  It was also drafted runners for the first time in a long time.  The drafting helped, but not like it does on the bike.

The route was repetitive.  It felt somewhat like a smiley face.  We started in the middle of the smile, ran up the right check, came back to the middle then ran up the left check.  We did this three times.  On the way out the first time, the runners pass the ‘3rd loop turnaround’.  That first time I really wanted that turnaround to be my turnaround.

The run was the best marathon I’ve ever had.  It wasn’t the fastest, but it was the best.  Because of the relaxed, easy, pace I kept my spirits high for most of the race.

Occasionally, emotions would bubble up when I reflected on what I was attempting.  It’s one thing to say that you are going to do an Ironman, it’s quite another to actually do one.  I thought about my friends and how much they mean to me.  I thought about all my training runs, the good and the bad, throughout my training.  I did my best to keep the emotions from taking over.  Emotions take calories, calories are energy, energy leads to the darkside and I needed all of my juice to get me to the finish.  So whenever they bubbled up, I squished them down.

I didn’t have many goals in my run other than finishing.  I had one early goal in mind and one came to me during the run.  The first was to run the majority of the first 13 miles.  My good friend, neighbor and running buddy Emily D. is training for the half marathon and I wanted to give her a good mark to beat (Emily, it was 2:18).  Later I picked up another goal for another friend named Emily D., this time it was for a full marathon.  She’s run a couple marathons and I know they were in the 5’s, so I wanted to give her a time to shoot for in her next marathon.

When you are running, you are free to think.  It’s why people run, it’s what non-runners don’t understand.  When you run with a friend you can cover a wide range of topics and never run out of conversations.  Sure, you can’t do math worth a damn, but you can talk.  I was surrounded by people, but I was mostly in my head.

I spent training time this year with three distinct groups.  I swam with my CVE tri peeps.  They taught me how to swim more efficiently and faster than I ever had before.  I rode with my mountain bike buddies, Rick D., Chris T., Scott M. and John G. and they taught me how to go faster and ride with confidence.  I ran with my neighbors, Emily D., Emily P., Megan S., Kim E. and Heather C., they reminded me how fun running could be.

Thanks Ladies

I’ve been running for 10 years now.  I’ve fallen in and out of love with it several times.  When we moved to the new house, I’d fallen out of love with running.  I needed to get love back since if you don’t enjoy running, this sport isn’t for you.  I didn’t know anyone when we moved in.  Our neighborhood is a community.  It’s really active with events at the clubhouse year round and a well-read newsletter.  There is a space for classifieds in the back of the newsletter, so I posted an ad looking for runners.  I only had one response to my post and she and I have been running ever since (yes, you Heather C.).  In fact, I spent more time training with her than with anyone else (yes, you should feel sorry for her).

I’d like to send out a special thank you to her for all of those miles.  And to thank her for introducing me to the rest of the running crew (except Emily D, she’s my neighbor).

Thanks to my running friends I knew I could finish the run!

The town of Cambridge came out for the race.  There were fans cheering throughout the course.  One favorite spot was where there were two different houses were playing the same radio station.  It was cool to lose one station just to have the music pick back up a few houses away.  Through fate or dumb luck, every song I heard on the run was one that was on my playlist back home.

I had a remarkably good training season.  I learned a lot about my body and my mind during the long hours on the bike and run.  For example, soy bean oil, which is in fake butter, turns my insides out.  I knew butter was bad and this was worse.

I know that mental health is a taboo subject to most people, but I did have issues with depression during training.  It was the oddest thing, when my training time increased I got really depressed and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  Being a logical guy, it took some time to figure out the issue.  I had to increase my caloric intake and soon that brought me back up.  I know this isn’t an issue for most people, but it certainly was for me.

Back to music, it’s amazing what music can do for athletes.  It’s banned because it can give an athlete an unfair advantage.  During one particularly hard workout, I was really suffering.  It was hot, I was sweating and aching and I just didn’t want to keep riding.  That day I started to listen to music on my phone in a little bag behind the headset.  It just so happened that the song Timber came on and amped me up to 100%.  That song saved the day and I think that day was the last day of hard training I had.

That song and many others from my playlist seemed to play on every radio as I rode by.  It was if I had some sensor in my clothes that just flipped to my song when I passed.  It was awesome.

I thought of all my running, cycling and swimming friends, and training partners, on the run.  I had 5 hours, so I did a lot of thinking.  It wasn’t any specific thoughts I had, just memories of good times, some from training, others not.

