Quick Facts
- During the race I consumed 7 GU packets (nutritional gel), 5 bananas, 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 6 bottles of Gatorade G2, (7) 24oz bottles of water (and a countless number of cups of water at aid stations), 2 peanut butter Cliff bars, 7 cups of chicken broth (good for sodium intake), 6 salt pills, several handfuls of pretzels, 4 cookies and 3 grapes.
- I lost approximately 18 pounds during the race.
- No matter what anyone tells you Florida is not completely flat.
- Germans are really big, and I don't mean fat.
- 112 miles on a bike is a long distance to ride.
- Everyone should go to at least one Ironman event in their lifetime (either as a spectator or racer) to see average everyday people push themselves to the limit.
RACE MORNING
I woke up about 4am race morning, got dressed, ate a poptart and protein shake and was out the door by 4:30am. I only slept about 4 hours but this is pretty normal for me the night before a race. I got to the Cooper's condo and waited until 5am for Neil and Nancy. We walked the 1/4 mile or so to the transition and it was then that I noticed the wind. It was pretty cool outside and I could hear the wind blowing and the surf coming in. The forecast for the day was sunny with winds 5-15 mph. Neil had brought his tire pump so we added a little air to our tires and then we just talked for a bit going over the day ahead. At 6:30am the transition area closed so we got on our wetsuits, put our clothes in the morning transition bags and headed over to the swim start.
SWIM
It was at this point when the nerves being to settle in. I had read a race report (thanks Ashley) that had said the sand can be cold in the morning and wear some kind of shoe or even a pair of socks onto the beach. So I decided to wear my socks onto the beach and I am glad I did. When you enter the beach all the athletes have to go into a swim holding area. The race didn't start until 7am so we were in that area on the beach for a good 20 minutes before the race started. The sock idea worked like a charm because several people around me had cold feet (not about racing, they really had cold feet) and I was fine. It was at this point that big change was noticed.
We had done the practice swims on Thursday and Friday and for the most part the water was pretty calm with a little bit of wind, but really no waves breaking on rolling in. Well, race morning was totally different. The wind had really picked up and the waves, especially further out were rolling in. Looking out from the beach the wind was blowing in straight into my face a bit to my left. So going out we would be swimming right into the wind and chop. It was at this point that I remembered the news reports about a hurricane brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't know if it was the hurricane or what, but the conditions were the worst they had been all week. Now I am not talking 10 foot seas or anything, and I was never afraid for my life, but I knew we would be swimming in 2-3 rolling waves and it could be difficult. The funny part though, was I was not nervous at all. I had a maximum goal of 1:45 for the swim with a stretch goal of 1:30. So I just told myself that I had done plenty of swims in open water (thanks ATC) and this was no different and I would be fine. I had spent hours swimming in the pool and I just needed to stay calm, breathe and relax.
At 6:50am the gun went off for the pro's and then at 7am the gun went off for everyone else. When the gun went off 2450 people headed for the water all at once. We had decided before the start that we would enter the water to the far right and swim a straight line for the first turn buoy. We wished each other good luck and we were off. I actually did not enter the water until 1 minute and 30 seconds had passed and it was 2 minutes before I had walked past the sandbar so that I could swim. It takes a long time for 2450 people to get into the water.
The way the swim loop was set up there were yellow buoys to our left every 200 yds or so and then there was a red buoy where we had to make a left turn and swim parallel to the shore for a couple hundred yards. The there was another red buoy and another left turn to head back to shore. On the way back we had orange buoys to our left until we got back to shore were we had to run up onto the beach and around a fence to start the 2nd loop.
