My First Ironman - By Rich Pace

In 2004 I raced in my first triathlon, it was the Threads and Treads Greenwich Sprint Tri. I bought a Specialized Allez (from Craig) a few days before the race and had an absolute blast! I made a decision then and there that I wanted to become an Ironman. Well that dream took 8+ years and lots of life style changes to realize! This past weekend I made the dream of becoming an Ironman happen! Here is my race report...hope you enjoy it!

My virgin Ironman race was the Vineman Full Iron distance race. It is the oldest independent Iron distance race in the USA and takes place in idyllic Sonoma County California.

Pre-Race: Kate (the sweetone) and I drove up to Windsor California to check in on Friday. It was a beautiful 72 degree Californian day and I found myself quietly praying that we would have the same temp for the race the next day. Anyways, this race is unique (to me at least) in that it has two transitions. The bike to run transition was in Windsor, CA so I checked in, watched a 20 minute video regarding the rules and regulations, got weighed (178 Lbs, I weighed 217 not long ago, thank you Ironman training!) As I was being weighed I asked a volunteer why they needed to know my weight? She replied that it was for post race Medical Tent reasons. I thought to myself well, "I won't need that" More on this later!

After check in I got my race packet and racked or should I say put my running shoes, visor, salt pills and socks on the ground, checked out the finish line and headed to Guerneville California where my family was renting a house 10 mins down the river from the swim start the next morning.

Once my brother, parents and nephew Bruce (yellow lab puppy) arrived we quickly headed out to dinner. I ate chicken, a baked potato and some butter with veggies. Not the perfect pre-race meal but good enough I hoped. My brother's girlfriend showed up half way through dinner and team Pace was finally together! After dinner I headed home, re-checked my Cervelo P2 (bought from Craig), nutrition, goggles, wet suit so on and so forth. When I was satisfied everything was ready to go I ate a few fig newtons and a big Chocolate Chip Cookie (which was supposed to be saved for post race) said good night and retired to the bedroom with the sweetone. We each popped a sleeping pill, read a little from 17 Hours to Glory (great book) for inspiration and turned off the lights at 930pm. Well the lights were off but very little sleeping took place that night. I would say I got 2 solid hours (midnight-2am) and the sweetone did not sleep. Finally and thankfully the alarm went off at 4am and it was time to roll!

The Swim: Sweetone and I rolled out of bed, ate some granola and a banana, packed the car and headed to the swim start. We arrived at 5am for a 634am start time. In the pitch dark, I racked my bike, set up my nutrition and then had over an hour to stress out! While having that much time to stress was not optimal, I did get a great transition position and and empty Porto potty with no line (YES!!!!!)

The swim takes place in the Russian River and is a two lap affair. The river is narrow and shallow and many people took advantage of that by walking part of the swim. Anyways, I kissed the sweetone, told her I love her and thanked her for being my biggest (and maybe only) fan and in the water I went. I looked around at the Redwoods hugging the river and thought the early morning fog rolling though the valley was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. Being a competent swimmer I went right to the front of the line and announced "Who is going sub 50mins, come with me"! No one thought this was really all that funny but they all sort of gave me some space so I started out with perfect open water! Try that trick in your next race...Intimidation works! So off we went and I just tried to stay calm and smooth. I started rapping some Tribe Called Quest (Scenario) which kept my rhythm nice and smooth. The first out seemed like it would go on forever but before I knew it I was at the swim finish feeling strong and more importantly my heart rate and breathing were both very relaxed! 

Swim time 59:30, 13th overall, 8th overall for finishers, and 3rd in my age group. Success! 

