IRONMAN-TEMPE, ARIZONA-11/17/13

So, where do I start…After a three-year break from any competitive racing, I decided to sign up for another Ironman and opposite to what a lot of people say; I really enjoy the Ironman Arizona course. I actually love the three-loop bike course and even liked the old three-loop run course better. It’s great to be able to manage your pacing, track nutrition & hydration and not to mention see all of your friends on the course more frequently. A friend of mine used to always tell me that when you’re racing to ‘take small bites’. Breaking up the course into loops definitely helps accomplish that.

I drove out to AZ on Thursday with my friends Ryan and Chris who were also racing…and Ryan’s new fiancée Brynn too! I’ve done a lot of training with both Ryan and Chris and was excited to race with them again. Ryan and I had a running joke that if one person was eating or drinking something, the other would as well. No special advantages before the race!! Obviously, by looking at his finish time, Ryan must have snuck something in when I wasn’t looking.

Friday and Saturday were pretty low key. Checked in, did a little swim, bike and run and tried to keep off of my feet as much as possible. Jen flew in on Friday night and started putting together all of the ‘Team Chebi’ signs, pins, etc.… It was great to have her there for the race & to see her along the course. The short 30-minute bike ride on Saturday scared me a bit as it was pretty windy and it brought back bad memories from 2005 when we got blown off of the course. I was able to get to bed at a pretty decent time and the 4:00am alarm clock wasn’t too bad at all. Got up, had my normal pre-race breakfast of a Cliff Bar and brought another one to the race start with me.

Swim: 1:06

I decided to line up on the right side of the pack and several rows back for the swim start. I’m not a great swimmer, so I typically let the fast guys & girls go first and try to catch onto some feet. Apparently everyone else decided to line up on the right side too and I have never been punched, kicked, pushed and slapped before so much in a race. Take a look at this video for a reference to what I’m talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3S0wu4Zbfk At what I thought was the turn around, I was right at about 30 minutes, so I was looking good for about a 60-minute swim. I guess I must have looked at my watch before the halfway point!!

Bike: 4:53

I was hoping to bike about 5:00 for this race. I’ve put in a ton of time on the bike this season and was ready for a strong ride. I went back and forth the day before with my nutrition plan and wanted to make sure that I had enough calories with me. My plan was for about 400 calories per hour. I started out with solid food (10 Fig Newton’s for the first few hours) and then supplemented it with 6 gels, a PayDay bar, salt tablets, water and two bottles of Gatorade that I brought with me. When I finished my Gatorade, I started taking the fluids on the course (wasn’t a huge fan of the PowerBar Perform). The first loop was pretty clear and I ended up catching up to my friend Jeff and then my buddy Lowell caught up to both of us. We took turns doing our share of work keeping the proper distance between us, but I now know what they talk about in the front of a pack when the pros ride. It made it so much easier to let those guys dictate the pace and not worry too much about my effort. I stayed 3-4 bike lengths behind and we came through the first loop at 1:40. Right on pace. The second loop got pretty crowded for a bit and at one point we got swallowed up by a group of about 40-50 guys. There was no place for us to go and finally the officials came by to break

things up. Jeff, Lowell and I…along with a few others rode off the front and got away from the crowds. Last time I did this race was in 2009 and I stopped 4 times to pee on the bike. I told myself that I wasn’t going to stop today and for about 20 miles I’d stop pedaling and try to go…then have to pedal again. Once it finally happened it was the greatest feeling in the world!! I think I poured an entire bottle of water on my bike and I afterwards though! Sorry for the details… The winds changed a bit on the second loop and I came in with a 1:34. Quite a bit faster than I had expected, but still well within my comfort zone. The third loop was much quicker on the way out, but I knew it was going to be tough coming back into town. The first time we really had headwinds on the flat roads and slowed things down a bit. I think my third loop was right around 1:39. I was ecstatic coming back into transition feeling so good and ready to run a good marathon.

Run: Not good…

My previous 5 or 6 Ironman marathons have been between 3:37 and 3:55. I knew I wasn’t in 3:30 shape, but I thought to myself…’All I need is a 3:45 and I’ll finish with a 9:50’. How easy is that!?!?!? I ran through transition light on my feet, put my running shoes on and headed out on the run. After the first two miles, I knew I was going to be in trouble. My stomach was not happy with me and I immediately had to slow down to a walk to ease things up. I’d start to feel better again and then run. The only positive thing I can take from this run is that when I was actually running, it was pretty easy to keep 8:00 – 8:15 miles. Unfortunately I spent too much time in the porta-potties and walking. This went on and on and on for 4 hours and 42 minutes. The slowest Ironman marathon I’ve had to date. I’m not sure if I ate too much on the bike, drank too much of the PowerBar Perform drink…who knows. I have some ideas on how to change things up a little bit for next year, but all in all I’m pretty happy with my race. A PR on the swim and a huge PR on the bike and still almost finished in daylight…

I’ve got a busy schedule with a ton of races this next year and I’ll be back in AZ next November ready for a huge PR!!!

Thanks for reading…