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Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Race day recap
I figured I better put this together while it is still fresh in my mind.
I slept very well on race night and was relaxed.
Brian, my coach, and I got up at 3:30am.
We got things ready and headed down to the Hotel Resatarunt for a bagel.
We just sat in the lobby area overlooking the dark ocean and relaxing for about 45 minutes.
Brian drove me down close to the start and dropped me off with my gear.
I went into the Bike area, checked my tire pressure, and prepared my gear for transition.
I met Brian and my parents just outside of the athlete area and sat on some stairs for nearly an hour and half, waiting and relaxing. It was very calm and I stayed relaxed as I prepared mentally.
As 7:00am approached, I made my way back into the athlete area with my swim cap and goggles. I went down onto the beach and stayed at the very back waiting for all of the other athletes to get into the water. It was about 6:58 when I decided to start my swim towards the start line. I was just about to the massive pack of athletes when the canon went off. Perfect timing.
I was very relaxed on the swim and never had any panic issues, I passed a lot of swimmers as I made my way to the half way marker, which I passed at about 43:00. After I rounded the halfway mark, I decided to step it up, but I was also now by myself. The problem with this is that I'm not a very good spotter, so I wound up off course on 3 different occasions. Fairly sure I put in about 2.6 miles instead of 2.4 :-) Funny stuff.
As I approached shore, I stretched my calves out in the water a few times and that worked out very well. I exited on the stairs and came up the stairs very slow to make sure I had no cramping.
Made my way through the showers and grabbed my Bike bag. Made my way into the change tent and got my bike clothes on quickly. Unfortunately, I had to use the port a potty real quick. Glad they have these in the change tent. I ran out and around the perimeter and made my way to my bike. Helmet and sunglasses on and run it out of T1. Mounted up and on my way.
The bike started out kind of interesting. We headed actually went through some city streets and made some sharp turns, putting in around 6 to 8 miles before making our way onto the Queen K for our main ride.
This is it, on the Queen K highway headed towards Hawi. Ride started out real well. Nice little tail wind and my average speed was higher that expected at this point. I was very thirsty after spending an hour and 33 minutes in the sea water. I quickly went through my 48oz of Perform within the first 10 miles, which luckily is where the first aid station is. I grabbed a Perform and a bottle of water. Both 20oz. I continued to get at least 1 and sometimes 2 bottles of fluid from each aid station, which was every 5 miles. Doing some quick math, I estimate I took in more than 5 gallons of fluid on this 112 mile bike ride with no potty breaks. You think it was hot? In addition to the fluids, I also took in 1 gel at every other aid station for additional calories needed for the ride.
The ride out the Queen K went fairly well, but I knew what I was in for. That last 20 miles to Hawi are intense to say the least. With head and cross winds gusting to 60mph, this 20 mile stretch breaks even the heartiest of bike riders. I buckled down and held on. The winds were as expected and there were times I thought I might wreck because the cross winds were so strong. There were times I peddled hard down a hill and topped 11mph. I knew once I got to the top and made the turn, that it was a quick ride back down. Still scary with the cross winds, but much easier.
I finally crested the mother of Kona kills and made my way into Hawi for the turn. It was the greatest feeling to make that turn I've seen on TV so many times and start my decent back into town. 20 miles later, I was back on the Queen K and had managed to not get blown off the road.
So, now that I'm back on the Queen K and headed back to town, I really expected the ride to be much easier. What I hadn't planned on was the surface temperatures rising to over 120 degrees. It was like riding through and oven. You could feel the heat radiating from the lava surrounding you. I tried to stay in aero and continued to stay hydrated. My only real problem came from my feet actually swelling from the heat and feeling like I crammed them into shoes that were 2 sizes too small. Toes hurt and feet felt like they were on fire.
All things considered, I had a great ride. No real pain anywhere other than feet and I stayed well hydrated.
I made my way into T2 with about a 6:51 bike time. Not as fast as I wanted, but still within my planned window.
T2 went well with 2 exceptions. I had to pee again (This is good though) and I lost my bib number on the bike ride. I had a second bib in my run bag, but didn't notice I was missing mine until after they took the bag from me. They had to go chase it down and bring it back and then I had to pin the bib number to my run belt. May have lost 2 or 3 minutes here in transition.
Off to do a marathon after being out for about 8 hours and 45 minutes. Woohoo.
I head out of T2 in full stride feeling great. Big smile and energized.
