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Ironman Arizona- Last minute decision race

11/21/2017

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You may or may not have heard….but yes, Jacqui and I just finished up Ironman Arizona.  This was not in the plans just a mere 4 weeks ago.  But you never know what life will throw at you…and why not take advantage of every opportunity and live life every moment that you can? 

After a rough go at the Ironman World Championships, Jacqui and I weren't ready to end the year.  We talked about racing once more before the year end because we felt that sickness got the best of us and we really wanted all the hard work/training that we put in to be put to better use.  Not to mention, we both love to race, travel, and go to new places.  We searched to see what options we had and came down to 3:  Florida, Arizona, or Cozumel.

Cozumel was the first to toss out.  We had done the race two times before and wanted something new.  Yes, it is our favorite race, but the other two options seemed better.  Florida may have been the top choice, but it was really close post Kona so there was a little bit of the unknown.  We both leaned towards Florida though as:

1) I would be able to drive there making travel with the bikes easy 

2) it was an amateur only race which meant that if we both raced well, there could be a tiny chance that one or both of us could be an Ironman champion. 

The only downside:  I was still sick post Kona.  I had gone to the doctor after not getting better 10 days post Kona.  They said that I had severe sinus/ear and upper respiratory infections.  I had trouble breathing while attempting to do any training- so Florida was bagged and it was down to Arizona.  Arizona had a ton of positives:  1) flights were CHEAP!  I booked mine round trip for $125.  2) We had a free place to stay with one of my dad’s friends from growing up that was 20 mins away from the race site.  3) It gave me a few extra weeks to try and get healthy / recovered.  4) Arizona had raving reviews, so it was exciting to go to a new race venue and check it out!


Shortly after making the decision to race, Jacqui and I decided that we didn’t really want to talk about or tell anyone that we were going to race Arizona.  Sometimes, there is just added pressure with all eyes on you.  We thought it would be fun to go into a race under the radar and stress free with no expectations or big goals.  Just go race to our potential and do what we love to do.

Leading into the race, it was good and it was bad.  I still battled sinus problems and had daily congestion.  Disclaimer for grossness, but here is a photo of what I dealt with each day.  
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Daily globs...
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Coughing up this stuff was getting old
Every day, thick, green, globs came out of my nose.  My head constantly felt stuffy and I always needed tissue to blow my nose.  Oddly, I felt ok…but knew that the thick gross stuff coming out of my head was a sign that I was still battling with something.  Regardless, even while training, I was able to have some great sessions.  Run paces and power on the bike were right where I expected them to be.  Breathing was getting easier and I become more and more optimistic that I would be ok to race in Arizona.

Race week- I flew out solo on Wednesday for the Sunday race.  I got in Wednesday evening and was able to get pretty settled.  I took the Wednesday flight since it was the cheapest option and also allowed me to adjust in case my head got clogged from the flight.  Sure enough, I was dealing with the thick green stuff and was pretty filled in the head upon arriving.  I struggled on my first run on Thursday and took some medicine to try and break it up to hopefully clear me out before the Sunday race. ​

Saturday I started to come around again.  Jacqui had arrived the night before and we were able to get our pre-race workouts together.  It was much easier to breathe even though I was still blowing my nose every few minutes.  I was excited/nervous to give racing one more big go in the 2017 year!
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Reasons why we chose to race in Arizona...no words needed: photos say enough!
Race morning was one of the best yet.  Jacqui and I were up early and over to the race site with so much time to spare.  Parking and getting our race gear set up was a breeze.  That was until we were about to leave transition to go drop off our bags to start the race.  I saw something sticking out of the back of Jacqui’s tire, took a closer look, and realized it was a big bristle stuck into the tire.  I pulled it out and the air came screaming out.  That could have been terrible!  I had heard stories about all of the flat tires that happen during this race because the bristles of cacti get blown across the road and stick into the tires of the bikes that roll past.  I was going to take an extra measure of putting some sealant into our tubes before the race, but I had never done it before and got a touch scared that I would mess something up and cause more problems.  After pulling the thorn out of Jacqui’s tire, I instantly regretted that I hadn’t taken some time to figure the sealant out and test it.  For those that don’t know anything about sealant:  sealant is a thick, slime substance that you pour into your bike tube.  If you get a small needle or puncture in your tube, the sealant flows into the spot and fills the hole to block any air from coming out. It won’t help during a major blow out, but for some pin needle puncture, it can work well. ​

Crisis adverted as I changed Jacqui’s tube and put in a new one.  But it instantly left us both a bit worried that we could be getting some flats during the race.  After finalizing our gear and bags, it was off to line up at the swim start.
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Swim start reminded me of Chatty with the bridges!
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I decided to line up right around the 1 hour group with Jacqui a little bit behind me.  It was my first time using a sleeveless wetsuit in a race, and I was a little bit worried about it.  For some reason, I’ve struggled in just about every wetsuit swim that I have done.  I get really tired and run out of energy a lot faster than when I don’t wear one.  I was wondering it was from the extra material around my shoulders while wearing a full sleeved suit.  So I went with a sleeveless suit, but the water in Arizona is known to be COLD.  As the rolling start began, I put aside any fears and just concentrated on swimming as easy and smooth as I could.

Jumping into the water, I didn’t feel so bad.  It didn’t seem to shock me or feel that cold.  I was even swimming smooth and strong right from the start.  I’m not sure if I started too far back though as I was immediately passing quite a few people.  As always, the swim felt like it was taking forever to get to the far turn around buoy- the course itself was very simple:  swim straight down, make two quick left hand turns, and then swim straight back down.  The only thing was that the ‘canal’ was not exactly straight.  I had a slight curve to it, so if you swam along the side wall, you might swim further. ​

After I got to the far turn around and started to head back, I started to feel cold and losing energy.  I also wasn't thinking clearly anymore as I started to veer off to the side all by myself and was close to the side wall.  Before I knew it, nobody was around me and I was no place near the swim buoys.  How did that happen???  I think that I was more concerned about how I couldn’t feel my arms anymore and stopped paying any attention to what direction I was swimming in.  I really struggled to find any rhythm felt like getting back to land was taking entirely too long.  Sure enough, when I popped out of the water, I saw one of my slowest swims to date- 1:02.  I was really disappointed, but knew that Ironman was a long day and I could still salvage a good race if I had a good bike and run.
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Map of my swim (blue line was what I did). Should have swam where the black lines are
Onto the bike I struggled to get settled.  My feet and hands were ice cold and numb.  It was still in the upper 50’s, and after being in the water for too long, I couldn’t even push the buttons on my watch.  The bike course was simple just like the swim, out and back…only this time it was 3 loops.  I had heard about this bike course as being fast and easy.  The way out was a gradual incline, nothing too hard, but just enough to limit your speed from being too fast.  The way back would be fast as you would get the downhill.  While I didn’t notice the incline while going out, I did notice the wind.  Wow, it was pretty strong!  Good news was that my power/watts on the bike felt effortless.  I was able to ride along at good watts albeit only going anywhere between 17-19 miles an hour going out.  I was still moving past quite a few people and making up ground on those ahead of me.  I even questioned if my power meter was reading too high because of how easy it felt!

After I made it to the far turn around, I immediately felt the tailwind.  Wow- the way back was going to be awesome!  And it sure was.  What was 17-19mph turned into anywhere between 30-38 mph.  I was running out of gears and had to spin pretty quickly just to keep the power up.  I made it back to town in 34 minutes.  That same trip when first going out took me 56 minutes!  This put me at 1hr 30 minutes to finish one loop, and I got pretty excited to see that if I kept it up I would ride in the 4.5 hr range. ​

Lap 2.  I still was riding along with good power and spirits were high.  I could tell I was making my way up in the standings and nearing the front of the age group race.  But then the congestion set in.  I started to blow my nose every few minutes and the big green globs were back. The sleeves on my kit were covered in the thick mucous, but I needed to keep getting as much of it out as I could.  My body was still fighting the infection going on in my head, but I was feeling ok enough to keep fighting and pressing on.  It was also during lap two that I had something crazy happen.  As I was making the pass on a female rider that was on her first lap, she suddenly veered right into me for no reason and almost took me out.  I figured it was because a gust of wind caught her and pushed her over.  Nope.  As I looked back, she was in her aerobars texting on her cell phone!  I had never seen such a thing during a race and immediately screamed at her to put that away and watch where she was riding.  What has gotten into people?!
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Head down and go!
Past that, I continued to press on up the road.  Loop 2 was a touch slower as it seemed that the wind was a little stronger, but my power was still good and I was still making up ground on everyone up ahead of me.  I finished up the loop in 1:33, so I was still on pace for a bike split in the 4:3x’s.  It wasn’t until I started lap 3 that I knew I was starting to get into some trouble.  My body was simply fatigued.  Nutrition was fine, hydration seemed fine, it simply was fatigue.  I immediately began to question why I was out there and just wanted to be done.  But then I saw Jacqui coming by as she was finishing her second lap.  I did some quick math and realized she was having a FAST race.  It got me really excited knowing that she could have an incredible time if she held it together and then did her normal on the run.  Knowing that about Jacqui is what got me through that last lap.  Sure my power was a lot lower, but I was still moving forward and once I got to the far turnaround I would barely even have to pedal the last 18 miles because of the downhill and tailwind. ​
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5 mile splits- you can easily see where the downhill/tailwind vs uphill/headwind sections were!
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Fighting through the wind
Back into town, I ended up finishing the bike in 4:41 which made my last lap 1:37.  I definitely had slowed, but still finished the bike averaging close to 24mph.  I felt awkward and in pain as I made my way into transition.  A quick change and off onto the run course I went.  I had a feeling that I was fairly high in the standings and as it turned out I was the 5th amateur onto the run.  Nothing felt right and I had a feeling that I was in for another long run, just like Kona.

In that first mile, I concentrated on trying to find some sort of rhythm, but couldn’t until I was finally able to relieve myself.  Once done with that, my pace immediately improved.  Through the first mile in 6:47 and then mile 2 in 6:30.  Things were coming around!  Mile 3- 6:15!  I continued to move through the miles and the pace was holding consistently.  I started to settle right in the 6:30-6:40 range and figured even with a small drop off I would be able to be sub 3 hours. ​

Around mile 8, the course took us up a small hill…and thats when the body started to shut down again.  It wasn’t as immediate as in the past, but my stride was gone, and I wanted to be done.  I also was noticing that I couldn’t get enough fluids in.  The dry air was making it seem like I could never ‘quench’ my thirst.  I knew that the second loop of the run was going to be quite a struggle because even before I started it, my pace had dropped into the mid 7s and it was extremely uncomfortable.
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Still ok- but the downfall was coming
I made my way to special needs and grabbed my handheld bottle of salty lemonade with caffeine.  It helped just a touch, but realized that I drank it way too fast.  I forgot just how much salt I had put into my bottle.  All of that salt that I had taken in throughout the day was not helping how thirsty I had felt.  I dumped the rest of my bottle and used it to fill up with water for the rest of the run.  After getting through about 8 tough miles and a lot of water intake, I actually started to feel quite a bit better.  I think it was too much salt too early in the race (on the bike and early miles of the run) that made me feel really off.  My miles started to improve as I moved back into the low 7s all the way into the finish line. ​

When I finished, the only thing that I thought was, “my body needs a break.”  After racing quite hard year after year as well as finishing my 7th Ironman in the last 2 years, I realized that I had asked quite a lot of my body.  A break was needed as I was run down.  But to put it into perspective, an 8hour 59 min Ironman finish on a run down body is pretty good :)
I made my way over to my bags after hobbling around to grab my phone so that I would be able to track Jacqui.  Volunteers kept asking me if I was ok as they said I didn’t look too great, but I shrugged it off as I figured I just had finished an Ironman.  It took me a while to find out where my bag was, but finally got it and saw that Jacqui was on pace to be way under her 10 hour goal.  It was shortly after that I sat down and called my dad.  Out of no where, I panicked.  I had extreme shortness of breathe and I didn’t know where I was.  My dad was screaming through the phone to get help as I fell to the ground.  Volunteers came rushing over and carried me into the medical tent.  I don’t even really remember what happened after that- I was in somewhat of a blank state of mind.  I know that they struggled to get an IV in me because my body was ice cold.  They had to put blankets and heated towels over me to warm my core temp up before the IV was able to go in.  Luckily, medical helped quite a bit and got me back to ok conditions.  Surprisingly, I bounced back pretty quickly from the IV and was able to walk out to see Jacqui being treated for war wounds of her own.  She had finished in 9:46, a huge PR and 4th amateur overall.  A huge day and I couldn’t have been more proud.

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Ironman number 13 for me, 11 for Jac
Now that I’ve had to had some time to reflect a little bit, there is still so much unknown of what is to come next.  Will there be an Ironman in 2018?  Will there be Kona in 2018?  I still don’t know.  Nothing is planned out and it somewhat feels good knowing that.  I typically get anxious trying to figure out what is next. 

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I do know that I am looking forward to some time to let my body heal and recover and eat more fruit snacks / candy that my body can handle (oh wait, I already do that).  I also know that it has been an incredible string of years full of memories (some more painful that I’d like to forget!).  I couldn’t be more grateful for my family, friends, sponsors, and of course incredible wife for all of the support not only this year, but ever since I began this crazy journey of endurance sports.


Here’s to some time spent in the offseason!
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Ironman World Championship - 2017 Edition

11/6/2017

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I’m sure you all know that feeling.  You take a breath and it feels like your nose turned into exhaust pipes with fire coming out of them.  You don’t have that normal pep to your step and even the little day to day tasks seems to take a little more energy out of you than normal.  Sometimes you try to convince yourself that you are just a little worn down and just need some extra rest.  Ultimately we all know what is to follow…being sick and down for the count.

I specifically remember those feelings on Wednesday, Oct. 4.  I woke up just as every other day and got on with my day.  I had to run a few errands and headed out to Libertyville to meet up with Michael from Ice Friction to pick up my newly coated chainrings, cassettes, and chains for Kona.  While driving, I felt just ‘off’ and chalked it up from just getting through the bulk of my training.  But then I felt the hotter than normal air starting to come out of my nose.  Not good.  I made sure to get to bed early that night in hopes that the sleep would recharge my body and have me back to normal.  No luck.  I woke up a few times that night in a cold sweat dripping through my clothes.  NOT GOOD.  I couldn’t believe it, just over a week out and a day before leaving for Kona I caught a bug and was sick.  At first I was frustrated and tried to deny it, but knew that I had just over a week to hopefully kick whatever I had and be ready to toe the line at the 2017 Ironman World Championships.

That Friday (Oct 5), I really struggled to get through the day.  I had a lot to do between disassembling bikes, packing, finishing some coaching plans, and getting the house cleaned up before leaving for the week.  Every little task took much longer than normal and I felt extremely weak even just moving.  All I wanted to do was lay in bed, but had so much to do before leaving the next morning.  I made sure to take some cold and flu medicine which seemed to help in little bouts, but I knew I was pretty sick and just prayed that it would get better before race day. ​

The next morning, one week out from the race, I was planning on waking up early to get out and run 8 miles with Jacqui before out flight.  No luck there as I woke up feeling even more miserable than the day before.  I had started to cough a lot more, my throat had seized up, and getting words out took a ton of effort.  I opted to sleep in the extra hour before hopping into the car with my dad and Jacqui to head out to the airport.
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If I learned anything from the trip, that one thing was that flying while sick is absolute misery.  Our flight took off Saturday morning with a few hours layover in LA.  I made it through the first flight ok, but then struggled quite a bit on the second one from LA to Honolulu.  With a quick stop in Honolulu, I felt the effects of flying and just wanted to be back in home and in bed.  I had completely lost my voice and could tell things were much worse than before we left.  Since our flight was quite a bit delayed over to Kona, we got in a lot later than expected, and I was wiped.  Between the time change, full day of travel, and battling the sickness, I was losing all hope for a good race which was then 6 days away.


Our original plan was to build the bikes up after checking into our condo, but since we were delayed, and I was exhausted, I just went right to sleep after checking in.  We had a lot planned for the next two days, so I figured the more sleep I could get, the better.  Jacqui and I woke up Sunday morning with a full schedule on tap.  We planned on heading up to Hapuna beach, parking, and then riding out bikes from there to the turnaround point in Hawi, then ride back.  Since I wasn’t able to build the bikes up the night before, I ended up assembling them in the parking lot at the beach.  Even though it was 8am, I was sweating bullets and felt lightheaded / congested.  Being stubborn, I really wanted to get a ride in since I did no training the previous 2 days.  I also felt ok enough that I figured if I rode easy, it wouldn’t be too bad.  The ride ended up being pretty good given the circumstances (45 miles or so in 2 hours).  As soon as the ride finished we threw on running shoes and did a quick 2 mile brick run.  This is where I struggled…easy run pace was extremely difficult and my heart rate was through the roof.  It sure scared me, but I chalked it up to the heat/humidity and long day of travel.  I didn’t want the sickness to start playing games in my head and did everything I could to convince myself that race day would be ok. ​
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The rushing continued as we immediately threw our gear in the car, zipped back to the condo, rinsed off, and packed an overnight bag.  We were immediately back at the airport to fly over to Honolulu to meet Jacqui’s parents for a luau and island fun.  This all sounded wonderful and great when we booked it all…but when my energy was severely limited, it was very difficult to enjoy the fun activities we had planned.  It was nice that the flight was a quick 35 mins and Jacqui’s parents met up at the airport to give us a ride to the luau.  At that point, I was ready for bed, but kept the eyes pried open and did my best to enjoy the food/show. ​
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That night, I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.  I still felt really sick / nauseous and woke a few times in the middle of the night to take medicine.  The next morning was another busy day as we were up at 5am to head out for a full day of Pearl Harbor / Honolulu touring.  Our tour bus picked us up and we were gone until around 4pm.  A whole lot of exploring and walking around left me wiped again.  I definitely wouldn’t trade it for anything though as I learned quite a bit and had a great time.  I would highly recommend that if ever in Hawaii..make a stop for the day and see / learn more about Pearl Harbor.  Incredible stuff and left me in awe for many parts of the day. ​

After touring for the day, it was back onto the plane at night to zip back over to Kona.  It was a busy/packed 1.5 days, but still only Monday…so plenty of time to rest up and get race ready!  We landed back in Kona late Monday, grabbed some quick food, and went to bed right away thereafter.
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For the sake of boring-ness, I won’t go into detail about the next few days as there really wasn’t much that went on.  I seemed to continue to improve and even had a voice to talk starting on Wednesday morning.  Some energy had come back, but I was still really nervous that going into the race less than 100% was going to be a tough task to tackle.  Jacqui and I did a whole bunch of the usual pre - race activities like swimming to the coffee boat, running in the underpants run, and drinking lots of Kona coffee.  I was even able to start getting some faster paced pick ups and efforts in while training for the few days pre-race!  By race morning, I knew I was in for a different kind of battle, but knew I would give it everything that I had given the circumstances. ​
RACE Day-​

Up at 3am, I felt ready.  I mentally was ready to have a good race.  I love the quiet time in the morning as I make coffee and sit outside on the lanai eating my pre race breakfast of oatmeal, banana, and PowerBar.  There is just a calmness where I can mentally prep race execution in different types of situations.  We all know that in Ironman racing, anything can truly happen.  So the more that you are prepared for it, the better you will perform!

