Ironman Augusta 70.3 Race Report

Pre-Race

February 24, 2013

It's the day of the 2013 Rock N Roll Marathon in New Orleans.

I'm in Phil's Grill, a burger joint in Metairie enjoying a post-race cheeseburger and beer with my best friend from college, his newly engaged fiancé, his friend from back home, and Shellie and Brynn.  I had just run my first marathon.  My friends had run the half.  Shellie and Brynn were my support crew/transportation.  We were all loaded up on endorphins and beer when the machismo started about what we wanted to do next.  Mostly, we discussed what marathons/half-marathons we wanted to run, such as Vegas at night, or New York.

At some point in the discussion, my buddy mentioned a Half-Ironman.  That was greeted with a round of "Yea, that's badass.  I'd love to do one of those."

Then about halfway through my burger, I started thinking...  "I can run 13.1 miles.  I used to cycle a lot in high school and college.  I've got a decent road bike to train on.  If I could learn to swim, I could possibly do a 70.3."

Endorphins make a person think really dumb things.

After a couple weeks of marathon recovery, I found my way to Pelican Athletic Club in Mandeville to become a member so I'd have access to a pool.  And those first few swim sessions were beyond humbling.

Then I found an old Quintana Roo triathlon bike on eBay and bought it.  I started riding a couple times a week and found I still could ride halfway decent.  So I did what any self-respecting aspiring triathlete would do, and signed up for Crawfishman.  And promptly DNF'ed within the first 100 yards of the swim.  I did do the ride and the run though.

3 weeks later, I was back at it in the Big Easy Sprint.  This race I finished, although the swim took me 17 minutes to cover 400 yards.  Most of that time was spent hanging on a kayak in the middle of Southshore Harbor wondering what I had gotten myself into.  But I eventually made it around the bouys and to my bike.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to be ready for Ironman New Orleans (my target Half-Iron race), but luckily Disney Running announced the Dopey Challenge which I decided to run instead. I still kept swimming and cycling as components of my cross-training through the summer, now on a different bike that fit better.  And when fall hit, I went back to running full time in preparation for 48.6 miles through the happiest place on earth.

After Dopey, I got back into the pool to try to get my swim together for the upcoming triathlon season, and registered for 3 races:  Magnolia Sprint Tri, Big Easy Sprint, and Crawfishman.  I got 2nd in my age group at Magnolia, bailed on the swim at Big Easy due to cold and windy conditions, and did well at CfM in comparison to last year.  I also joined a local triathlon team (Tri-Dat) to hopefully find some friends to train with and learn from.  But I had that itch for a big race again in the midst of those 3, and with Shellie's blessing I registered for Ironman Augusta.

I talked with Brandt Quick, who is a local trainer/triathlon coach, and got him to write a plan for me for Augusta that would work with my schedule.  I also joined the Masters' Swim class at Pelican, coached by Charlie Hoolihan for direct help with my swimming and also for the chance at some open water swims.  My schedule worked out typically as follows:

Monday - Recovery Swim or Off
Tuesday - Interval Run
Wednesday - Interval Bike
Thursday - Hard Swim
Friday - Either brick (bike/run workout) or run
Saturday - Masters Swim, sometimes followed by spin class
Sunday - Long (5 hour) Brick

On occasion I'd hit an open water swim with Charlie or in the event of a holiday I'd throw in a long run.  But for the most part, that was my life this past summer.  Some days were fun.  Other days sucked.  But I had a goal, and a goal makes the suck suck much much less.  (Say that three times fast.)

So much stuff!  There's a bike in there too.

Finally, race week arrived.  After an easy brick on Sunday, and a couple easy workouts through the week (and a touch of taper madness), it was finally time to load up the MDX and head east to Augusta.

My goals for the race were as follows:

Perfect day/race of my life type time:  5:30:00

Realistic 'B' Goal:  5:45:00

'C' Goal:  Don't drown, don't crash, don't fall.  Just finish.

I figured I could run a 1:50, finish the bike around 3:10, and swim plus transitions would put me at 45 minutes which based on my training would make for a good day.  The 5:30 goal was if I ran one of my faster 13.1s, went under 3:00 on the bike, and had a good (for me) swim.  I knew I'd finish provided I made it out of the water and didn't crash on the bike, but there's a lot that can go wrong over 70.3 miles.  My biggest fear though, wasn't the swim.  It was some sort of bike mishap that would end my day, either crash or mechanical.

Race Weekend

My Support Crew, Brynn and Shellie

We arrived in Augusta Friday night around 8:30 after driving most of the day and stopping in Birmingham to see some friends we haven't seen since Katrina.  Our hotel was on Broad St., at about the 3.5/10 mile mark of the run course and 2 blocks from the swim start.  The location couldn't have been better.  We headed out to find some dinner, met up with some Tri-Dat friends who were also racing (Brian and Jason, and Steve who made the trip to hang out), and relaxed so I could get my head right for the race.

Saturday morning, Brandt had me take one last easy ride to make sure my bike was ready and working correctly.  I rode down to the swim exit/transition area to get a feel for how things were laid out there, then rode back to the swim start to do the same.  Everyone online raved about the current assisting the swim, but it didn't look to be flowing too strongly.  Come to find out, the river is dammed further upstream and the plan was to open the dam for Sunday.  I watched a group swim off the dock and they did move pretty quickly, but I was still nervous being this was my first really open water swim (not in a man made ski lake).

Savannah River From The Start Dock

Later that morning we headed to the expo so I could check in, get my bibs/swim cap/race swag, and do a little shopping.  After I was checked in and briefed,we headed out to drop off my bike, and then find a Wal-Mart to get bottled water and some snacks for the room and then went to an Italian place to have lunch.  At this point, my nerves were completely on edge and I probably would have been better off locking myself in my room alone.  