Honestly, the run is not as bad as they make it look on TV. At least in my time range. This is because the first 7 miles takes place on Alii drive and at this time of the day, Alii drive is mostly shaded. It was very nice. Then there is this "killer" hill on Palini Drive to climb to the Queen K. Okay, it's a steep hill, but it's only 3 blocks long. You can walk this bad boy in less than 5 minutes. I ran it, slowly. Now, onec you're on the Queen K, this is where you see desert and lava rock for the run. Well, for me, the sun was just about down, so the temperatures were actually kind of nice and by the time I got to the dreaded Energy Lab, the sun had been down for at least 30 minutes and I could barely see. It was pitch black. They handed out these glow bands, but even those were hard to see. I should mention I was lucky enough to meet up with 2 great people about 7 miles into the run and we ran the next 19 miles together. It was great and probably helped me a lot in my pace. The run went fairly good. I continued to stay hydrated at every aid station, which in turn meant I had to stop 3 times at port a potties, but thats better than getting dehydrated.
Now, here's that part that "Sucks". We head down the Queen K to Palini dr and turn onto Palini, we go down 2 blocks and hang a left. The problem, we can see the finish line and heat Mike Riley announcing just a block away, yet we have a little more than a mile still to go. I guess it really isn;t that big of a problem, because your adreneline starts to kick in and you begin to get pulled to the finish line. We make another turn towards Alii, go one block, and then another turn onto Alii. Can't see the finish because Alii curves a little, but you can here the crowd. It's intense. Here it is, the dream, the climax, the end of the worlds greatest single day endurance event. I'm probably less than a minnute from the finish line at this point. I'm fairly sure I'm smiling so big that the edges of my mouth are now touching my ear lobes. My feet are moving so fast I'm not sure my body can keep up. I'm sprinting towards the finish line like I'm Craig Alexander with Macca 3 feet behind me, chasing me down. I run up the carpeted ramp as I hear Mike Riley announce my name followed by "You are an Ironman". It was absolutely amazing. Here I am, at the Ironman World Championships fulfilling a life long dream.
Next to my wedding and the birth of my children, this is the greatest moment in my life. This is a day I will never forget and I'm fairly sure, I'll never be able to top.
After finishing in 13:21:21, I went back to the hotel, grabbed a shower and got changed into some clothes that smelled a lot better, and went back down to the finsih line to cheer on the other finishers. How great it was to bring it the very last person with less than a minute left on the clock. 79 people did not finish the race and 1849 started the race. Kyle did not finish. He took 20 minutes off his swim, but the medical team had to pull him during the bike because of low blood pressure. Kyle is fine and will hopefully be back to fulfill his dream.
There is a lot more to write about my week here, so keep coming back if you want to hear more about my time out here in Kona...
I slept very well on race night and was relaxed.
Brian, my coach, and I got up at 3:30am.
We got things ready and headed down to the Hotel Resatarunt for a bagel.
We just sat in the lobby area overlooking the dark ocean and relaxing for about 45 minutes.
Brian drove me down close to the start and dropped me off with my gear.
I went into the Bike area, checked my tire pressure, and prepared my gear for transition.
I met Brian and my parents just outside of the athlete area and sat on some stairs for nearly an hour and half, waiting and relaxing. It was very calm and I stayed relaxed as I prepared mentally.
As 7:00am approached, I made my way back into the athlete area with my swim cap and goggles. I went down onto the beach and stayed at the very back waiting for all of the other athletes to get into the water. It was about 6:58 when I decided to start my swim towards the start line. I was just about to the massive pack of athletes when the canon went off. Perfect timing.
I was very relaxed on the swim and never had any panic issues, I passed a lot of swimmers as I made my way to the half way marker, which I passed at about 43:00. After I rounded the halfway mark, I decided to step it up, but I was also now by myself. The problem with this is that I'm not a very good spotter, so I wound up off course on 3 different occasions. Fairly sure I put in about 2.6 miles instead of 2.4 :-) Funny stuff.
As I approached shore, I stretched my calves out in the water a few times and that worked out very well. I exited on the stairs and came up the stairs very slow to make sure I had no cramping.
Made my way through the showers and grabbed my Bike bag. Made my way into the change tent and got my bike clothes on quickly. Unfortunately, I had to use the port a potty real quick. Glad they have these in the change tent. I ran out and around the perimeter and made my way to my bike. Helmet and sunglasses on and run it out of T1. Mounted up and on my way.
The bike started out kind of interesting. We headed actually went through some city streets and made some sharp turns, putting in around 6 to 8 miles before making our way onto the Queen K for our main ride.
