Monday
Dec012008
Ironman NEWBIE at Ironman Arizona
Monday, December 1, 2008 at 07:01PM 
To say there was a long build-up to this race would be a huge understatement. You sign up for an Ironman race a full year in advance, so the anticipation of this race was a solid calendar year. Being my FIRST IRONMAN, the anticipation was that much greater. This race came at the end of a long racing season in which I began the year with a knee injury and lots of pool running. I went on to have some good results later in the season, but I always knew that the Ironman was my big "A" race.
I have many friends (and TT teammates) who wish I paid them a nickel for every question I asked them about the Ironman race. As a newbie, I was anxious to garner every piece of training, racing, and nutrition advice I could get. Fortunately, they patiently answered EVERY question I had (I still have many more!).
My training leading up to this race gave me some nice confidence going into this race. Rick and Eneas were nice enough to let me indoors at TT every Saturday in October at 5:00 a.m. for 5.5 (yes, 5.5) hour indoor rides followed by a transition run upstairs on the treadmill (AZ was hot, you see). These were not intense rides, but rides that would get me used to staying in the aero position for five hours straight. To this end, these rides were invaluable, and could not be duplicated outdoors. Plus, I annoyed everyone in both Sat. a.m. classes; double bonus!
Come race day, I indeed felt ready to be "shot out of a cannon," as Mimi Boyle suggested I should feel. My swim was mostly uneventful, save for wearing the "wrong" wetsuit (sleeveless in 63 degrees, brrrr!) and having horribly leaky goggles (how stupid can you get?). Having stopped many times throughout the swim (to get the water out of my goggles), I was very pleased to get out of the water at right about an hour (1:00:07).
My bike plan was definitely to be very patient (thanks on the advice gang!) in this three loop bike course and to attempt to make all three laps pretty even. Each loop was an "out and back" with the "out" featuring a stiff headwind and a slight uphill grade. Therefore, the back gave you a nice tailwind and was slightly downhill. I was super-aero and feeling amazing on my new Cervelo P2C, just purchased from the shop back in May. For those of you who read Allie's post, I'm gonna say "ditto" in terms of the outrageous drafting that I witnessed. When a pack of 8 goes by, and you get passed by a guy that's not pedaling, everything in you wants to say "screw it" and hop on the back of the train. However, you then have to be able to live with yourself, and try and fall asleep at night. So... I held back some and remembered that patience would hopefully pay off in the marathon to come. Another friend assured me that people cheat on the bike becasue the "can't run." I was praying this was true. My overall bike time was 5:16:03, averaging 21.3 mph, and I was feeling pretty fresh.
My first several miles of the run felt absolutely effortless. My Garmin watch gives me my current minute/mile pace and let me know I needed to back off the pace, as a 3 hour marathon was definitely not going to be realistic! At this point, we were definitely running in the heat of the day on a completely exposed course. I made sure to get all the fluids and calories in that I could, sure that this would pay dividends later in the race. My first 13.1 miles were relatively easy and I was averaging roughly 7:30 pace. However, by miles 13-20, I would say I was really beginning to "feel it" and my pace was definitely slowing. At some point after mile 13, my buddy Greg Stewart yelled out to me (thanks Greg!) that he noticed a lot of salt stains on me and was huge in reminding me to continue to hydrate and get calories in. Therefore, I made a point of walking thru some of the aid stations to make sure I had enough fuel for the final 10 K. This "strategy" paid huge dividends in my final 5.9 miles as I was able to average 7:34/mile and passed a slew of folks who were now struggling. I had begun the marathon in 213th place overall and 36th in my AG. By the time the day was through, I had moved up to 107th overall and 20th in my AG. More importantly, I was able to "run strong" the last 10K which was just a great feeling that made for a wonderful experience. My marathon was a 3:27:06, averaging 7:54/mile. My total time was 9:51:21.
Well, if you've read this far... you need a life and should be out training! But one more thought: As I noted, I was 107th overall, which included the 90 pro men and women in the field. That's the good news. The bad? That was only good for 20th in a blazing fast men's 35-39 field! My good buddies and TT teammates Stewart and Mosse have had the exact same experience in their many Ironman races; and now I get to eat a little humble pie of my own!! Thanks Fellas!! Overall, I had an amazing experience in my first Ironman, and it definitely left me hungry for more. Only now, I am just plain hungry-- and plan on putting on 10 pounds! But come January, I am counting on Eneas, Dom and the boys at TT to make me stronger on the bike and a hill-climbing machine as I look toward Lake Placid in July. But perhaps more importantly, I can get an easy 3 minutes next race with 1 "easy" trick: HELP! Anyone!?! How the hell do you pee while riding your bike????
