Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My 2012 Race Schedule

With 2011 coming to a close and only two planned races left in the year with the Richmond Marathon on November 12 and the Hot Chocolate 15k on December 3, I thought it was time to start planning out my 2012 race schedule. 

As of last week I officially joined local Tri Club Team Z, and I plan on doing a lot of my training with them in the off season, especially with my swimming. I will try and blog more about my experiences and training with them at a later time, but I mainly mention that I joined the team here because I will be incorporating a number of the races they do officially as a team in my schedule for 2012.

So without further ado (I know the anticipation is killing you) here is my tentative race schedule for 2012. I say tentative because I haven't actually signed up and paid for all these races yet and obviously it is possible things could change between now and when registration opens for some of them. The Half Ironman in HI is a done deal as is the Columbia Triathlon. Ironman Fl registration doesn't open till next month, but I have decided I want this to be my big race for the 2012 season. So here it is:

2012 Tentative Race Schedule 

- * National Marathon - March 17, 2012

- * Rumpus In Bumpass International Tri - April 14, 2012

- * Arlington Science Focus 5k - May 5, 2012

- High Cloud PeasantMan Triathlon - May 8, 2012(?)

- * Kinetic Half Tri - May 12, 2012

- Columbia Triathlon International Tri - May 20, 2012

- Ironman 70.3 Hawaii - June 2, 2012

- DC Triathlon - June 17, 2012

- The Diabolical Double (125 miles and 16,500 feet of climbing cycle event) - June 25, 2012

- U.P. Northwoods Tri (International) - July, 2012

- * Luray International Tri - August 18, 2012

- *  REV3 70.3 Cedar Point OH - September 9, 2012

- * Savageman Oly Tri - September 15, 2012

- Ironman Florida - November 5, 2012

*= Team Z Race

Some races like Peasantman which was the very first triathlon I ever did have not yet posted official race dates for 2012 so they remain really tentative till I know for sure what days they fall on. I also plan to enter the lottery for Kona this year and will shoot for a qualifying time at the 70.3 Hawaii race which is a Kona qualifier race, so who knows maybe I can add that one to the list later in the year :)

There you have it, my tentative race schedule for 2012. I hope to see all of you out there next year, and feel free to post in the comments section below what races you plan on doing in 2012.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Pocono Mountains Half Ironman Race Report - My Almost first 70.3 Race

The morning of race day
This race report is for my almost first half-Ironman race. Since I completed Ironman Louisville, I’ve been looking for one more race to finish out my inaugural season of triathlons. Originally, that final race was going to be the Nation’s Triathlon which was held locally on 9/11. Not only would it be my last race of the season, I could redeem myself for my performance in the similarly designed DC Triathlon in June.  (I decided to try out running with no socks during that race. I am not sure if my feet have forgiven me yet.) Thanks to the monsoon season of rain we have been experiencing on the East Coast this fall, the swim portion of Nation’s was canceled.  Although I had a good race overall, it didn’t seem like an appropriate way to end the season. So I decided to do the half Ironman in the Pocono Mountains (1.5 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run).  As my first half Ironman, I thought it would be a good note to end the season. Mother Nature is laughing at me.

For those of you unfamiliar with the area, the Poconos are basically a resort area on the PA, NJ, NY border and surrounding the Delaware Gap National Park.  My wife and I spent New Year’s skiing there, so we were familiar with the geography.  Did I mention this was the inaugural race for this area? 

After signing up for the race, I tried to book a room at the Fernwood Resort, the official race headquarters and the hotel we used in January.  After hearing the “No Vacancy” news from this hotel and every other hotel in the area I decided I had two choices, book a hotel almost 30 miles away from the race or stay at the nearby Pocono Palace, an all-inclusive resort for honeymooners.  Not wanting to get up at 4 a.m., we opted for the Palace, although I was disappointed we didn’t get a heart-shaped bed.

With final race of the season chosen and housing arrangements made, I just needed to train and wait for race day to arrive. Fast forward to the week of the race. The extended forecast predicted no rain and low temperatures (low 42 to high 52).  This was quite the change since all my triathlons have been in the spring and summer months, and I had trained primarily for hot weather races. My first concern was that I was going to freeze my butt off getting out of the water. Yes, wetsuits would be allowed for the swim (thank god), but I was still going to be freezing once I got out of the river. Of course, none of this really mattered because the weather in the area continued to deteriorate as the week progressed. Heavy rains fell most of the week, and now it looked like it would rain all weekend as well. By Friday, the swim was canceled, and my plan to end the season with a full triathlon was nixed.  Though not a huge fan of swimming, I was pretty disappointed. I had been working on my swim technique quite a bit since Louisville and was really looking forward to see how much progress I had made.

