Ironman World Championship 2009

Whew....what a day! Everything I've ever done in endurance sports was done with an eye on this race. Getting there took a lot of learning, training, sacrifice and support. Now that I was finally there, it was just about racing.

Pre-Race

My race morning was pretty normal. I woke up 3 hours prior to the start and ate, drank, cleared myself out, etc. I went down to body marking early so I could get back to my room to just chill out. My buddy Aaron, who came out to vacation and support my race effort, came down from where he was staying. We left my condo at 6:15 to the race start. After getting through the crowds, I entered the water about 6:50. It was at this point that the enormity of the event hit me. Treading water with the thousands of people lined up on the pier and sea wall had an energy I've never experienced. I took it all in and just went into race mode, blocking out everything.

The Swim

I started out on the right hand side. Being a weak swimmer, I was getting pummeled early and often. I was convinced my nose was bleeding after the 2nd of what I swear was a kick from a breastroke. I just fought through it trying to catch some feet that were going my pace. At about the .8 mile mark, I started to feel nautious from the swells that picked up further out. Around one mile, I actually stopped, pulled off to the side and puked. Kid on a surfboard actually said, "dude, that's nasty". Even as bad as I felt, I found the humor in that comment. This was however, extremely embarassing for someone who spent 4 years in the Navy and lived in Huntington Beach for 20+ years. Yep, my friends have been relentless with the mocking since race day. After my little episode, I eased back into the swimming to make sure I didn't get sick again. I was nervous now knowing I was behind on fluids and calories. I felt just o.k. the rest of the swim and survived in 1:15:19, over 11 minutes slower than when I qualified in Arizona. I was currently in 1180th place and not feeling very good after that trainwreck of a swim.



T1

My time in the transition tent was actually pretty quick. The problem I had is that my shoes were clipped to my bike rather than in my transition bag. I did this to speed out of T1. I went out of the tent and came up on three people who came out of T1 in their bike shoes. They were running side by side and I couldn't get around them. They weren't moving too fast so it was almost a walk. I ended up with a 3:44 transition.

The Bike

I normally don't take fluids or calories for the first 30 minutes of anything over an olympic distance race. My stomach just doesn't handle anything well if I take anything sooner. After my episode during the swim, I knew I didn't have that luxury. I started sipping water off my aero bottle for the first couple of minutes before taking a gel 5 minutes in. I absorbed it well and started to pick off a ton of people. The first 20 miles or so was either dead calm or had a significant tail wind. There were a ton of drafting marshalls. I was the guy doing the passing so I had no issues but I saw A LOT of penalties being handed out. It was funny watching the packs up ahead of me spread out as soon as that motorcycle would get near and how they would bunch up as soon as it left. I left nothing to chance and just went a little harder near these groups to get clear of any potential problems with the drafting police. Being in 1180th place left a lot of people to chase and chase I did. I had passed hundreds early on. I felt great, my rotation of gels then Accelerade were going down extremely well and I felt pretty cool despite the heat. I was in racing mode, not deferring to anyone I saw on the bike. Once the road tipped up toward Hawi, the heat took a turn. They say it went from mid 80's on that first section to mid 90's and I'm not going to argue it. It was crazy hot. I was just focusing on heat management at this point, not wanting to blow. I didn't pass as many people going up as a result but I wasn't getting passed either. After the turn, I went for my special needs bag....oops, it wasn't there. I had planned on it not being there and what I would do. It only had nutritional item in it, a 32oz bottle of Accelerade. Accelerade is great for me due to it's caloric density and how my gut takes it. Gatorade hits my gut harder but the new plan was to just deal with it. Coming down the hill was quite interesting. It was windy but my Zipp 808 combo did very well. The interesting part was the amount of people up in their bars. I hadn't seen this yet but I'd see a lot more of it the rest of the race. Seeing how I was passing people got me fired up. I had the Ricky Bobby line "Engage" go through my head and I just started hammering past people. This was really fun! Anyway, I went down the hill and back out to the Queen K. To say the conditions were different now would be an understatement. The wind was directly in my face for the final 30+ miles. Pure carnage out there with people in their $10,000 setups sitting up on their bars. I was able to stay aero the entire time so while my speed slowed considerably, I was riding well compared to those around me and that's all I had to go on. I finished the bike with pretty good legs and felt ready to run. My final bike split was 5:14:12. I had passed 677 people and was now in 503rd place.

T2

The final 5 miles of the bike had me knowing I'd need to hit the port a john for a #2 so I took care of that. It was basically a sauna in that thing. Anyway, I got my run stuff and went out after a slow transition due to the stop. T2 time 4:30.

The Run

This is the part I looked forward to the most. I felt my training improved my run discipline more than the others this year and now was the payoff. I went out feeling great. Saying that, I just kept getting passed by tons of people while not passing many. I checked my splits and I was running in the mid 7 minute range so I just stayed with my pace feeling that I was running my race. I finally started passing people after the 5.5 mile checkpoint but not a lot. The trip back through town was into a slight breeze which felt great. I was focused on the heat management piece as I'd never done anything in these kinds of conditions. I continued with water, gel, Gatorade and Salt Stick capsules. I was absorbing everything exceptionally well. Once I made the turn up Palani, I felt really hot. It was like there was some heat trap that wouldn't let it go. Add that to the hill and I stopped and walked through the aid station. After cruising in the mid 7's, this mile was a slow 9:30. I had thoughts in my head that the wheels were starting to fall off but right at that instant, all was good. The next mile was in 7:04 with similar effort which gave me a lot of confidence. After that, I just tried to maintain the same cadence while passing a lot of the folks who were passing me early on. My splits were varying more than I liked but I still felt like I was under control and not in danger of having an explosion down the road. Once inside energy lab, I really started to feel the heat. Previously, 80% of the people ahead of me were running the race. Once inside energy lab, it was down to 50%. I'm proud to say I ran the entire section and ran it well. I had hydrated so well that this section didn't affect me as badly as some. I came out of there feeling confident. I continued to clip off the miles. With 2 miles to go, there were 2 different packs of runners up the road. They looked far up the road but I was gaining quickly. I pushed pretty hard to catch them and ended up passing most of them.

At the turn back into town, Aaron was there cheering me on which was quite motivating. I asked him to call my family to let them know to be watching me as I came through the finish. The final half mile was filled with straglers and I managed to push and pass all but one that I could see. With a final mile of 6:25, I achieved my dream. Ironman World Championship Finisher!! I can't completely explain how it feels. Achievement is obviously one thing but it's something that can never be taken away from me. It's mine, I own it. It was such a priviledge to be able to compete with such a tremendous group of athletes. To finish ahead of the majority of them is just mind boggling to me based on where I came from.

My run time was 3:25:41, an Ironman PR for me. My final time was 10:03:26. I passed 194 more people during the run. I ended up 309th overall and 27th in my age group. While not a great day for me, it was solid and I wouldn't change the way I executed it.

Post Race Thoughts

While I wouldn't change anything I did on this particular day, I would change things in the future. I found I can handle the heat quite well. I held back a bit throughout the day as I had been warned by EVERYONE I know who's completed the race to respect the heat. I had great legs at the end as evidence by a 6:25 finishing mile. My body felt better, by far, after this race than after any of the other 4 iron distance races I've done. That leads me to believe that I had more to give. Don't get me wrong, I was quite tired. I raced smart which allowed me to race the World Championships almost 2 hours faster than my first Ironman in 2005. I hope I have the opportunity to do this race again in the future. What an amazing experience.