Where do I begin on this entry? So much has happened over the last 3 weeks. I've been waiting to make this post so I could get my pictures together but in doing so my thoughts are very jumbled together in regards to my trip down to Houston and what I was able to achieve. I honestly feel that it is the Greatest Accomplishment of my Life. Even though I don't feel like it has completely sunk in yet, I do know that the experience of crossing that finish line was every bit as special as I had hoped it would be. Going from someone who was not even a runner and could not even run for 10 minutes without stopping to someone who finished a 140.6 mile endurance event just amazes me....and I was along for the entire journey too! Trying to explain how special this weekend was to me and being able to share it with all of my family and a lot of my friends is difficult but here it goes:
I flew down to Houston a week early thinking that I could acclimatize to the high heat and humidity before the race. This was a great thought in theory. Mother nature however had a different plan. I arrived after a week or so of some pretty significant thunderstorms in the area. These storms not only lowered the air temperatures but decreased the humidity to very low levels as well. There were days where I was even wearing pants....yeah PANTS! Even though this was extremely pleasant it made for acclimatizing a little difficult. I continued on with my plan. I went to the local gym for some pool sessions and went for a few runs along the Marathon course as well as a bike ride that took me on the out of town route for the bike course. I only went a few miles though before turning south to ride over to my childhood home in a neighborhood about 4 or 5 miles away (as the crow flies)....I took a longer path to get there than on my way home. It was surreal to be an adult biking in the very neighborhood where I learned how to ride a bike as a kid. Especially
biking down the street that I use to ride to and from school everyday in elementary school. Also there was one section of roads that I was on outside of our neighborhood that I can remember biking on at one point when I was around 10 years old on my 1st ever 10 speed road bike with my brothers (we should never have been biking on these roads at that age and needless to say my parents had no idea we were doing this....but we did it anyway because if I remember correctly we wanted to go try and feed some ducks at this small commuter airport about 5 or so miles away, this does not seem like a lot now but when I was 10 it seemed like we were doing a cross country expedition). Anyways this particular ride always pops into my head at random times when I'm biking. It's a neat memory, mostly because it was something I did with my brothers that I have no memory of fighting with them :-)
At this rate of my story telling I'll write a book before I get to the end. So I'm going to skip over a bunch of stuff. Basically I went out to dinner while there on several occasions with some old family friends and several of my old roommates from graduate school in Hawaii. It was great catching up with all of them.
On Wednesday, the athlete village opened up and I went and picked up my athlete packet that contained my timing chip, all of my transition bags and my numbers to stick on my helmet and bike as well. Most importantly this packet consisted of an IRONMAN TEXAS BACKPACK......it's pretty cool.
On the Thursday before the race I went for that long bike ride I mentioned above and then went to the Athlete Dinner and mandatory meeting. It was a great way to start off the weekend getting into the Ironman Spirit, as if I needed extra motivation to get in the spirit....plus it was free food :-) My parents and older brother Jimmy (along with his family) arrived on Thursday night as well. This was really fantastic because I finally got to meet my newest niece Olivia.
I awoke at 5am on Friday morning for a quick trip out to the airport to pick up one of my IRONsherpas. What's an IRONsherpa you ask? Well, its a term at these races for any friend or family member who takes on the role of helping you with carting all of your gear around both before and after the race. Trust me, the last thing you want to do after this race is go hunt down all your transition bags and your bike and then get them back to you hotel room. When my buddy Jason did Ironman Arizona in November I was his Sherpa. So he came down to Texas to reciprocate the favor. In addition to Jason I also had my Team In Training Co-mentor and friend Louisa there. She was fantastic and she ended up contributing more to the cause than she will ever know. I'll get to that in a second. After picking up Jason at the airport we came back to the hotel, changed and then went for a run over to the swim start for my practice swim in the lake. Good thing I did this because it was good to know that there would be ZERO visibility on race day. After that we ran over to the Ironman village where I did some stretching with a physical therapist and looked at all the booths. I then went back to the hotel to grab my transition bags and bike and headed back to the transition area to drop them off for tomorrows race.
Once that was done, I went back to the hotel just as my younger brother Danny (along with his family) arrived from Mississippi. Their arrival was the first time that we had all been together with all of the grandchildren. My parents obviously loved this. That night we went out to dinner with our old neighbors and then went back to the hotel to try and relax and get to bed early. IronSherpa Louisa flew in from Seattle and came over to the hotel to hang out for a bit. We walked over to the grocery store so I could get some bananas for the morning. These bananas tasted fantastic the next morning :-) Along the way to the store we saw Chrissie Wellington as we left our hotel and listened to the Dave Matthews Band who was playing at the Amphitheater right next to the Transition Area.