While I no longer had to be concerned with freezing once I got out of the water, it was looking more and more like I would be racing in the pouring cold rain.  The day before the race, we woke up at 5 a.m. to drive the four hours to the Poconos.  we checked in, grabbed my race packet, and joined the pre-race briefing to hear about the revised time-trial bike start and several warnings to avoid the walnuts on the course.  (No joke, walnuts.)

Originally, shuttles from the Fernwood would take athletes to the river several miles away.  T1 was a short distance from Swim Out then off to the bike course which ended at a separate T2 at the local high school.  Run an out-and-back for a finish through downtown and into the area Oktoberfest.  With the swim canceled, things changed a bit.    Instead of dropping our bike gear at T1, we brought the gear with us in the morning.  With the swim, we would have started in waves based on our age with each wave jumping in the water at a designated time. Now we would start on the bike using a time-trial fashion. The bikes were racked by bib number with athletes released in numeric order.  The lower your number, the less time you spent waiting in transition.  My number was 1976 of 2000.  A long, tedious wait followed by lots of time spent passing.

After the coordinators finished with the course changes, it was time for the head race official.  Now I’ve heard the Ironman rules before and if you read my Ironman Louisville race report, you know these rules don’t seem to be strictly enforced for general age groupers. This particular official seemed proud of the number of penalty flags issued by her team.  She predicted the penalty tents would be incredibly full - and even talked about stopping to pick up your dropped water bottles to avoid disqualification for unsportsmanlike conduct.  My first thought was, “Are you kidding me?”  One of the things I knew based on my experience from the bike start on the Nation’s Tri is that everyone piles into tiny lanes at the same time because there is no swim portion to thin out the crowds.  Preventing drafting and blocking in a race like this is almost impossible. Maybe the official was trying to scare us to cut down on rules violations they had no way to enforce.  (Turns out I was right, plenty of people drafted with nary an official in sight.) 

The rain was still holding off so after we racked my bike at T1, we headed out to drive the course on our way to T2 to drop my run gear bag.  It was quickly apparent the 56-mile course was going to be very challenging.  I originally hoped to finish the bike leg in 3 hours but revised that estimate to 3 1/2 to 4 hours depending on the weather.  The course was hill after hill with at least three OMG hills. Many of the downhill portions ended with fairly sharp turns causing you to have to slow down and lose any real momentum. Add to that wet roads with wet leaves and huge nuts that kept falling from the trees. My concern in Louisville was getting out of the water; for this race I was quickly becoming concerned with coming out of the bike course alive, especially if it was going to be pouring down rain. The run course had its share of hills as well but nothing I wasn’t used to.

Finally after checking out the courses and dropping all our stuff, we headed to dinner at a local Italian restaurant (have to stock up on those carbs) then hit the local grocery store to stock up on some last minute race day snacks. After a relaxing stint in the room’s hot tub it was time for bed. Unlike Louisville where I got next to no sleep, I was going to get plenty of rest for this one. During the night, the rains returned so hard I actually woke up from the rain hitting the roof of the hotel. By 5 a.m., the rain thankfully had stopped.

Dressing in layers for a cold race day start
After I packed everything I needed for the race in a bag, my wife drove me over to Fernwood to catch a shuttle (school bus) to the T1 area. Spectators weren’t allowed down at the T1 spot, so my wife just dropped me off and headed back to our hotel to get a couple more hours of sleep. I had a long wait ahead of me. I sat in the Fernwood lobby for about 40 minutes waiting for the last shuttle to arrive around 6:30. It took about 15 minutes to get down to the T1 area where I proceeded to my bike rack. After removing the covers I had put on the handle bars and seat to keep it dry from the night rain, I dried the rest of my bike, checked the tires for air, and made sure everything was in good working order. Now all I had to do was wait. I made sure to dress in layers for this race as I knew the day was going to start off very cold and possibly even wet, but as the day went on and things warmed up I likely was going to want to easily remove the warmer garments. This would be my first Tri in the cold so I was treading some new ground with how I should dress. I packed everything from your basic tri kit to long leggings and a long-sleeved shirt. I opted to wear basic tri shorts and a sleeveless tri top with arm warmers and a windstopper short-sleeved cycle jersey. On top of that, I put on running pants and a water-proof bike jacket. Oh, and I had a skull cap on to keep my ears warm under my bike helmet.