After getting back to the room, it was time to pack my transition bag, get my bottles ready, and make sure I had my stuff together for the following morning.  Once that was done, we walked Broad St. again to get dinner and settled on a familiar pre-race meal of Mellow Mushroom Mellowterranian Pizza.  We got back to our room about 8:30 or so and I promptly went to sleep while Shellie and Brynn flexed their creative muscles on a sign.

Pre-Race Dinner

Race Morning

I woke up at about 4AM Sunday morning, and laid in bed while thoughts of my impending doom rolled around my head.  Finally about 4:25, I got up, brushed my teeth, put on my team kit and some shorts/tshirt, and headed out to meet the shuttle bus to Transition.  I got my stuff set up, met a guy from Orlando and talked Dopey Challenge, and got on the bus back to the swim start.  Then I returned to my hotel, dropped my bag off at my room, had breakfast, and went back to the room to wait.  While waiting I found a video on Facebook talking about river grass (wtf???) and remembered Jason warning me about it since he swam the river a couple days prior.  

I'm not good at taking direction.

After the sun came up, from my room I could see the giant American flag hung from the 6th St. bridge, and decided it was time to walk to the start.  I got there just in time to see the skydivers, the national anthem, and the pro start.  I met up with my teammates, and we wished each other good luck. Steve asked how I was feeling (nervous as sh!t), and then he reminded me that I've swam this distance many times in the pool and this would be a piece of cake.  But it wasn't until I was grouped with my wave that pre-race nerves finally subsided and was finally beginning to loosen up.  I saw Shellie and Brynn on the levee and waved to them, and ran into a friend from my car salesman days starting in the wave behind mine.  And luckily there was a guy who was about as laid back as he could be waiting near me at the back of my wave, so we chatted while walking to the dock.  Once we were on the dock, I wet my goggles, jumped in the river to get some water in my wetsuit, and went down to the far edge of the dock to wait for the start.  Anxiety gave way to anticipation and I was about to begin 70.3 miles of racing!

 - Important note:  I had 2 cups of coffee, a salted caramel Gu, and 2 bottles of water between waking up and lining up with my wave.  This has consequences later.

Swim

The horn went off at 8:24.  I hung back about 20-30 seconds in hopes of having some clean water to swim in, but managed to catch the tail end of my wave within the first minute.  In hopes of avoiding bodies, I ended up drifting right, which put me in the middle of a giant patch of river grass (see, I don't listen).  I tried to stroke through it, but it wasn't happening.  I rolled over on my back and fluttered/floated until the first bridge (where the RD said the grass ended).  After I passed under the first bridge, I resumed my swim stroke, breathing bidirectionally, sighting every 5-7 strokes, and focusing on long smooth strokes.  I felt like I was making good progress until I ran head first into a kayak.  That screwed me up a bit for a couple seconds but I was able to settle down and get back to swimming.  It was about then that the fast guys from the next wave caught and passed me, but I wasn't able to get a draft off anyone.  At the same time, I didn't get swam over either, so I'll take it.

I just swam how far??

 I knew when I saw the second set of docks I'd be getting close to the finish, so I started paying attention to what was on the right when I'd breathe.  I was close to the bouys where the current was strong, had some space to swim in, and started feeling like I could swim all day.  And I was MOVING!  So this is what it feels like to swim fast!  

Finally the second docks and the Augusta Boathouse came into view, so I started looking for the swim exit.  I found it, and with about 200 yards, I changed my course to aim for the red bouy on the dock so I didn't miss the boat ramp.  As I crossed the river, my right calf started cramping, so I ended up doing some morphed out breaststroke-ish thing to get to the boat ramp.  The cramps subsided as soon as I was standing.  I walked, then ran up the ramp to the timing mat which beeped and went to hit the lap button my Garmin when I noticed I hadn't started it at the beginning of the swim.  I quickly cycled the buttons to get to T1, but now I had no idea how I did on the swim, where I was on time, or if I'd hit my time goal.  But I also knew I still had 69.1 miles to race so I couldn't dwell on what I can't control, and I sure as heck wasn't swimming that river again.  I ran to the wetsuit strippers, got out of my wetsuit, went to my bike put on my shoes and helmet and headed out for the bike leg.  

Bike

I had watched a series of videos on YouTube outlining the bike course, so I kinda knew what to expect.  The bike course was fairly straight with some slight rolling hills for the first 15 miles, then got fairly hilly and technical for the next 33 miles, and the last 8 miles were essentially downhill and straight.  My plan was to ride comfortably hard for the first 15 (about 80-85% FTP), climb strong and coast the downhills on the middle 33, and go WFO on the last 8.  

Coming out of Transition

The first 15 went according to plan.  I averaged close to 19 MPH until the first turn at mile 15, and felt great and ready to go to work in the hills.  But that coffee and water before the race... It needed to, uh, come out.  Which necessitated a stop at the first bike aid station where I probably lost 3 minutes waiting for one of the two porta-johns.  But I felt MUCH better when I got back on my bike.  

The hills were challenging, but not much different than what I had trained on riding in north St. Tammany Parish.  There were a couple climbs that were fairly long, and some really fast downhills where I hit over 35 MPH, but nothing I wasn't prepared for.  There was one incident at the second aid station where a woman on a P5 ran into the back of another rider and went down in front of me.  I managed to swerve to avoid her, just to have a guy turn his bike perpendicular to the road and stop to look back and see what happened.  I got around him (much closer call), crept through the aid station, and got cranked back up.