Race morning at Kona is incredible.  You check in your special needs bags, hop in line to get body marked, get weighed in at the scales, and then are set off to your bike to get them prepped.  Time moves much too quickly and seems that you are in the water waiting for that cannon to blast.  I waited until 8 minutes before race start before hopping into the water and swimming over to the start line.  Kona is quite interesting in that you are required to swim the 200 or so meters out to the start line.  You then tread water with hundreds of your best friends (or enemies ;) ) before the cannon is blasted to start the race.  This year, I felt that I had the best start that I ever have had in Kona.  I kept a keen eye on my watch so that I would know when to expect the cannon as it always seems to come out of no where!  I soaked in the Hawaiian drummers and tried to really appreciate that I was out there doing something that I love and SO many others would give anything to be in my position.
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I started my watch about 30 seconds before the start as I wouldn’t have to fumble it pushing start and then swimming.  I was able to get off the line quickly and took the first 200 or so meters out quickly.  To my surprise, I have completely clear water to my right.  It was oddly eerie as it almost felt like I was off course or not really swimming where I was supposed to.  I could not even see ONE body to my right.  Sure enough though, I converged with swimmers that started on the right and chaos began.  From about 500 meters until the finish of the swim, I was jammed in tight with hundreds of other swimmers.  I was feeling pretty comfortable and the effort wasn’t too bad.  Between all of the chaos of race morning, I realized that I didn’t say any prayers before the start, so took time as I was swimming to pray for all of those out there, especially Jacqui.  I think a lot about her as we are out there racing. Always hoping that her race is going well, that she is safe and healthy, and that we make it through the day to the best of our abilities.

When I got to the turn around boat, I took a quick glance at my watch and saw 28 mins.  I figured this was a good point to be at and set me up nicely to swim sub 60 mins which was my goal coming in.  The back stretch of the swim course is usually a little less congested, but there are still a lot of others around.  This year, I had another athlete cut in front of my as he was trying to hop on the set of feet that I was behind.  I got a quick kick to my eye which pushed my goggle in extremely tight.  I also swallowed a huge gulp of super salty salt water which sent me into cough gagging.  Other than that, the swim was pretty uneventful.  The tight goggle gave me a massive headache for the last 15-20 mins of the swim, but I made it out in 59 mins and knew I’d be in great position starting the bike.​

T1- just a few struggles getting my kit on due to the sleeves being stuck, but volunteers helped yank it on.  In and out with no issues.
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Onto the bike I felt ok.  Nothing great, but it usually takes a few miles to settle and get going.  As always, it was very congested with athletes all over the place.  The first 10 miles or so are a bit crazy since there isn’t much of anywhere to go and then there is a no passing zone down Palani hill.  So athletes get a bit bunched and jostle for position.  Once out onto the Queen K, I started to really focus on my hydration and nutrition.  My watts looked good and I was riding well.  By mile 19 on the bike I had ridden up to 26th place in my age group (after coming out to the water in 64th).  But shortly after, everything that I was taking in started to come out.  Sorry for the detail here but water, nutrition…it was all coming right back up and spraying off the side onto the Queen K highway (also sorry for anyone riding behind me).  This continued and after counting a total of 8 bouts of spews within the first 90 mins, I gave up counting.

Being in race mode, I continued to press and rode my normal Ironman watts of right around 215.  Right around mile 40, it hit me.  My heart rate rose, my legs felt weak and wobbly, and I could tell something was off.  All of those nutrients and fluids that were coming out left me weak and barely able to ride.  This was also the point where the winds were picking up and the climb up to the turnaround was about to happen.  I watched as I went from 215 watts, down to 145, and just turning the pedals over.  All of those that I had passed were now going past me as if I was standing still.  The effort to get up the 7-8 mile climb towards the turn around was extremely difficult and I saw the race slipping away from me. ​

By mile 50 I had come to accept that the day wasn’t going to be how I had planned.  The sickness got the best of me and my body was shutting down quickly.  The only thing that I could do was dial things back to keep moving and take in any nutrition that would sit.  And it so happened to be that Coke was the only thing really sitting.  Each aide station on the bike I grabbed two bottles and was able to finish them before getting to the next one.  It was settling ok and kept me moving.  Luckily, the wind coming back after the turn around wasn’t too bad and I was able to ride fairly quickly even on low watts.
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Power average for 5 mile stretches in the middle of the ride :(
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Looking at my Garmin post race, from mile 65-85 I averaged 132 watts.  I started to get a tiny bit of energy back at mile 85 and rode 160 watt average to the finish.  Still much much below what I normally will do, but it was all that I could do in order to get through and onto the run.  In the end, I had an average of 170 watts and still rode a 4:55.  I came off the bike 34th in the age group, but still had a long way to go!

As a side note, there was some definite blatant drafting that occurred on the bike by a few other individuals.  It is super frustrating to see and the craziest part was that it was by an individual that I raced at in Cozumel last November.  I will never forget him because he did the same thing for over 20 miles behind me in Cozumel, and it is such a shame that an athlete like that is taking spots to compete in Kona from much more deserving athletes.  He literally sat inches behind my wheel as well as others wheels.  I tried to yell and tell him to ride cleanly, but he had no expression or words to say.  Just kept on riding and enjoying the free ride.  I definitely understand that it can get congested and crazy especially in Kona, but you can at least make an effort to drop back and give space.  He would constantly look back for motor and when one would come he would surge and go around me, then drop back and ride easy when they were gone.  CRAZY!  End of rant, but I do know that this really upset me during the race and I know it shouldn’t get to my head in the future.  But I thought of all the athletes that work so hard either to race in Kona or to try and get to Kona…and then to do that…very upsetting.

Off the bike, I had some optimism as I was getting some energy back during the last 10-15 miles of the bike.  Nothing like I normally would, but at least it gave me hope.

​…that was until I started to try and run.  Immediately the legs felt like lead and my heart rate was through the roof.  My body was fighting and telling me that it couldn’t do what I was asking it to.  The normal mid 6’s per mile were much much harder than ever before.  I also felt cold and tingly even though it was 90+ degrees with a cloudless scorching sun blazing down on me.  I knew it was a BAD sign that I was cold and knew my body was fighting back at me.  I started to question if I should run as I know that things can turn for the worst if you are too stubborn.


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I ended up running the first few miles in the mid 6:30s and was passing others pretty quickly.  My competitive side really wanted to keep digging and fighting against my unwilling body.  I was even moving up in the standings and by mile 5 was in 13th in my age group.  As I kept pressing, my body had enough.  I started to get wobbly and lightheaded.  I knew I was in trouble and needed to do something.  I slowed my pace as much as I could and kept loading up on water, gatorade, coke, and gels.  Starting at mile 6, I decided that as much as I wanted to keep pressing, if I did it wouldn’t end up pretty.  There is only so much the body can handle, and mine definitely had enough already.  I convinced myself that if I just ran as slow as I possibly could and not walk, I might be ok.  With the slower pace, my heart rate came down a touch and settled.  Nothing felt good and every stride forward took all of my will power.  I still had 20 miles to go it frightened me thinking that if I walked, I would be out there for a REALLY long time. ​

By the time I got to mile 9, I was hoping that I would see Jacqui at any moment as she would be in the beginning miles of the run.  I typically see her and was shocked when I made the turn to start running up Palani hill.  All I wanted to do was see her crushing the race as I knew it would make something positive out of the day.  But I didn’t, and I got worried.  I kept pressing on and convinced myself that I must have missed her in my delirious state of mind.
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The miles ticked by one by one, each anywhere from 8:05 to 8:30. I was actually completely shocked that I was running low 8 min miles as it felt like I was going closer to 12.  I ran to the level that my body allowed me to and there was no way that I could have gone any faster than that.  As I got to around mile 18, I started to notice that not only were people not passing me anymore, but I was starting to catch a few in front of me.  I kept trudging forward, fighting, digging, and said many prayers hoping that all the athletes out there were safe and could finish strong.


I finally saw Jacqui as I was nearing mile 23 which made me feel a whole lot better knowing that she was ok.  I knew she wasn’t having the race she wanted as she would have been a lot further up the road than when I saw her.  But I did a lot of reflection over those long, slow, miles.  I had a lot to be grateful for and am truly blessed to be able to do what I love to do especially with someone that means so much to me.  We really are incredibly lucky to have spent our first 5 years of marriage celebrating on the island of Hawaii and racing in the world championships.  I know of many that can only dream of ever getting the opportunity to be there even just 1 time.
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Now don’t get me wrong…of course I was upset, mad, sad..you name it…pretty much all of the emotions as I was out there.  I worked really hard, made some big sacrifices, and put big time/money into that one day.  But in the end, I told myself that nothing in life is a given and you can’t have everything go the way that you always want it to.  All you can do is put your head down, work hard, and enjoy the journey / outcome whether it is good or bad.  So that is what I did…I put my head down and ran as hard as I could especially down that last mile and crossed the finish line completely spent.  I cried, I smiled, I collapsed.  It was over and I did everything that I could on that day.  So many emotions and feelings that I cannot even describe them all.  All I know is that in the end it was the most emotionally and physically demanding day that I have ever gone through. ​

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SPENT!
​Finishing up, I ended as 14th in the Age group and 50th overall amateur.  Definitely not too bad considering all that I went through.  I waited for Jacqui and finally were able to celebrate the good and the bad and share our stories of they day.  She fought similar battles throughout and know that the entire experience is only going to make us better athletes in the end.  I cannot wait for what is to come next!
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​As always, thank you to those that helped along the way especially in this action packed 2017 season:


EGO - power beyond belief.  4 years strong of support from such a great company.  They’ve helped Jacqui and I pursue this crazy journey and definitely could not have done it without them.


Sammy’s Bikes - Sammy has always been there, all the way back to our first year back in Kona.  Helping out any way that he can.  He is always someone that I can count on to help and his support does not go unnoticed.  His passion for those that come into his shop is reflected day in and day out.  Thank you Sammy, you truly are a great friend.


Javelin Bikes - Knowing that I am on a custom bike made to fit my dimensions has been a dream.  Easy to ride fast on low watts and even better being able to reach out and have the support of a company is great to have.  The Maggiore has been a dream to ride and always sets me up to run well!


Ice Friction - Stepping in in a huge way this year, this company has really supported Jacqui and me in more ways than I can even express.  From making sure we are always ready to go before races and making sure our equipment is top notch all the way to stepping in and helping the athletes that I coach.  Thank you for everything!


Alto Cycling- Bobby and his crew have really supported me through the last few years.  They even jumped in and supported Jacqui which was greatly appreciated.  Knowing that the products are assembled and made in the US and having someone direct to go to is huge.  Having top of the line wheels that help me go fast (even on low watts! :p ) is a wonderful asset to have.


PowerBar- Been using their products for so many years now.  Always works well and delivers what I need to get through the training each day.  Thank you PowerBar for supporting and helping us each year!
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Any when nothing cheers you up, just go ahead and order the biggest pizza you can find
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Inaugural Madison 70.3 Race Recap

6/22/2017

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Last minute races....that seems to be the theme of this year so far.  One thing is for sure though- I'm signed up for 70.3 Worlds and Kona- so I'll be fully prepared for those!

Madison 70.3 wasn't originally in the plans.  The plan was to be out in Boulder cheering for and supporting Jacqui in her Ironman for the weekend.  Unfortunately, the injury bug caught her and she was forced to make the call that racing most likely wouldn't be the smartest decision.  With 10 days until the race, I was able to get a spot on the start line for Madison 70.3 since the weekend was then open for me.  I debated a little bit as the Grand Rapids Half Iron race was the same day, but I had a few athletes racing in Madison, and I wanted to test the race out as I just LOVE the Madison area.  

Doing some pre race prep, I was able to make the quick 90 mile drive the week before the race and get in a course recon bike ride.  I knew this course wasn't the same at the full Ironman, and figured it would be nice to know what I was getting myself into.  After riding the course, I was questioning if I really wanted to race it!  What a tough one to race!  Hills and wind seemed to be the theme, but I told myself that if the wind wasn't so bad, the race itself would be a lot of fun.  

As race day got closer- the wind in the forecast looked scary.  20-30 mph sustained winds with gusts in the 45mph range.  Yikes!  As with every forecast, I tried to remember that weather changes in the blink of an eye... so instead I focused on what I would need to do in order to execute a good race.  

With the race being so close, Jacqui and I hit the road the day before the race around 1pm and made the quick drive up to Madison.  Check in was quick and easy and I was even able to meet up with athletes, Kati and Megan, before jumping into the lake for a quick swim.  Luckily, the water was much warmer than what it was the week prior.  Reports showed it went up over 11 degrees in the span of a week thanks to the 90+ heat wave that hit the midwest.  The only problem:  WIND.  WOW was it windy. 

After a quick bike drop off and dinner, it was time to finalize all the race gear back at the hotel and an early lights out due to the looming 4am wake up call.  

Race Day:

Immediately, I went outside to get a check on the weather.  Wind was still there!  But definitely went down from the day before.  As long as it held off we would all be ok.  The other problem: HOT.  Even at 4am, the temps were already in the low 70s.  It was going to be a scorcher of a day.  Over the last few years, I have preferred the heat as it tends to really open up the field of racing.  I've learned how to cope well and adjust in the heat and even have put out some great races in 90+ degree days such as in Kona.  

It was a fairly relaxed morning.  Nothing out of the ordinary- got the bike checked out, got in some pre race nutrition, and had plenty of time to spare.  I was hoping for a swim warm up, but the lifeguards didn't seem to get the memo on what time they were supposed to arrive and left all the athletes overheating on the beach standing there in their wetsuits.  
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With Megan and Kati...they were smart and didn't put their wetsuits on early

The start of the race was a rolling start.  I've come to love these as it lets you self seed yourself.  With age group waves, you end up catching others and fighting to make your way through the swim (unless you are first wave).  It just makes a messy start and overall swim as people of different swim speeds are spread out all across the course.  I seeded myself in the 27-30 min group as I was thinking a 28 min swim was right around where I would be.  

As we rolled out into the water, I got out to a quick start and was swimming right where I wanted to.  I focused on strong and efficient pulls and was feeling great.  About 7 mins into the swim though, something clicked and I felt drained.  No energy, no focus...I went from good to bad quickly.  My form was junk and I felt like I was fighting the water.  At the first turn buoy, I wanted to get out and be done.  I wasn't sure what had happened, but it just wasn't pretty.  Others were quickly passing me and I tried to refocus and tuck in behind them, but they would be gone and out of sight before I could even respond.  Maybe I had taken it out much too fast?  Whatever it was, I thought that my race was over with and that there would be no way I could make up the ground lost during the swim.  

Eventually I rolled up onto shore feeling completely out of it.  I was tired, dizzy, and not really knowing where I was.  I didn't even look down at my watch because I didn't want to get discouraged.  I did hear my dad shout out 32...which I figured was 32 minutes.  So I was definitely a bit disappointed with that, but it turns out he was yelling out what place I was in.  Swim time: 29 mins.  Not that bad considering how terrible I swam.  
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As I made my way through T1, things were not pretty.  I have never felt so 'off' and out of it.  My head was spinning and the only thing keeping me from knowing where to go was the fencing to my sides.  It was the first time I felt like this and hoped that once I could get on the bike, things would settle down a little.  

The bike didn't get much better.  

Immediately, I started riding and the watts that I typically ride at just were not there.  There are some races where I come out and I have to control myself to dial back.  Not today.  I was fighting for every watt and they weren't coming very easily.  I made the decision to dial back a little as I knew it was going to be a long day in the heat, wind, and hills.  Early in the ride, I hit a bump pretty hard and it seemed like from then on, my power meter acted up.  It gave me numbers all over the board, primarily reading 0 watts.  This may have been a good thing as seeing low numbers the entire ride may have frustrated me even more.  Instead I had to ride on feel and effort. 

Early in the ride, I was passed by another rider.  I made it a goal to not let him get too far away and let his efforts hold me accountable and dialed in.  As I neared the initial climbs around mile 14, I made the pass on the rider as I was a bit smaller and figured it wouldn't have to work as hard to get up.  My legs and body were coming around a little bit, but I still just didn't have the normal 'snap' that I feel when racing.  It was going to be a big mental test to see how hard I could press on for the remaining 3.5 hours of the race.  

I rode hard when I was able to, but needed to dial back at times to regroup and refuel.  The course itself was just as hard as it was the week prior.  Hotter, still some wind, and those hills definitely didn't get any smaller.  To add to the difficult course, many of the hills (I'd call them small mountains) had turns at the bottom.  So after you worked so hard to get to the top and then enjoy the free speed coming down the other side, you were forced to break and slow down considerably to make a sharp turn at the bottom.  Then go right back up!  It was on one of these tricky sections that I had a friend join me making the course even more difficult.  The friend?  A big german shepard sprinting at me as I'm trying to make my way up a hard climb.  I was barely moving at 9mph as he popped out of no where and had his mouth wide open ready to take a chunk out of my right calf.  I unclipped my right foot ready to defend just as he was about to get me.  He seemed to stop just as I unclipped, but then came charging back at me.  I had a little gap and sprinted to try and hold him off, and it worked!  The only problem....my heart rate was through the roof it took me the next few miles of easy riding to regroup and feel normal again.  

The rest of the race wasn't too eventful.  We had a nice tailwind to push us back into town, but the hills never went away.  I missed a turn on the crowded bike path as we were finishing which was a little frustrating, but I was able to stop and turn around to get back on track.  
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Linus captured a photo of all the guys trying to draft off of me
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Bike finish- so happy to be off of the bike
Into transition, I could tell my body was zapped.  Still no energy and the heat and hills of the bike really fatigued me.  I had a quick transition, refueled to keep the fluids coming in, and made my way out onto the run course.
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Run start
HOT- it was a tough run.  I got the update that I was in 3rd place coming out of transition and starting the run.  3 mins down to 2nd place and 7 mins down to 1st place.  Lots of ground to make up!

I didn't count myself out, but I had not felt that miserable starting a run probably in over two years.  I tried to focus on good form, fast turnover, and making sure I was staying on top of hydration and nutrition.  But my legs felt like big weights and it was hard to get rolling.  Through the first mile, I took a glance and saw 5:40.  Not too bad, but I typically will go out in 5:25 range (and feeling A LOT better).  I caught 2nd place shortly before mile 2 as he walked through an aide station.  It was then that I figured I wasn't the only one hurting.  I was able to get the update that 1st place was just up the road so from there I completely dialed back.  I caught first around mile 3 and had a big sense of relief as I was able to go into cruise control.  From then on, I never looked at my watch to see what I was running.  Rather I just stayed as comfortable as I could.  

The run course was fairly challenging...every hill stung quite a bit more than the previous one.  Luckily the first 8 miles or so were pretty shaded which kept things cool, but the hills made things interesting.  A few more updates were that I was around 4 mins ahead of the 2nd place guy which was nice to hear.  But I didn't know how fast they were running and my entire body was not cooperating.  Step after step, I trudged my way through the miles.  The last 2 miles seemed to take forever as there was a STRONG head wind.  The wind normally doesn't effect me too much, but on that day, I struggled with it.  I took a quick few glances back and couldn't see anyone, so I took it very easy to finish up the race and get to the finish line.  
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The race itself never seemed to click for me, but its good to know that even on an 'off' day I can perform at a high level.  I realized that I need to make a few changes in my training and dial things in as 70.3 worlds will require an 'A' game performance to do well at.  I've been looking at other 70.3 races as I'd like to do another before worlds.  It might end up being another last minute race decision :) 
PictureGood race or bad race...breaking the tape is AWESOME!

After the race, I was able to spend some time with all of the others that raced and you could tell the race took a toll on everyone.  So BIG congrats to everyone out there that raced!!!

To cap the day, the most exciting part happened just as everyone was about all packed up and ready to head home.  

Good friend and pretty much my first athlete that I started coaching, Megan Hode, was targeting a 70.3 Worlds slot.  She raced Chatty 70.3 early this year and came up just a touch short.  So she too signed up for Madison in hopes to try again.  As we sat at the awards, her age group was allocated 2 spots for Worlds.  The two spots were taken pretty quickly and I could tell she was pretty defeated.  We all sat in silence waited for them to finish up.  The last age group (female 18-24) had 1 slot for worlds.  And guess what...nobody took it.  The announcer fumbled through his papers and said the slot would go to the next biggest age group.  And wouldn't you know it...it went to Megan's group (30-34).  Two spots passed, and the announcer called Megan's name for the spot.  I still get chills sitting there watching it happen.  You can get a full read on the details on her blog:  meganhode.blogspot.com/2017/06/punching-my-ticket-to-worlds-wisconsin.html  Give it a read...it really is a great story!  So congrats to Megan- all of that hard work paid off!!
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Unforgettable!