The race was supposed to start at 7 a.m. but was delayed to 7:15ish. Either way, I knew I wouldn’t be crossing the starting line till at least 8:30 a.m.. Fortunately, the rain held off for the entire race and I did not have to sit there in the rain.  It was quite chilly. After the National Anthem was sung and we heard a mile had to be taken off the course due to overnight flooding, the pros got started from first rows. Of course, being all the way in the back I really couldn’t see much. Deciding I wouldn’t be starting off in the rain, I decided to leave the rain jacket and just wear the tri shorts and top with the cycle jersey over top and the arm warmers to keep my arms warm. This was definitely the right call. After patiently waiting and pacing and watching, it was finally time for my row to head to the start line. The time was like 8:33 a.m., so I had estimated my start time fairly accurately. I ran to the bike mounting area over the time mat, hopped on my bike and was off.

The course starts with in a parking lot type area leading to a left turn to a quick up and back. Unlike with Louisville where my primary goal was to simply finish, I wanted to push myself hard with this race so that’s what I did. Right off the bat, I pushed hard. I had a bit of a pain in my lower back which I had actually been dealing with all week. This made it more difficult to get in the aero-position, but truthfully this wasn’t really much of an aero-postion type of race. At first the cold caused my heart rate to speed up faster than what I am used to, so I did end up pulling it back a notch for a short bit but as I got going I quickly warmed up and my heart rate returned to normal. After completing the first up and back, I knew the first set of big hills would soon be upon me. As I approached the first OMG hill (within the first 5 miles of the course), already I was seeing other riders who had stopped to either rest or walk their bike up the hill. I had seen people walk in the run portion of a triathlon but this was the first time I had seen people walk their bike in a race. There was one lady off to the side resting against a guardrail who looked as if she was on the verge of a heart attack. I heard another rider who must have thought the same thing ask her if she was alright as we went by and she said yes, she just needed to catch her breath. Knowing this hill was only the beginning, I thought if people were already struggling they might as well hang it up now.

As the race went along I continued to push my self hard. There was always a steady stream of people in front of me since I basically started at the back of the pack and had to make my way to the front, so getting complacent was never much of an issue. Almost from the beginning, I played tag with another racer in front of me as we took turns passing each other.  This went on until almost the very end of the race. We even joked with each other about it as we kept passing one another. He was faster than me on the straight-aways but I was always able to overtake him on the hills. I think the last OMG hill towards the end must have slowed him down enough though, because I didn’t see him after that.

At one point in the course, I had two riders wipe out right by me. One guy decided he was going to try and pass in a pack of riders, and I guess he ended up pushing another rider over to the right where he hit one of those plastic orange cones used to divide the lanes. When he hit, he wiped out causing the guy behind him to also crash. Both riders ended up with only some scratches and bruises.

During another leg of the race, a car ended up driving onto the bike course causing us to stop for a second. They weren't race officials, just someone who somehow ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. The rider next to me wasn’t happy she had to slow down for this, but I just blew it off and started pushing hard once again.

For nutrition up to this point I had my usual bottle of Gatorade and water on my bike. I had eaten a banana and a box of Frosted Flakes cereal right before the race start and overall was feeling pretty good. I had a Gu pack on the bike and a Kit Kat bar in my cycle jersey. As I was approaching the last 15 miles of the bike course I was contemplating whether to stick with just the liquids or have either the Gu or Kit Kat. Before I could decide though, I came upon the biggest of the OMG hills. This thing was a monster. I don’t know the exact elevation of it but it was steep and it was long. The front tire of my bike actually came up off the ground a bit as I was pedaling. This one had quite a few people walking it, but I wasn’t going to be one of those people. Kicking it into the lowest gear on the bike which I seldom use, I made my way up that monster.

After that I had no choice, I was beginning to feel it and needed an extra boost. I knew the Gu was probably the better choice but I really don’t like those things, so I decided to eat just a small portion of the Kit Kat. I didn’t want a repeat of Louisville and have bad cramps on the run portion of the race. It seemed to work as I was feeling better and no cramps, though probably the Gu would have been better overall.

As I approached the end of the bike portion, my butt was sore and my back was still bothering me a bit but overall my legs felt good. I rolled into the dismount area looking to see if my wife was there. She wasn’t, turns out she had gotten stuck in traffic trying to make her way to the T2 area. As I mentioned before, this was the first year for this race and I think it’s safe to say the coordinators have quite a few bugs to work out for next year especially when it comes to coordinating the traffic and spectators.


