Ironman Arizona 2018 - Round 2

Warning

This is a long read, but hey, it was a long race.

Preparation

I signed up for this race after a lot of thought and discussion with my wife.  Christine has never seen first hand the schedule and effort that goes into preparing for an Ironman so I tried hard to tell her what my time commitment would be if I signed up for this race.  

I did my first, and only other Ironman the year I turned 40 so this would be a decade later and the year I turned 50.  My job had a somewhat flexible schedule and no other significant commitments, so it seemed like the stars were in alignment and I decided to go for it.

I had already been running a lot and did a trail marathon in February so I thought my running was on track.  I did a couple of open water swims, but never managed to get in the water as regularly as I had planned.  I wasn't too worried about that since my swimming background is pretty strong.  I tried to get 3 bike rides in a week when I wasn't traveling.  One long ride, one medium steady ride, usually an hour to an hour and a half long at a brisk pace.  The other one I tried to get in was a shorter very high intensity interval ride.  They are called Tabata Intervals and consist of 20 seconds maximum effort with 10 seconds of recovery. Six to eight of these intervals can do amazing things for your fitness.

I ran into a few challenges during my training.  One should not have been a surprise, since I live in the desert and summers are always a difficult time to train for anything, but I had failed to take that into account when I was planning for this race.  Another challenge was one I could not have foreseen as I got laid off.  I was able to get another job but the last 3 months before the race I had a lot less flexibility for training.  Without a trainer, I could only ride my bike on weekends and since I also had to do my long runs on weekends that meant that most weeks I only got a long bike ride in.  I did join a gym near my office so I could get swim workouts and shorter runs (treadmill, ugh).  All together, these impacted my ability to reach my peak training.

A couple months before the race, a friend on Facebook was chatting with me and offered to talk with me about my nutrition plan for the race.  Since I knew he was a trainer and coach, I figured it would be a good idea to get another point of view on my plan.  He gave me some suggestions and explained why his ideas had helped athletes he coached.  I took his advice and it certainly did help on race day.  

Pre-Race

I had my usual rough night sleep, waking up every hour or two all night long but felt rested enough by the time the alarm went off to start getting ready.  My wife and I had stayed at a hotel a couple miles from the start line to make it easier to get to the race in the morning.  I ate my usual plain bagel as soon as I was awake and started getting ready.

Race Morning

Christine was volunteering and needed to be at the swim start by 5:30am which was fine for me so I could get a few things on my bike and drop off my gear bags. I didn't plan very well which meant I went back and forth between my gear bags and bike a couple times.  Then, I dropped off my morning bag and started to go to the swim start and realized I still had my flip-flops on.  I went bag to the morning bag drop and held my shoes out and the volunteer asked what number and ran off to put them in for me. 

Swim

I was happy to see Christine just before the start line and was able to get one last good luck and have a great day kiss from her.  The swim start changed from a mass start where everyone starts swimming from the sound of the canon.  This year they did a "rolling start" where people lined up by their expected swim time.  It is intended to make the swim start less scary for the weaker swimmers.  

The first problem I had was that when I got to the swim start and realized that there were not gates at the different swim times, but you needed to start at the back and push your way up through until you got to your expected swim time.  The corral was not wide enough for all the people that stopped at the slower paces so any of us trying to even get to the 1:30 or 1:20 signs could not get past.  At first this may not seem like a problem since they said at the athletes meeting that all athletes would have 2 hours and 20 minutes to finish the swim from the time they got into the water.

I finally made it into the water and felt good.  My stroke was smooth and I felt fast.  I love how smooth wetsuit swimming feels.  I focused on smooth strokes and going straight toward the next bouy marker.  

Things were going good until about halfway through when I got a bad cramp in my right calf.  I was only about 10 feet away from a kayak and was ready to call them over to hang on if I needed it.  I was able to float without moving my leg for a bit until the cramp passed and I started to swim again.  As soon as I started swimming though, it came back.  I decided to hook my legs together to keep it from getting moved by the water and just paddled with my arms for a bit.  It felt like pull buoy practice in the pool.  In a few minutes, I could feel it loosen up and I was able to start kicking again for a while.  I just kept alternating between kicking and not kicking for the rest of the swim.  As a result, my swim was about 20 min slower than I was planning on.  