The Bike: I ran (slow jogged really) out of the water, kissed the sweetone, and went to find my bike. I over shot my bike rack and all the sudden had flash backs to Escape From Alcatraz (where I took over 5mins to find my bike) anyways, I quickly corrected myself this time and found my beautiful Cervelo. Took my wet suit off, stuffed 6 Chocolate Chip Cliff bars in my back pocket, put on my bike shoes, aero helmet (yep I rock an aero now and it is awesome), sun glasses and Cervelo. I walked through transition and took my time (almost 6 mins). This was on purpose I promise! I wanted to give my heart a chance to settle and catch my breath. Plus, I was not racing for a kona slot and I have not learned the cool trick of having ones shoes clipped in and hopping on the bike. Anyways, once on the bike I found myself riding through an amazing Redwood Forest and the temp was a chilly 56F due to it being only 745am and a thick Fog layer. My plan was to take the first 30miles nice and easy breezy with a target heart rate of 140bpm on flats and 152bpm on uphills. For the most part i accomplished this and averaged 19 MPH. At times it was frustrating when all the slow swimmers/fast bikers went flying by me...But I kept telling myself that Ironman is not won on the bike so chill out!!!!Thankfully I still had Tribe Called Quest stuck in my head and great scenery to look at. I started the ride with two bottles filled with Ironman Perform and Six Cliff bars. The plan was to eat a cliff bar per hour, take down the two bottles before the first aid station and then switch to the Gatorade out on the course. I nailed my nutrition, ate 5.5 Cliff Bars and more importantly peed about 10 times while on the bike!!!! At mile 30 I felt strong so I allowed myself to increase my effort just a bit and kept an eye on my heart rate...The plan now was to keep the heart rate at about 144bpm on flats and allow it to creep to 160bpm on uphills. Right around this time the fog burned off, the sun came out, I warmed up and was totally racing in the moment and feeling like I might just be able to do this thing! At mile 40 I began the accent of Chalk Hill (think Palmer Hill, just a bit longer and not as steep) As I was steadily climbing I looked up and saw my support crew!!! I can not tell you how much that meant to me to see my parents, brother, nephew bruce, sissy and the sweetone. My brother ran next to me for a few minutes and I remarked that I felt like I was on Alp Duez! Anyways, the bike course is absurdly beautiful and I enjoyed flying though the endless Vinyards. At mile 60 I did another check in with myself and decided I still felt great, I decided to up the effort again and really started cruising (for me at least). The bike course has a double loop of sorts so we all get to go up the infamous Chalk Hill twice. As I was approaching it for the second time I came down a decent, rounded a sweeping corner and looked up to see 50 triathletes waiting for a helicopter to lift off the road...Turns out a fellow badass racer was not paying attention and hit a discarded water bottle which sent him head on into a wall which sent him sailing over into a creek bed 30 FEET below!!!! The badass brushed himself off and climbed back out the ravine with his bike only to collapse with a broken femur, collapsed lung and other ailments. From what I understand he will be alright, but the lesson is PAY ATTENTION to the road at all times!!!! After a short breather and Helicopter take off I was back on Cervello for the last 22 miles...We cruised into transition feeling strong and ready to tackle my first ever marathon!

Bike Stats - 112 miles, 5:45:17, 19.5mph ave. My bike effort increased through out and I ave 146BPM. Never went above 162bpm...All in all I nailed my plan and was super stoked! 95th overall/21st age group.

The Marathon - I rolled into transition and walked Cervelo to the spot I put my shoes and other stuff the day before. Once I arrived at my spot who was there but the Sweetone!!! So I got another kiss, racked Cervelo, changed shoes, chose a hat over my visor, stuffed 26 salt tablets into my back pocket and took off excited to run my first marathon and feeling strong. However, half way to run the exit I realized I did not have my race number on so I ran back, gave sweetone another kiss(4 kisses so far) and grabbed my race number to re-start my first ever marathon. (transitions are not my thing and this whole process to 7:46...way to long) So onto the run! My plan was to ease into the run with an average heart rate of 152bpm (75% of my max 188bpm), walk all the aid stations, at each aid station pour two cups of water on my head, cup of ice down the front of my shirt, cup of ice down the back, and take in two cups of Gatorade, plus a salt tablet at every other aid station (more if I started feeling mr crampie cramp creeping in) The run is a three loop affair with some serious hills and and evil turn around point 20 yards from the finish line! The first two 8.7 mile loops went great! I was concentrating on a quick cadence, fueling well, keeping cool and ended up averaging just over 8:30 miles. The first loop was spent chatting with a 5 time kona finisher who i dropped at mile 9 (he was 55, but still dropping anyone who bragged to me about kona for an hour plus made me feel really good). He was good company though and just as I was missing him I realized I was right in middle of he battle for top over all woman. So I spent my next loop watching this battle take place and chatting each of the ladies up. Take it easy sweetone! By chatting them up I mean passing the time and encouraging them. I also pretended that all the cheers they were receiving were for me. Oh yea, at each turn around I got to see my support crew twice and switched from real kisses to air kisses which I count just the same with the sweetone (8 kisses so far). 