My final bike time was 2:55:12. In T2, I racked my bike which to my surprise caused the entire rack to begin tipping over. I managed to catch it before that happened and saw one of the legs on the rack had come loose and so after playing with it for a few minutes I got it to stay up. This wasn’t a good start to my T2 time. After that, I realized I had forgotten to untie the laces on my running shoes (yes I have laces on my shoes). Of course this was after I had already taken one of my bike shoes off so I had to hop on one leg trying to untie the shoe cause I didn’t want to put my socked foot down on the wet ground. Finally after 6 minutes I was out of T2 and on my way to do the run.

Crossing the finish line
The run portion begins out the back of a high school. You actually run part way around the school’s track then out the parking lot onto a main road through the town. The course is basically a long up and back, where we ran out to about the 7-mile mark then turned around and came back. Things start out flat but I had to take on a number of hills before all was said and done, no OMG hills thankfully though. As I began running I thankfully had no stomach cramps. The pain in my lower back was there but nothing I couldn’t deal with. My legs overall felt pretty strong which was surprising after coming off that bike course. Still I wasn’t getting my pace up as quickly as I wanted to. I was running about a 9-minute pace the first half of the race as opposed to the 6-7 minute I would have liked to have seen. I attribute this partly to a very tough bike course, but also to the fact that I had gotten a little lazy in my training and had not done very many brick sessions (this is when you ride your bike and then do a run right after) since Louisville. By the second half of the race I had gotten my pace up in the 7-minute range. The weather was perfect for running and by this point I had shed my cycle jersey, arm warmers and skull cap. I grabbed water at several of the aid stations to make sure I stay hydrated and at one point contemplated stoping to pee, but decided I could hold it till the end of the race. There were a number of people opting to walk the race and on more than one occasion, I would hear people who were walking in pairs talking about how they were unhappy the swim portion had gotten canceled. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “If you can’t complete the race without walking with no swim, how can you really be upset there wasn’t one?”

As we got to the 12-mile marker one runner started saying how we were almost to the finish line, and another one said he wished it was the 13-mile marker. I yelled out it’s just around the corner when a spectator on the sidewalk jokingly yelled out, “I hear runners talking, they must not be pushing themselves very much.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

As I rounded the final turn, the finish line was in sight. There were several runners in front of me so I decided to kick it in high gear to pass as many of them as I could before crossing the line. The crowd was cheering and the adrenaline was pumping. Running down the chute of this race was nothing like the excitement of Ironman Louisville, but it was still a great feeling nonetheless. I crossed the line with a final run time of 1:52:31.

This race wasn’t a perfect race in large part due to the weather and in some part due to the its youth as a race. Despite that, it was a very challenging race even without the swim, and I was happy to finish my first Tri season with it. If I do a race in October next year though, I hope it’s in Kona :)

The finisher medal
Results:
Division M35-39 Place: 75/193
Overall Male Place: 301/907
Bike Time: 2:55:12
T2 Time: 6:03
Run Time: 1:52:31
Overall Time: 4:53:46

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

2011 Ironman Louisville Race Report

I was reading triathlete and fellow DC Tri Club member CourtneyFulton’s Ironman Louisville race report yesterday, and it got me thinking about the blog I started all those months ago when I first decided to sign up for Louisville. Of course, I never updated that blog but thought I would give my own race report on my first Ironman – if for no other reason than to have a written account of the experience, so I can look back years from now when the memory has started to go and reflect on one of the most exciting days of my life.


First, let me give a little background on my journey to get to race day since I did such a bad job maintaining this blog over the months. When I first decided to sign up for Ironman Louisville (Swim 2.4 miles, Bike 112 miles, Run 26.2 miles)    back in January, I had never done a triathlon of any distance before.  Although I did a fair amount of running to stay in shape, I didn’t really considered myself a runner meaning someone who competes in races on any kind of regular basis. Yes, I had done a few races including the Marine Corps Marathon back in 2009 with a time of 4:29:15, my greatest achievement to that point in my running/triathlon career. So when I registered for the Ironman, I had little idea of what I was getting into and no idea what I could expect from it. I was signing up as a challenge to myself, and my only goal was to finish.  

As I reflect over the last nine months, I can tell you I have learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and frankly gotten totally hooked on triathlons. Since I started training for Ironman Louisville, I completed a number of running races including the National Marathon where I got my time down to 3:33:46 and a number of Olympic distance triathlons (Swim 1.5k, Bike 40k, Run 10k)  including the DC Triathlon where I had a finishing time of 50:49 (Not my best time, but a great race). I also met a lot of great people (Elaine, Jeff, Jen, Sara, Gary, Jason, Brent) and trained with some awesome folks who also were doing Ironman Louisville (Dave, Art, Hilary).  I probably wouldn’t have been able to  finish this race if it hadn’t been for them and their help along the way. Oh, and then there was the support of family and existing friends which was invaluable. Just to name a few, Dad, Pam, Bob, Susan, David, Amie, Shanna, Doug, and most importantly my wife Kara.