Thanks for reading---
Mitch
I have many friends (and TT teammates) who wish I paid them a nickel for every question I asked them about the Ironman race. As a newbie, I was anxious to garner every piece of training, racing, and nutrition advice I could get. Fortunately, they patiently answered EVERY question I had (I still have many more!).
My training leading up to this race gave me some nice confidence going into this race. Rick and Eneas were nice enough to let me indoors at TT every Saturday in October at 5:00 a.m. for 5.5 (yes, 5.5) hour indoor rides followed by a transition run upstairs on the treadmill (AZ was hot, you see). These were not intense rides, but rides that would get me used to staying in the aero position for five hours straight. To this end, these rides were invaluable, and could not be duplicated outdoors. Plus, I annoyed everyone in both Sat. a.m. classes; double bonus!
Come race day, I indeed felt ready to be "shot out of a cannon," as Mimi Boyle suggested I should feel. My swim was mostly uneventful, save for wearing the "wrong" wetsuit (sleeveless in 63 degrees, brrrr!) and having horribly leaky goggles (how stupid can you get?). Having stopped many times throughout the swim (to get the water out of my goggles), I was very pleased to get out of the water at right about an hour (1:00:07).
My bike plan was definitely to be very patient (thanks on the advice gang!) in this three loop bike course and to attempt to make all three laps pretty even. Each loop was an "out and back" with the "out" featuring a stiff headwind and a slight uphill grade. Therefore, the back gave you a nice tailwind and was slightly downhill. I was super-aero and feeling amazing on my new Cervelo P2C, just purchased from the shop back in May. For those of you who read Allie's post, I'm gonna say "ditto" in terms of the outrageous drafting that I witnessed. When a pack of 8 goes by, and you get passed by a guy that's not pedaling, everything in you wants to say "screw it" and hop on the back of the train. However, you then have to be able to live with yourself, and try and fall asleep at night. So... I held back some and remembered that patience would hopefully pay off in the marathon to come. Another friend assured me that people cheat on the bike becasue the "can't run." I was praying this was true. My overall bike time was 5:16:03, averaging 21.3 mph, and I was feeling pretty fresh.
My first several miles of the run felt absolutely effortless. My Garmin watch gives me my current minute/mile pace and let me know I needed to back off the pace, as a 3 hour marathon was definitely not going to be realistic! At this point, we were definitely running in the heat of the day on a completely exposed course. I made sure to get all the fluids and calories in that I could, sure that this would pay dividends later in the race. My first 13.1 miles were relatively easy and I was averaging roughly 7:30 pace. However, by miles 13-20, I would say I was really beginning to "feel it" and my pace was definitely slowing. At some point after mile 13, my buddy Greg Stewart yelled out to me (thanks Greg!) that he noticed a lot of salt stains on me and was huge in reminding me to continue to hydrate and get calories in. Therefore, I made a point of walking thru some of the aid stations to make sure I had enough fuel for the final 10 K. This "strategy" paid huge dividends in my final 5.9 miles as I was able to average 7:34/mile and passed a slew of folks who were now struggling. I had begun the marathon in 213th place overall and 36th in my AG. By the time the day was through, I had moved up to 107th overall and 20th in my AG. More importantly, I was able to "run strong" the last 10K which was just a great feeling that made for a wonderful experience. My marathon was a 3:27:06, averaging 7:54/mile. My total time was 9:51:21.
Well, if you've read this far... you need a life and should be out training! But one more thought: As I noted, I was 107th overall, which included the 90 pro men and women in the field. That's the good news. The bad? That was only good for 20th in a blazing fast men's 35-39 field! My good buddies and TT teammates Stewart and Mosse have had the exact same experience in their many Ironman races; and now I get to eat a little humble pie of my own!! Thanks Fellas!! Overall, I had an amazing experience in my first Ironman, and it definitely left me hungry for more. Only now, I am just plain hungry-- and plan on putting on 10 pounds! But come January, I am counting on Eneas, Dom and the boys at TT to make me stronger on the bike and a hill-climbing machine as I look toward Lake Placid in July. But perhaps more importantly, I can get an easy 3 minutes next race with 1 "easy" trick: HELP! Anyone!?! How the hell do you pee while riding your bike????
Thanks for reading---
Mitch
Reader Comments (1)
Mitch,
Congratulations, thanks for sharing your story.