I had been kicked in the face during a race earlier in the summer, so I made a decision to swim to the outside of the buoys and try to avoid contact as much as possible. For the most part it worked. I had to start and stop several times (especially on the first loop) to avoid other swimmers. An interesting thing about the water is that is gets warmer the further out you go. So after 200 yds or so the water warmed up and it was pretty comfortable. This also was the point that the waves were rolling in bigger. I was still very calm and was managing to time my breathing with the up and down motion of the waves and felt pretty good. As I was heading to the first red turn buoy the chop in the water got much worse. When we made that turn the sun and wind where now directly into our face. You could really feel the up and down rolling motion of the water now. I heard several people coughing as I am sure they were sucking in some water at this point. I had read an article in one of my triathlon magazines that talked about swimming in choppy water. What I remembered was that the author had said to "look to the sky" when the water is rough. So that is what I did. I just turned my body more and kept looking up and I was able to keep my breathing under control and water out of my mouth. As I made the turn for the shore on that first loop the waves were coming from my right and behind me. I again swam a wide loop to avoid the congestion. It was very hard to sight off the bouys (sighting is when you look up to make sure you are not swimming off course) because of the rolling of the waves. So whenever I felt I was at the top of a rolling wave I would look. I decided to not worry so much about looking for the bouys and just swam in the same direction as everyone else. I figured we were all trying to get to the same place. I completed my first loop in about 42 minutes. I was pretty pleased. I was under a 1:30 pace.
As you leave the water and head for the second loop you can see and hear the crowd. There were several thousand people cheering and ringing those cow bells. We had to turn left around the fence that was set up and head back into the water. I grabbed a drink of water to rinse off my face and rinse out my mouth of the salt water. Even though I didn't swallow any water it will still get in your mouth when you are breathing.
The second loop was very much like the first loop. It was less crowded as the swimmers were more spread out and water conditions were about the same. I think the wind may have helped me on the second loop coming back to shore because I felt like I was passing people in the water. It could have been me hallucinating, but I felt like I was moving along pretty good. It was at this point that I swam into I guy I thought was dead. I was swimming along and I kept hitting my right arm into someone. I stopped swimming to look and there was guy in front of me just floating with his head in the water. I pushed him away from me and he did not move and I thought I was going to have to start CPR or something for this guy. I pushed him again and he slowly rolled over and started to move his arms. I guess he must have been resting but it kind of freak me out for a moment. So after the guy swam off I put my head back down and headed to shore. When I stood up to get out of the water I looked at my watch and it showed 1:27. I was thrilled. I had done the swim in less than 1:30.
One of the unique things about an Ironman race are the wetsuit "strippers" These are people that will help you out of your wetsuit after the swim. These people were crazy. As we ran up the beach the wetsuit strippers were screaming at me to lay down. I looked and all I saw was sand and I was not about to lay down in the sand so some guy could rip off my wetsuit. I figured the 30 seconds I would save was not worth having sand in some unmentionable place for the next 7 hours on a bike. No way, not for me. So I ran right past the screaming wet suit strippers and headed into the first transition area or T1.
T1
As we left the beach we had to run thru a tunnel to the parking lot where transition was set up. As you leave the tunnel you shout out your race number and a volunteer will grab you T1 bag and hand it to you. We then had to run about 50 yards to a building where they had seperate mens and womens changing areas. Now all week long the race officials had stressed no public nudity. Well that did not apply to the changing rooms. It was a zoo inside the changing areas. Naked people were everywhere putting creams and gels in all kinds of places. I know we are all adults but that was just something I was not prepared to see.
I wear a once peice tri suit and I just put on a pair of cycling shorts over top of that and put on a shirt with sleeves. I knew it was going to be sunny so I tried to put on some sun screen. I had purchased some compression sleeves to wear on my arms and I put them one (They worked great). Then it was socks, riding shoes, helmet, sunglasses and race belt with my number attached and I was off.
I had to run (ok I actually walked) back out the 50 yards or so to the bike racks and again you call out your number and someone gets your bike and meets you with it. When I got to my rack my bike was the last one left so it was easy to find. I knew when I was racking my bike the day before there were some serious guys around me. There are some hard core atheletes that compete in these races. I am just not one of them.
So I walked my bike out to the bike mount area and I was off for 112 miles off riding into the wind.
My official time for the swim was 1:28:10 and T1 was 12:36. I was feeling great and I was right on target. And then the winds came...
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