Somewhere around mile 25, Jason from Tri-Dat passed me like I was sitting still.  But I was going around 23-24 MPH at this point, and he got in the water 35 minutes after me, so he was FLYING.  I knew he was having a good day at that point.  The dude is an absolute ANIMAL.

Miles 34-35 were a really fast downhill with some sweeping turns followed by a pretty steep climb.  I was in a pack moving pretty good until we hit the uphill when a woman yelled out "That was fun while it lasted".  Everyone snickered a bit.  Then she yelled "That's what she said!".  

A dozen people on bikes cracked up at once.  Perfect.  Joke.  Timing.  

We made the turn on to Atomic Road at mile 47 and it was time to get ready to haul ass back to Transition.  I took advantage of gravity and rode the last 8 miles faster than I've ever ridden 8 miles.  

Still didn't catch Jason though.

I pushed hard through mile 55, and finally backed off when I could see the dismount line.  I slowed up, got ready to get off the bike, and cruised until I got off the bike.  I stopped my Garmin at the mat and it read 2:59:07, but I knew I lost a couple minutes due to nature.  Not knowing where I was on time overall and not knowing exactly how much time I lost to pee meant I had to run as hard as I could if I were to hit my A goal of 5:30:00. 

Run

I headed out of transition and felt really good.  My friend Janel who was spectating to support some other locals was right outside transition and yelled and gave me a high-5.  I didn't expect to see her there, so that was a great boost for me.  Then the course went out past the levee and headed into Old Town Augusta for two loops up and down Broad St. and Reynolds St.  It was here I saw my buddy from my car salesman days and gave him a thumbs up while I went chasing seconds.

Early in the run

My first 3 miles would have made for a decent 5K.  I was carrying an 8:06 pace and felt like I could do something close to that for the whole 13.1.  Even as the miles wore on, I didn't really drop off much, except a little past the halfway mark where I grabbed some sponges and ate a Gu, and again at mile 11 where I was finally starting to feel like I had been racing all day.  But a volunteer had a hose going and was more than happy to spray me down which was the last burst of relief I needed.  

The aid stations were great.  There was enough available food/Gu/water/Perform to make carrying nutrition and hydration completely unnecessary.  I still carried gels, only to make sure I had flavors I liked.  All the volunteers were so enthusiastic and were having a great time.  

On the first loop, I passed Jason again coming back the other way.  He was looking strong as well, but I think he was probably 4 miles or so ahead of me at that point, so there wasn't any way I'd run him down.  I never did see Brian though.

Coming to the end of the first loop I was passed by someone else I know, Richard, who made the turn to the finish line in 4th place in our AG.  That earned him a chance to race in the World Championships.  So congrats to him!

Motivation a la Shellie

Shellie and Brynn had set up camp on Broad St. where they could see me pass several times on the run.  They were kind enough to offer encouragement as only they could:

Like I said, about mile 11 I was starting to feel like I was about done and started doing the math in my head and I knew I'd break 5:45.  But before I hit the mile 12 marker, I got my last burst of energy because I was about to FINISH A HALF-IRONMAN, so I ran the last mile as hard as I could.  Granted at this point in the day it was like an 8:30 mile, but still... 

I finished the run in 1:47:03, which was 8 minutes off my 13.1 PR of 1:39 and was my 4th fastest 13.1.  I was extremely pleased with my run.  

I made it through the finish line, got my medal and my hat, and headed to the athlete's area to meet up with Shellie and Brynn.  Jason and Richard were there so we hung out until Brian finished a little while later.  I went to the med tent to get some ice bags on my knees, and headed off with the family to get some food.  

My results were as follows:

Swim:  32:26

Bike:  3:02:48

Run:  1:47:03

Overall:  5:31:23

131/366 in my age group, 639/3290 overall.

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with that result.

Post-Race

My support crew and I headed out to find something to eat, hoping to carry on the post-race cheeseburger tradition.  But the place we wanted to go was closed, necessitating a trip to Mellow Mushroom again.  We grabbed a sidewalk table to watch the race while we ate, and I inhaled a pizza and enjoyed a couple pints of Guinness.  All things considered, I was feeling pretty decent as we walked back to our hotel.  After I got cleaned up, we made the decision to head out of Augusta to try and cut a couple hours off of our drive the next day.  We loaded up the MDX again, headed to transition to get my bike and my stuff, and made the 2 hour drive to Atlanta.  The only real negative to this whole weekend was the walk to Transition to gather my stuff.  Being able to drive there would have been a HUGE help.  

I need to publicly thank a few people.  First, I need to thank Joe B. and Kelly King, and John Danigole for starting the conversation that led to this.  Y'all need to go buy some bikes and come tri (get it?) this out.  It's way more fun than getting electrocuted in a Tough Mudder.  ;)

I also need to thank Charlie Hoolihan, who was able to take a total non-swimmer like me and get me competent enough to swim 1.2 miles in a wetsuit down river in a respectable amount of time.  I never could have gotten to that point on my own.  Thanks Charlie.

Also, thanks to Brandt Quick for writing my plan and pushing me out of my comfort zone.  There were many nights where I told Shellie I thought you were trying to kill me, especially after the 2800-3000 yard swim workouts and the 5 hour brick sessions in July and August.  If anyone local to me is looking for a coach, I can't say enough good things about Brandt.  He knows his stuff, is great to work with, and was able to push me hard enough to improve, but not too hard to get me injured.

I also need to thank Jason Tassin, the Assassin.  His experience with the course and the distance was a big help, and his laid back demeanor Friday night helped keep me somewhat sane.  And also need to thank the rest of my Tri-Dat teammates for keeping me focused, even though I did a pretty fair amount of stealth training.  

All in a day's worth of racing.