As mentioned, it is a little unknown what is next for me.  I'll try to get the next one planned out a little more in advance, but no promised.  I do know that I will be cheering Jacqui on as she targets her Kona slot at Ironman Lake Placid next month!  Should be a great summer and big finish to the year!

Thanks as always to my great sponsors and supporters:

EGO
Sammy's Bikes
Javelin 
Alto
PowerBar
Ice Friction


​Until the next one! 
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Ironman Texas- North American Championships

5/11/2017

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Before getting into the nitty gritty, lets go into how I decided to race in a mere 2 hours on race week….

Going back early February, I was starting to build some endurance with the lead into Ironman Texas.  Training was going great:  my swim was faster than it ever was, my bike was on par with past performances, but my run speed was what was finally back.  I was back to running sub 10 minute 2 milers in training and was just about to get into the build of endurance.  On an early February Saturday, I came back from coaching practice and rushed into a 10 mile endurance run on the treadmill.  I was on a time crunch, rushed through the run, and immediately set out the door for a surprise birthday party.  I noticed that my back was in some pretty bad pain with any slight bending over motion.  As with most athlete mindsets, I shrugged it off and figured it was just some soreness from having a busy day and rushing around.  Day after day, the soreness never improved, and steadily started to get worse.  I continued running as I never experienced any pain while doing so.  I even was able to log a great 15 mile run down in Champaign averaged 5:50 pace in mid February…but the pain was still there when finishing.  The pain was radiating from my lower back, almost pelvis area, so I started to worry that it could be a sacral stress fracture.  As soon as the pain started to get bad when flip turning in the pool, I knew it was time to take action.  

Late February, I decided it was time to stop running and seek some help.  Luckily, I had the help of Olympia Chiro and PT in Elmhurst to get me back (pun intended) into a normal state of functioning. 

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Thank you Dr. Mike Calcagno!!!
I received treatments from Dr. Mike Calcagno 4x a week for 3 straight weeks.  Adjustments, deep massage, strength, stretching, core, and stim for over 2 hours each session.  Slowly, I was starting to feel better, but decided that I wouldn’t run until the pain was completely gone.  I instead upped the amount that I was swimming (about 6x a week) and continued to bike.  After about 3.5 weeks, I noticed that the pain was slowly gettingg better doing flip turns in the pool and shortly after decided to incorporate short running back into the plan.  At this time it was mid-March. 

​Jacqui and I made a trip out to Boulder, CO for her spring break right around when I was starting to add some running in.  Unfortunately, I came down with a bad sickness for the week and only was able to get out and run 1 time that week.  The good news was that my back held up and didn’t feel worse post run.  I still had some slight soreness in my back, so I decided to start running every 1-3 days and would stop if the soreness ever got worse.
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Can't beat Boulder riding!
With Ironman Texas only 4 weeks out, I knew I wasn’t going to have an ideal build into the race, but figured I could still try to give it a go if my injury continue to get better.  It was during the trip out to Boulder that Jacqui started to get some pain in her foot.  This was an unknown, and we were unsure if it was just a small tweak or soreness as well.  But after dealing with a year of plantar problems, Jacqui decided to take time off and see if it would heal.  This threw a big kink in our plan to race Ironman Texas together as over the next week, there was no progress with her foot.  

I continued my plan of running about every other day, but never went more than 5 miles at a time.  I put some harder efforts in there and even had some decent brick runs after some longer rides.  I continued to have back soreness but it never got worse.  Jacqui continued to not run as the pain was just too much for her.  One week out from the race, she was still unsure if she could race.  I ended up doing one day of two runs that totaled 11 miles all at around 5:45 pace.  I felt it was good, but still was not much running leading into an Ironman.  Jacqui decided the week out that she wouldn’t be able to race and would no longer make the trip out due to missing teaching, so I was left with a dilemma of going or not.  I knew my run endurance wasn’t ideal and I somewhat risked the chance of aggravating my back by biking 112 miles and running 26 after.  But I also had a few athletes/friends racing.  Many urged me to go even it was to just swim and bike, but I felt like it would be really hard for me to do without Jacqui there.  

Tuesday of race week (the day I had planned on making the drive), I still planned on not going.  I weighed on it constantly of what to do.  Early that morning, I received a text from my two friends, Nate and Trina.  They said they were leaving at 6pm.  If I wanted to go, they would make room for me and my bike in there car.  All I had to do was drive to their house and hop in.  Around 3pm, I finally made the call to go for it.  I really wanted to test my swim from all the work that I had put in and figured it would be an awesome test to race one of the best amateur athletes in the world in Clay Emge.  I saw his name on the start list and really wanted to see where we were compared to each other.  Somehow I threw everything together, showed up at Nate and Trina’s at 6:05, and after a little packing in the car, we were off on the road to Texas.  Luckily for me, I tucked away in the back seat and fell asleep around midnight, woke up around 5, and we only had 7 hours of driving left.  
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5:30am Starbucks visit- Thanks to Nate and Trina for driving! We also were the first ones to try a Unicorn frap!
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Race Check in
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Race Ready thanks to Javelin, IceFriction, Sammy's Bikes, and Alto!
Race Day:​

Crazy enough, on race morning the water temp went to non-wetsuit legal.  Every day leading up to the race it was non-wetsuit (78 degs).  I was actually happy as I prefer no wetsuit and knew that I would need to wear one if it was 77.9 deg.  I was worried that I would overheat and struggle a bit.  

For the swim start, I lined up about 6 rows back for the rolling start.  I am really starting to enjoy the rolling start as I can usually find some open water quite quickly.  Mass starts are still a bit scary and hectic as you never know what is going to happen.  When the horn blew, I was out into the water and followed my prescribed plan and line to take.  I actually was swimming all lone for the first out section of around 1200 meters.  This is nice as I don’t have any contact, but also not the greatest since I have no feet to hop on.  I knew my line was the shortest/fastest, so stuck to the plan and knew as soon as we got to the turn buoy I would be with some faster swimmers.  
Sure enough, at the first turn, I was able to latch onto one swimmer and stuck to those feet for the next 1200 meters.  I felt good and strong pretty much the entire way through but could tell some fatigue was starting to set in as we neared the final canal stretch.  After a quick right turn, we entered the canal and I immediately could tell the water tasted a little differently…almost chalky.  There has been talk about swimming in the canal being less than sanitary, so that worried me a bit, but I focused on not getting to close to other swimmers and keeping any water from getting down my throat.  I will admit that swimming down the canal was a lot of fun as the spectators were lined up cheering and there was no need to sight as it was narrow enough to just swim down the middle.  

I hit the final turn buoy to head into transition and glanced down at my watch….59 minutes.  HUGE.  I was really happy with the time as I had never been under one hour in a non-wetsuit non-salt water swim.  Transition wasn’t the greatest as I struggled getting into my cycling shoes and getting my tri sleeved top up over my shoulders.  I moved as quickly as I could and knew it was a long day, but still need to work on that a little bit.  
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Overall, looking back at swim stats- I was the 30th overall amateur out of the water.  This was out of 2500 athletes…not bad for someone that learned to swim in college.  This was a highlight of the race for me and definitely the best that I have ever swam.

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Best swim I have ever had!
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Flying mount onto the bike! Thanks to Aaron Palaian for the great shot
Onto the bike, I settled in fairly quickly.  We were blessed with a lower temp day (low 70s), overcast, but the humidity was still pretty high.  I moved through some of the early riders quickly on my normal Ironman race watts, and was really happy to see some athletes that are great swimmers so soon on the bike.  I knew my swim was good and my race was set up perfectly.  Around mile 10, I saw Clay and was a bit surprised.  I figured I wouldn’t see him until the turn around and was planned to try and get a time split on how far ahead he would be.  I rolled through and passed him and kept to my watts to make sure I wouldn’t ride too hard.  After the first 20 miles, my speed and watts were looking great.  We made the turn onto the Hardy Tollroad which was going to be the bulk of the bike ride.  For the course, athletes went 20 miles down, 20 miles back, and then repeated this.  Not a great bike course, but it was fairly wide open easy to maneuver around other riders.  

On this stretch, I started to notice my lower back start to really act up.  I wasn’t sure if it was the aero position for longer than I was used to, or my injury that wasn’t fully healed.  Each out and back had overpasses that were surprisingly not the easiest to get up and over.  I used these overpasses to get out of the saddle, stretch the legs, and get a break from riding aggressively.  On the downhills, I would sit up and stretch my back out as it was the only time I would be riding fairly quickly and wouldn’t need to pedal.  This more than likely cost me some time as I noticed those around me would gain a good chunk on me during those stretches.  
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Such an exciting course :p
At the far turnaround, I saw that Clay was riding well and gaining some ground on me.  Heading back, there was a small head/cross wind that made it much harder.  Speeds dropped a bit more, and the overpasses felt like small mountains.  My back continued to get tighter, and I started to convince myself that it would be ok to stop at any time as I didn’t want to make my injury come back.  Clay went by me on the return trip and I figured it would be the last time that I would be in front of him all day.  I was only at mile 50 and already struggling.

I still mustered some strength to push enough watts to keep me rolling fast.  The start of the second loop, the winds picked up some more, and I didn't have to put as much effort in to keep riding fast. Clay was out of sight and I was left to just fight my inner demons telling me to quit.  My stretching breaks increased to even times on the flats as it was the only relief I could get from my aching back.  With the strong tailwind, the turnaround came quite quickly..and to my surprise Clay wasn’t very far ahead when we reached the turnaround with 35 miles to go.  I noticed that he was fidgeting with his shoe covers, and shortly after the turnaround I passed him as he was coasting to take them off.  With the return trip, we were now into more of a direct headwind and it was increasing in strength by the minute.  I really struggled to hold my aero position and my legs were starting to call it quits.  Clay flew by me again with 30 miles to go and easily was out of sight.  
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I knew that I wanted to finish the bike as I was still averaging a really fast bike split.  4:07 through 100 miles put me nearly at 25mph average.  It was going to be me fastest bike split even if I just spun my way to the bike finish.  Surprisingly, no one passed me in those last 30 miles.  I think the wind was tough for everyone and took its toll on any sort of speed.  I finished the ride in 4:37 which put me right around 24.4 mph avg.
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Finally off of the toll road!
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Out of aero- happened much too often due to my back
Once reaching transition, I was able to get upright and on my feet.  With my fastest bike split and a good swim, I knew I was on pace to set a new Ironman best time…but I still had a long run ahead and limited run fitness in my legs.  I had a pretty quick transition and immediately upon starting the run, I was next to Andrew Starky.  He was starting his 2nd loop of 3 while I was starting my 1st.  He had a HUGE lead and looked great running.  Although he went on to struggle the rest of the run, you have to give him massive praise for his return to racing.  Being dragged under a truck during a bike ride to coming back and setting an Iron distance bike record in such a short period of time is incredible.  

Back to my run, I felt like I was doing ok and was shocked to see my first mile in 5:50.  Way too fast, but that is what I normally go out in.  5:55 for mile 2.  Slow down.  But it was then that I saw Clay just ahead.  Maybe I could run up and run with him!  My mind starting playing games with me and my confidence shot up quite a bit.  The run pace felt great and I was running smoothly.  Before coming up to Clay, I dialed back a bit, used the restroom (maybe while running :p) and then caught up around mile 4.  I felt incredible at that time and kept my momentum rolling.  I was then leading the age group race and running faster than I ever had in an Ironman before.  I dialed in my pacing and started to hit closer to 6:15-6:25 each mile and soaked in as much as the crowds that I could.  
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Definitely on the struggle bus
Before getting to the last turn around of the first loop, I tried to get a gauge on where Clay was at and how much time I had on him.  The announcer confirmed that I was the first amateur to come through and then the counting began.  2 minutes.  2 minutes was the gap, but my pace was starting to drop.  I still felt great but could tell that my legs were getting heavy and the end of loop 1 (about mile 8.5).  Even with the tired legs, I trudged through mile after mile and continued to hold a lead.  Miles started to continue to creep up.  At mile 10 I was still running 6:45/mile and hit the half way point in 1:22…on pace for a 2:45 marathon.  Miles 14 and 15 was when I really knew I was in trouble.  My legs had enough and the pace continued to get closer to 7min/mile..  I was nearing the turn around at mile 17 and still holding the overall lead.  I was hoping that I wouldn’t see Clay at the turn around for loop two….and as soon as I started running back, I saw him.  He was only about 30 seconds down and it was there that I knew I was done.  He passed me shortly before starting loop 3 (about mile 18) and made me look like I was barely moving.  ​

The final 8 miles, I knew I had to just dig deep and keep moving forward.  I tried to look at any positive, such as my back felt great with no pain at all.  But mile after mile, I was slowing.  7:18, 7:22, 7:44, 7:53…I then caught good friend Megan Hode.  She was on her first loop and it was a huge mental distraction seeing her.  I gave a quick tap on her shoulder and said I was done.  She turned into the coach and picked up her pace and started to run with me.  We talked and ran…all I remember was telling her how much pain I was in and how badly I wanted to stop.  Mile 22 ended up being an 8:13.  Nobody had passed me yet, and at that point I didn’t even care.  I just wanted to be done.  After running with Megan for the mile, my legs rebounded just enough to start rolling a touch faster.  Only 4 miles to go and the last few were along the canal that had incredible crowd support.  Mile 23 in 7:28..only 3 to go!  Step after step, I got closer.  A great friend of a friend, Jennifer Heinton, gave me one big final push with 2.5 miles to go and was going crazy for me.  7:22 for mile 24..only two mile to go.  I made my way to the turn around, could hear the announcer brining Clay into the finish, and saw that there were no other amateurs near me.  I was able to soak in the final 1.5 miles and even saw that I was going to have a new PR for the Ironman distance if I just jogged it in.  7:30 for mile 25...slow but still moving.
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From not even knowing if I would race to a new Iron Distance PR
I finally hit the finish line and had the huge sense of relief that it was over.  8:36 for a new personal best by 11 minutes.  To boot, a 2:56 marathon on less than ideal training.  It was an incredible race and I was thrilled to be right in the mix with Clay all day.  He capped off a phenomenal race with a 2:51 marathon and get me by 5 minutes at the line.  Right after crossing, I was grabbed by US anti doping and escorted off to drug testing.  Not always the most fun thing to do altering finishing an Ironman, but it is awesome to see that they are out there testing.  I gladly welcomed it even if it meant sitting and waiting in line for 1.5 hrs post race to get tested.  Clay was also pulled, so it was great to catch up with him…a true class act and well deserving champion of the day.  Big congrats to him on a great performance from start to finish.
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Bro in law, Nic, and his fiancee, Evann, made the trip down. Thanks for the post race pizza!!!
Post race, I decided the drive back wasn’t too appealing, so I booked a quick one way flight back home the next day while I was out there.  2 hours in the plane is much easier than 16 hours in a car!  
I left Texas with a great feeling of accomplishment.  From being injured to not even knowing if I was going to compete a mere few days before the race to finishing in a new best in a highly competitive field gives me great confidence going forward.  My back has continued to hold up which is a huge sign of relief, and I am back to running consistently.  My swim has shown great improvement, and it really helps coming out closer to the front as there aren’t nearly as many riders that I pass that try to latch on.  I loved being right at the front of the race from nearly mile 35 on.  And now up next…there isn’t a true set schedule in place just yet.  The number one goal is to get Jacqui signed up and ready to try and grab a Kona slot.  I will do whatever it takes to help her in her journey these next months and then will see where we are at.  I plan to race 70.3 Worlds in Chattanooga and then Ironman World Champs in Kona…but before then it is still a bit up in the air.   
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Good or bad- getting to that finish line is always a big accomplishment. Had a great time with this crew down in Texas!
As always- a huge shout out to my 2017 supporters as this racing wouldn’t be possible without them:

EGO- Continuing to support athletes with big dreams.  Look for further for the best in battery operated lawn care equipment. There is a reason they are tagged as #powerbeyondbelief

Sammy’s- One of my longest supporters.  Sammy truly cares about his customers including me.  He always makes sure my bike and gear are race ready.  Only the best.
Javelin BIkes- My Javelin Maggiore continues to turn heads.  Custom built to my specs, its easy to dial in a super position and ride fast on low watts!
Ice Friction- Fastest chains out there!  My bike never felt so fast before…a clean drivetrain is a fast drivetrain.  Go save yourself some valuable watts with an Ice Friction chain

Alto Cycling- Smooth spinning and flat out fast wheels.  Choices from clinchers to tubulars, shallow profile all the way up to their new disc!  Options for all courses and races!

PowerBar- Nutrition to keep me fueled before, during, and after racing. 
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2016 Ironman World Championships- Race Day

10/19/2016

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Up at 3:30 to start my preparations.  I like to get up early in order to start eating- which consisted of:  two bowls of oatmeal, two blue raspberry pop tarts, canned coffee, and beet juice.  Total I had around 900 calories, so a decent amount but all things that were primarily carb based and should digest quickly.  While letting food digest, I started my race bottle prep.  Trying to keep it simple, I like to have all my calories in one bottle.  This meant 1600 calories with 5000mg of sodium in one bottle.  YES, super salty, but I drink it in small amounts at a time and wash it down immediately with water.  It doesn’t taste great, but it packs a powerful punch and never has really given me stomach problems.  I also tossed some chews and a bar in my bike bento box in case I wanted to solids along the way.  For the run I made a bottle of 800 calories and 2500mg of sodium.  That was to be worn on my race belt and used every few miles.
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After all the prep, Jacqui and I started the journey down to race start.  Body marking, weigh ins, and final bike prep always takes much longer than anticipated..but we got it all done and even had time to meet up with teammate Katie, who was racing her first KONA! I said my goodbyes to Jacqui fairly early as she went off to search to use the restroom, and I went down to the water to search for a good spot to start.
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EGO p/b Sammy's representing in Kona!
As I made my way to the beach, it finally hit me.  I was excited to race.  No nerves, just calmness.  I stood knee-deep in the warm waters of Kailua Bay and looked up at the Hawaiian drummers.  I zoned out, mentally pictured how I was going to execute my race, and a big smile came to my face.  I knew I was ready, I knew how to execute, and I was going to put out my best effort that my body allowed me to.
 
Game on.
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I waited a little longer than normal to make the 150 meter swim out to the start line as I didn’t want to just be floating out there for too long before the start.  With about 7 minutes till the gun, I swam to the far left and picked a spot about 3 rows behind the start line.  Crazy enough, the guys weren’t crowding and packing in like sardines.  Rather, they kept their space and allowed a much cleaner start.  As the countdown began, I took one final deep breathe and BANG!  There goes the start gun. 
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The swim in Kona is INCREDIBLE.  Normally I don’t say this, but this year, I was able to find clean water almost immediately.  Nobody was crowding and most kept space.  I was actually able to see everything going on around me, including the fish swimming along below us.  Typically all I see is churned up water from a bunch of crazy men fighting for space in the water.  I immediately jumped on a set of feet and followed for quite a while.  It was a great pace and felt fairly easy for me.  After about 15 minutes, I decided to start picking up my efforts a little bit as I could see open space and more feet ahead.  This was definitely new territory for me as I put in some surges to bridge up to new sets of feet.  Normally I would be fighting to hang on and ultimately get dropped.  I was enjoying the swim and felt smooth, strong, and efficient.
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As I neared the turn around 1.2 miles out, I was getting excited.  It was the easiest that I had ever swam in Kona and was enjoying every stroke.  I said a quick thank you to God for giving me the opportunity to race with my wife in such an incredible area of the world.  It then dawned on me that I didn’t pray like I normally do before races.  So I decided right then and there to pray as I was swimming.  I felt extremely blessed to be out there, but know that the race is a long day.  I prayed for safety for each and every person out there racing.  I know how hard each athlete works they all deserve to be able to have great races.  I also thanked God for getting Jacqui to the start line healthy and strong.  She worked so hard to put together a good race and knew if all went well for her, she could have a great day.  