That’s enough background, now on to the actual race report. I will start with the day we left the house and headed to Louisville, Ky. The race was on Sunday August 28, and we left home the preceding Tuesday. We drove; it was only eight hours and cheaper than flying (not to mention carrying my bike with us). The day we left, the East Coast was hit with a 5.8 earthquake while we were on the road. We later learned there was no damage where we lived, but the news did cause a little unexpected stress at the time as we contemplated whether we should turn around and go back home or keep going.  We decided to keep going, and eventually got in touch with our neighbor who was watching the house for us – she told us everything was okay. Earthquakes wouldn’t be the only natural disaster we would have to worry about. A Hurricane named Irene was making her way up the East Coast that week, threatening to hit the Washington DC area where we live but also NC were my in-laws live. They tell you when you do an Ironman, you have to prepare for the unexpected but this was getting ridiculous. As much as Irene sucked, it did have one positive effect. Despite making the weather on the East Coast horrible, it did help create perfect weather for race day in Louisville. Instead of having temperatures in the high 90’s or low 100’s like the year before, our temperatures were in the mid-80’s. 

The swim portion of the race.
So back to Tuesday.  We arrived in Louisville that night, and over the next few days, I met with friends and family, did some light training, mapped the course, and did everything I could to avoid stressing out. The Saturday before the race, the nerves were getting pretty high – mainly because I was worrying about finishing the swim within the allotted time. Ironman Louisville has a time trial start which is unique for an Ironman race.  You have 2 hours and 20 minutes from the time the last person is in the water to complete the 2.4 mile swim. The way it works is you get in line (first come first serve) and when the race starts, people jump in the water two at a time every few seconds.  It takes about 30 minutes to get everyone in, so the sooner you get in the water the more extra time you have on top of the allotted 2 hours and 20 minutes to finish the swim portion. The swim is my weakest part of the race (I am a slow swimmer), and because the water temperature was so warm I couldn’t wear a wetsuit (which basically means you swim even slower).  I was concerned that if I was one of the last people in the water, I wouldn’t be able to finish in time. Saturday morning, we were given the opportunity to do a practice swim in the Ohio River which was really a good thing. Louisville’s swim course is 900 meters upriver between an island and the river bank, 400 meters straight upriver to a turn, then downriver the rest of the way. The current really helps on the long portion of the race and once I saw how much during the practice swim, I started to feel much more confident about finishing in time. Later that day, I took my bike to be racked and dropped off my race bags. Unlike most triathlons, the bike and run gear goes in different bags to be stored in the transition area.  During the race, a volunteer brings you the bag for the next leg of the race when you get to transition and enter a big tent to change.  It’s pretty cool, almost like you are waited on in transition. 

Me, Dave and Art waiting in line for the swim to start.



As Saturday night approached, the nerves returned full force. I wanted to go to bed early and get a good night sleep, but that just wasn’t going to happen. I basically lay in bed tossing and turning all night getting very little actual sleep. As much as I tried, I just couldn’t turn off my mind.  Finally 3:30 a.m. arrived, and it was time to get out of bed and get ready. My wife who didn’t get much sleep either (I think she was almost as nervous as I was) got up with me.  After getting dressed, we headed down to the hotel lobby to meet Dave and Art (who I had trained with for this race) and walked over to transition. Once in the lobby, we were greeted by Dave and his wife who were staying in the same hotel as us. Art had not arrived but he was staying at a hotel down the street. We waited about 30 minutes but finally decided to head over without him (not to worry – Art met us over there in plenty of time.) After a quick stop at transition just to check on our bikes, we headed over to the swim start area a little less than a mile away. A fair number of people were already waiting in line when we arrived at swim start, although we had more people in line behind us than in front of us. After watching the sun come up as we waited in line, start time approached.