But lastly, I need to once again thank my wife Shellie and my daughter Brynn for putting up with this
nonsense.  Without their understanding and accepting of my weekend training I never would have been able to do this.  And Shellie deserves some extra love for putting up with the never ending pile of smelly, sweaty training clothes that would start in the laundry room and end in our bathtub.  Part of my motivation to do this stuff is to show Brynn that you can set crazy goals, do the work, and achieve them.  I hope these lessons carry throughout her life.  

So what's next?  I plan to take this week off to recover and get my legs back under me.  Then I have three half-marathons:  Gulf Coast Half in Mandeville, Big Easy Running Festival in New Orleans, and The Half at the Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge.  Those are all in preparation for the Rock N Roll Marathon in New Orleans at the end of January.  

After I ran my first marathon, I swore I'd never run another.  But I'm now registered for my third.  

I will do another Half-Ironman though.  This was fun.  And not nearly as painful.

Spanish Moss In My Hand,

Turn Me Into CRAWFISHMAN!

What is Crawfishman?  I'm glad you asked.

It's a local triathlon that's held every May currently in Bush, LA.  Distance-wise, I guess it's a "Super-Sprint" as it falls between standard Sprint and Olympic distances,  1000 Meter swim, 18 mile bike, 4 mile run.

It's also everything a Disney race isn't, in a good way.  It's small.  It's locally run.  It's laid back and relaxed.  The emcee is a character not afraid of some off-color jokes.

But it's also very well run and open to beginners.  And the post-race party is a good time.  It's a highlight on the local triathlon calendar.

The morning almost was a disaster, but my inability to sleep well the night before a big event saved me.  I had put an alarm on my phone so I could wake up, eat breakfast, and take my time getting out of the house.  But I neglected to change the alarm from AM to PM.  I woke at 4AM, looked at the clock, thought I had time to sleep more, and rolled over to go back to sleep.  I woke again at 5:35, jumped up in a near panic, grabbed an energy drink and a breakfast cookie, got dressed, and left.  I never get out the house that fast in the morning.  But somehow I still got to the race site before transition opened.  I grabbed my chip, had a friend I met through Facebook that also ran Dopey do my body-marking (followed by a slightly inappropriate joke) and found a spot under a tree to relax and chat until I could rack my bike.

After we could get to the racks, I took my time laying out my gear and talking to people I knew who were racked around me.  We waited for the official water temp, which turned out to be 74 degrees (and therefore wetsuit legal) and then the "should I wear my wetsuit" debates started.  For me, it's not a debate.  I'd use arm floaties if I could get away with it.  I pulled on my wetsuit and made my way to the swim start.  I swam about 100 yards or so to warm up a bit and get used to the water before proceeding to stand on the edge of a drop off in the lake to laugh with people who fell in the same hole I did and show them where to stand.  I do this in hopes of learning some new profanities, but people lack creativity at 7:20 in the morning before a race.

Swim Leg

I was in the third heat to start (M40-49), so when the second heat went I positioned myself towards the back of the pack and to the outside to minimize the risk of being swum over.  This turned out to be a good idea as I had a really clean swim for most of the race.  Before we started some friends and I were discussing sighting strategies since the buoys were small and we were swimming into the morning sun.  One of the more experienced guys suggested a dip in the tree line with two prominent trees that poked above, and that worked fairly well when I actually sighted.  I did have a couple of the water safety volunteers yell at me and slap the water with their paddles to get me to go in the right direction as I passed them.  The turnaround happened to be in a spot where the lake got really shallow (under 3 feet) so I walked around instead of swimming it.  The return swim was much easier since I was sighting off of a small beach and didn't have the glare issues, but I still managed to drift off course a couple times.  I finished the swim in 24:39 which was slow, but compared to the other hilariously bad attempts at triathlon swimming it was a HUGE improvement.  I never felt panicky or stressed in the water, kept my tempo where I was comfortable, and just kept moving forward.  Transition wasn't too bad (2:07) considering I had to deal with the wetsuit.

Bike Leg

The bike course for this race is really nice as it goes out the subdivision, up a small state road to a bigger state road, then turns around to come back.  There's plenty of rolling hills but nothing as far as big climbs go.  And the scenery is beautiful.  I used to spend a ton of time in the area on a motorcycle so I love getting back there on a bicycle.

I got out of T1 cleanly, got on the bike and got situated and started grinding.  I had a target time in mind (under 1:00) for this leg but also wanted to not blow my legs up before the run.  I felt really strong on the "out" portion of the ride and was able to take advantage of the net elevation loss to build  up a couple minutes in reserve.  After the turnaround a guy caught me on a downhill and passed me.  Then the next rise I caught and passed him.  Then he passed me again on the next downhill.  This went on for about 7 miles as we pushed each other, but I finally remembered that I had to run off the bike and with about 2 miles left I let him go while I coasted all the downhills and did some on-bike stretches to refresh my legs a bit.  At about .25 miles, I took my feet out of my shoes, dropped the gear, and spun into T2 (and didn't crash).  My final bike split was 56:32 with a 19.1 MPH average, well under my 1:00 goal.  I was somewhat slow in T2 as I had to tie my shoes (no Yankz on the shoes I wore today since my other ones were giving me ankle issues and I think they're done) and also one of the nosepieces fell off of my sunglasses and I found it in my shoe and wanted to put it in my bag on my bike.  That ended up being a 2:29 transition instead of sub-1:00.  Meh.

Run Leg

The run was a simple out-and back, but was much hillier than anything I've run since, well, last year's Crawfishman.  I had forgotten about the hills but was quickly reminded before even the .5 mile mark. They slowed me a bit but I was still able to keep my pace fairly close to my 5K pace and finish the 4 miles in 30:41, a couple minutes faster than last year.  I also felt a lot better through the run than last year and didn't bonk at all.  Looking back I probably could have gone a bit faster, but until I can generate a bit more power on the bike and get my swim in order there's no real reason as I'm not competitive.