So after zoning out for a little while, I took a quick peak at my watch as I hit the turn around boat.  19 minutes?  Somehow, my watch didn’t start and the timing was off.  So I was unsure of where I was at.  Typically I hit the turn around boat in around 28 minutes.  I began the journey back and had even more fun.  It is usually on the way back that I start to feel tired and swimmer after swimmer starts to go past me as I struggle to keep good form.  Not today—-I stuck with all others around me, latched onto feet, and felt strong each stroke of the way.  I focused on good form, rotating, and timing my breathing so that I wouldn’t swallow too much salt water.
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Soon enough, I could start to see the pier and hear the announcer cheering for everyone finishing up their swims.  Again, the final stretch is typically where I feel that I am ‘fighting’ the water.  This year, I was gliding and smooth.  Energy was high, and I was ready to take on the next phase of the race.
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Getting out of the water, I had no idea what my swim time was since my watch didn’t start on time.  I felt like it was fast, but what mattered most to me was that I felt good.  Through the showers and into transition, I struggled getting my Wattie sleeved suit up and over my shoulders.  Two wonderful volunteers helped and tugged on the suit pulling it up and over.  I heard a few rips, which is never good, but eventually it was on and zipped.  I tried something new this year and put my bike shoes on in transition.  Since I come out with such a large amount of others, getting on the bike and messing around with my shoes is tough.  So I clunked through transition, but hopped on the bike zipping past the others putting their shoes on.  I will most likely stick with this strategy in the future. ​
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Oh boy...no words
Official Swim Stats:
59:51
75th in Age Group
474th Overall

Bike-
Ok, so here is where the race gets real.  The first few miles loop around town with guys jockeying for position and riding usually like crazies.  I tried to stay relaxed and hold my position / work my way through some of the weaker riders.  After a few miles, I noticed one guy absolutely flying.  His calves were the size of my quads, and I immediately thought he was going way too hard and would explode.  Well….that didn’t happen.  This dude turned out to be a pro cyclist and rode a 4:29.  Only a handful of pros rode faster than him, and not by much.  He came off the bike over 10 minutes ahead of the next amateur in the race.  Insane.  Fast forward a bit, the guy was in the lead for the majority of the run as well, but then struggled a bit later in the race but still put up a great and respectable finish.
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Back to my race…once up onto the Queen K was when the race opened up and you can typically find some open road.  I noticed right away that it was turning out to be a repeat of 2014.  Way too many riders not dropping back and latching on as they got passed.  There is nothing more frustrating.  2015 seemed pretty smooth, but this year was the worst that I had seen it.  Looking through my power files, I was riding with some crazy variability try to push way way through the masses.  I’d soon get swallowed up by some guy riding like crazy, dropping in front of me, and immediately soft pedaling.  Trying to ride as honest as I could, I would drop back far, wait for my time to go, then hammer to the front.  The first 25 miles were miserable as I as jockeying and fighting to drop as many guys as possible.  My power was closer to half ironman watts than ironman watts...not a good sign if I wanted to have a strong finish to the ride.
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Always really crowded at the start of the ride
Then the wind hit.  Around Waikoloa village (maybe mile 25ish), the wind roared in.  It is almost impossibly to describe the wind in Kona.  It comes at you from all angles and out of no where.  You are riding with a tailwind, going the same direction, and then out of the blue, the wind is straight in your face at 25-30mph.  Riding along at 25mph and then hit a wall to go 15mph.  It is tough, but I’ve learned to deal with it and not fight the wind as I used to.

A benefit of the wind was that it spit off a bunch of the guys that had latched on.  I was able to continue to ride strong, but dropped my watts from miles 35-45 as I knew I was riding way over my ability.  But it was what I had to do in order to drop and get away from the guys drafting.  With a nice break from pushing big watts, I was able to start charging as we hit the long stretch up towards the Hawi turnaround.  One rider that I pulled up next to asked if I was Ryan.  As I told him yes, he said, “oh man, I was hoping I’d be seeing you a lot later in the race.”
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Slipping through the wind
It was then that I knew I was having a good race and possibly had a better swim than normal for me.  The wind was tough climbing up to Hawi, but it has definitely been worse.  As I neared the top, I was shocked and thrilled to have caught a few riders that I didn’t even expect to catch on the bike.  Example— there were guys from Ironman Texas and Ironman Lake Placid that I didn't catch until mile 5 or mile 10 of the run.  They were guys that came off the bike over 10 minutes ahead of me at those races.  But there I was in Kona already catching them before half way through the ride.  That gave me a huge burst of confidence.  I also noticed that as I neared the turn around, there actually weren’t many amateurs ahead of me.  That is one nice part about the race…since it is out and back, you can see how far ahead the riders are up the road.
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Shortly after the turn around, I began the descent.  The descent is not steep as in one that you are flying and hitting your brakes.  Rather it is long (close to 10 miles) and with proper gearing, you can put out a little power and pedal down at right around 40mph.  Shortly after the start of the descent is when the problems started.  Close to mile 60, I was pedaling and noticed that my chain dropped into the small chain ring.  I hit my shifter to try and get the chain back into the big ring, but it didn’t move.  I kept trying, but no luck.  Riders started to blow past me as I was stuck just looking down at my crank.  With a LONG way to go downhill, I didn’t want to be stuck in my small chain ring.  So stop 1.  Coasting at 30mph, I hit the brakes to come to a complete stop.  I forced the chain into the big chain ring, gave it a spin, and was back onto the bike pumping to get back up to speed.  About a minute later, the chain dropped into the little ring again.  That is when I started to panic.  Thoughts rushing in my head such as:  “I’m ok, I can just ride it out in the little ring as once I make it back to flat land I can handle it.”  And, “why is this happening now?! My race is over with, I’m done.”  

I tried to spin it out but was spinning at close to 140rpms and becoming very frustrated seeing everyone fly past me.  So stop number 2.  Again, coming to a complete stop on a downhill when you are going 30+ mph is not easy.  Off the bike, I struggled this time.  Compared to the first stop when it only took about 30 seconds to flip into the big ring, this time it wouldn’t stay.  I even started to try and pull my front derailleur to force it out.  Eventually I was able to get it back, but I was sidelined for one minute this time.  

Back on the bike and up to speed, the chain was staying in the big ring!  I was thrilled and excited that I didn’t lose too much time.  Honestly, I was really worried that if I went to shift, the chain would drop back in.  But I was again running out of gears and needed to shift my rear derailleur.  Closing my eyes for a second and saying a quick prayer, I shifted and it worked!  Success.  One minute later, I decided to test my luck again and shifted.  Success!  I was back in the game.  But it was short lived….

After thinking my race was saved, out of no where, the chain dropped.  Oh no.  There I was again spinning at 140+ rpms.  This time I knew I was done for.  I wouldn’t be able to fix it.  So as I coasted downhill, I kept reaching down trying to force the chain back into the big ring.  I was very lucky there weren’t any strong wind gusts.  Riding the descent with one arm bent half way over my bike.  I would’ve been taken out with one quick blow of the wind.  Nothing was working.  And I still had a long way to go on the descent.  Riders continued to blow past me as I tinkered with the bike.  Then it happened.  I finally had a little break from downhill and went to put out some power into the cranks.  Bam.
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With one powerful downstroke, my crank arm came loose.  It stayed on the bike, but both crank arms were now in the same clock position (think having both feet at the bottom, 6pm clock position).  That was not good.  My immediate thought was, “race over, why is this happening now in the biggest race of the year??”  No longer being able to even pedal, I stopped the bike, and as I went to unclip, the left crank arm and crank pre load bolt came off with my shoe.
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Crank arms in the same position- ever try to ride a bike like that?
At first, I was unsure what to do.  I stood there with my crank arm in my hand thinking my day was done.  But then I remembered seeing a support vehicle that had just gone by.  Maybe they could help me?  But since they just went past, I would have to wait until I see another one.  Instead of standing there, I started to walk down the highway.  Then I realized that the faster I move down the road the better, so what better way to move faster than start running.  There I was running down the highway, waving my crank arm up in the air looking for anyone that could help me.  

After only 3 minutes of walk/run, I saw help!  I was surprised there was one so quickly, but they immediately stopped, pulled over, and ran over to see how they could help.  Unfortunately, the mechanic did not have a crank arm bolt tool, so he took his pliers and tightened it as much as he could.  He was only able to get the bolt in about half way, then cranked down the other two crank arm bolts.  It took him a while to figure it out, then did a quick adjustment on my front derailleur since there was still play in my crank arm.  It wasn’t all the way tightened, so there was movement, but he said he thought it would hold and be ok.  He handed me my bike with the bolt half way in and said good luck.  I said “anything that gives me a chance to get back and finish the race was better than walking 50 miles to the bike finish.”  ​

Going back through my Garmin post race, I was able to find exactly where and for how long I was stopped with the problem.  Here is a screen shot of my Garmin’s data during the mechanical.
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Analyzing the mechanical. You can see the first two drop downs in speed (blue line) from my stops trying to get back into big ring. Then you can see the long stretch of no power and no speed where the blue and purple lines are flat (time when I was walk/jogging with the bike and then getting it fixed). Total time lost between all stops- 9 minutes
*side note* -  a few people asked me how it happened.  That blame is all on me.  When transporting the bike, I take the bike apart to fit in the travel bags.  There are a lot of bolts to tighten and unfortunately, I must have forgotten one.  I had no issues riding the bike all week as it rode smooth and fast.  My best guess is that as I spun into really high cadence on the descent, the untightened bolt slowly undid itself and got to the point that it came loose. From now on, I plan to double and triple check each bolt on the bike after travel! *end of side note*​

Back in action, it was honestly very hard for me to get motivated and ride hard.  I told myself that any shot a podium was lost.  That was just too much time to make up especially when in such a competitive race like Kona.  But after a few minutes, the competitive drive kicked back in.  I started to notice people that I had passed early in the bike ride, and from then on made it a goal to catch as many people as I could.  
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Back in action- time to work
The remainder of the bike was actually uneventful, which is a good thing!  My power definitely dropped as my legs started to feel the distance.  And of course, the wind was brutal the last 20 miles.  Headwind, hot, and tired legs makes for a miserable end to a 5 hour day in the saddle.  I put my head down and rode to my best ability.  I felt the damage that I did from picking up my efforts and my legs were screaming at me by the end of the ride.  I caught a lot of riders, but feared the run as it was hot and my body / mind were fried.
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Official Bike Stats:
5:00:52 (22.34mph avg)
29th in Age Group
180th Overall

Into transition, I made sure to not step on any pavement.  Last year was misery as I scorched the ball of my foot.  Overall, I was in and out of T2 and out onto the run.

Run-

Immediately, I did not feel good.  I don’t wear a heart rate monitor, but I could tell my heart rate was higher than normal.  The only good thing that I had going for me was that I zoned out all negative thoughts.  I didn’t care how far back I was and I didn’t care how terrible my body felt.  I forced my legs to move and turn over as efficiently as I could and started to make my way through the field.  
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Coach Bill of Bishop Racing was out on the course and I was able to see him a few miles into the run.  He told me I was 13 minutes down from the leader of my age group.  I was driven from then on.  Time to step up and see what I was capable of.  My new goal immediately turned into, get onto that podium.  
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I asked Bill how far down from 5th place, and he said he would let me know when I turned around and came back because he would be able to count them off.  So onwards I went down the famous Ali’i Drive.  For those wondering, the run course in Kona is not flat.  Ali’i has a lot of small ups and downs that can really eat at your legs.  I continued to roll past others and started to notice a few good athletes not too far up the road from me.  I was shocked that I was moving so well with how terrible my body actually felt.  Shortly before the first turn around, I saw that 5th place in my age group wasn’t actually that far ahead.  Avg pace for the first 8 miles was sitting right around 6:20/mile.
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Run start
Mile 8, I saw Bill again and he let me know that 5th place was only about 40 seconds ahead of me.  I was also putting time into the leader and had a shot at catching him if I held pace.  But my legs had other ideas.  I caught and passed 5th and shortly after 4th place in my age group by mile 9.  Already into podium position!  I was thrilled, but the hardest part of the race was still to come.

Palani Hill.  Mile 10.5, this hill is a doozy.  Steep and fairly long, any sort of shuffle up it is impressive.  Once at the top, you make the turn onto the Queen K highway where the real race starts.  The Queen K is rolling with hills, not a drop of shade, and surrounded by black lava and pavement.  It is scorching hot and where most athletes really start to struggle….myself included.  
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Through 13.1 miles in 1:23.  I was on pace to run a 2:47 marathon.  Each mile seemed to get a touch slower, but I was still able to hover right around 7:00-7:15 pace.  I continued to pass others, but not very often, and each one was never in my age group.  So I knew I was still in 4th.  Coach Bill saw me once more and let me know that 2nd and 3rd were still about 2.5 minutes ahead.
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The energy lab is always a welcomed (and unwelcomed) sight.  Welcomed because you know that the turnaround is just ahead.  Unwelcomed because it is pure misery of hot, windless road.  For the first time this year, at the turn around in the energy lab, there was a set up by Clif handing out ice cold HUGE sponges.  It was probably the highlight of my run as I grabbed close to 10 sponges and drenched my entire body as it felt like I took a nice cold shower.  It was short lived though as the sun can dry you out immediately.  
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As I made my way on the turn around, I tried to get a gauge on how far back 5th and 6th place were.  I had a hard time telling which age group each guy was in, but I did notice one that was running FAST about 5 minutes behind.  It turned into survival mode as I trudged forward, not worrying about others, but rather keeping my own body in check.
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Back onto the Queen K highway for the final stretch, I was digging deep.  2nd and 3rd were still too far up the road and nobody was really around me.  I used my special needs bottle of salty Rockstar lemonade and did my best to get from aide station to aide station.  Cloud coverage finally came (as it usually does in the afternoon), and I started to feel a touch better.  I kept an eye on anyone coming up from behind and told myself that I just needed to get to mile 24.  The last 2 miles of the race are fast and easy as you get the long downhill from Palani and then the final stretch where adrenaline is at an all time high.  ​

I caught up to an athlete in the 35-39 age group and we worked together to keep moving forward.  We urged each other to keep the pace and he kept thanking me for pulling him along.  He said he would let me finish in front of him if I could keep pulling him along! 
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Running through lava fields is not easy
I saw Jacqui running along as I hit mile 23, she was near mile 11.  She said, “Must be nice to get on the podium again!”  I smiled and tried to let her know to keep working hard.  As I made my way to mile 24, I pulled a bit ahead of my new friend on the course and saw two more athletes up the road, both not in my age group.  I was making up ground quickly on them, but as we neared the final stretch, they took off in a sprint battle to the line.  As much as I would’ve liked to join, I was content where I was and soaked up the last stretch.  ​

The finish line at Kona is always incredible.  Good race or bad, its hard not to let out a big smile and sense of, “I did it!”  I closed my eyes and really couldn’t believe that after all that happened on the bike, I had moved myself all the way up to 4th in my age group and 8th overall amateur.  As hard as it was, I kept trying to push away the thoughts of what could have been or what would have been without the mechanical.  Rather I had to focus on how incredible it was to even finish where I did.  

Official Run Stats-
2:57:39 (6:46/mile avg)  
4th in Age Group
8th amateur overall
44th Overall with Pros
*1 of only 3 amateurs to go sub 3 hours in the marathon*
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Post race, I immediately grabbed my gear and started to track Jacqui.  She was having a good race and knew there would be a chance at the podium with a strong finish to her run.  The seconds felt like hours as I refreshed and stood at the finish trying to see any girls in her age group coming in.  After seeing the 4th place girl in her age group cross the line, the nerves really kicked into another gear.  Jacqui was on her last stretch, but I didn't know if there were any other girls close.  Each time another girl crossed the line, I looked at their number and saw they weren’t in her age group.  And then I saw her…coming down the line and onto the podium!  A goal we had set, both of us getting on the podium on the biggest stage in the sport of triathlon, just happened!  

Jacqui crossed the line and we both celebrated our day and shared stories of how it unfolded.  The next day, we attended the awards and celebrated years of hard work and sacrifices.  A husband / wife duo on the podium in KONA!!!
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After the race, Jacqui and I were able to spend a few days enjoying Hawaii at the Kona afterparty, swimming with turtles and dolphins, soaking up the sun at the beaches, and having our annual anniversary dinner at Rays on the Bay.  It was truly an incredible trip and a day that I will never forget.  It of course couldn’t have been done without our support team.  They have given us the resources and help to succeed in the sport, and for that we could not be more grateful:

EGO p/b Sammy’s Bikes- what an incredible support system.  This team has been the critical link in allowing me to race.  The sport of triathlon is incredibly expensive, and having a support team such as this is the reason I am able to compete at the high level that I am able to.  Thank you EGO and Sammy’s Bikes, you guys mean more than you could imagine to me.

Javelin Bikes- Riding the new Maggiore has been incredible.  Smooth, fast, lightweight, aero, and built for me!  Two races on the new ride has resulted in a 70.3 World Champion, and Ironman podium finisher!
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Alto Cycling- The wheels have been incredible to ride this year.  Many don’t realize the importance of the wheel hub.  Alto has the best hub out there.  Paired with a deep, aero rim- these wheels are hard to beat

Coach Bill Bishop- Thanks for the guidance and support the past few years.  Getting to the level that I’m at has taken a lot of planning and hard work, but we are getting there!  Thanks for always pushing me to my limits and believing in me!

Saucony- The shoes and gear continue to improve and get better year after year!  I love my Kinvaras to train fast in, and the Type A to scorch the run course at races!

Ice Friction- Fast chains, and a big upgrade with coated chainrings and cranks.  These guys made sure my bike was rolling fast with the least amount of frictions in the drive train!

Wattie Ink. / Eliel Cycling superior kits on the road and for training.  I’ve never been in a more comfortable kit that is fast and protects me skin from the elements
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And some bonus photos:
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Ironman World Championships-   Race Week

10/19/2016

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October might be my favorite month of the year.  

1- the humidity finally disappears, and running outside in the fresh crisp air is amazing
2- apple cider donuts
3- the month to celebrate our wedding anniversary
4- halloween candy
5- the Ironman world championships means a trip to Hawaii!

Along with number 5 comes so many great things including:  overloading on Kona coffee, incredible sunsets where the sun disappears right into the ocean, stopping by the farmers market to pick up some of the sweetest fruits imaginable, swimming in crystal clear water (like having a jumbo sized aquarium), chocolate covered coffee beans, suffering for right around 9 hours during the race, and a week where I get to spend uninterrupted time with the love of my life.  October is a good month.  


This year was no exception.  


Now, before even talking about the trip, I wanted to thank God for helping Jacqui get healthy and to the starting line of the Ironman World Championships this year.  After a year of uncertainty and a whole lot of frustration, Jacqui had one shot to qualify at Ironman Lake Placid.  Even leading up to that race, there was a lot of unknown as to where her fitness was and if she would be able to qualify for Kona this year.  With an incredible performance, she grabbed a slot and allowed us to book our 4th consecutive trip to the big island of Hawaii to compete in the Ironman World Championships.  

The trip started on Monday evening with a late redeye flight from Chicago to Las Vegas, then to Honolulu, and finally Kona.  Jacqui and I arrived Tuesday early in the morning and were SO grateful to have great friend Michael Boehmer spend time to drive out the airport and pick us up.  Being the knucklehead that I am, I accidentally booked a rental car from an ‘off site’ location form the airport.  This was 8 miles down the road, and from being experienced travelers to Kona, we knew it would be about a $50-$60 cab ride just to go that far.  Michael took time out of his day and drove up, picked us up, and dropped us off at the rental car agency…thank you for the help!  
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Flying at 3am...
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Made it to KONA!
Shortly after picking up the rental car, Jacqui and I went straight on over to the All World Athlete breakfast.  Knowing how expensive the trip in Kona is, we tried to take advantage of any saving we could  on our meals.  So the first meal was a free buffet at Splashers Grill since we both are Gold status athletes.  It also gave us something to do before we would be able to check into our studio apartment. After the breakfast, we made our way over to athlete check in as it just started and we figured it would be good to get it done and out of the way.   ​

Athlete check in is always a fun and exciting experience.  You are walked through the lines, sign your life away in waivers, get your official race athlete wrist band, and then get an athlete backpack. The bag didn't disappoint this year, although I thought the colors were a bit wonky.  It’s also getting to the point that I have too many backpacks, so hopefully one of these days Ironman can switch it up!  After all was done, we made our one and only trip into the merchandise tent and ended up buying a coffee travel mug and water bottle.  No more shirts or gear as our closet sees enough of those!  