This is it, on the Queen K highway headed towards Hawi. Ride started out real well. Nice little tail wind and my average speed was higher that expected at this point. I was very thirsty after spending an hour and 33 minutes in the sea water. I quickly went through my 48oz of Perform within the first 10 miles, which luckily is where the first aid station is. I grabbed a Perform and a bottle of water. Both 20oz. I continued to get at least 1 and sometimes 2 bottles of fluid from each aid station, which was every 5 miles. Doing some quick math, I estimate I took in more than 5 gallons of fluid on this 112 mile bike ride with no potty breaks. You think it was hot? In addition to the fluids, I also took in 1 gel at every other aid station for additional calories needed for the ride.
The ride out the Queen K went fairly well, but I knew what I was in for. That last 20 miles to Hawi are intense to say the least. With head and cross winds gusting to 60mph, this 20 mile stretch breaks even the heartiest of bike riders. I buckled down and held on. The winds were as expected and there were times I thought I might wreck because the cross winds were so strong. There were times I peddled hard down a hill and topped 11mph. I knew once I got to the top and made the turn, that it was a quick ride back down. Still scary with the cross winds, but much easier.
I finally crested the mother of Kona kills and made my way into Hawi for the turn. It was the greatest feeling to make that turn I've seen on TV so many times and start my decent back into town. 20 miles later, I was back on the Queen K and had managed to not get blown off the road.
So, now that I'm back on the Queen K and headed back to town, I really expected the ride to be much easier. What I hadn't planned on was the surface temperatures rising to over 120 degrees. It was like riding through and oven. You could feel the heat radiating from the lava surrounding you. I tried to stay in aero and continued to stay hydrated. My only real problem came from my feet actually swelling from the heat and feeling like I crammed them into shoes that were 2 sizes too small. Toes hurt and feet felt like they were on fire.
All things considered, I had a great ride. No real pain anywhere other than feet and I stayed well hydrated.
I made my way into T2 with about a 6:51 bike time. Not as fast as I wanted, but still within my planned window.
T2 went well with 2 exceptions. I had to pee again (This is good though) and I lost my bib number on the bike ride. I had a second bib in my run bag, but didn't notice I was missing mine until after they took the bag from me. They had to go chase it down and bring it back and then I had to pin the bib number to my run belt. May have lost 2 or 3 minutes here in transition.
Off to do a marathon after being out for about 8 hours and 45 minutes. Woohoo.
I head out of T2 in full stride feeling great. Big smile and energized.
Honestly, the run is not as bad as they make it look on TV. At least in my time range. This is because the first 7 miles takes place on Alii drive and at this time of the day, Alii drive is mostly shaded. It was very nice. Then there is this "killer" hill on Palini Drive to climb to the Queen K. Okay, it's a steep hill, but it's only 3 blocks long. You can walk this bad boy in less than 5 minutes. I ran it, slowly. Now, onec you're on the Queen K, this is where you see desert and lava rock for the run. Well, for me, the sun was just about down, so the temperatures were actually kind of nice and by the time I got to the dreaded Energy Lab, the sun had been down for at least 30 minutes and I could barely see. It was pitch black. They handed out these glow bands, but even those were hard to see. I should mention I was lucky enough to meet up with 2 great people about 7 miles into the run and we ran the next 19 miles together. It was great and probably helped me a lot in my pace. The run went fairly good. I continued to stay hydrated at every aid station, which in turn meant I had to stop 3 times at port a potties, but thats better than getting dehydrated.
Now, here's that part that "Sucks". We head down the Queen K to Palini dr and turn onto Palini, we go down 2 blocks and hang a left. The problem, we can see the finish line and heat Mike Riley announcing just a block away, yet we have a little more than a mile still to go. I guess it really isn;t that big of a problem, because your adreneline starts to kick in and you begin to get pulled to the finish line. We make another turn towards Alii, go one block, and then another turn onto Alii. Can't see the finish because Alii curves a little, but you can here the crowd. It's intense. Here it is, the dream, the climax, the end of the worlds greatest single day endurance event. I'm probably less than a minnute from the finish line at this point. I'm fairly sure I'm smiling so big that the edges of my mouth are now touching my ear lobes. My feet are moving so fast I'm not sure my body can keep up. I'm sprinting towards the finish line like I'm Craig Alexander with Macca 3 feet behind me, chasing me down. I run up the carpeted ramp as I hear Mike Riley announce my name followed by "You are an Ironman". It was absolutely amazing. Here I am, at the Ironman World Championships fulfilling a life long dream.