All in all, it was quite a good day racing.  I'm fairly impressed with myself concerning the swim and look forward to putting in even more time on the bike.

Going forward, I'll take a couple days off then get back in the pool.  After that I'll start my focused training for Augusta.  Can't wait!

Swimming and Cycling

After seeing how my bad swim at the Magnolia Tri is what kept me from winning my age group, I figured it was time to maybe get serious about swimming again.

From late October until early March, I had only concentrated on my running in preparation for Dopey, La. Half, and RnR Half.  Then I managed to get in a couple swims in advance of the two Triathlons I did on successive weekends, but they were more along the line of "re-acquaint myself with the water" than anything.  Each session was longish by my standards (over 1600M), but mainly I focused on just completing the distance more than anything.  Then the week following the Magnolia Tri I ended up not training at all because work got to be bonkers and there were 11ty billion things I needed to do outside of work.  Finally this week I managed to get myself back to the pool a couple times, once for a long workout (1900M) and again for a short swim (700M of 100M intervals).

I found a couple interesting things...

One:  If I breathe bilaterally, I'm roughly 20 seconds per 100M faster, but my stamina goes out the window.

Two:  A pull buoy makes that number 25 seconds.

Apparently breathing to one side on every stroke slows me down.  A lot.  And the pull buoy having that much of an effect means my legs are probably 18" to 20" below the surface of the water.

In a nutshell, my body position in the water is downright awful.

I think it's time I break down and get a swim coach for a few sessions to help me fix my stroke.  Or I need to add some air bladders under my skin over my hamstrings and see if that'll give me some added buoyancy on that end.  Coaching starts on Saturday morning.

Now, the bike...

I've been doing 2-3 workouts a week on the bike, mostly indoors on the trainer with TrainerRoad and Netflix.  If weather permitted I'd get out on the road but not as often as I'd like.  Last Saturday though, I got nice weather and a free afternoon, so I took full advantage and went out for a little ride.

I initially intended to ride from my house to the Tammany Trace, then to the Mandeville trailhead and back for a short 18 mile ride.  But when I got to the trailhead I felt good so I thought I'd push a little further to make for a 25 mile ride by turning around at Fountainbleu Park.  There I decided to go to the Lacombe bridge, which is about 3-4 miles from the end of the Trace.  So I figured I had to go to the end before heading home.

I hit the end of the Trace and started back, now with a nice tailwind.  I made a quick stop at the Mandeville Trailhead to refill water bottles and push onward home.  When I hit the gate to my subdivision, I was at 48.2 miles which would leave me roughly a mile and a half short of 50, so I made a pretty big loop of the neighborhood and hit the 50 mile mark at the center of the cul de sac I live on.

So my intended short ride turned into a half-century.  Good times!

Ironman New Orleans 70.3

The day after that, I headed over the lake to City Park to watch the finish of the Ironman 70.3.  I got there around the 5:45 mark on the official clock, so I was able to see the AG guys coming in.  It was great seeing athletes from around the country finish up their races.  Emotions were a mix of "I can't believe I did this" to "OMG IT'S SO HOT OUT HERE" to the analytical types looking at their Garmins and pondering where they could have picked up an extra 3-4 minutes.

The coolest thing though was seeing the Men's winner and all around cool guy Andy Potts at the finish line handing out medals.  People would finish, do the "I'm about to die" thing where they stop and bend over at the waist and put their hands on their knees, then look up at Potts smiling at them and it would take a couple seconds for them to figure out who he was.  When they did their faces would light up as he put the medal around their necks.  It was fun to watch.  I hope he's at Augusta and I get to experience that.

Speaking of Augusta

I poked around TrainingPeaks, BeginnerTriathlete.com, various websites, and couldn't find a training plan that I thought I could work into my schedule for Augusta.  So I've decided to get a coach to write a plan for me that hopefully will fit my schedule, address my swim weakness, and take advantage of my running ability.  I hope to get cranked up with focused training in the next couple weeks.  I'm looking forward to the challenge of 70.3 miles in one day across three different sports.

I'm also looking forward to a reason to spend 3-4 hours on a Sunday morning on my bike.

2 for 1 Race Recaps! v.2, or Why I Need A New Wetsuit

In a nod to attempted efficiency (or laziness), I decided to do a post with 2 race updates again as opposed to one blog post per race.

Actually, I was really busy last week, so I put this off a few days...

Anyway, let's get started, shall we?

Big Easy Sprint Triathlon

This was to be my first Triathlon of the season.  After last year's miserable experience in the water, I spent the bulk of my summer cross-training efforts in a pool at Pelican Athletic Club following a couple different Swim Smooth training programs in an effort to not be such an awful swimmer.  I was hoping for redemption from last year's race where I was third to last in the swim leg.

But... the Polar Vortex happened.

Last year, the New Orleans Triathlon/Big Easy Sprint was held the last weekend of May.  This year, the race director moved it up to the last weekend in March and billed it as a "warmup" for Ironman New Orleans 70.3  Normally that's not an issue because by late March, we're experiencing some pretty nice weather on a regular basis which would make for a nice wetsuit legal swim and a comfortable bike and run.  But the screwy winter weather the country has experienced this year made that not the case.

For the first time in something like 12 years, we didn't have a day over 80 degrees for the entire month of March.  Even Mardi Gras day in early March was below 40 degrees the entire day.  That meant the water temperature of Lake Pontchartrain stayed unseasonably cold through March.  Throughout the month, I had been watching the water temperatures posted at saveourlake.org and even 2 weeks before the race, temps at the closest monitoring station to the harbor were below 60 degrees.  I was worried. The last report before the race put the water at 61 degrees, which for me, is unbearably cold.