The swim start line
First the pro’s start, then the National Anthem and the Kentucky Derby call to post (with the bugle) was performed. Finally, after standing in line, several bathroom breaks, and a last-minute banana and Gu pack, it was 7:00 a.m. and time for the race to start. It didn’t take us very long to get in the water; we were in by 7:10ish. It was actually one of my smoothest starts for a swim. Normally, I will get short of breath after the initial jump, but today I was calm and my breathing was steady. As I swam, people would periodically come up behind me and bump into my legs or back as they passed me. Having people bump or grab onto you while you swim is a pain, but nothing like it would have been if it was a mass start swim (think 2,500 people all jumping in the water at the same time). I knew the harder part of swim was the upriver part, and once I got around the island it would be downhill from there so to speak. Besides having the current with you for most of the race, this race offers plenty of sightlines (such as three huge bridges) so you always know where you are. Keeping track of your progress can be challenging in open water swims, but here it was no problem at all. There was also a small portion where you could actually walk a bit in the water. I saw others doing this so I stopped and walked a couple feet just to get my barring. I felt good for most the swim but my right calf started cramping towards the end of the course, so I had to turn on my back and float a bit while I rubbed it out. Finally I was out of the water with a time of 2:13:06.  At this point, I knew I was going to finish this race, and you could tell because I had a big smile.

Coming out of the water with a big smile.
As I ran to T1 from the river, my family was there on the sidelines cheering me on and high-fiving me and with that I felt a new burst of energy. Once in the tent, I pulled my bike stuff out of my bag, put on some sunscreen, changed into my tri shorts and a cycle jersey, sipped some water, and headed out to my bike. Along the way, I decided to stop by the port-a-potty and go to the bathroom before hitting the road. Most races the bathroom isn’t a huge issue for me, but with this race I decided it was better to stop and go now then having to go somewhere along the road. 

Again as I mounted my bike and began to ride out, there was my family cheering me on and giving me more energy to get the job done. The first 10 miles of the bike course is very flat so it’s easy to push yourself too hard starting out. I wanted to pace myself and my leg where it had cramped up in the water was still feeling a little tender, so I didn’t want to push too hard. I soon came upon two riders and had to decide if I wanted to pass them or not. In triathlons, you aren’t allowed to draft behind other bike riders, and the rules say you have to pass someone within 20 seconds or back off. Since this was my first Ironman, I wasn’t sure how closely they watched these things and was a bit concerned if I passed the first person but not the second one I could end up too close to the second rider and be in danger of getting a drafting penalty. As the race went on, I realized that the rules weren’t really enforced any more than any other race, at least not for us non-pro's this far back. If I was behind another rider for a few seconds, I wasn’t going to get penalized.  This early in the race though, I thought I would play it safe. Eventually, I decided to pass both riders and went on my merry way. 

The bike course in Louisville is very hilly and to make it even worse, there is very little shade on the course. As I mentioned before, the temperature thankfully was only in the mid-80’s instead of the upper 90’s.  By this point in the day, the sun was out full force and even in the 80’s, it was getting pretty hot. I knew the key to this portion of the race was to stay hydrated. I made sure to keep drinking Gatorade throughout the course, and I switched out my water at every aid station. One portion of the course is an out-and-back that takes you down a very steep hill and over a small bridge. In the course briefing, they even warn you to be very careful on this leg of the race.  By the time I arrived, there apparently had already been a four-bike crash. As I rode by, one guy was being put on a stretcher with a neck brace. As you can imagine, I made sure to be careful. 

Waving to my family as I ride by.
About half-way through the course you get to a town called La Grange where spectators are shuttled to via bus to cheer athletes on. You actually ride through this area twice, and both times my family was there cheering me on. The first time through I was feeling fine, but on the second loop I was beginning to feel it a bit so having them there giving me incentive was nice. Just after the second pass through La Grange, I could get my special needs bag – another feature unique to Ironman races.  The bag contains the mid-race supplies I had packed and dropped off that morning.  My bag contained some aspirin, a Coke and a Kit Kat bar. I took the aspirin, ate half the Kit Kat, and drank the Coke for an extra boost of energy. One of the volunteers also was nice enough to get me some ice that I used to cool my Gatorade back down. I had been switching out my water bottles, but I really did not like the Powerade they served on the course so I had been sticking with my Gatorade which by this point had gotten quite warm. 