RACE DAY
I awoke race morning at 3:45am, did my morning race rituals and then met up with Jason and Louisa to head out to the swim start. Luckily for me, Louisa was willing to drive me to the bike transition area to take care of my last minute stuff and then onto the swim start. The walk was a half a mile to the transition area and probably about a mile from there to the swim start. I really did not feel like walking all that distance with about 2 gallons of water. Anyways, She drove us over to the bike transition area and we were one of the first people there.
Once back in the car we were able to get back to the swim start area fairly quickly. At this point I had a huge sense of relief because I knew that I had plenty of time. I then got body marked before getting in line for the Port-a-Potty to take care of some business.....this would be the 1st of many stops in the Blue Box of Relief!
I waited in line for about ten minutes to get my tires pumped up and then put my water bottles on my bike and then headed back to the car to go over to the swim start. We made it over there easily. As we pulled up I realized though that I forgot to put my sunglasses in my bike bag (they were hanging from the collar of my shirt). Mild panic set in.....I just tried to remain calm and told myself that is why you left yourself so much time before the start. So we had to drive all the way back to the swim start. By this time there was loads of people around and the car traffic was getting worse. So I quickly hoped out and got to my bike transition bag and deposited my sunglasses in my shoe where I knew they would be safe.
Once back in the car we were able to get back to the swim start area fairly quickly. At this point I had a huge sense of relief because I knew that I had plenty of time. I then got body marked before getting in line for the Port-a-Potty to take care of some business.....this would be the 1st of many stops in the Blue Box of Relief! 
I made my way into the water around 6:40am so I could make my way towards the front and not get caught with the masses up on shore at the last minute. The water temperature was 81 degrees with patches of water that felt much colder. I tried to relax while treading water, but it became difficult to do when I had to go pee and couldn't....have you ever tried to pee while treading water? It's kind of difficult. I suppose I should practice that too for future races :-)
7am rolled around, Black Sabbath's I AM IRONMAN played over the loud speaker at some point and then the cannon went off. It was a free for all. Washing machine is a great description. There really is nothing like a Mass Swim Start with 2600 people in water with literally 3 inch visibility. People were on top of each other the entire race. I tried to just remain calm and swam my race along the buoy line singing the song from finding Nemo "Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming!" It really does calm me down. When I swam on top of someone I would just move them out of my way. I heard on several occasions them stop and yell at me but hey....if I did not move them physically out of my way I would have drowned them or myself. The visibility was so bad you could not navigate around people....swimming over people just happened. Anyways once at the first buoy I switched tactics and went to the outside to avoid more people. This proved to be a bad tactic b/c I increased my distance by quite a bit adding more time on my swim. At the half way mark before going to the outside I was on pace for a 65-70min swim. Once to the outside I ended up swimming all over the place b/c of how the shoreline went in and out. Sticking to the Buoy line was a much better tactic even with all the other people. You live you learn I guess.
Once we made the turn up into the canal I started to get really excited. First I knew that I was almost done with the 1st of 3 legs and Secondly people were lining the canal .... we were just a few feet from them.
About 200 yards from the exit I took a breath and noticed my friends Louisa, Jason and Chad cheering me on from the side. Luckily Jason was smart enough and observant enough to know to look for my dark goggles, Garmin Watch and my red Road ID as identifiers. I stopped for a few seconds, and waved. As you can see it brought a huge smile to my face I finished the swim about 5 min slower than I had expected but I was pretty happy with it overall. I felt good exiting the water at least as I made my way to the bike.
Before entering the changing tent I saw my Mom and Dad. It was just for a second but it was a really cool second. As I got my stuff on and ran to get my bike I heard more cheering. I looked up and several of my old neighbors from when I was a kid were holding up a giant sign that was made by the current members of my old neighborhood swim team.
I again smiled, grabbed my bike and made my way for the bike mount line and carried that positivity with me out on my 112 mile ride.
THE BIKE
Once on the bike I realized that I was starving. I grabbed one of my Chocolate Almond Butter sandwiches and ate it as I made my way out of town. This was a great thing b/c later in the bike ride I would have been unable to eat it.
The bike ride in general went really well. It's a very fast rolling hilly course that goes North from the Woodlands up into the Sam Houston National Forrest and then loops back down to the Woodlands. As we made our way North, the temperatures began to rise. By the time I was at the halfway mark the temps were probably over 90. The heat index off the asphalt was around 100 degrees. 