Swim time: 1:50:50

Transition 1

Getting out of the water and making my way to transition was a challenge.  The water was cold enough that my feet were numb enough that I could not tell if I was on grass, carpet or cement.  I started getting feeling back in my feet a couple miles into the bike.  I pushed my pace on the somewhat long path to get my T1 bag and make my way into the changing tent.  I quickly brushed off some of the grass from my feet, put my bike shoes, helmet and sunglasses on and made my way out to the bike.

I stopped for a few seconds to get sunscreen on on my way out of the tent.  I think I ate something as well while I was getting ready.  Either a Fig Newton or some raisins, I just can't remember.  I quickly found my bike, thanks in part to great volunteers calling out my number and pointing me to my bike.  I grabbed it and ran it it the mount line where I jumped on and quickly got moving.  I certainly felt faster in transition, but I guess the long path and stuffing my wetsuit into my transition bag took me longer than I thought.

T1 time: 11:29

Bike

It was great to see Christine along the exit chute while I was getting started on the bike. I was able to get moving quickly and get settled in to aero position.  I quickly started to get some nutrition into my system.  I grabbed water at almost every aid station.  Again, the volunteers did a great job with handoffs, I was able to catch everything I reached for.  

I only stopped twice on the bike, once to use a port-a-pot.  The other time to grab my special needs bag for my other bottle of nutrition.  I was happy to have no mechanical issues, but I was nervous for the last lap.  Every now and then, I started to hear a metallic sounding clack when I was pedaling a big harder.  I was worried that my 12 year old bike might be developing a crack in the pedal or crank, so I was relieved when I got to the end of the bike course and knew I could coast the rest of the way.  

I was happy to see Christine on each of the first 2 loops as I approached the turn-around and hear her cheering and encouraging me on.  On my way out to the turn-around on the last loop, I was doing some "race math".  I thought my first trip out took about an hour and 15 min and I was pretty sure the second was close to that.  I did not have a bike computer and was not using my Fitbit GPS (battery would not have lasted) so I had to estimate how far I had left.  I knew I needed to be at the turn-around by 4:15pm or my race was over.  I thought this was an unfair time since it had only taken me about an hour on each of my first return trips.  I knew I would probably be ok, but felt bad for anyone later in the swim start that swam a qualifying 2:20 but would miss that cutoff when a mass start would have probably allowed them to get there in time.  Just a gripe about the swim start that took over 30 min to get everyone in the water.  

Based on my training, I was hoping to a 7.5 hour bike ride, about 10 min less than my actual.

Bike time: 7:40:23

Transition 2

As I approached the bike finish chute, I loosened my shoes and pulled my feet out and kept pedaling with them on top of my shoes.  When I got to the dismount line, I jumped off and handed my bike to a volunteer and wobbled my way to my T2 bag.  On the way there, Christine was there to cheer me on.  This time thought, she was not on the spectator side of the fence, so I got to get a quick kiss without going out of my way.  Turns out that her volunteer responsibilities gave her access to be in some great spots even when she was not working.  T2 is easier since there is no wetsuit to deal with so it took me less time than T1.  I even beat my T2 time from 10 years ago by a few seconds and that included a quick stop in the port-a-pot.

T2 time: 6:22

Run

Leaving transition, I got another kiss from Christine before she went off to her next volunteer assignment at the finish line. I got my legs back after a couple hundred yards and did my best to keep a steady run.  I knew that it was going to be a long night, but was focused on making the next cutoff, getting to the halfway point by 9:15.   I kept trying to get as much nutrition as I could stomach at every aid station.  They had a great variety of things but pretzels and coke were high on my list for going down easy on my stomach.  I also grabbed at least one cup of water at every stop.  My stomach had started going into full rebellion mode and was the biggest reason I didn't move faster.  I ran when I could, but when my stomach started doing major flips, I slowed down for a bit.  As the night wore on, I kept thinking my positive mental reminders of all the long training runs I did. 