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Race check-in
This year we stayed in the Kona Islander Inn, which was situated right on Ali’i Drive and walking distance from all the action.  Finding accommodations was a major stress this year, as our original booking was cancelled on us just two weeks out from leaving.  Apparently, the building was having some construction work done, and the owner didn't know about it.  We got a message that it was cancelled, and it left us scrambling and searching for a place to stay.  Being just two weeks out, our options were VERY limited as most people book their places close to a year out.  We ended up deciding on the Kona Islander as it was close and the price was reasonable with our travel points.  The downside was that the place seemed to be a hit or miss.  After reading reviews and talking to others about the place, each unit is individually owned, so some are well taken care of while others are like stepping into a room from the 70s with cockroaches, musty smells, and blood stains/dirty bedding.  I was extremely nervous as I don’t do well with dirtiness, so I told Jacqui that if we end up getting a bad unit, I’m going straight to the store to buy a bottle of bleach and new sheets/blankets/pillows for the stay.

Upon checking in, the lady at the desk informed us that we were in a good unit, and she was right!  Walking in, each unit is set up pretty much exactly the same. Each one is a studio apartment that has a bed, small living space, and kitchen/bathroom combo.  Our unit looked like it was recently refurbished and I couldn’t find any small creatures lurking on the floor.  We did have a small ant problem in the kitchen area, but they didn’t cause any problems and stayed in the same area the entire trip.
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After getting settled, I went straight to work putting our bikes together so that Jacqui and I could go out for a quick shake out bike ride followed by a short run in hopes of 1) staying awake to adjust to the time change and 2)wake up the legs after 15 hour of travel.
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We had a quick dinner at Umekes which was delicious!  If you are ever in Kona, you HAVE to have poke.  Poke, pronounced poh-key, is ahi tuna that is typically flavored or mixed with spices or flavorings.  It is always fresh, and you can often seen the workers going to work on the tuna as they bring them in.  It is incredible and always a must for our trip.  After dinner, it was off to bed!
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Wednesday morning Jacqui and I scheduled to do a sweat rate test with the folks over at Gatorade.  Before the bike, we made a walk down to Dig Me beach to test the waters and get our first practice swim in.  I immediately noticed that the water was much warmer than what it has been in the past.  It was refreshing, but didn’t chill me like it has before.  Not feeling the best, I chose to not swim that far and just used the swim to try and loosen up and enjoy the sights of the fish swimming down below.  From there, it was straight on over to the Gatorade booth to begin a sweat rate test.  
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The test itself was pretty basic and easy.  We were set up on computrainers to dial in the watts/effort and had a few small sweat collecting patches put on us.  After a quick warm up, we were weighed to get a pre-workout weight.  Then we rode 30 minutes at our goal Ironman watts, which was 215 for me.  Since we were outdoors, the goal was to get a reading on how much sweat was lost while riding in conditions that would be similar to race day.  Throughout the 30 minutes, they took readings on temperature and humidity. 

After the test, our sweat collecting patches were pulled and we were weighed one final time.  The scientists gave us a preliminary number, mine being 1.4 liters every hour, which is considered as a heavy sweater.  I actually thought it was fairly low for me as I didn’t sweat nearly as much as I have when doing indoor trainer rides at home.  But 1.4 liters is still a fairly high number, and would require me to drink nearly 2 full bottles each hour.  It was pretty neat to do the test and get some data to hopefully help improve my fueling strategy going forward.  

We then grabbed a late brunch at another must go to stop- Island Lava Java.  Their coffee is incredible, the food is always fresh, and typically this is a multiple stop over the course of our stays in Kona.  From there it was off to a new joint in town- San Francisco Bay Coffee.  Jacqui and I both had work to get done, so we plopped down on our computers for a few hours- me writing some training plans and Jac doing grad school work / lesson plans.  Fully rested, we went back to the apartment to shower and get ready for a Saucony sponsored dinner at the Hilton in Waikoloa.
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The Saucony dinner was AWESOME!  Short story- Jacqui and I are part of the Saucony Hurricane team.  This team is primarily a road running team that we have been part of for the last 5 years now.  Since we both do quite a bit of open road races, Saucony has graciously put us on the team.  We have loved the shoes, apparel, and support from them over the years.  Since Kona was also the Chicago Marathon weekend, we received an email from the team director asking if we could meet up in Chicago to have dinner with the team.  Jacqui notified them that we could not make it as we were in Kona for the Ironman.  The team director then said that they were having a dinner for all of the Saucony sponsored pros and we could join them if wanted.  Sponsored pros….this means all the top names in the sport of triathlon including:  Heather/Trevor Wurtele, Linsey Corbin, Meredith Kessler, Tim Reed, Sarah Piampiano, and Susie Cheetham.  To say Jacqui and I were in awe and somewhat speechless is an understatement as we sat down at a table with such a small and select group.  These pros were incredible and down to earth, asking us questions and treating us as equals.  It sure did not feel like it though as we were “just” the age groupers.  Dinner itself was delicious as I had a lobster and filet meal!  Soooooo good!  Icing on the cake was when the manager of the pros handed Jacqui and I a bag that had custom Saucony Originals that were made specifically for their pros at Kona.  Only about 10 pairs of these were made, and Jacqui and I each got a pair!  How cool is that?!  We left on cloud 9 and couldn’t have been more grateful for that invite to the team dinner. ​
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Saucony Kona kicks
Thursday- REST DAY, but maybe more importantly the UNDERPANTS RUN!  I was pretty exhausted after staying up fairly late from the dinner the night before.  But Jacqui and I made it round 4 of wearing our ‘bride and groom underpants’ (really just a speedo and swimsuit).  We crossed off the 1, 2, 3, and officially wrote a 4 on the back of Jacqui’s suit for our 4 years in Kona to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  Unfortunately for me, I used some tape to write a 4, but my bum must be growing as the tape unknowingly popped off as we made our way over to participate.  We had a few people pretty confused as Jacqui’s suit said celebrating our 4 year, and mine saying our 1 year.  Ooops. 

​As usual, the underpants run was packed with crazy costumes.  The short run of 1 mile looping up and down Ali’i drive was fun and definitely not as hot as the previous year!  After the run, we hopped into the water as I basically just floated around while Jac got a longer swim in.  The rest of the day was fairly uneventful as I just lounged around at the apartment and got some more work done.  In the evening, we attended the athlete welcome banquet as it would be another no cost meal!  In the now 4 years racing, this was the first time we actually went to the athlete banquet.  Overall it wasn’t too bad, but starts to drag on near the end.  I would recommend it to another other athletes as it is another way to just soak up the atmosphere of the race.  Jac and I ended up leaving early (just before the race briefing) as it was already getting late and we were tired!
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4 years celebrating in Kona
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Basik Acai Bowl!
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Friday- one day till race day!  The morning consisted of getting all working out done and out of the way.  First up, a swim out to the coffee boat!  For those that are confused by this- during race week, there is a large boat that heads out and docks about 500 meters from shore.  They bring coffee and little giveaways and hand out drinks to those that swim out to it.  It is a little difficult to tread water and drink coffee but it is well worth it and always a highlight of the week.  I will say that I’ve been a bit disappointed ever since Coffees of Hawaii stopped being the provider.  They used to have a large sign that was put on the ocean floor with an arrow pointing to get out the boat.  It was neat to see and a good photo opportunity.  Next, the coffee was switched to Starbucks.  Ugh.  We are in Kona, and I wish it was Kona coffee!  And to end my rant, the boat runs out of coffee so early!  The boat never used to run out of coffee, and now it seems like they do pretty quickly.  This was the first year I never got a cup of coffee as every time I went they were out.  So if you’re looking to get some, make sure you head out around 7am, right when the boat heads out.
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Swim start and pier
After the swim, Jac and I kitted up and hit the roads for one final bike spin.  As with all week, the bike was rolling and ready.  Unfortunately we rode a new route and ended up going uphill pretty much the entire way.  It was hard and we both felt really sluggish.  Being frustrated with how terrible we both felt, we turned around fairly early and just spun back to the apartment.  Then it was off for one final run.  I went up Palani Rd to mentally prep myself for the pain that it causes on race day!  ​

Now, a quick side note about the lead into race day.  I won’t lie…..it was VERY difficult for me to get excited about racing this year.  I raced A LOT.  Two full ironmans, three 70.3’s, one olympic, and two sprints.  Mentally and physically I was done.  I told those close to me that I honestly just wanted to race and whatever happened I would be fine with.  I had an incredibly rewarding season that was capped with two overall ironman wins and an age group world championship 70.3 title.  But I struggled after 70.3 worlds.  I had a hard time adjusting back to the time, wasn’t sleeping, and felt extremely fatigued.  My workouts never went well and instead of doing my own workouts, I typically would jump in and just swim/bike/run with Jacqui instead of going at my own paces.  All week long while out in Kona, it was extremely hard for me to get excited to race.  I woke up each day stiff, tired, and hurting more than I did from the previous day.  Of course I wanted to have a great race in Kona, but it was extremely difficult to get pumped for it when my body was just shutting down.  The negative thoughts were hard to push aside and they lasted all the way up until the the race day itself.  End of side note.

Back to Friday, after working out Jacqui and I prepped our bikes and got them ready for bike check in!  Bike check in is always a really fun experience as it feels like once your bike is there with your bike / run bags, there is a sense of relief.  All is done, taken care of, and all that is left is to sleep and get ready to race.  We spent some time lounging around, relaxing, and putting final touches on race prep for the remainder of the day before we hit up Lave Java for our usual pre race meal.  As normal, I mixed it up and went with Ahi Tuna (poke style) with brown rice and veggies.  It was delicious and hit the spot.  Dinner was quick, so we made it back to our rental plenty early to rest up for the remainder of the night.

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Ready to check in!
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Pre-race dinner

​Next post will be race day and all that went down!
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WORLD CHAMPION!

9/13/2016

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After last year’s round of mishaps including a flat tire, penalty, crash, and mechanical, I was ready to make another trip to the 70.3 World Championships in order to redeem myself.   

The trip started with a flight out of Chicago on Monday afternoon.  A quick storm rolled in just about an hour before my flight was supposed to leave.  This is where the spiral of travel problems started.  With only a quick 1 hour layover in Toronto, any sort of delay would cause a missed flight.  As the minutes ticked by, I knew there was no way I was going to make my connecting flight.  Luckily, there were flights leaving out of Toronto every hour to get over to Vancouver, where my second layover was.  The only problem was that even getting on the next flight out of Toronto was going to make my second connecting flight from Vancouver to Brisbane very close.  
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After finally boarding and getting the trip started, I was out of Chicago and on my way to Toronto.  I was able to get a quick workout in while sprinting through the airport trying to find the gate to make the flight to Vancouver.  If I were to miss that flight, I would have to spend 24 hours in the airport and try to get on the next flight. Luckily I made it out and got on the plane for a nice 14 hour flight into Brisbane, Australia. 
With those quick layovers, all I could think in my head was, “there is no way my bike and luggage is going to make it.”  I tried not to think about any negative thoughts and rather focused on switching my body over to the new time that I would be living in for the next week.  The time change was going to be 15 hours forward…something that scared me thinking about how my body would respond to such a drastic change. 

Overall, the flights were rather uneventful, and I even got confirmation that when I landed in Vancouver that my bags were check in there.
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Open seat next to me for a 14+ hour flight deserves a thumbs up
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Plane food...mmmmmm
Landing in Brisbane, I made my way to baggage claim…..and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  No bike or luggage.  Over at baggage services, I was told that my bags were still somewhere in Canada.  Perfect.  They said they would try to get a hold of the bags and took the address of the place I was staying at to deliver them if/when they would arrive.  It was then 8am on Wednesday in Australia.  Air Canada gave me $50 to cover any inconvenience (yea…that is going to go far!) and a small travel bag of toiletries.  So off I went from the airport with nothing but my backpack that had my computer, flip flops, and passport.  
After 25 hours of travel, I made my way over to pick up a rental car.  This was quite the experience taking a look into the car and seeing the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car.  It was a nerve-wracking feeling sitting in the seat and attempting to pull away from the rental car agency with cars flying past me in the direction I’m not accustomed to.  Slowly but surely I made my way onto the highway and got the hang of everything being opposite.  Sorry to all the other cars out there as I never used my turn signal….every time I went to flip my turn signal on I was flipping my windshield wipers. 
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Everything is flip flopped!
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First purchase down under
Into Mooloolaba, I finally had arrived at the race city.  My original plan was to get my bike together, get in a nice ride and run, and then explore the city a little, but with no bike, I was limited on options of what I could do.  I walked around town to get a feel of the layout and where everything would be, grabbed a quick lunch, and then laced up my shoes to get a quick run in.  Luckily I had a pair of running shorts in my backpack so I ditched my only shirt and hit the road.  Surprisingly my legs felt pretty good considering the amount of travel.  After a quick 6 miles previewing the run course, I was able to get a shower, but had to put on my same clothes I had been wearing for 2 days. 
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Checking out the swim start
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Fish- can't go wrong
Thursday morning, still no bags.  So back into my same clothes for the 3rd straight day as well as day 3 straight of having my contacts in.  Not fun.  The All World Athlete breakfast was being held at the Aquarium in town, so I made my way over there for a free meal.  The All World Athlete program is a ranking for each age group.  If you are in the top percentage of your age group , you get distinguished as an All World Athlete.  But basically it is a way for Ironman to reward the athletes for doing their branded races.  So I wouldn’t say its necessarily a ‘true’ ranking, but regardless it is nice having some little perks here and there.  The breakfast itself wasn’t too bad and we even had a show from the seals.
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After breakfast, I really wanted to get a swim in but had no goggles, wetsuit, or swim suit.  But I was able to get over to the race expo and buy a pair of goggles and just swam in my running shorts from the day before.  I was definitely jealous walking around town seeing everyone riding their bikes and getting ocean swims in.  I had no choice but to wait and just hope the gear would show up.  I never like to workout two days prior to my races, so my time was getting very limited to get any riding in even if it did show up.  ​

Finally, later in the afternoon I received a call from the front desk that bags had showed up!  I’ve never put a bike together so quickly before as I really wanted to get out and ride.  For those that don’t know, Australia just had its last day of winter.  So just like back in the states in the winter, it gets dark early.  Around 5pm its already dark out, so I was out the door at 3:30pm and got in a quick preview of the bike course.  I kept hearing about “the hill” about half way through, so riding it was my was number 1 priority.  As soon as I saw the hill, I was quite surprised at how steep it was.  Not extremely long, but close enough to a 20% grade.  I was able to do the looped section of the course 2 times which included the climb, so I got a good feel of it.  The roads themselves had some rough teeth rattling sections and I feared the worst of getting a flat in a few of sections.  A lot of curves, some diving descents with sharp turns at the bottom, and narrow shoulders meant it could be a fairly dangerous stretch during the race.  I was relieved that I was able to get out and ride a good stretch of the course though.  And even better was that I had fresh clothes to change into when I got back!
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The start of the climb- steep!
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Bags arrived! I can finally build my bike! ....and put on new clothes!
Friday was rest day.  Or so I had hoped.  My dad and I wanted to try and get out on a fishing charter, so we went out to the harbor at 4:30am.  Every boat charter said the water was too rough and they weren’t going to be heading out.  So instead, we grabbed a quick breakfast and relaxed back at the apartment rental.  Rest days are always one of the hardest days for me as I get antsy and just want to go do something.  So after laying around the apartment, I went into town to work on some coaching plans and then checked out the swim venue.  Cue a little anxiety attack.  The ocean was angry….and the surf club was advising that nobody should go out into the water.  There were big swells and crashing waves which are quite different from the flat lakes that I’m used to swimming in.  I ditched the idea of a complete rest day and instead grabbed my swim gear as I wanted to prove to myself that I could swim in it just in case it was similar conditions race morning.  

Bad idea.  I got sucked into the waves, tossed, tumbled, and swallowed enough salt water to make my stomach sick.  I was able to swim a few strokes, but would have to stop and try to figure out where I was.  The waves would come crashing over the top of me and it was near impossible to sight anything.  I tried to convince myself that I would be able to make it through a 1.2 mile swim in those conditions if needed, but it would definitely take me quite a bit longer than normal.  I exited the water with a bit of fear that if the swim was that rough on race day I would lose a gigantic chunk of time to the strong swimmers (especially the ones from Australia that are used to swimming in the ocean).  

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Saturday- finally the day before the race.  I was able to get a quick bike and run workout in…nothing major or long, but enough to wake up the body.  The roads were really congested with cars and cyclists, so I decided to cut the workouts short in order to stay safe and not end up on the side of the road.  Similar to full Ironman, the 70.3 world championships required bikes to be checked in as well as the use of gear bags.  This means checking in a bike bag (helmet, sunglasses, shoes) and a run bag (run shoes, hat, race belt, nutrition) that are placed on racks instead of having it all set by your bike.  
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Time to check in the Javelin Rocketship!
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Transition area was LONG.
While checking in, I have never seen so many high end bikes and wheels.  Good thing my sweet new Javelin Maggiore decked out with Alto Cycling wheels fit right in.  3200+ bikes meant one gigantic transition area.  The transition was about 5 blocks long and just kept going…I was predicting a 5 minute run through transition for me.  But I also reminded myself that transition could be a place to really put some time into others if they are slow to maneuver through.  

After an early dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies, it was back to the apartment to finalize all of the race gear and mentally prepare myself for the day ahead!
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Dinner!
RACE DAY

Race morning- I woke up every 30 minutes starting at 1am.  Each time I kept my eyes closed, and slowly listened for any nose of waves crashing.  The thought of having a rough water swim put my stomach into knots.  Every 30 minute bout of waking, my anxiety grew.  “Is that a wave crashing onto shore?”  

By the time I actually needed to get out of bed, I chose to not even crack the door that opened up to the ocean.  I didn’t want my nerves to elevate and stay elevated for the hours leading into the race.  Rather, I snuck into the kitchen and quietly made my breakfast of toasted oats, a canned iced coffee, and banana.  It was difficult to get the food down as I was more nervous than I had been for any other race yet this year.  I choose to forgo the heaping bowl of sticky sushi rice that I had prepared the night prior as I was worried it would just come back up.  Instead, I packed my bags and checked/rechecked over each piece of my race gear in my head to make sure that I had everything.  
As I made my way out of the rental apartment, I head the noise I had been dreading.  Waves crashing.  I am not sure if it was just my senses on overload, but as I took a look out into the Pacific Ocean, all I could see was flat water.  I still didn’t believe my eyes, and slowly made my way down the pitch black street towards transition.  Hundreds of other top athletes in the world did the same.  All looking similar having that glared game face thinking about their day that was ahead.  

Into transition, I quickly got to work.  ICE’d chain back on and going through the shifting to make sure it was set.  Nutrition bottles filled, Garmin bike computer on, shoes clipped in with rubber bands, and finally pumping up the tires.  I was in and out of transition, but always dread leaving my bike as I get worried I’ll leave and a tire will pop or an athlete will knock something off.  But being out of transition fairly early gave me some time to head down to the beach and find a quiet place to look out into the ocean and watch the sun slowly rise right out of the water.  It was truly a magnificent sight and immediately gave me a sense of calmness that I did not have all week.  I was ready.
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Race morning- the sun rising out of the ocean was spectacular
I went over my race plan a few times in my head with a few different scenarios of what could happen.  I was set out to be the second amateur wave to start- 10 minutes behind the 35-39 males and 5 minutes before the 25-29 males.  This was the same exact set up as how it was the year prior in Austria.  Having raced that, I had a feeling that it was going to play out very similar.  My prediction was that with the 25-29 year old males only being 5 minutes behind my wave, they would have a large group of front end swimmers that would ride through the back of the my age group wave (30-34) and pick up riders to create an unstoppable peloton.  Typically the slower swimmers from my age group are strong bikers/runners.  They have to be in order to quality for a world championship race.  With such a small time gap, I had a feeling I’d be seeing a big pack of riders later in my race.  So I had to decide what I would do if that happened.  