I just kept drinking water and pouring it over my head, shoulders and arms....FYI the zoot cooling sleeves work like a champ! As I approached mile 35 or so I started having GI issues and had to start using the bathroom about every 20miles. Much better to stop and deal with it than suffer and have an "accident". I as drinking my fluids but I don't think my electrolyte/calorie drink was sitting well with me due to how warm the beverage got. I trained with the same beverage but in temperatures between 45-60 degrees, not 90-100 degrees. Once my stomach was upset eating was a challenge. I kept taking salt tablets and forcing myself to drink whatever I could and eating bananas at the aid stations. My sandwiches I had made were not very appealing and did not eat those. In my special needs bag (bag I picked up at mile 60 with items that I filled with items that I thought I would want for later in the race) I picked up a bag of pretzels and beef jerky....holy cow...BEEF JERKY is the best bike riding food ever. It saved my ride for sure. I even shared some of it with several riders next to me :-) Besides the heat, the really strong head winds after mile 50 made the middle section of the course really tough. Especially for an inexperienced Ironman racer such as myself. Pacing is everything so I really did not want to over due it. I kept telling myself to slow down and to get into an easier gear. 
As I made my way to around mile 90 I see a familiar face on the side of the road...it was my IronSherpa Jason. I gave him a high five and just past him I then see my childhood neighbors THE WILSON's and then the Huge sign from the swim team and then my Mom, Dad and then everyone all at once...(brothers, sister in-laws, nieces & nephews). My brothers were running along side of me cheering me on....it was like one of those scenes from the climbing legs in the Tour De France where the fans going crazy and grabbing at the riders....I felt like Alberto Contador....but much slower! Needless to say this gave me a huge pick me up. It was difficult to not want to speed up once again at this point. Especially with less than an hour to go. 
Once back into transition I dropped my bike off and grabbed my run stuff and headed to change. As I was changing I realized that I forgot my Garmin Watch on the bike. I had to go back and get it. There was no way that I was going to run the marathon w/out it. Sure I could have but I wanted my run info.
I figured hey what's a few minutes lost in an Ironman Race? HA....let's just say my finish time was just 70 seconds slower than my IronSherpa's Ironman Arizona time and he has yet to let me forget it.....this has now spawned THE DUEL AT THE DERBY race coming up on August 26th in Louisville, KY.
Once I got my watch I headed out on the run which was a 3 loop (~9 mile loop) run course. I felt great the first 3 miles. I was really trying to do the entire 1st loop without walking.
However around mile 3 I decided to switch more to a run-walk. This worked well for the rest of the 1st loop. Once on the 2nd loop though my GI issues were kicking in again and every time I started running I felt like I was going to experience my worst nightmare.....also I was noticing that I had pain in my back (around both of my kidneys)....not sure how to describe kidney pain but I think you can figure it out. Anyways I figured that was a good sign of dehydration/heat related issues so I had to make a decision to either continue on and possibly have further complications which would either result with me finishing completely miserable or worse not at all...OR I could just slow down, enjoy the race a bit more and get my core temperature and hydration under control and finish with a smile and no poop running down my legs...... I think I chose wisely :-) Needless to say my 2nd & 3rd loops were pretty slow and painful for my cheerleading section who kept a lookout for me for a long time.
Heading into my 3rd and final loop I finally saw my family and friends again. It was so awesome to see them. Especially since I new at that point that I would finish. 
As I made my way around the 3rd loop I was watching my watch and saw my 12-13hr goal time go away and then realized that my "BEAT" Jason time was in jeopardy as well. I was all set to let Jason have his time but then I came around the corner with about 1.5-2miles left to go and there he was with a few of my other friends. He ran with me for about a half mile and told me that I could beat his time and encouraged me to keep on running. I did just that until I passed the turn off to head into the finishing chute and the stupid volunteer lady told me I had a half a mile left to go (it was really less than a quarter of a mile), I looked at my watch and only had 2 minutes to beat his time.....I said screw it and started walking again for about a minute....but as I came around the corner the finishing chute was right there....ATTENTION spectators and volunteers, don't tell someone who is finishing a 140.6 mile race that they have a half a mile to go if it's less than that....that half a mile seems like an eternity. Anyways, I started running again when I got into the very long finishing chute. I was giving people high fives and trying to slow down and just take it all in. 
I crossed the line in 14:02:47 (70seconds behind Jason), I had a smile on my face and I was super proud of my accomplishment. I had imagined what that moment would be like on countless occasions and it far surpassed my imagination. Being able to share that moment with so many loved ones PLUS to be awarded my finishing medal by Chrissie Wellington (one of the best if not the best Triathlete ever) made the experience priceless. Thank you to all of you who came out to cheer me on and thanks to those who followed along and cheered from a far as well. Your support and encouragement was fantastic.
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| IronOwen & IronGrayson |
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