I knew that even walking I could make the finish line by 17 hours, but the half marathon cutoff was a bit dicier.  I was pretty sure I would make it, but kept pushing myself to get there faster.  I make it with about 30 min to spare and was thinking I was good until another runner reminded me that there was one more cutoff.  They didn't remember what the time was but they were worried about making it without some running.  

I saw Christine after I passed the halfway point and she got another picture of me which is good, because by the time I started the run, all the run course photographers had packed it in.  Just after seeing her, I started to get a hamstring cramp.  I stopped and pressed my fist into it and hobbled a few steps. It hurt for a bit, but I just kept moving.  I tried to ignore my stomach discomfort and just keep moving and eating at least a few pretzels every chance I could.

On the first lap, there was a tent with people holding out salt.  I didn't think I needed any (my thinking was already not the greatest) but by the time I got there on my second lap, I decided to give it a try.  AMAZING!  It helped my stomach a lot.  

I started trying to estimate how close I was to the next cutoff at the marina and what time the cutoff was.  I decided that the fact that I was asking myself that was because I knew I could push a bit harder if I knew it was going to be close.  If I could push myself if it was going to be close, then I could push myself and I decided "I didn't come this far to only come this far!" I got mad at myself for walking too much and started running more and keeping my walking pace faster.  

I made the cutoff and just kept pushing myself.  One aid station had pumpkin pie. I hesitated, but my stomach had started to feel better and it sounded good so I tried it.  That really hit the spot.  A few aid stations had soup broth and that was great as well.  The warmth was good because it had started to cool off and the salt helped as well.  Several aid stations had candy.  The chocolate (3 Musketeers and M&M's really hit the spot)

It gets pretty dark on the far side of the lake and a bit lonely late in the race.  I was pleasantly surprised how many people were still out there cheering us late racers on.

Finish

Once I was on Rio Salado, I knew I was getting close and had no reason to save any energy so I kept my walk breaks very short.  As I approached the finish chute and made the turn to the finish line, I was energized by the crowd still there cheering me on.  I gave some people high-5's as I ran past. 

As I crossed the finish line, I realized Christine was there with a medal to put on me.  I was surprised and thrilled to have here there for me.  She helped me get a blanket, banana, water as well as my finisher hat and shirt.  Her volunteer wrist band let her stay with me and help me get some pizza and a sprite.    

Post-Race

We sat there for a while while I ate some pizza and talked about the race.  Then we walked over and picked up my transition bags and bike.  I put on my sweatshirt from the morning because by this point, I was starting to get cold.  We had a shorter walk than I expected because Christine had moved the truck to a closer parking spot before I finished.  

Mental 

The mental part of the race was something I particularly worked on for this race.  There was a lot going on in this category.  Right at the start, not being able to line up where I wanted could have messed with my head, but I decided "It is what it is" and since I couldn't change where I was or how the start was organized, I would just roll with it.  Getting wound up like some other in the corral were doing would not have changed anything other than get me frustrated.

While I was on the bike, I repeated a mantra to keep myself going.  When I felt tempted to slow down, I tried to delay that by taking an inventory of how I was feeling and whether slowing down was really necessary.  These 2 things alone probably helped me finish 10 minutes or more faster. 

Overall 

If I learn something from any race, I consider it a successful race.  In this race I learned that a part of my stomach problems in long events is a lack of salt. This could be a huge help as that is my biggest limiter keeping me from going faster.

I really did not like the swim start, but hopefully the organizers will look at things and find a better way to do it or go back to a group start.  I like the bike course with only 2 u-turns on each loop.  The rest of the turns are easy to take at a pretty high speed.  Most of the bike course is plenty wide and only a few areas felt crowded.  The run course felt longer than the course they had 10 years ago, due to several out-and-back sections, but it felt like a flatter course.  The post-race area did not have any chairs and tables unless you were in the VIP section.  This is a huge problem for me.  Standing back up after I ate was difficult.

Overall, this is a fun race.  I love the fan support.  Overall, race logistics are good, between flexible athlete meeting times and check-in times.  The weather was great for this race.  I would definitely consider doing this race if (when?) I consider doing another Ironman.