Slowly, the sun made its way up as I jumped into the salty ocean waters of the Pacific.  I was able to get a quick warm up swim in.  Not feeling exactly fresh, but not sluggish as I did in Lake Placid, I wasn’t sure how the body would feel once it was expected to go full throttle.  

About 10 minutes before my start, the race officials herded up the athletes up in a large square shaped enclosure.  They held us there until 5 minutes to go.  Minute by minute, you could feel the endorphins kicking from each athlete.  No smiles, no talking, just a bunch of straight faces looking out into the water.  At 5 minutes till gun start, they freed us from the pen over a timing mat to swim out to the start line.  It was a deep water start, which meant we had to swim to the starting line and then wait —-similar to Kona.  When they let us out into the water, guys were already in full blown race mode.  They swam as fast as they could to get an ideal spot to start.  I opted to take my time and took it easy because I knew last year that when I started on front line, I was pummeled and barely made it out of the water alive.  
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Let's GO!
Treading water at the start is THE WORST.  Each second ticks.  Guys pushing and shoving trying to keep their own space while others are crowding in tightly.  I’m one that likes my own space and prefer to swim off on my own.  But when it comes down to it, I’ll do what it takes to hold my own.  As the announcer blared out from the beach how much time was left till start, the athletes slowly crept more and more forward.  And then out of nowhere, BANG!  The gun goes off and all you see are spinning arms, trashing legs, and entire bodies swimming over the top of one another.  

Right from the start, I had no place to go.  I could not even put my face in the water and was swimming like I had no clue what I was doing.  We were packed in like sardines, and there was no way I could get a decent stroke in.  But I told myself that it was normal and that I was going to be ready for it.  So I relaxed, swam ‘tarzan’ style for the first 150 meters, and searched for any bit of open water that I could find.  Bodies to my left, right, front, and back meant I was stuck.  Every now and then a swimmer from either side would start to get closer and closer to me and eventually start smacking my arm or head, so I would have to drop back.  But dropping back meant the person behind me would start swimming over the top of me.  Never have I ever swallowed so much salt water and it was starting to make me sick.  Eventually I had to stop and regroup just to get my head out of the water and search for some open space.

​After the first half mile, I finally found some open space, but the damage was done.  I felt drained and each stroke took more effort than I was hoping to put in.  The dreaded thought of looking at my watch if I ever made it out of the water was lingering in the back of my head- fear of seeing a number higher than what I would normally see.  As I neared the swim exit, the salty waters slowly started to eat at the back of my neck where my wetsuit met the skin.  Burning and aching, I was ready to be done.  

As I made my way towards shore, I kept peeking back hoping to see a wave that could send me gliding into shore.  But no luck was to be had and I was required to keep swimming and landing onto the beach like a breached whale.  Somehow, I looked at my watch and saw 29:xx.  Sub 30!  Must have been from the extra buoyancy of the wetsuit and salt water.  I knew I had my work cut out for me though as the other athletes were long gone right from the start gun.

Officially 110th place in my AGE GROUP--YIKES
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Transition was simply put:  LONG and NARROW.  This was not the best set up for a transition area as after grabbing my bike, I wasn’t able to run as fast as I would have liked.  There were other athletes clogging up up the path to get out, so I was succumbed to going as fast as they were.  Normally I am able to make up some time as I run pretty quickly through the transition, but not here.  There was a solid train of athletes up the road ahead so I used the time jogging to regroup and get my heart rate in check. 

Onto the roads, the line of athletes was up the road as far as I could see.  There were over 350+ athletes in the wave before me plus the 100+ that came out of the water from my age group up ahead. 

TIME TO GO TO WORK!


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From the start, I wasn't feeling the watts come too easily to me.  I had to work for each and every one of them.  But I was determined to work myself into a good position and started to really settle in once we hit the first highway stretch.  

FLAT and FAST.

Not a good recipe when you have 100's of highly talented athletes all jockeying for position.  At first this highway stretch wasn't too bad.  I was able to dial in my power and had smooth sailing passing other rides fairly easily.  As much fun as it was hitting 28-30mph going out on the highway, what I feared most was lurking behind me.  

After the first 15 miles, I made the turnaround on the highway and saw it behind me.  THE DREADED PACK.  I could see the packs forming behind.  Groups of 30+ tucked and absolutely flying.  New goal, stay away from the pack.

I did the best that I could, tucked, and was riding smoothly.  I was excited that I was passing riders and making my way through the field.  On my return trip on the highway, I glanced down to check my power numbers, looked back up, and WOAH!  
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Captured this photo while I was racing. Obviously
A KANGAROO!  He decided it was time to cross the road and just happened to end up inches in front of my front wheel.  I had to do a quick swerve to narrowly miss him.  There was a shot of adrenaline! 

Back on track, I made my way off the highway to begin the hilly section of the course which was around half way through the ride.  
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Cruise control aboard my Javelin Maggiore
 A few miles before the heavy climbing, it happened.  

The pack had caught me.  Now about 40-50 riders deep riding in a pure peloton.  Jockeying for position and riding inches from others wheels, they came by like a freight train.  I had been dreading this moment as it happened the year before in Austria.  So hear me out...this is what happens:

The wave start in my mind was set up terribly.  
First wave of 35-39 year old men
10 mins later- Second wave of 30-34 year old men 
5 mins later- Third wave of 25-29 year old men

So there are 10 mins between the first wave, then only 5 mins between arguably the strongest two age groups.  The 25-29 year olds end up swimming strong up front coming out of the water with a HUGE group of 30-34 year old men.  They start riding and every one is riding with an ego.  On a flat and fast course, there is nothing to break them apart.  Slowly, they ride through picking up riders as the pack grows and grows.  35-39 year old men are already way up the road since they actually had a big time gap between them and the second wave.  

So my solution...either put in bigger time gaps between the waves (15 minutes) or alternate male to female waves.  Having all of the top male age groups right away creates a bunch of strong athletes all fighting for position.  There isn't enough dropping back, and honestly is very difficult to do when you have a flat and very crowded course.  There isn't anywhere to go.  

Back to my race.  

Luckily, when the group caught me- we hit the climbs.  The first climb was tough, but I was very grateful for it.  I pushed some big watts and could see the separation start between the riders of the pack.  Once at the top of the next small climb, even more riders cracked.  I continued to ride well over my intended race watts, but there was no way I was going to sit in the pack and be content.  I refused to get sucked in and rode off the front as much as I could.  

Every now and then a rider would come back around me, and I would immediately drop back and let a gap form.  Usually it would end up being a few riders that would come around.  But as soon as I had an opening I shot to the front again and hammered.  This up and down riding lasted for around 15 miles and it was definitely sucking all the life out of my legs.  It was MUCH MUCH MUCH harder than riding a steady state race.  My normalized power was sky high (higher than my olympic distance race watts), so I knew I was going to pay for it.  But I had committed to doing all I could to stay out of any draft.  

Eventually it all paid off.  I cracked most of the riders and rode off the front.  I settled and pushed high watts to keep them away, but then it happened again.  I caught the next group of riders up the road around mile 40.  This pack was primarily composed of 35-39 riders (they started 10 minutes ahead of me).  I rode straight through them, but had around 10 of them latch on as I went past.  It was frustrating as I was forced to yo-yo ride again, but this time since it was a much smaller group, I was able to drop back easily and keep distance between myself and any riders around me.  The draft marshall even rode the final 15 miles next to the riders around me and gave out penalties to those that were riding too closely.  I ended up pushing the ride fairly hard and rode through the front of that pack as well.  

By the time the ride was done, I had moved myself all the way up to 5th place in my Age Group.  From 110th out of the water to 5th off the bike (or 572nd overall male out of the water to 50th overall male starting the run).....not bad!!!  The only downside, I had rode with way to much variability (spiking the power and pushing too hard for short periods of time).  It was the only way that I was able to ride clean and I wouldn't have changed how I rode it in any way!
Into transition, I noticed not too many bikes!  Always a good sight to see.  

I was able to rack my bike right away and flew through the extra long transition.  Time to run!
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Starting the run, I might have been a little anxious.  

The run was a simple out and back 2 loop run course.  Just over 3.3 miles out, 3.3 miles back and repeat.  Right at the start of the run, there was the famous 'Alex Hill.'  I barely even noticed going up and over and actually went through mile one in 5:12.  DEFINITELY TOO FAST.  But this was the world championships, and I was there to compete.  

It felt a touch labored, but nothing harder than what I normally felt in a half iron distance race. Rolling into mile 2, I hit 5:14.  Now I knew this pace was a touch too hot, but I figured that if I could move myself right to the front of the race, I could hang on and finish high.  As I made my way nearing the first turnaround, I could already feel my legs start to act up.  They felt heavy and didn't have the 'pop' that they normally had.  

I also noticed that shortly after turning around, we were then going into a headwind.  That explains the quick first few miles.  I was then battling a stiff wind and had to make my way back towards going up the other side of Alex Hill.  
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Running up Alex Hill
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Starting to fade
Once down the back side of the hill, it was time to turn around and repeat.  I was able to see my dad, and he confirmed that I was leading the age group.  Definitely was a sense of relief.  

But I had trouble ahead.  

My legs and body started to refuse to move fast.  I struggled to hold my normal pace and each mile started to dip.  Slower and slower.  A runner that I had passed earlier went by me like I was standing still. Luckily he was 35-39, so I knew I was 10 minutes ahead of him.  But I still had no response.  And couldn't go with him.  It was the first time this year someone has passed me on the run, and it is not a good feeling!  

From mile 9-12 I had to dig DEEP.  I was physically checked out.  And the more that I thought about it, the more it made sense.  The bike effort had finally caught up to me.  All of those power surges had zapped my legs and they had enough.  Called it quits and didn't want to go anymore.  But mentally I was strong.  I forced them to keep moving.  Step after step, I kept going.  And constantly was looking at my surroundings to see if anyone was coming up from behind.

As I made it to the top of Alex Hill the final time, I had dipped into the 8's for a pace.  Slow, but I couldn't muster anything better.  Luckily, once at the top, I was able to use the downhill to propel my legs forward and got them to move back into the low 6's.  Two runners went past me in the last quarter mile, both in the 25-29 age group and again I had no response.  

I finally made it it down the final stretch, with no 30-34 age group men passing me.  I had done it.  Accomplished a goal that I had been shooting for the past few years.  30-34 WORLD CHAMPION!

I barely even knew what happened as it took every bit of strength physically and mentally to get across the line.  And it shows in my finish photo:
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It took a little time to digest what happened, but all I could think about was how happy I was to finally just stop racing.  I had dug dipper than I ever had to get to that finish line, and it sure felt amazing to finally stop and breathe.  

My dad was there and confirmed, 1st in 30-34 age group and 4th amateur overall.  Top 3 amateurs coming from the 25-29 age group.
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30-34 Age Group World CHAMP!
Post race, I could finally relax.  I grabbed a quick lunch with my dad, caught up with Jacqui back home, and let it all sink it.  After all the 'bad' that had happened one year prior, I was able to learn and fix what was needed.  

The next day was the awards ceremony- each age group was called up to the stage and the age group winners received their champion jackets.
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Awards Ceremony!
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After the awards, it was a quick turnaround with not much time to explore.  As much fun as it would have been to stay and enjoy some time in Australia, it was time to head back home and start the prep for the final big race of the year:  Ironman World Champs in Kona.  One more championship race meaning another goal to target checking off.  

Overall, the trip to Australia was incredible and one that I will never forget.  

Thank you to everyone that has supported me along the way!

And some bonus photos!

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Back to Back Racing

6/17/2016

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Two weeks- two races!  

​Starting off with Leon's Olympic Distance.  The race marked my 4th triathlon of the year and completed the distance sweep of a sprint, olympic, half iron, and full iron in a span of 2 months!  Recap of what went down at Leon's can be found HERE.  A head to head battle for nearly 2 hours left me wiped. 

Onto the following week:

After having a great race experience at the 2015 edition of the Grand Rapids Tri and a few teammates / athletes / friends racing, I knew I wanted to go back.  But early in the week, there was some doubt.  The day after Leon’s Triathlon, I attempted to get in a long bike workout.  The plan was to get in around 80-90 miles, but I woke up feeling miserable.  My body was worn down, I was tired, and the last thing I wanted to do was work out.  But I always give workouts a go and do my best with them and reevaluate after warming up.  So I loaded up the bike, hit the roads, and from the gun could tell that I was off.  It was a struggle to get over 200 watts (even when putting in a good effort).  Usually I do a two part long ride- the first part goes out through Barrington and loops back past my house.  It gives me a chance to reload on nutrition/fluids, and then I head out the opposite direction towards Wisconsin.  But on Monday, I did the first part of riding through Barrington, and struggled to even make it back to the house.  I called it quits after 50 miles, plopped on the ground, and contemplated about racing over the weekend.  Doubt and question of what I should even race were lingering.
After laying low the rest of Monday, I woke up Tuesday and decided that I was going to continue to train hard through Thursday and then cut it off completely to rest on Friday/Saturday.  The plan seemed to work perfectly.  I had really good run/bike/swim workouts on Tuesday through Thursday giving me a bit of confidence heading into the weekend.  I knew that with some rest, I should be recharged and ready to race Sunday.  
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On Friday, Jacqui and I hit the road to Fort Wayne, Indiana to attend her cousin’s wedding.  We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with the family. 
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The only downside was my dress shoes.  After getting back to the hotel around 11:30pm, I took my shoes off and my big toe was in pain.  Going back to Ironman Texas (4 weeks prior),  I banged up my nails and lost 3 of them (one being on my big toe).  The problem with the big toe was that the corner part of the nail didn’t want to budge...and it was too painful / lodged into the skin that I couldn’t pull it off.  So 95% of the nail came off, leaving that small corner stuck.  Well after wearing my dress shoes that are a little more pointy, the small sliver of nail was wedged deep into the skin (like an ingrown nail).  It felt like a sharp shard of glass was stuck.  So I went into operation and yanked, pulled, and tugged until I finally was able to get the remaining toe nail pieces out.  Very painful, but it was a big of relief when it finally came off. 
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Oh the joy of Ironman racing
While trying to fall asleep, my toe started to throb.  And it got worse as the minutes went by.  It felt like my big toe had its own heartbeat, each beat making me wince in pain.  I was afraid it was infected and could not fall asleep.  I laid there hoping that I could sleep, wake up, and be better....but it never happened.  At 3:30am, I had had enough.  I got up, grabbed my keys, and wobbled out the door to go to the grocery store down the road.  I barely was able to walk as any pressure put on my foot was painful.  I had serious doubt that I was going to be able to race a mere 30 hours later.  At the store, I picked up some triple antibiotic with pain relief and rubbed it into my raw, painful toe as soon as I got back into the car.  By the time I was back in bed, it was 5am.  So much for sleeping two nights out from a race!  
Luckily, the antibiotic kicked in a bit and there was some relief.  Enough of a relief that I was able to close my eyes and fall sleep for a few hours.  Since we didn’t have to be anywhere, it was nice that Jacqui and I could sleep in and take our time Saturday morning.  I could tell that there was improvement when I woke up, but still could feel how sensitive it was when putting pressure on it.  Our hotel had a nice outdoor pool, so before heading out, I was able to go soak my feet in an attempt that the chlorine would help clean and dry it out!

Around noon, Jacqui and I hit the road for a quick 2 hour drive up to Paw Paw, Michigan as were were staying with our teammate, Alex at his family’s lake house.  We did the same in 2015 and it worked out perfectly.  His family’s lake house is just over an hour away from the Grand Rapids area, and you can’t beat staying with friends! 

Once in Paw Paw, Alex’s family took us out on their boat to have an evening cruise.  It was absolutely wonderful (and relaxing) and we were even able to hop into the lake and get some warm up swimming in!  After our boat cruise, we did some pre-race bike preparations...and it sure was nice having a knowledgable bike guy like Alex around as he was able to help me make sure the bikes were in tip top race shape.  We had a great dinner all eating together while sharing stories.  I absolutely love eating in (rather than going out to restaurants) and relaxing before races.  It is much less stressful as you don’t get stuck waiting to get seated or stuck at the restaurant past bed time.  Post dinner, we all tried to get some sleep---but it sure was hard as the sun was still out at 9:30pm (crazy how that sun stays out right on the border of the Eastern time zone!). 

I had a much better sleep as my toe cooperated and seemed to be healing.  But it was still an early wake up call of 2:50am!  Unlike the previous week though of where I wasn’t too excited to race, I felt ready for this one.  I woke up excited especially since my foot seemed to be just about 100%.  Bananas, raspberries, a PowerBar, and some coffee were the pre-race meal.  I never really stick to the same thing, just simple easy to digest foods and it seems to do the trick.  We were out the door shortly after 4am and onto the race!

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Pre-race selfie!
Swim-

The gun was off at 7am.  Coming in, I learned a little from the previous year about where I should start and aim to swim.  I wanted to stay relaxed and in control as I know that swimming hard can wreck havoc on the rest of my race.  I had looked at the start list prior and knew this year was going to be very competitive with athletes such as Dan Stubleski (overall Ironman World Championships amateur winner!), teammate Alex Arman, Ben Hammer, and a slew of Teram Every Man Jack guys... so knew that my race was going to be determined by a super strong bike/run combo.  

Surprisingly, the gun went off and I found clean water immediately.  I think this was due to the fact that I took the line that I wanted while others seemed to go another way.  I stuck to my pre-race plan and swam my own angle.  After the first few buoys, I could tell that I was swimming well and that there weren’t too many guys up ahead of me.  As much as I wanted to hop on someone’s feet, there wasn’t anyone around me.  There was a small group of about 5 ahead, but I just could never bridge up to them.  I also didn’t want to burn any matches and throw in a massive swim effort, so I swam my own pace.  

After the far turn around, we had to swim straight back to shore into the sun.  It was very difficult to see anything and every time I tried to get a sight of where I was going, I’d get  a sharp sting of the sun bursting into my eyes.  Even with the tinted goggles, it was near impossible to see anything.  So instead, I had to rely on the guys ahead of me.  I would use their small splashes just ahead to make sure I was going somewhat in the right direction.  I could also tell one guy was right on my feet as he was hitting my toes every few minutes.  I thought for sure that it was Alex as he told me he wanted to try and stay on my feet.  I was hoping it was since if we came out of the water together, we could work off one another on the bike.  

Out of the water, I was pleased with my time of 30 minutes.  I was full of energy and could tell I would be ready to hammer on the bike.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t Alex that was right on me during the swim, so I was counting on him working his way up to me during the ride.  Transition was flawless and I was off onto the bike quickly.
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For the bike- the only goal was to ride hard and not let the other racers put too much time into me.  I somewhat threw any watt goals out the window and rather focused on riding hard and in control.  With rested legs, I had a feeling that I would be able to ride higher watts than normal, so I didn’t want a goal number slowing me down.  

Through the first few splits, I was riding hard.  My watts were higher than normal for a half iron distance, and I was moving through the field pretty quickly.  I was surprised that  my speed wasn’t too fast considering that watts that I was riding at.  It seemed similar speed to last year, but my watts were much higher.  The roads were a little beat up which slowed the speed down a bunch, but overall they were manageable.  Compared to some of the roads that I ride on at home, these were nothing!  