The Third Loop and dreaded mile 18- So I trot past the support crew feeling strong for the second time of the day. The temperature has crept up to well over 90F and I am appoaching the dreaded mile 18. Every thing I read about Ironman (which was a lot) warned me about getting to mile 18 and still being able to run well. They all said that all the swimming, biking and running was just a warm up for mile 18-26.2 were the race is won or lost! Well, I passed right through mile 18 feeling strong, but at 18.5 miles I started to really hurt (Pain Cave Baby!)...I passed my crew and told them I had a feeling this loop might take a bit longer! It was now time to see what I was made of! Would I give in and walk or was a I willing to suffer and let my soul carry me to the finish. As the pain started to increase the distance between each aid station got a little longer, the hills became a lot steeper and the heat became even hotter. My form began to unravel (i learned to run on my forefoot last summer and spent months re-learning how to run) I regressed to HEAL STRIKING, my minutes per mile crept up from 8:30, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, !0:30, 11:00, all the way up to 11:30min miles (not good) my aid station walks got a little longer and my mind told me "who cares rich, you can walk and still have a respectable time, no one will care, everyone else is walking" The only problem was I CARED!!! I was not going to give in no matter what so I some how kept putting one foot in front of the other and shuffled with every once of energy I had!!!! It was a scary painful 8 miles or so but I wanted to be an ironman very badly and was not going to give up or give in! 

The Last Mile!!!- I willed myself forward and found myself at the last mile in full pain cave mode. I looked up and noticed a sign that said "I am not wearing any panties, SO SMILE"! It was being held by I cute coed so I smiled and realized I was about to make a dream come true! I shuffled through the last stretch of hot road and turned the corner and onto the finishing stretch which was about 200 yards. I am not sure how it happened but all the sudden I found myself pain free (it literally disappeared) and started a full out SPRINT to the line. About this time I heard my brother scream my name and became fully aware I was having my Ironman Moment!!! I crossed the line (they held up a tape from everyone which was awesome) and went over to my crew. The sweetone gave me a kiss (9 kisses), my mom poured water on me and started to cry a bit....I had finally become an IRONMAN!!!!!!!

Run Stats - 4:05:15, 9:22miles ave, 44th overall/ 8th Age Group, 156bpm heart rate

Finish Stats - 11:03:32, 39th Overall/10th Age Group (easily could have been 7th AG if I had moved a bit quicker in transition, i guess they count!)

Post Race Celebration (MEDICAL TENT) - So in my dreams I would cross the finish line, grab my medal, kiss my girl, give out a few high fives, grab a cookie and cheer on all the finishers. It did not quite happen like that. After i crossed the line, got emotional and grabbed a snapple (seriously snapple, WTF) My body decided it had had just about enough and started to turn off...I felt I weird sensation that started in my head like a wawawawawa vibrations...After five minutes of trying to shake it off i decided the Medical Tent might be a good move...I grabbed a volunteer's shoulder and he walked/dragged me to the med tent. Once in the med tent I collapsed on a cot and really started to have issues...for a few minutes I thought I was a goner, but when I noticed that the medical staff was not super concerned I figured I would survive and started to calm down and let the sweet one feed my gatorade through a straw...After about 2 hours the sensation went away and I stood up and almost passed out...So back to the cot I went and now an IV was placed into my arm. Anyways, long story short I was pretty dehydrated and my blood pressure dropped pretty low...But after a the IV I felt better and realized that the medical tent was full with others suffering from the same exact thing! The IV drained, I ate a bit of Chicken Soup and walked on my own to the car feeling as proud as can be about making the dream of becoming an Ironman a reality!!!!

The Big Thanks - No one can become an Ironman with out a lot of help and understanding from friends and family. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the people I ever trained with, the TT crew that let me tag along all winter on sunday runs while peppering them with questions, my TT tuesday/saturday crew for inspiring me and making me feel like a superstar, Craig for helping me with all my silly questions, my family for their love and support, and finally the sweetone for letting chase this dream! For supporting me, loving me and coming along for the ride...I love you!

In Conclusion - A Cervelo P2 with Aero Wheels cost $4000, Nutrition $2,000 or so, other equipment and race entry fee thousand of dollars more...Working my ass off, meeting great people, and becoming and Ironman....PRICELESS!!!!!!

A wise man once told me the secret to Ironman is swim a lot, bike a lot and run a lot! Thanks for reading and train with joy!

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Comments

[Mitch West]

Richard!! Wow, what a race and race report!! Welcome to The Club! You stared deep down into your soul and found that you are a STUD!!! Way to keep pushing and never giving up. The dust has now settled and I can hear you already planning your next race-- figuring where you can get even better and take time off. Thanks for inspiring us with a great race and great story. For race #2: 1) less kissing 2) NO 162 HR on the bike!!!