Next to my wedding and the birth of my children, this is the greatest moment in my life. This is a day I will never forget and I'm fairly sure, I'll never be able to top.
After finishing in 13:21:21, I went back to the hotel, grabbed a shower and got changed into some clothes that smelled a lot better, and went back down to the finsih line to cheer on the other finishers. How great it was to bring it the very last person with less than a minute left on the clock. 79 people did not finish the race and 1849 started the race. Kyle did not finish. He took 20 minutes off his swim, but the medical team had to pull him during the bike because of low blood pressure. Kyle is fine and will hopefully be back to fulfill his dream.
There is a lot more to write about my week here, so keep coming back if you want to hear more about my time out here in Kona...
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Having dinner with my support group.
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My Cervelo racked and ready to roll.
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Just met Macca
He was having lunch at our hotel. We chatted for a few minutes. Nice guy.
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Post on Kyle Garlett updated
Please read the updated post on Kyle Garlett. It was a privilege and an honor to meet him. I'd rather spend my week talking with people like this than with the pros.
What are your planned times?
I've been asked multiple times what my goal is.
My goal is to finsih under the 17 hour time limit.
If everything goes really well, you should see me complete my swim somewhere between 1:25 and 2 hours, complete the bike somewhere between 6:30 and 7:15 after the swim, and I really hope to be able to put down a 5 hour marathon.
So, total time should be between 13 and 14 hours if everything comes together perfect.
My goal is to finsih under the 17 hour time limit.
If everything goes really well, you should see me complete my swim somewhere between 1:25 and 2 hours, complete the bike somewhere between 6:30 and 7:15 after the swim, and I really hope to be able to put down a 5 hour marathon.
So, total time should be between 13 and 14 hours if everything comes together perfect.
How do I watch you compete?
I've been asked this question a lot. Here is some information that will help you, but keep in mind that this is a 17 hour event, so it's difficult for any TV stations to broadcast live.
If you go to ironmanlive.com you can watch the event live on the internet.
Somewhere there, you can also use my bib number of 928 to watch my progress as I cross the various timing mats on the course. I think you just go to Ironman.com the day of the event for that.
The NBC broadcast of the Ironman World Championships will not be broadcast until early December. I'm sorry. I thought it would be sooner, but I was wrong. I really doubt you'll see me on this broadcast anyway. It's a 90 minute broadcast of a 17 hour event. Kind of tough to get all 18 hundred athletes into the video. :-)
If you go to ironmanlive.com you can watch the event live on the internet.
Somewhere there, you can also use my bib number of 928 to watch my progress as I cross the various timing mats on the course. I think you just go to Ironman.com the day of the event for that.
The NBC broadcast of the Ironman World Championships will not be broadcast until early December. I'm sorry. I thought it would be sooner, but I was wrong. I really doubt you'll see me on this broadcast anyway. It's a 90 minute broadcast of a 17 hour event. Kind of tough to get all 18 hundred athletes into the video. :-)
Thanks to my Hawaii support team
I feel so lucky. My coach attended a Sports Medicine conference here this week.
He knew another person attending, Margarita, who in turn had a couple of other friends in the conference, Bill and Milt. All 4 of them will be volunteering during the race at various places. The 5 of us hung out all week. On Wednesday afternoon, two of Margarita's friends, Lisa and Kim, flew in to town. They are both volunteering for the event on Saturday. Turns out I'm the only athlete competing this year that they know, so I've built up a really nice little support team. They've all been great to hang out with and provide advice (They are all Ironman finishers).
Add to that, my parents arrived on Wednesday evening as well and will be here until Tuesday next week.
Much thanks to this very special group of friends and their support before and during the race! You have all made this week even better than I thought it could have been.
He knew another person attending, Margarita, who in turn had a couple of other friends in the conference, Bill and Milt. All 4 of them will be volunteering during the race at various places. The 5 of us hung out all week. On Wednesday afternoon, two of Margarita's friends, Lisa and Kim, flew in to town. They are both volunteering for the event on Saturday. Turns out I'm the only athlete competing this year that they know, so I've built up a really nice little support team. They've all been great to hang out with and provide advice (They are all Ironman finishers).
Add to that, my parents arrived on Wednesday evening as well and will be here until Tuesday next week.
Much thanks to this very special group of friends and their support before and during the race! You have all made this week even better than I thought it could have been.
The day before race day
Here I sit in the loung area of our hotel. Forbidden from venturing out at all for the rest of the day.
I woke up at about 6:30 this morning, went for a nice, easy 18 mile ride. I finished at the pier and went for a short swim; cycled back to the hotel and that was it for today as far as workouts. I felt really good. Stronger and fresher than I ever have.