Then if that wasn't enough, the morning of the race it was in the low 40's with a strong northeast wind causing whitecaps on the lake.  I was 50/50 on even showing up in the days leading up to the race, but decided that morning to make the drive to the race site and make a determination there.

When I got to the site, the Race Director was making the pre-race announcements on a PA and included the words "if you're opting out of the swim..."  I immediately made up my mind to opt out of the swim and just race the bike and run legs.  It was cold and windy and I was already miserable.  They set up a "non-swim" corral and had us wait there until our swim leg people were coming out of the water before letting us go into transition to get on our bikes and start our race.  I headed over there, checked in with an official, and started waiting.  And waiting...

Since there were in effect three races going on (Pro-level Olympic distance Tri, Age Group Olympic distance Tri, and Age Group Sprint Tri) and I was racing the Sprint, I was in the third group to start my race.  So to kill time I walked down to where the swim leg ended to watch the pros and other Olympic distance racers come out the water.  And they looked MISERABLE.  Everyone's face coming out the water was purple from the cold.  There's no way I could have done that.

Finally it was time for the Sprint racers to start, and I headed back to the corral to wait to be called.  We got lined up and an official let us out one by one between swimmers to head to transition and get on our bikes.

The first half of the bike leg was fantastic.  As I crossed over the levee from UNO to Lakeshore drive, I was flying.  My Garmin was telling me I was going 22-23-24 MPH and I didn't feel I was pushing particularly hard at all.  About 4 miles in I started noticing the people coming back and they looked like they were suffering.  That's about the point I figured out that I had a very stiff tailwind pushing me along and it was the reason for my LeMond impersonation.

At the turnaround, I went from LeMond to Pee Wee Herman.  The wind that pushed me along happily at 24 MPH was making 17 MPH a superhuman effort.  I got as low as I could on my bike and spun the biggest gear I could without blowing up my legs, but it simply wasn't enough to maintain a respectable speed.  That coupled with a couple overpasses and levee crossings made the second half of the bike leg miserable.  Not as bad as the guy I saw who had crashed on an overpass and was bleeding from his face when I passed, but miserable nonetheless.  I crossed the timer into T2 with a time of 43 minutes and change for a 17.something MPH bike split.  I'm capable of much better than that on a calm day, but considering the wind, I'll take it.

The run, however, wasn't what I was shooting for.  I had a decent T2 time and started out like I normally do about 30 seconds/mile slower than my target pace and sped up over the first half-mile to where I wanted to be on the run (sub-7:50).  I felt pretty good up to the turnaround and through the aid station but at about 1.75 miles I started getting a side stitch which grew to a major cramp that I couldn't run through.  I slowed to a walk and tried to stretch it out to some degree, but ended up limping in on the run at 25 minutes and change.  That sucked.  There's nothing worse than perfect conditions for a good run time and your body saying "nah, not today.  I don't feel like it".  Had it been a longer race I could have made up the lost time, but not in a 5K.  Oh well.. since I didn't swim the day was basically a fast brick session.  And looking at my times, had I swum OK by my standards, I would have been top 5 in my Age Group.  But I didn't.  Still though, I was second in the "nope, not getting in the cold water category", though that and $4.00 will get you a Café Mocha at Starbucks.

The worst part of the run was when I was trying to stretch out the cramp and someone starts yelling "you're doing great, keep going!!"

No, I'm not.  I know when I'm doing great on a run, and this isn't it.  So shut it.

The highlight of the day was seeing Drew Scott (son of Ironman legend Dave Scott) get his first pro win.  But as soon as I was able to get my car out, I was on my way home.  By 10AM I'd had enough of the cold, windy day.

Louisiana Magnolia Triathlon

6 days and a smaller body of water makes for all the difference in the world.  This was a small local race held on private property with a man-made water ski lake, followed by a flat out and back bike leg and a loop of a subdivision run leg.  Concerns about water temperatures were almost nonexistent as the RD was posting almost daily water temp updates on Facebook and they were consistently above 70 degrees.  The evening before the race I went to the race site to get my packet and see the lake and it was glass smooth.  I was excited to finally put some of my swim training to good use.

Yea, not gonna happen...

The morning of the race after setting up transition, putting on my wetsuit and going to the pre-race meeting,  I started feeling rather, uh, constricted, in my wetsuit.  I hadn't worn it since last year.  Apparently all the time in the pool has had a positive effect on my shoulders in terms of muscularity, but not in terms of wetsuit fit.  And since I'm so limited in experience in swimming in a wetsuit, I wasn't aware of this until as I walked down the bank of the lake and saw my hands were turning purple.  It wasn't as a result of temperature either.

I got in the water to warm up and swam around for about 5 minutes to loosen up before they called us to line up.  I never felt loose though.  But before I knew it I was being called to get in the water to start my race.

I never felt right in the water in the wetsuit.  My hands were going numb, my shoulders after about 150 yards felt like I had just done a bunch of cable rows and military presses, and my arms were dead.  I took a few seconds to sight and give my arms a break and tried to push on, but it simply wasn't happening.  Out of frustration, I went to shore, stripped off the wetsuit, then got back in the water to continue my swim.  But now my arms were dead and didn't want to cooperate, so I stayed somewhat close to the shore to stay out of the way and swam slowly to finish the swim leg.  I was frustrated with how long it was taking to finish and my wetsuit issues and at about the 14 minute point in the water just decided to cruise in comfortably to start the bike leg.  I rolled over on my back and swam backstroke to finish the swim, which I'm sure was amusing for those watching from the bank.