On my way back from my first loop I got to see my family.  First it was my niece Megan, sister Kris, and her fiance Scott.  Just beyond them, was my Mom, Carrie (wife) and Alex (son).  The look of pure joy and happiness on Alex’s face made my race and my day.  Shhhhh, just between me and you, I do this for him - if I can do this, he can do anything.  He jumped up and gave me a perfect, absolutely perfect, high five.  It snapped, through his gloves and mine, it was like we had a Foley artist on contract behind me.

Bopping along

Living the dream

Looking back now the loops all seemed to run together.  I don’t remember what happened on which loop.  I only know that the wind seemed to get harder and colder as the day wore on.

I had an idea early in the bike that I might finish with the sun still out.  Maybe if the race was earlier in the year it would have happened.  That wasn’t to be the case.

The special needs bag was located at the transition area and you passed it a million times (or so).  At the end of my second last loop, I heard a volunteer say that they wouldn’t be grabbing any more special needs bags for runners because it would be too dark for them to see the numbers on the bags.  I hoped he was joking since I didn’t plan on getting my bag until I came back through for my last loop.

I was looking forward to my special needs bag.  In the morning I looked at the sizes of the bags getting dropped off and mine was essentially empty next to them.  I didn’t have clothes, drinks,  shoes, or what-the-hell ever these people filled their bags with - I had 3 ibuprofen and one Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie.  As I headed to that last turnaround, all I thought about was that Oatmeal Creme Pie.

It was really getting dark.  I wasn’t running as fast as I had earlier.  I assume it’s normal to slow down.  Whenever I walk in a race, I come up with a plan for when to run and when to walk.  Since I didn’t have a head lamp, and it was pitch black in places, I’d walk in the dark and run in the light.  This plan worked well because I after my slowest mile I picked back up my pace.

On the run I ran into a John, a competitor from NYC that I yo-yoed on the bike.  He was struggling.  I slowed down and chided him back to running again.  He was sore, cramping and miserable.  I told him I would stay with him until the 3rd loop turnaround and then he was on his own.  We ran and talked for a few minutes, getting and giving thumbnails of our lives.  At the turnaround I wished him well and kept running.  No more than 5 minutes later I hear him telling me to pick it up as he ran past me.  It felt nice seeing him in that groove, finding something deep inside himself, to get him going again.  I never saw him again and he came in a full two minutes before me!

On one of the last opportunities for my run special needs bag I grabbed my food.  I’m pretty sure that in the history of best tasting Oatmeal Creme Pies, this was the best!  It was wind chilled to a perfect temperature and just felt right.

Running back through town for the last time was good and bad.  There were finishers and friends/family walking all over the course, shuttles going back and forth and of course, other runners.  The road was crowned so I was doing my best stay in the middle of the road, on top of the crown.  I couldn’t stay there long though as there was constantly someone or something in the way that I had to avoid or run around.

I talked to several competitors on my last loop.  Many of them were on their first or second loop and I felt for them, they had a long night ahead.  The race finishes on a hockey stick.  You run straight out, angle left, turn around, angle back and finish on a long straightaway.  The area around the business end of the hockey stick had several bars/restaurants that were jam-packed with spectators cheering us on.

Through all my training and through race-day I’d kept my emotions well in check.  As I made the last right hand turn to the long straightaway to the finish, I allowed myself a fist bump.

Yes!

I got teary eyed on that last leg.  All day I thought about all the people in my life, everyone that helped get me to this moment, my family, my friends, the people who got me here, but I never thought of my dad.  He died several years ago and I thought about how proud he would be.

Through watching several Ironman finishes online and from last year at IMMD, I knew I wanted to cross the finish line by myself.  I didn’t want to steal anyone’s thunder, nor have mine stolen.  I sped up to my fastest pace of the race and made sure I was alone as I crossed the finish line.

I came into the finishing chute with my arms high above my head and I’d like to think it was a smile on my face.  It was a kind of smile I think, with a little relief and !#%!#$% in there as well.

Finished!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRGbKDmQ6i8

Run Results

5:04:20, 11:36 /mi

123 out of 187 in Males 40-44

549 out of 933 Men

728 out of 1361 Overall

Overall Results

12:55:25

127 out of 187 in Males 40-44

564 out of 933 Men

715 out of 1361 Overall

The Finish

I crossed the finished line feeling great.  I didn’t have any problems anywhere on my body.  A volunteer grabbed me just out of camera range and guided me through the finishing chute.  I got my finisher's hat, shirt and a cold bottle of water.  I’d taped on my finishing chip with electrical tape to prevent it from coming off.  The idea came from an Ironman veteran.  The lady taking off the chips wasn’t amused.