With a new burst of energy, I was on the road once again.  On the first loop of the course, I was riding with many of the faster riders who were on their second loop with their expensive race bikes and fancy wheels that make a very unique noise as they go by, but on the second go-around for me it was much quieter with fewer people on the road. This is the stretch where you have to try and stay focused. At this point, I basically was ready to get off the bike with nothing to distract me from the aches and pains in my neck and butt.  Finally, I made my way to the final 10 miles - the same flat 10 miles I started on. I knew I was home free but the break between aid stations is a bit long in the final 20 mile-ish stretch. As I rolled into the transition area, my neck was really tired and my butt was really sore. I completed the bike in 7:04:50. I got off my bike and handed it off to a volunteer to rack. At this point, I noticed my family was not around (turns out they miscalculated the time a bit and showed up late) but figured they would be around soon.  I grabbed my run bag and headed into the tent to prepare for the last leg of the race, the run.  I was tired but overall was still feeling pretty good. However, I was concerned about dehydration so I began to drink lots of water, Coke, and ate some cashews I had in my bag for salt. I believe this was my biggest mistake of the race.


Running while trying to deal with cramps.
At the half-way point.


After changing and resting for a few minutes, I made my way out of the tent and began to run. Still no sign of the family, but at this point I just wanted to get going and get the run done. The first part of the run takes you out and back over a bridge into Indiana which is about a mile when all is said and done. At this point, the sun is still shining fiercely and it hits you pretty hard on that bridge. My legs were feeling pretty strong all things considered, but my stomach started cramping. This is something I’ve never really dealt with in a race before; yeah, I’ve experienced cramps before but usually in my shoulder or someplace like that, and can run through them. These were strong cramps in my stomach, and I was afraid I had put too many liquids and too much food in it during transition. I started to walk to see if I could get the cramps to stop, and at the first aid station I tried to drink some Powerade which was really gross. Trying to run again was still a no go, the cramps weren’t letting up. I knew I had plenty of time to finish the race, but I really didn’t want to walk 26.2 miles. Running was always my strongest event in triathlons, and I was damned if I was going to be foiled on the part of the race where I should be strongest.  As I approached the second aid station, I started getting that cotton mouth feeling which told me I was getting dehydrated but I didn’t want to dump a ton of liquids on my stomach either. I decided to take a cup of cold water and sip it while I walked. This actually seemed to work as the cramps began to let up. I started to run again, but by the time I got to the next aid station the cramps had returned. So I repeated the process of grabbing a cup of cold water and sipping it while walking and then began to run again. It certainly wasn’t an optimal solution, but it was better than walking the whole thing.


Once off the bridge, the run course basically is two big loops; you actually run right past the finish line when you complete the first loop. As I got to the end of the first loop, my family had caught up with me and was cheering me on. This plus seeing the finish line gave me another burst of energy, but the cramps had started returning with more frequency. Sipping cold water while walking kept the cramps at bay less and less. By this time, the sun had started to go down so heat was becoming less and less of an issue but had been replaced by general fatigue coupled with the cramps. I knew even if I walked the rest of the way I would still be able to get to the finish line in plenty of time before the midnight cutoff, so the decision I had to make was to push it to get a better time or take it easy to make sure I finish. As the race went on, I saw more and more athletes who had crashed and burned and were laying on the side of the road not able to move under their own power.  I did not want that happening to me.


As I got to the last 10 miles of the race, I decided I probably only had a few run bursts left and I wanted to make sure I had one of those bursts left to run over the finish line. At this point, my nephew and brother-in-law caught up to me and started walking with me on the side of the road cheering me on. Then at the final turn, my dad and sister were waiting for me to cheer me on and as I made that turn, I could see the finish line and began to run with everything I had left. My sister actually started running on the sidewalk beside me and for a second I thought she was going to run faster than me. As I ran the final stretch down the chute, I was amazed how many people were there cheering me on. People were reaching out to me for high fives on both sides of the road. I only had energy to reach out to those on the left side, but it was an awesome feeling high-fiving all those people as I crossed the finish line and heard the words “Jay Cochran, you are an Ironman” on the loud speaker. My run time was 5:56:56. As much as I wanted to just stop and enjoy this moment, the final burst of energy sent my stomach over the edge and I had only minutes to find a trash can. I quickly grabbed my finishing medal and motioned I was going to be sick. Fortunately a garbage can was nearby, and I was quickly ushered over by a very helpful aid (thanks, Claire).  After throwing up some water and sitting for a minute, I went over and hugged my wife and other members of my family, had some pictures taken, and enjoyed the moment. I had done it. I was an Ironman.  My overall time was 15:43:35, not quit the time I was shooting for but the important thing was I had finished.

My Mdot tat combines my love of comics and tri's.
When I got back to the hotel, I went on Facebook to see how everyone who wasn’t there in-person had been following my progress on Ironman Live and been cheering me on.  It was really awesome to see all the comments and posts from everyone. I also tried to eat some solid food but that just wasn’t going to happen. It was a day or so before I was able to eat normally again, but I didn’t care. The next day, my wife treated me to an hour and a half deep tissue massage then I went for my M-dot tattoo. I also hit up the Ironman store and bought all the cool Ironman paraphernalia I wasn’t willing to buy until I knew I had finished the race.