Since I didn't have to remove the wetsuit in T1, I was able to be on my bike pretty quickly.  My bike plan was to stay in the middle of Z4 according to heart rate, maybe push hard to pass if necessary, eat a gel at the turnaround, and stay as low and aero as possible.  This worked out really well as I had a solid bike split despite fairly windy conditions with a nasty crosswind on the longest leg of the ride.  Nobody passed me on the bike and I was able to get around a fair amount of people as well.  My ride went pretty much according to plan and coming up on T2 I didn't feel fatigued or beat up.  A friend of mine was volunteering for the race and asked as I dismounted "what took you so long?"  I waved back to her, but only with one finger, much to the amusement of her teenage daughter and others standing around.

T2 was fast, probably under 90 seconds to rack my bike, put on shoes/socks/number and get running. I still have a hard time pacing myself off the bike at times and as I left the property where the transition was and headed to the subdivision for the run, I was running a sub-7:00 pace, too fast for me to try to carry over a 5K when I'm fresh much less off the bike.  I settled in around a 7:45 pace or so for the first half of the run and thought I was doing well until I heard a guy come up on side of me.  He slowed down to ask how far on the run we were (1.27 miles) said thanks, and took off at what looked like a 5:00/mile pace.  It's one of the few times in racing where I wished I were still in my mid-20's.  After the halfway point of the run, I pushed my pace as much as I could and finished the run in under 22:00.  The course was a bit short, but I was fast enough that I would have set a new 5K PR with an additional .2 miles.

A couple minutes after I finished, the timing crew posted updated times and I saw that I was 22nd overall and in second place in the M40-44 age group.  Ha!  First podium finish for me ever!  I was pretty happy about that, despite the wetsuit issues.

After the race I grabbed a bowl of jambalaya and hung out with some guys from the triathlon club I recently joined (Tri-Dat) until the awards ceremony.  I asked a few volunteers if anyone had picked up my wetsuit, but nobody had seen it, so I figured it was still on the bank.  I wasn't that worried about it since it's obviously not going to work for me going forward.

After the awards, I packed up my stuff, put my bag on and headed to look for the wetsuit, but it was gone.  Nobody has posted anything about it on Facebook, so I'm assuming one of the geese we displaced for the morning took it for nesting material.

And that's why I need a new wetsuit...

One Way To Solve A Question... Find The Answer Yourself!

Ever since the first time I saw the Ironman Triathlon on ABC's Wide World of Sports, I've been absolutely captivated by it.  I never could wrap my head around the idea of swimming 2.4 miles, riding 112 miles, and running a marathon on the same day.

Well, to be honest, I couldn't wrap my head around swimming 2.4 miles or running a marathon, so doing both on the same day along with a century+ ride... No way.  The ride was never intimidating to me since I spent most of my free time from age 6 to about 22 on a bicycle of some sort.  I'd never ridden a century, but it didn't seem inconceivable.

Besides, the pros ride at least 100 miles a day in the Tour De France, and they do that for 3 weeks straight, in mountains, and with only one off day and a couple time trials sprinkled in.  So doing it once on flat ground, sure.

Anyway, like I said, I never thought I'd ever be able to call myself a marathoner.  But I am.  Twice actually.  And not some suicidal 7 hour death march marathon, but with actual respectable times (4:03 and 3:52).

But I've been curious as to what's more difficult, a marathon or an Ironman 70.3 triathlon (aka a Half-Ironman).

Caloric burn rate of a marathon is roughly 2700 calories (following the 100 calories per mile rule of thumb with a little extra leeway for warm up and course irregularities).  A 70.3 Tri is probably 3200 or so, give or take based on efficiency on the bike and in the water.  Which makes sense, since a well trained athlete can complete a marathon probably 90-120 minutes faster than a 70.3.  But two of the three legs of a triathlon are non-impact (unless you hit something on the bike) and don't leave you anywhere near as beat up as the run leg does.

But then a marathon is one sport which means focusing training on that sport (with a touch of cross-training sprinkled in to add variety and help fend off injury).  And nobody ever drowned running a marathon.  Plus a marathon runner doesn't have to be proficient with bike skills (both riding and wrenching) or in the water.

This debate even shows up on a few forums online and it seems it's 2:1 of the opinion that the marathon is harder.

I'm a firm believer in learning from someone else's mistakes experiences, but sometimes I just need to find something out for myself.  So I've decided I'm going to find the answer to this myself.

How?

Here's how.

First, on September 28th, I'll be in Augusta, GA participating in the Intermedix Ironman 70.3.

Then on January 25th, I'll be in the Big Easy running the New Orleans Rock N Roll Marathon.

Now, after the first marathon I ran (the 2013 NOLA RnR), I swore I'd never run another marathon.  Then in April I registered to not only run a marathon, but a half, a 10K, and a 5K in the three days leading up to it.  And I still was 10 minutes faster in the marathon than my first one, and much much less sore.  So much less that I ran a half marathon 6 days later.  And another half 14 days after that.  I'm figuring that the next marathon won't be as bad as the last one, and nowhere near as bad as the first.

I've never done a 70.3 race.  In fact, I've only finished one triathlon, a sprint distance.  But I'd only done a 10K (Crescent City Classic, and completely non-trained run for fun and beer) before committing to my first half-marathon.  So this follows my pattern.