Today the skies are blue with not a hint of a cloud anywhere. This is the first day we've seen weather this nice. Not really sure what that means for tomorrow. Frankly, I'd like to have overcast skies, but no rain.
For those of you who think it's been a relaxing week of sun and play, I've got another story for you. Although this has been an incredible experience and a lot of fun, this week has been non stop activities. I went for a short 4 mile run yesterday, but wound up walking more than 7 miles throughout the day; thus the reason I banned to the hotel today. I will leave at 2:15 to head down and check my bike and gear in and then have dinner around 5:00, but that's it for today. I can't tell you how bored I am, but I know it's good for me to relax the day before the race.
So, I wrote about my Saturday and Sunday workouts. For those of you who are interested, read on to hear what the rest of the week was like for training.
Monday I went for my morning swim at 6:15 again. About 50 minutes. Then I followed it up with an aggressive 90 minute ride on the Queen K with Brian and Margarita.
Tuesday I went for my morning swim at 6:15 again. After that, I went for an easy 5 mile run, which didn't go so well.
Wednesday I went for the same swim at 6:15 again and then in the afternoon, Brian, Margarita and I went for a 70 minute hill climb ride.
Thursday was morning swim again followed by a 4 mile run a little later in the morning.
I woke up at about 6:30 this morning, went for a nice, easy 18 mile ride. I finished at the pier and went for a short swim; cycled back to the hotel and that was it for today as far as workouts. I felt really good. Stronger and fresher than I ever have.
Today the skies are blue with not a hint of a cloud anywhere. This is the first day we've seen weather this nice. Not really sure what that means for tomorrow. Frankly, I'd like to have overcast skies, but no rain.
For those of you who think it's been a relaxing week of sun and play, I've got another story for you. Although this has been an incredible experience and a lot of fun, this week has been non stop activities. I went for a short 4 mile run yesterday, but wound up walking more than 7 miles throughout the day; thus the reason I banned to the hotel today. I will leave at 2:15 to head down and check my bike and gear in and then have dinner around 5:00, but that's it for today. I can't tell you how bored I am, but I know it's good for me to relax the day before the race.
So, I wrote about my Saturday and Sunday workouts. For those of you who are interested, read on to hear what the rest of the week was like for training.
Monday I went for my morning swim at 6:15 again. About 50 minutes. Then I followed it up with an aggressive 90 minute ride on the Queen K with Brian and Margarita.
Tuesday I went for my morning swim at 6:15 again. After that, I went for an easy 5 mile run, which didn't go so well.
Wednesday I went for the same swim at 6:15 again and then in the afternoon, Brian, Margarita and I went for a 70 minute hill climb ride.
Thursday was morning swim again followed by a 4 mile run a little later in the morning.
Much thanks to everyone for their support
I wanted to take an opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support through this challenge of mine. Without my wonderful wife, none of this ever would have been possible. She made many sacrifices and now stays at home to watch our children while I'm in Hawaii fulfilling a dream of mine. Angie is truely an amazing person.
Coach Brian of McWilliams training had some special challenges this year. He had to take someone who had never competed in a triathlon and did not know how to swim and train him to be ready for the most challenging one day endurance event in the world. Brian put together all of my workouts, helped with nutrition, assisted with injuries, and accomplished the end goal. Here I am just hours away from the Ironman and in the best shape of my life. I have no doubts in my ability to complete this event. As long as I am smart about nutrition, hydration, and can avoid any mechanical issues, the finish line should not be an issue.
Friends, family, and co-workers for all of their supporting comments along the way. There have been a ton and I really appreciate it.
Much thanks to all of you who have made this possible!
Coach Brian of McWilliams training had some special challenges this year. He had to take someone who had never competed in a triathlon and did not know how to swim and train him to be ready for the most challenging one day endurance event in the world. Brian put together all of my workouts, helped with nutrition, assisted with injuries, and accomplished the end goal. Here I am just hours away from the Ironman and in the best shape of my life. I have no doubts in my ability to complete this event. As long as I am smart about nutrition, hydration, and can avoid any mechanical issues, the finish line should not be an issue.
Friends, family, and co-workers for all of their supporting comments along the way. There have been a ton and I really appreciate it.
Much thanks to all of you who have made this possible!
Athletes in training
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Thursday, October 7, 2010
Me and my swimming inspiration, Kyle Garlett
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Coach Brian, Bill and I talking before my morning swim.
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Wednesday, October 6, 2010
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