I rested for two days but unlike when I finished my first marathon where I felt like I was done and didn’t want to do this anymore, I felt more energetic than ever like a tremendous mental weight had been lifted. If I could do an Ironman, I can do anything. By day three, I was already in the pool training for my next race which was the Nation's Triathlon two weeks away and by the following weekend, I was doing a 100-mile Century ride and feeling pretty good. 

As I mentioned at the beginning of this race report, my goal when I started was to finish an Ironman.  Now that I have, I want to actually start winning some of these races. I have set a new goal for myself: within the next two years, I want to qualify for the Ironman Championship race in Kona, HI. I know it won’t be an easy road and will require lots of hard work and dedication (especially when it comes to the swim), even more than it took to complete Louisville, but I will give it all I have and hopefully within the next two years I will be writing one of these race reports for Kona.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Taking Up The Challenge Of An Ironman

This week, I made a decision to partake in my first Ironman Triathlon, so I decided to start this blog as a way to keep record of my progress and training for this challenging event. First, for those of you not familiar with what the Ironman is, it is a type of triathlon race that consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike race and a 26.2 mile marathon run. There are different Ironman races throughout the year that take places in different parts of the world with the ultimate Ironman taking place in Kona, HI which is usually televised on NBC Sports.

The particular race I am running in will be the Ironman that takes place in Louisvile, Ky on August 28, 2011. I choose this race due to the fact that I was born and raised there, and so I felt this would be the perfect place to achieve my goal for completing an Ironman.

The first question people usually ask me when I tell them I am doing this, after they manage to get the "are you crazy" look off their faces, is why? Honestly, I don't have a clear cut answer to that. I am certainly not running it with the idea I have any chance of winning, nor am I even looking to try and get a time fast enough to qualify for the big Ironman race in Hawaii, though going to the Islands would be sweet. No, since I have never run a Triathlon before, though I will be doing a smaller one in June here in Washington, my main goal is just to finish, and be able to say I have run in an Ironman before. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when you set a daunting goal and then achieving it. Two years ago, I decided to run my first Marathon (The Marine Corps Marathon), and though I was exhausted at the end of the race, it was such an awesome feeling of having done so, with a fairly respectable time of  4:29.15 no less.

Besides the great feeling you get when you accomplish a goal like this, I guess I would be lying if I also didn't admit that being less than two years away from turning 40 years old, I feel a need to show myself that I can still do something like this.

So with just under 8 months to go before race day, you might be asking what am I doing to get ready for this race, especially since I have never even run a Triathlon before? First, I have been working out pretty hard and pretty steadily since last August, not specifically for the Ironman that I just decided to do. Still, I am probably in the best running shape I have been in my entire life and probably weight less than I ever have as well. Last summer I weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 240-230 lbs, and today I am down to 165 lbs. During the winter months, I have focused primarily on running, strength training and changing my eating habits so that I am consuming much healthier foods, lots of fruits and vegetables and fish and chicken. I know it doesn't sound exciting, but honestly there are a lot of good recipes out there for these kinds of foods and when you eat this way you don't need to starve yourself.  In recent weeks, I have picked up swimming at the indoor pool at my local gym and riding the stationary bike. I have also begun taking some triathlon clinics for the smaller triathlon I mentioned earlier that I am doing in June. Right now, besides becoming a better swimmer, my biggest fear in running the triathlon is getting down the transition periods (thats the period when you transition from one leg of the race such as going from swimming to biking, or biking to running). Starting this week, I will be starting Spinning classes at my local gym and plan to begin working on a real bike when we start to move into the warmer months.

Over the course of this year, I will be running in a number of races to also help prepare me for the Ironman.  Those races are as follows:

March 26 - National Marathon
June 4 - Susan G Komen Race For A Cure 5k
June 19 - Washington DC Triathlon (Swim 1.5k, Bike 40k, Run 10k)

I honestly don't know how often I will update this blog, as I mentioned above, my goal for writing this is basically to keep a record of my training and preparations for getting ready for the Ironman. Admittedly, I will probably be the only person interested in what is written here, though who knows, if you are reading along and  have any ambitions for running in a long-distance race or wanting to get in shape by running, then perhaps you will come across a few tidbits of useful information as well. If nothing else, it might be interesting to see if someone who has never run a triathlon manages to finish a Ironman :)