I kept waiting and expecting to see Alex out of the corner of my eye and even took a few looks back when we had some of the longer straight aways, but I could never see him.  Around 25 miles, I knew I was approaching the turn around- so I would get a gauge at who and how many were up the road on me.  At 27 miles, the leader was coming back, which meant he was around 2 miles ahead.  Then two more riders came by but were only around 45 seconds ahead of me.  So I hit the turnaround at 28 miles in 4th place overall.  Heading back, I was able to see who was behind me as well as how far back they were.  Sure enough, Alex was right there and only about 40 seconds back of me.  I was now really hoping he would bridge up to have another strong rider to work off of. 

The stretch shortly after the turn around was the worst.  Very rough roads, slow speeds, and I was getting tired.  I made sure to stay on top of my nutrition and fluids and tried to keep the watts high.  They were starting to come down, but still were in a great range for me for a half ironman distance bike.  A few miles later, I was able to bridge up and pass the third and second place riders, so I was then in 2nd place overall.  I knew the leader was way up the road and likely would stay that way through the finish of the bike.  Mile after mile, I would take a few looks back, but never saw anyone gaining on me.  I focused on riding steady all the way in and avoiding any big bumps on the road (as there were quite a few!).  

I was surprised as I hit the finish of the bike with my split being nearly identical to last year.  My watts had gone up quite a bit and it didn’t seem that windy, so I thought that I was going to have a quick time.  Regardless, I was in 2nd place off the bike and had averaged right at 25mph.

Into transition, I again had a very smooth bike to run.  The transition area was VERY long and narrow, making it difficult to find where my bike rack was.  Luckily for me, my Saucony Type A’s are bright, and they stuck out making it easier to find where to go.



​Onto the run, I had no idea on how far up the road 1st place was.  I did know that I couldn’t see him.  So it was a big gap.  Onto the road, my legs felt miserable.  My foot that had the big toe problems went numb, and I was worried that maybe my body was going into shock because of it.  The numbness continued up into my lower leg---definitely a strange and scary feeling.  But as I continued to run, the numbness started to dissipate.  Through mile 1 in 5:25, I was happy to be running faster than I was during the olympic distance race of the week prior!  

The run course as Grand Rapids is not the easiest.  There are a bunch of small, punchy, rolling hills that just suck any life out of you.  The good part is that you can get some speed back on the downhill sections.  You just need to stay smart and in control.  A few miles in, I still could not see the leader.  I started to question if I would be able to make up the time gap by the end of the race!  I knew there was a turn around about 4 miles in, so that is where I would be able to get a better idea of what the damage was.  

Through mile 2 in 5:40, mile 3 in 5:25, and mile 4 in 5:45 (up and down due to the hills!), I finally was able to see the leader as he was coming back from the turnaround.  The gap was around 2 minutes, so I had my work cut out! 

Interesting enough, as he went by me he said, “come and get me.”  

Somewhat caught off guard, it took me a second to process what he said.  But a split second later, it clicked in my head and I thought to myself ..... GAME ON!

Thank you for those words as they sparked me to kick it up another notch.  I dropped the next mile in 5:20 and made up some ground immediately.  By mile 6, I was within seconds of the leader and made the pass shortly before mile 7.  With each ticking mile, I was feeling stronger and stronger.  The hills felt easier, my breathing was much more in control, and I was started to finally enjoy the race.  Tackling the hardest hill of the race, my pace dropped a touch, but then kicked back into the gear as I rolled down the other side.  I could tell that I had the win just about locked up and soaked in the last few miles.  

Near the finish, I put in one final surge hoping that I could crack the 4 hour barrier, but came up 40 seconds short.  The good news was that my final run split came out to a 1:12:58...a huge PR in the half iron distance.  I will say the course was a touch short (.2 of a mile, which would add 1 minute to my time), so it still would be a half distance best run.
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Great top end of the field!
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I waited at the finish and was very excited to see my teammate Alex finishing up strong with a massive PR and breakthrough run performance.  I knew he had it in him and even had told him a few days before the race that there should be no reason he shouldn’t break 1:17 off the bike (Alex ran a 1:16!) after his run performance at Leon’s the week before.  He finished in 4th place overall putting two EGO p/b Sammy’s Bikes racers into the top 5!  

Overall, the Grand Rapids Tri was a great success.  It showed me that I can run very well off of a big bike effort.  I will take this into consideration when coming up with a race place for half ironman world championships later this year in Australia!  For now, I will be taking some time off of racing as I will be putting in a few big weeks of training before doing a quick taper into Ironman Lake Placid at the end of July.  Looking forward to continuing the momentum on the great season so far!
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          IRONMAN TEXAS- Setting Goals, Believing, and Executing          

5/25/2016

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The moment when all the pain and suffering is erased in an instant.
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The 2016 Ironman North American Championships held in The Woodlands, Texas.  Full nitty gritty report:
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Above- a text that I sent to good friend and teammate, Alex Arman, before Ironman Texas.  Typically I keep goals to myself, but sometimes I like to put them out there as a way to keep myself accountable. 


Starting in early January, I wanted to make sure I would stay on track and keep training hard even when the weather was below freezing and I’d be stuck biking/running without going anywhere.  So I made a list of goals in order of importance to keep the fire lit underneath me even when the weather outside would try to put it out.


Here is the list, first one being most important-


Goal 1:  Qualify for Kona.  I have been to Kona the last three years and have been fortunate to qualify each time that I’ve tried.  But I still do not take this for granted.  Ironman is a LONG day and anything can happen:  kicked in face during the swim, flat tires, bike mechanicals, crashes, dropped nutrition, or just simply an “off” day where the body doesn’t respond to the stress you place upon it.  One nice thing about Ironman Texas was that there would be around 6 slots in my age group to qualify for the Ironman World Champs.  The downside- with so many slots the race was guaranteed to be competitive!


Goal 2:  Win the 30-34 Age Group.  With Ironman Texas being the North American Championships, there was a little bit more on the line.   As strange as it sounds, small give-aways or special recognition have always driven me to perform.  I remember in high school track that we had a meet where the winner of each race received a t-shirt with the words, “CHAMPION” on the back.  I ended up winning my races sophomore through senior year primarily because I REALLY WANTED that t-shirt.  Even when the local newspaper interviewed me after the track meet, I remember telling them I really wanted to win to get the champion shirt.  Well- at Ironman Texas in 2015, the winner of each age group received an Ironman North American Champion jacket.  That little perk was always lingering in the back of my mind. 


Goal 3:  Win Overall Amateur Title.  Coming into the race, I was still searching for an overall Ironman win.  I came closer and closer with each one that I’ve done.  It started at Ironman Cabo where I was 5th amateur and 2nd in my age group.  The next one was Ironman Cozumel where I was 1st in my age group, but 2nd amateur overall.  So I was still gunning to take down every other amateur in the race.  I knew this would be a tough goal as Ironman Texas is known to be competitive, but based on previous performances, I knew that if my run came around at the end I would have a really good shot at this one.


Goal 4:  Run a sub 3:00 marathon at the end.  Again- with each Ironman, I’ve improved my run.  It started back in 2000 when I did Ironman Wisconsin and ran 3:45.  Then 3:19 in Kona, 3:17 in Cabo, 3:07 in Kona, 3:02 in Cozumel, and 3:04 in Kona.  Something about dipping down into the 2:xx just has a nice ring to it.  Sure a 3:02 is fast, but 2:xx ‘sounds’ incredible.  Based on my open marathon of 2:29, this should be a fairly easy thing to do, but for some reason I always felt dead legged getting off the bike.  Each race was getting better, so it was time!
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Goal 5:  Go sub 9 hours overall.  Hitting 9:02 is a bit frustrating as my best time.  Unfortunately, shortly before the race, our bike course was shortened by 17 miles---meaning this goal became meaningless.  Still- through training, I kept it in the back of my head that I wanted to get a new Iron PR.  


Leading into the race- my confidence grew week by week.  After having a great performance at New Orleans 70.3 and a few good big training weeks I thought that I was ready to go.  Two weeks out from Ironman Texas, I had my last big training weekend.  I tackled the Palos Southwest half marathon on dead tired legs in 1:09, then rode a 100 miler at race watts with a 6 mile run at 5:55 pace off of it.  Yes, a great weekend, but I had seriously dug myself in a deep hole.  Each day passed and my legs were not responding.  I started to question if I had overdone it as I was tired 24/7, had no energy, and just wanted to rest.  One week out, I went out for a 45 mile ride and felt a little better, but was still tired when I finished.  Not a great feeling heading into race week!!!


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Palos Half Marathon- 1:09. Moraine Valley guy musta had an itch
Monday of race week I took completely off to spend time packing, getting the bikes race ready, and making a few stops to pick up last minute race gear/needs.  My plan was to make the drive down to Texas and luckily for 2016 the EGO p/b Sammy’s Bikes team was blessed with a team vehicle from the great people over at Toyota Arlington.  The team graciously allowed me to take the team van (a sweeeeet Toyota Sienna) for a week so that I could fit bikes and gear without worrying about the flight travel.  Jacqui would be flying out on Wednesday evening as she still had school, so I hit the road on Tuesday afternoon.  A quick stop in Memphis to visit Jacqui’s good college friend (thank you Ty and Mary!!) and get some sleep Tuesday night, followed by the rest of the drive down to The Woodlands, Texas on Wednesday.  It was nice having a Life Time Fitness available in Memphis to get a quick 1500m swim and 3 mile run in before heading out for the remaining 9 hours of driving.  
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We were also VERY lucky to have Aimee and Rob Newsom (Aimee grew up in Crystal Lake and ran with Jacqui in high school) house us for the week.  And I can’t forget their mini cow, Dunkin, for all the love on race week :)  They live in The Woodlands, and had the perfect set up to prepare and relax leading into the race!
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Dunkin, the mini cow dog
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Made it to Texas- only 5 more hours to go!
I arrived pretty late (8pm) on Wednesday and was able to get in a quick 3 mile shake out run before heading back out to the airport to pick up Jacqui, Megan (good friend and athlete that I coach through my coaching business-  Rybread Racing!), and Megan’s boyfriend, Rob.  By the time we got back to the house, it was late and I was wiped!  


Thursday was a day off of training which was nice as we needed to get checked in for the race and then relax.  We all went to the All World Athlete breakfast for a free meal and listened to Matt Hanson and Kelly Williamson talk about their race experiences.  One thing that stuck out was when Matt mentioned battling the heat and he simply stated, " STAY WET."  As simple as it sounds, it makes sense.  As soon as you are dry, the body is going to roast.  I made it a goal to stay wet on race day.  


Check in was simple and a breeze- although I wish there was a breeze!  It was already a scorcher and just walking around outside the sweat was dripping.  We didn’t stay out too long, rather grabbed our gear, made one pass through the expo, and then went out to a local coffeehouse/restaurant.  We spent a few good hours there drinking coffee/water while getting some work done. While leaving, I put my jacket on and started my mini heat training session.  I don’t think the others were too amused when I cranked the heat on in the van and said, “we need to get used to it.” 
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Here you can see us at the local Lululemon that puts up a Texas flag with all participants listed- heat jacket training :)
Thursday night- the night when sleep is most important.  I COULD BARELY SLEEP!  Was it because I was nervous?  Nope.  Was it because I had so much energy seeping and oozing out of every muscle fiber?  Nope.  Was it because mini cow dog Dunkin was hogging the bed?  Nope.  I could barely sleep because Friday was Jacqui’s big 30th birthday!  I had a little surprise for her and was excited to set it out and wanted to make sure I could do it secretly.  Leading into the race week- I knew Jacqui had to be filled with question/doubt/A LOT of unknown of how race day would play out for her.  She dealt with a bad tear in her plantar fascia which resulted in her not running from October to April.  She finally kicked it and was running well but only was up to 11 miles on her long run.  I wanted to show her how much she meant to others / what an inspiration it has been to see how tough mentally and physically she has been.  Injuries are tough to deal with, and I can’t imagine how hard it has been for her to watch everyone around her doing what she would give anything to do again.  So I asked friends/family/those that have helped her along this painful and frustrating time to send a card or message letting Jacqui know how much she means to them.  The response was incredible- just showing how much of a positive influence she has on those around her.  Thank you to everyone that helped out and sent Jacqui messages!  I tried to get my creative juices flowing in a way to display all of the love that was poured out for Jacqui and came up with this:
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Cutest little runner that I ever did see! :) Happy BIG 3-0 Jac!
So that is what I was so excited about.  I couldn’t wait to surprise Jacqui on her 30th.  Additionally, one of Jacqui’s best friends, Jess, was flying in to support and surprise her.  So keeping that a secret was always on my mind as well!  Early morning, surprise gift was a success!  
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After the fun of Jacqui’s 30th bday surprises, we got ready to do some pre- race workouts.  I debated about going to do the practice swim, but figured by the time we got there, swam for 15 minutes, got back...the whole ordeal would end up taking up too much time.  Instead, we went out for a practice ride around the house to make sure the bikes were ready to go as well as wake the legs up from another rest day the day before.
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Javelin / Alto Wheel Combo- wicked fast!




An EGO lawn care assortment would look very nice in this garage! :) 
Off and onto the bikes- everything was going great.  Bike was fast, body was starting to feel much better, and race day was right around the corner.  


About 5 minutes away from being done with the ride, I hit a small bump and thought, “woah, that was a little rough.....” and a split second later I hear the noise nobody ever wants to hear.  CRASH.  Carbon parts a body hitting the pavement.  If you’ve been around cycling, you know the sound.  I knew Jacqui was behind me.  I looked back and she was on the pavement motionless.  Cue...freakout.  Slamming my brakes and practically throwing my own bike on the ground, Megan (who was behind Jacqui, but managed to swerve around her) and I ran to Jacqui.  The good- she kept saying she was ok and fine.  The bad- she wasn’t moving.  


Jacqui was able to get back up and move so that was a good sign.  But she was beat up...scrapes, cuts, and road rash.  My heart sunk for her.  Her 30th birthday, finally just kicked the plantar pain she dealt with for 6 months, and now crashes the day before an Ironman.  I looked over the bike and all looked ok, just some mark ups.  The reason for the crash?  Still a little unsure.  Although there was a somewhat mini tree/branch next to her bike.  The only thing I can think is that the branch got wedged into the front wheel and flung her over the front.  Just terrible bad luck.  Jacqui was able to get back on the bike and ride back to the house- so we thought all would be ok.  


We all did a short run, some strides, and then it was time to pack everything up and get to bike check in.  
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Thank you Javelin for the Javelin Lugano and Alto Cycling for the wheels! Paired together made for one FAST ride!
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Bike check in- pro tip- wear dark clothes to hide the sweat!
Just checking in the bikes I could feel the heat.  I was drenched...sweating profusely and started to get a bit nervous about how the next day would go.  


Off to pre race dinner- we opted for a place that had bison burgers as that is the typical meal the night before for Jacqui and Megan.  It was also when the surprise number 2 of the day.  Jacqui’s great friend, Jess, flew in to surprise her and was waiting at the restaurant.  I really wish I took a photo of the shock on Jacqui’s face when she saw Jess.  It was even hard for me to keep the tears in!  Pretty neat to see what great people Jacqui is surrounded with!  
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Bday celebrations!
After dinner it was off to bed fairly early as race day was one night’s sleep away!!


                                 RACE DAY!!!!


Race morning was nothing out of the ordinary.  I slept a little longer than I had hoped, but I was tired!  Up at 3:45 to eat my breakfast of muesli and milk, coffee, banana, and fruit smoothie.  I try to get as much in as I can as I have time to let it digest.  I then went back into bed and rested.  At 4:30, I started to prep all my gear to make sure I had everything.  Out the door by 5:15, we had to make three stops - one to drop off the van, two at T2 to drop off run nutrition, and three- T1 / swim start to pump tires, go over the bikes, and fill em with nutrition.  


We were a little pressed for time, but all it took was a quick hop over the fence and I was near the front of the swim start!  
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Swim- 1:03:51    20th place in Age Group


The swim was a rolling start, meaning you start where you want.  They blow the horn and swimmers walk into the water.  This is similar to an open road race where everyone lines up and they fire the gun.  Your time starts when you cross the mat getting in.  


I was able to get a really clean start and immediately stayed far right.  From what I read, staying right and aiming for the land far out was the best route to take.  This ended up being a good move as I had open water while all other swimmers were following buoy to buoy.  I felt strong and relaxed making sure not to push the pace, but rather swim comfortable.  Normally swims seem to take FOREVER, but not in Texas.  I felt like I reached the far end of the lake really fast.  I was excited that I was over half way done so quickly.  


Around 3/4 of the way through, I noticed my goggles seemed to be squeezing my head a little too much.  A massive headache set in and I was hurting.  I thought about stopping and readjusting, but was happy that no water was leaking in.  I didn’t want to stop to adjust and then have something else happen, so I dealt with it.  As I was hugging the shoreline back to transition, I actually touched bottom a few times.  I even stood up once and dolphin dived back in!


Overall, the swim was really uneventful.  After having two rough water swims for the first two races of the year, this one felt like a breeze.  I also now prefer to actually swim without wetsuits.  Sure I’m slower, but I feel a lot more comfortable.  As I neared the swim exit, I felt like I was going to have a great swim time and even secretly in my head thought I was going to be sub 1hour.  Nope.  Looking down I saw a 1:03 as I touched land.  Not disappointed as I typically will swim around there.  Good part was that I felt like a million bucks and was ready for my dry land racing to begin! 


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Thank you ROKA for the swim skin!

Bike- 3:48:53 (24.90 mph avg)


Starting the bike, I was fresh.  I felt ready to go and the watts seemed to come around very easily.  I knew the bike course was going to be fast, but wasn’t sure just how fast with the 60, 70, 80+ turns (not quite sure, but there were a bunch).
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Kit, helmet, and bike game on point!
I settled in and within the first 5 miles, I hit a bump and didn’t think much of it.  A few miles later as I went to reach for my rear nutrition- it was gone.  Oh well, it was a back up and spare emergency bottle.  It is key to roll with the punches in Ironman racing as nothing will ever go exactly to plan.  


I started strong and was holding between 220-235 watts.  Speed was fast and I was excited as I seemed to be going by many with ease.  Around 10 miles in though, a rider that I had passed earlier came back around and repassed me.  I slowed up, dropped back and then another rider came around.  I take a look and around 8 of those guys that I had passed had latched on and now riding a train.  There is nothing more frustrating than this as it makes riding smooth nearly impossible.  After dropping back, the pace was entirely too slow which forced me to gun it and repass the entire pack.  Once at the front end, I dialed in a steady 230 watts and held my speed.  I kept an eye behind me noticing they all stayed right on.  Not cool.  The rider immediately behind me decided to repass again, only to drop in front of me and immediately ride slower.  It didn’t take long for me to repass again.  Luckily after the 3rd time and around 20 miles into the race, they all stayed behind me.  It wasn’t as frustrating when they were just staying back as I was able to ride my race and not worry about slowing down.  Eventually they all dropped one by one leaving me to my own race.  


**edit** Actually just read a fellow race report from someone that was behind me.  ...According to his report, a draft marshall came by and gave 3-4 of them drafting penalties!  I guess that is why they all disappeared out of no where!
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About 10 miles later (around 40 miles in), I caught another small group.  Same thing- they latched on as soon as I passed.  This group stayed behind me for a LONG time.  As I went through special needs, two of the riders behind me had to stop to grab their bag (I didn't need mine), which let me free of towing anyone as I rode away solo.  


The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful as I knew I was nearing the front of the amateur field.  I passed a bunch of female pros (they started 10 minutes ahead), stayed on top of my nutrition, and enjoyed the flat Texas roads.   As I neared the end, around 15-20 miles to go...I suddenly felt that I was off course.  It was a strange feeling as the road was not closed and traffic was just zooming by like a normal Saturday training day.  There was also some construction on the side of the road making the shoulder fairly narrow.  It turned out that I was actually on the course (phew!)...but I was honestly shocked not to see cones separating the traffic from riders.  It seemed very dangerous----that was the only part of the course I will say I was a little disappointed in.

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Back to the race.  