At the end of the finishing chute, you can get your photo done with the official IMMD logo.  I tried to sneak Carrie and Alex in, but they wouldn’t let them come in.  After a moment, we were able to sneak Alex in for a photo.

Two happy boys.

I got my hug

Alex is so funny, all through training he never wanted me to so much as give him a high five when I came home because I was sweaty from a training.  This day, he slowly extended out his hand to my touch my stomach to see if I was sweaty.  When he noticed I was dry, he asked if I was dry because of all of the wind. Yes Alex, that and the cold temps.  Then he gave me a monster hug.

Soon I got big hugs from Mom and Carrie.  Everyone was pretty happy with the race and surprised with the results.  I didn’t expect to be that fast and clearly they didn’t either.  Carrie said the tracker was 20 minutes off so she was lucky to have seen me finish.

I didn’t feel much like eating or drinking and the fact that they only had pizza (and I’m lactose intolerant).  They had beer somewhere, but I wasn’t interested in that.  I was quickly getting cold and really wanted to get my bike and get back to the hotel.

Carrie parked a short walk away so we started out for the minivan.  It was a short walk for two able bodied people in the daytime.  Mom isn’t a speedster, Alex had issues with the dark sidewalks and I was slowing down, so it was slow going to the minivan.  Carrie and Alex went ahead to get the car while Mom and I attempted to hide from the wind behind a minivan parked on the street.  The wind wasn’t having any of that so no matter which side of the car we were on, we were still blasted by the wind.

After what seemed like an hour, Carrie came back with the minivan.  We then had to pick up my bike.  The fourth seat was folded up to fit the bike, so I drew the short straw and sat on the floor in the back of the minivan.  It really wasn’t that bad since there was no wind!

It took some time to navigate the darkened streets of Cambridge (no street or house lights anywhere) to get to the bike pickup.  Stepping back out of the minivan to get the bike was hard, knowing the wind was out there, waiting.  There was nothing blocking the wind as it screamed off the water.  I know a lot of runners must have been cursing that wind by this time.

The ride back to the hotel was uneventful.  What I wanted most was to shower and get cleaned up.  I took a nice shower followed immediately by a bath (I never even left the tub).  It took some time to settle in, but sleep did eventually come.

The next day I was stiff.  It wasn’t as bad as the day after any of my marathons and I think that was because I didn’t cramp.  In fact, it wasn’t as bad as a day after some soccer games.  As the day progressed I loosened up and at the end of the day I felt 80% normal.

I stayed an extra day at the hotel by myself, a day with cable TV I told Carrie.  For lunch I headed out to a local restaurant where I had a $25 food voucher.  I had a big order of chicken nachos, a hamburger, a beer (first one in 5 months) and a free brownie a la mode (free to all racers).  It was a large meal and I didn’t eat dinner that night.

What’s Next?

The day after the race I would say I didn’t know, but now I think I know.  I’m going to try and lose some weight and in 2016 I want to tackle the local triathlons mostly sprints and olympic distances.  Rick D. expressed interest in doing an Ironman so I think we can spend next year getting him ready for a race in 2017.  We will pick out the IM in 2017 and volunteer there in 2016.

Thanks

A very special thanks to all of the runners, swimmers and cyclists I trained with over the year.  Without you, this wouldn’t have been possible.  

Thanks to the CVE team and coaches.  

Thanks to my mountain bike buddies for agreeing to ride with me all summer and then letting me slide when I shifted away from dirt.  

Thanks to my running neighbors for showing up early in the morning three days a week.  

Shout-out to my Mom, because it was her sense of adventure that got me into all of this stuff to begin with.  

A big shout-out to Carrie, this wouldn’t have been possible without a supportive wife at home.  When I asked her last year if she was sure I could sign up, I don’t think she knew what kind of commitment it would take from her to get me to the finish.  

Finally, I’d like to thank Alex.  He doesn’t know why I’m thanking him, but if he ever has any children of his own, he’ll know.  Every day I learn something new from the person I’m supposed to teach.  His never ending energy and positivity is a model for how I want to live my life.  When I grow up I want to be like him.

Race Images

I came, I saw, I conquered