Highlight of the bike:  guy on the side of road as I went by at close to 30mph said, “holy smokes, its the green lightening!”  Thanks to me sweet Wattie Ink Ego kit, I would agree!

The last 10-15 miles I slowed my pace down a bit and averaged right around 205-210 watts.  My legs were definitely starting to get tired, and I was thankful that the ride was only 94 miles instead of 112!  
As I entered transition and handed my bike off, I took a quick count while running to grab my T2 bag.  I only counted 6-7 amateur bikes in transition!  

In terms of nutrition:
1800 calories taken in- not sure on fluids as I grabbed water at every stop.

T2 was quick as I put on socks, my Saucony Type A shoes, race belt, hat, and cooling towel on.  Race volunteers were the absolute best in helping making it a quick change.  
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Run- 2:55!  1st in Age Group and 1st Overall Amateur!

Out onto the roads, I felt like I was running comfortable and in control.  About half a mile in, I took a quick glance at my watch to see that I didn’t lap split, so my watch was still on transition time.  I had no clue how fast/slow I was going.  I would have to run close to another mile to see where I was at.  Turns out my first mile was right around 5:30!  Yikes.  Truth be told though, I was not too surprised as all of my training runs were close to 5:40 pace off the bike.  

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Through mile two, I was 5:48, and feeling great.  I had passed a few amateurs already and knew I was right near the front of the race.  Shortly half way through the first run loop I was running with the female pro leader and went past quickly!  
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Around 6 miles I saw my cheering crew and they said they thought I was first amateur to come through!  I got excited as my pace was lingering around 6:00-6:05, and I wanted to slow down a bit in order to conserve energy.  


Nutrition plan for the run:  150 calories from my nutrition bottle every 3 miles, water, ice, coke, gatorade (basically as much as I could grab) from every aide station every mile.  


It was then 93 degrees with a 99% humidity and high dew point.  I always laugh to myself thinking how marathons are cut short or cancelled when weather extremes like that hit.  Yet, there we are running in that after swimming 2.4 and riding for 4-5 hours!  


Shortly before finishing the first loop (run is a 3 loop course of just under 9 miles a loop), there was a small out and back section.  While going out, I spotted an amateur coming back.  NOOOOO.  As I hit the turn around, I didn’t see anyone else and a DJ announced that I was the second amateur to come through.  Back to focus!  I turned up the run a little bit as he was still close to 6 minutes ahead of me.  


All I could think about for the next 5 miles was finding the first amateur and making a pass.  
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Over a bridge, I spotted the leader and did a quick time check to find out that I was still 2 minutes down.  But I had made up close to 4 minutes in those short 4 miles since I last saw him.  


Mid-way through the 2nd lap- I was burning up and really starting to hurt.  The good news was that everyone else seemed to be in the same boat.  I made the pass on the first amateur and told myself that I would go a few more miles pushing, then I could dial back and suffer the best that I could until the end.  


I saw my support crew on course again and tried to take my mind off of my race and asked how Jacqui was doing.  I was told she was actually just ahead of me on her first loop.  
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How is Jacqui doing?!
More ice, more fluids.  It seemed like I could never get enough.  Even though aide stations were spread about a mile apart, I was getting thirsty mid way through each mile.  Near the end of my second loop I saw Jacqui and caught up to her.  I asked how she was doing, and the news wasn’t good.  As well as my race was going, it really hurt to hear those words come out of her mouth.  She said that her hip was hurting and she might need to drop out.  I ran with her for a little while until I started the last loop.  I didn’t want anyone to catch me, so it was time to refocus and hang on for lap 3.
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Starting to hurttttt
Lap 3 was definitely painful.  The heat, the soreness, and exercising for that long was taking its toll.  I also started to have bad stomach pain and thought I was going to keel over at any second.  I had to use the bathroom BADLY.  But the image of back in 2012 when I ran the Milwaukee Marathon kept popping into my head.  I was leading the marathon, had stomach pains, stopped to use the bathroom, and ended up losing the race.  THAT WAS NOT HAPPENING AGAIN!  


Instead, I dug as deep as I could and forced whatever run pace I could.  My brain was not thinking clearly anymore and the course was packed with runners.  I had no clue what loop each person was on, so it was very difficult to judge if anyone was running up on me.  Mile after mile ticked by...and honestly I don’t ever remember miles 20-26.  I think that I was in such a different state of mind that the only thing I could think about was, “I just want to stop and make all the pain go away.”  


At last, I hit the final stretch of turning towards the finish line instead of starting another loop.  Step after step, I could feel the excitement increasing as well as the pain slowly disappearing.  I took a quick look back and nobody was in sight.  I was able to cherish my finish and soak it all in.  


All of the training hours, the pain/soreness day after day, questions of why and self doubt....all immediately erased.  All for that one moment.  Was it worth it?  Yes, not a doubt in my mind.  


I couldn’t believe that it all came together (well as best as I could have on that day) and I was the new               
Overall North American Ironman Champion!
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Shortly after (within seconds), the pain was back and it all set in.
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Don't throw up...
After the race, I plopped on the ground and waited.  I was really hoping Jacqui would make it through the race unharmed.  Minutes felt like hours.  Shortly after the skies opened up with one of the most massive thunder/wind/rain/hail storms I’ve ever seen, I saw Jacqui limping up toward the finish area.  She said she was on her second loop and would have to do another loop to finish.  Was it worth it?  No.  She called it a day and made the smartest decision I have ever seen her make: knowing when to fold when the cards aren’t in your hands.  The crash the day before had taken its toll and the inflammation in her hip was just too much to handle on that day.  Best to be wise, heal, and prepare to live another day.  


Post race was spent eating junk, possibly running a little!, and forking away a big chunk of money for the Ironman World Championships in Kona!  
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Got the jacket!


Full Stats:

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At the end of the day- I can say this race was my best one yet.  The most well rounded and executed.  Those goals at the beginning:


Grab a Kona slot- done
Win Age Group - got the jacket!
Overall Amateur- finally!
Sub 3 hours- 2:55!!!  
Sub 9- short course...grrrrrr.  Maybe in the next one!


So to all of you out there, set yourself some goals and remind yourself about them when the times get tough.  There were MANY days when I questioned myself.  Was I strong enough to hit those goals?  Are my legs going to make it through the next training session?  This hurts too much; it’d be easier to stop.  A quick look at what I wanted to accomplish brought me right back.  Dig deep, set yourself up for success, and enjoy the process!


Thank you to all that have supported me along the way- I could not have done it without you!

-EGO p/b Sammy's Bikes
-Saucony
-Coach Bill Bishop
-Alto Cycling
​-Javelin Bikes
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New Orleans 70.3 Race Report

4/20/2016

0 Comments

 
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Back in the Big Easy for round two.  In 2015, I headed down to New Orleans to compete in the 70.3 race and it ended miserably.  To put it simply, I struggled with kicking the rust and failed on nutrition/adapting to a new bike position and ended up in the med tent needing two IV’s.  I was able to finish respectably, but no where near where I knew I was capable of.  Fast forward to this year--- I signed up somewhat last minute as I had planned to race Oceanside 70.3 a few weeks ago.  With Jacqui getting treatments on her foot, we were unable to make the trip- so I turned to option two and decided on New Orleans for two reasons:  1) kick the rust in prep for Ironman Texas which is 4 weeks later and 2) redemption on this course.

The trip started out Thursday before the race as I flew out solo.  I had a free flight voucher and it only worked for the Thursday flights- normally I would prefer to fly out Friday, but it all worked out just fine as I was able to get in early and enjoy the nice weather while getting some Rybread Racing athlete training squared away.
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Work Day

I went out for a mid distance 8 mile run in the afternoon along the course and immediately noted the wind.  Strong, sustained wind that blew in one direction.  The forecast for race day looked to be calling for similar conditions, but even stronger winds.  I stopped at the local supermarket, tried out some boiled crabs and grabbed some essentials for the next few days.  Off to bed early as I was wiped from an early morning/travel day.  
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The only sunny day of my trip- view from my run near the race site
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Standard at the supermarkets
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Just chillin' with my new friend

Friday I was able to sleep in and then head into town to do all the pre race fun of checking in and walking around the expo.  I walked through the indoor malls (found a candy shop and bought some post race goodies) and loaded up on some food.  I also was able to walk around town and check out Royal/Bourbon St mid day.  As much as people say how it is a dump/smells (which it does)... it also was pretty neat seeing all the live music blaring in each bar I walked past, not to forget to mention all the street artists as well.  From there, I met up with coach Bill and a few other athletes as they all started to roll in.  In the evening we stopped in a local restaurant to eat as a team and then called it an early night.

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Pre-race day Saturday:  woke up to get out and do the shake out workouts.  I ran a few miles with the teammates along with some pick ups and stretches.  I honestly felt like garbage running, but I somewhat knew that was to be expected as trained pretty much straight through for this race and also took Friday completely off.  I usually prefer to take the day off two days out from a race to give the body a quick rest and then shake out to wake em back up the next day.  I wasn’t too concerned as I had a feeling I would be fine and ready to go come race morning.  After the run, I got a few laps in the hotel pool and then hit up the City Diner for the most ridiculous pancake breakfast I’ve ever seen.  Little did our group know that when their meals included 3 pancakes each...the pancakes would be the size of a 16 inch pizza.  They were literally served on pizza trays.  Needless to say, the group wasn’t even able to finish 2 of the pancakes, which meant we were bringing back 12 of these jumbo cakes back to the hotel!
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Coach Bill wasn't racing--so he was in charge of tackling the pancake pile
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4 pizza boxes full of pancakes

After breakfast, we relaxed at the hotel for a bit before heading to the race site to do a test ride of the bikes and drop them off into transition.  During the bike test ride, I noted that even though the wind was strong, it wasn’t unbearable.  Nothing like the winds I’ve experienced in Kona, Hawaii.  Even though the wind was close to a sustained 20mph, I was still able to roll 20-23 mph into it.  The only downside was that the wind did cause the bike to be a touch unstable and it took some extra focus to make sure the bike stayed upright!  I dropped the bike off, took the ICE Friction chain off to ensure it would be dry and safe with me over night, and headed back to the hotel.  The group all went out to dinner, but from past experience at large races (and on Saturday nights), going out takes entirely too long.  So I opted to hang by myself and go grab a quick dinner over at Whole Foods.  I was able to relax a bit, get all my gear squared away, and prep for the day ahead!
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Race Gear- #rocktheW, #yourestrongerthanyouthink
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The Javelin Rocketship!

RACE DAY!

Up early at 4am to get ready for the day ahead!  

I wasn’t too hungry in the morning but still forced in some food.  I opted to go with a canister of organic brown rice baby cereal with a strawberry/banana/beet baby fruit pouch mixed in.  It ended up being pretty good and might be something I end up using for future races.  I also gulped down a tasty Beet It juice, coffee, and water.  It all seemed to sit well in my stomach with no issues at all.  

At the race site, setting up transition was a bit stressful.  I’m always checking and re-checking that all my gear is set up and in place.  I guess since it was the first race of the season I feel like I wasn't doing something right!  I got the chain back on, pumped the tires, filled my nutrition bottles, and laid out all the gear.  
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I was pretty excited as it was my first race aboard my Javelin Lugano with Alto CC86 wheels.  Javelin and Alto contacted me a bit back seeing if I would be interested in working with them.  I had known about Javelin bikes and knew about the Lugano / the success it has had with its riders in the past.  After a bit of talk with them, I decided it would be a great decision moving forward for a few key reasons - I will go into full detail on this decision in a separate blog post very soon!

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GET READY FOR SOME WIND!

@denissketako Today was the crazy day for all triathletes. Respect! #imnola703 #ironman #swimbikerun

A video posted by IronmanNEWS (@ironmannews) on Apr 17, 2016 at 3:35pm PDT

After getting all set in transition, I did a quick jog warm up around the race site as I had about 45 minutes until the start.  My legs felt great and ready to perform.  I met up with a few of the other racers from Chicago and hung out until the start.  Before I knew it, I was lined up and ready to get the race under way.

The swim start at New Orleans is a semi-rolling start.  They call in each age group wave to line up in the corral area.  From there you self seed yourself where ever you want, and they walk you out on a dock that leads out into the lake.  From there, they have about 10 athletes step forward to the end, blow the whistle, and off you jump into the water and start.  As I was walking down the dock, I already noticed about 3 athletes being pulled back to shore on boats.  This was not a good sign.  It meant that the water was rough and it was going to be a washing machine of a swim.  
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Sure enough, the horn blew and I was into the water.  With winds at a sustained 20-25mph, the water in the lake was being tossed around.  Unfortunately for the athletes, the first section heading out was just about into the wind and therefore rough water.  I stayed relaxed and stayed pretty far right compared to every one that was off to my left.  This left me with a lot of clean water and actually not too bad of a swim to start.  I was able to concentrate on where I was at, timing my breathing, and focus on staying in control instead of worrying about colliding and weaving through the swimmers that started ahead of me.  It seemed that it took an eternity to get out to the first turn buoy, but I kept telling myself that it was most likely going to be the hardest stretch.  

After making the first turn, I sighted ahead to the ‘yellow’ buoy that I was supposed to turn next at.  After swimming a few minutes, I started to collide head on with a few swimmers.  I was very turned around and confused as to why they were coming at me as I thought I was swimming to the right buoy.  It turned out that I was actually swimming right back towards the swim start.  The race actually had put out a yellow buoy near the swim start, which mades things very confusing.  I know for a fact that a lot of other athletes did the same as I did.  After colliding with a few others head on, I thought something had to be up.  So I stopped for a quick second, took my head out of the water and looked around.  To my dismay, I saw the actual next yellow turn buoy FAR off to my left.  Instead of taking the tangent to that second turn buoy, I had swam straight back towards the start, then had to make a hard left to get back on track.  In my head, I was crushed.  I thought my race was over and kept trying to calculate in my head how much further I swam from my mistake.  Somehow I came up with the distance of 400 meters extra which would be close to 6 minutes.  I definitely need to learn to cope with small mistakes a little bit better as in the end, I don’t think it was nearly that bad of a mistake, maybe only a minute or two.  
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Swim out heading north, you can see where I started to come straight back down (and into the incoming swimmers
​Back on track, I made the next turn, and headed back out into the rough water.  I got tossed around a bit more than I liked, but made my way to the swim exit and was less than thrilled seeing 32 minutes.  Last year I swam 24 minutes (yes the swim was shorter and definitely not as rough of water).  But the good part was that as I ran through transition, I was able to tell that my body felt good and had decent energy.  Sometimes I get out of the water gassed and with a skyrocketed heart rate, but not today.

Onto the bike.  I grabbed my new Javelin Lugano and was lucky to have a nice little stretch of tailwind to allow me to get my shoes on and tightened.  Right out of the gate, we had to head up and over a bridge, take a quick turn, and then ride with either a strong head wind or strong cross wind for 28 miles.  I noted  that the wind was strong and blowing hard, but I was able to ride through it.  Since the course was so flat, I never really struggled to keep a good cadence.  I was able to roll anywhere between 20-25 mph going into the wind and not exhaust myself grinding out the watts.  I will say that I did have to pay a little more attention to controlling the bike as the gusts seemed to push the bike around quite a bit.  Even taking my hands off the base bar to grab my nutrition bottle was a bit scary.  There were definitely a lot of wobbly riders out on the course.  I felt strong though heading out and seemed to be going by a lot of riders with ease.

By the time I hit the turnaround, I had averaged right around 23 mph.  I figured it would be realistic to average 27+ on the way back as we’d primarily have a tail / cross wind.  I will say that as strong as the wind was blowing, it didn’t seem like it was pushing me forward as much as I thought it would during the return trip.   

The turnaround was also where I experienced something I have never felt before.  After pushing out of the saddle to get back up to speed from turning around, I went back down into my aerobars and immediately had a sharp shooting pain radiating from my upper hamstrings all the way up into the middle of my butt.  Even sitting on the saddle was painful.  I tried to stand up, shake it out, coast, and do anything I could to loosen up the pain I felt.  As soon as I would sit back down onto the saddle I could feel the pain, and if I went into aerobars, it magnified.  My muscles leading into my butt were very tense and locking up.  There was no way I was able to pedal through it as it just got worse the more I tried to.  Looking at my ride file- this lasted for right around 10 minutes.  I stood up and coasted a total of 9 times in those 10 minutes as I could count the number of times my power was at 0.  Zero power, standing up (not aero), and coasting on and off means a lot of time lost.  In my head, I was trying to figure out what to do.  

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The pink bottom line shows my cadence...when it drops it shows I wasn't pedaling. Those were all of the times I had to stop pedaling to try and manage the pain
​I was pretty sure I had worked my way into good position by the half way of the bike, but then I was unable to continue riding.  I thought for sure my race was over and went into survival mode.  
After taking a few large gulps of my nutrition bottle, an entire roll of salt stick chews, and all the standing up, the pain ceased just enough for me to get my power back up.  It wasn’t the same power as I was able to ride at on the way out, but I was taking anything I could get as I was back rolling to a respectable speed.  I settled in at my now lower power and even noted that the guys I was passing seemed to be struggling a bit as well.  They were up out of the saddle trying to just keep moving forward.  The only thing that I can think of is that the wind going out required quite the bit of muscle stabilization and ended up locking them up.  I ended up finishing the bike course in 2:12- just over 25mph average.
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New Wattie Ink kit was fast and comfortable!

Back into transition, I noted that there weren’t many bikes in transition- only about 7.  Since I started in a later wave, I figured that I was in good position to take the overall win with a solid run.  The only question mark in my head was how my upper hamstring/groin/butt muscles would feel while running as they were still quite tender when finishing the bike.  Feeling like I was shuffling quite a bit and just focusing on running the best I could, I was shocked when I came through mile 1 in 5:19.  I was expecting to peak at my watch at see at 6:30 or so based on how I felt.  I didn’t want to get too excited though as in 2015 I went through mile 1 in 5:39 and blew apart shortly after.  Up and over the giant causeway bridge, I thought my pace would slow a bunch in mile two, but again, a 5:22.  From there it was game on and I threw any pacing strategies out the window.  I knew we had a strong tailwind for the first 6.5 miles so rolled with it.  Mile after mile, I kept checking the runners coming back to try and count how many amateurs were in front of me.  When I hit mile 6.25, I spotted the first amateur coming back towards me.  This meant I was .5 mile down from the leader.  In reality, I knew I was already in the lead as he was much younger and started around 6 minutes in front of me.  But I still wanted to cross the line first so put my head down and kept running hard.  

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Photo credits:  Patrick Brady, thank you!
Hitting the turnaround was quite the shock though.  I failed to realize actually how strong the wind was.  After 35 minutes of running with it at my back, I didn’t think too much about what it was going to feel like.  It was definitely the strongest wind that I have ever run in my 20+ years of running...and felt like I was running with a giant parachute on my back preventing me from running forward quickly.  My legs were definitely getting tired at that point, and all I did was try to keep taking nutrition in and slowing my pace a bit to not blow up with only 6 miles to go.  The plan worked as I caught the amateur leader and immediately felt a sense of relief that the win was pretty much guaranteed.  I relaxed the last few miles and took my time going up the final big bridge all the way into the finish.  Little did I know, but my run split was only 25 seconds off of the fastest of the day (one professional got me!).  
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In the end, I was the first amateur across the line by over 8 minutes with a finishing time of 4:04.  It was a great feeling to get the season off on a good foot knowing that my training is in a good place.  With limited rest coming into New Orleans, I was able to put out a great performance.  With only 4 weeks to go until Ironman Texas, I’m excited to get some big training weeks in and then shutting it down to prepare for a big day and hopefully an ironman distance PR!  
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Quick thanks to all my supporters:

EGO p/b Sammy’s Bikes- making sure I’m fully supported and getting me to the races!

Javelin Bikes- the new ride felt great, can’t wait to see what is in store going forward

Saucony- Type A shoes, light and fast

Alto Cycling- the CC86 wheelset handled flawlessly in the windy conditions
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