I've joined a local triathlon club (Tri-Dat) and will get one of their coaches to assist me with building a plan and getting me ready for the race since I know next to nothing about training for a tri.  I've built a decent base over the past few months between a healthy amount of cross-training (swim and bike) as well as specific training for Dopey.  I got back in the pool in mid February for the first time in about 4 months, and have been swimming a couple times a week around 1200-1500M a session.  I've also been putting in some time with Trainer Road sessions as well as outdoor rides.  And I've been running.  One longish run a week and one speedwork session a week.  I've got 26 or so weeks until Augusta.  And 17 weeks from that is RnR NOLA.  So I'll be able to focus on and train for both races as 'A' races.

Basically, I'll be able to definitively answer that question... Which is harder, and Half-Ironman or a full Marathon.

It's gonna be fun!

2 For 1 Race Recaps!

Yes... 2 race recaps, one post.

Let's get started...

The Half at the Louisiana Marathon

Last March, the Crescent City Classic held its race expo in the hotel that's connected to the building I work in.  A buddy of mine called me to see if I was running the CCC (No, post marathon recovery still) and if I wanted to hit the expo with him (why not?).  While we were walking around, I saw the booth for the Louisiana Marathon and they were offering heavily discounted registrations for their race in January, so I took advantage of it and signed up for the Half for $50.

3 weeks later I signed up for Dopey.  And realized the error of my ways when I was filling in my race and training calendar for last year.  At that point I figured there was no way I'd run the La. Half a week after finishing Dopey, so I didn't even think about it.  But as the date got closer and my friends who were running were talking about it, I started thinking 'maybe'.  After I got home from Disney and  felt pretty decent, I thought I'd take it easy and evaluate how I felt and make a decision by the Friday before the race (4 days).  By Friday I felt pretty good so I decided to run Sunday.

The race was held in Baton Rouge, about 70 miles from where I live.  That necessitated an early wakeup to drive and find parking, so I left home about 5AM.  In what seems to be a pattern for me, I arrived at the race start with barely enough time to even get in a corral for the start, but I slipped in around the 9:00 pace area.  This race wasn't a corral start, but probably should have been since there were  5000 runners.  The weather couldn't have been better that morning, as it was cool and dry and clear skies were forecasted.

The first couple miles were fairly congested especially where the course was limited to one side of the road.  And the overpass in the second mile was completely unnecessary, IMO.  But once the course led to south of I-10 and headed towards the LSU campus the crowd seemed to thin out a bit and the scenery greatly improved.  Running through LSU and around the Baton Rouge lakes was great, even though Tiger Stadium somehow got left out of the course.

Due to my late arrival, I had some, uh, 'digestive issues' I didn't get to resolve pre-race.  Luckily at Mile 4 there was a church that had opened their doors to runners to use the facilities.  I can't thank those folks enough.

This is stating the obvious, but my legs were flat out DEAD that morning.  I tried pushing my pace a little early on, but it simply wasn't going to happen.  I was 5 miles in before I finally felt comfortable running.  I was OK knowing I wasn't going to run fast though.  I finished in a still respectable 1:56:39 including a few minutes for a bathroom break.  Post race was excellent.  There was live music and plenty of food choices, and runners got 10 food choices as part of their registration.  My favorite was the duck and andouille gumbo from Galatoire's.

The best part of the race however was getting to hang out with some of my friends from college.  Baton Rouge meant a short drive from just about anywhere in South Louisiana.  By the time the last of us finished (Joby and Kelly running their first marathon) we had a group of a dozen people hanging out.  It made for an excellent day capping off a great race.  Post race cheeseburgers at Roul's Deli were excellent as well.

Garmin Data Here

Rock N Roll Half Marathon New Orleans

Fog.  Best word to describe the day.  Fog.

This was my third year running RnR NOLA, so I knew what to expect from the race, the crowds, the expo, the course, etc. The half marathon course is great, starting from the CBD to St. Charles Ave. for a tour of Uptown NOLA then up Decatur through the Quarter and finishing with a run up Esplanade to City Park.  I actually prefer this to the Jazz Half course which goes around Audubon Park instead of the stretch through the Quarter and City Park.  For a visitor to NOLA, the RnR course is a great way to see a lot of the city.

Well, normally it is.  Not this year though.

My wife dropped me off at the corner of Loyola and Girod, about 4 blocks from the start.  I jogged to the start and got in my corral (Corral 3!) for the start.  The weather was miserable.  It wasn't cold, but the fog was unreal.  Visibility was probably a quarter mile to half mile at best.  And everything was wet.

I felt like I went out too fast, but looking back at the race data it really wasn't.  I kept going back and forth from "I feel strong" to "OMG when am I gonna blow up?" but never hit the 'blow up' point.  I did slow down after the turn off St. Charles onto Melpomene because the road surface was slick from the moisture.  I picked up my pace again once I hit Decatur though, and still felt strong through the finish.

Normally on Decatur you can see the river levee on one side and St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square on the other.  This year that didn't happen.  The fog coming off the river made this impossible.  It was a cool vibe though, in an "Interview With The Vampire" sort of way.

And for the first time in almost ever, I had signs on the course!

Let me back up a bit.  After every race I give my wife a hard time because I inevitably see someone's family member on the course in 2-3 spots while she's only at the finish line.  And that family member has a different sign for each sighting and is usually cheering enthusiastically.  Meanwhile I get the sourpuss face from Shellie because she's ready to go home at that point.  Then I aggravate her on the ride home about not seeing me on the course or having a sign for me.  And her boss joins in because his family has signs for him.

For this race, Shellie, Brynn, and my cousin Tim (who was in town for work and hung out with us for the weekend) went to McDonald's on St. Charles and Shellie actually made 3 different signs for me!  And they stayed to see me again on the return!  I have one of the signs hanging in my cube at work now.

I finished in 1:45:46, which was my third fastest 13.1.  I was hoping to break 1:45:00 but didn't manage my pacing close enough in the middle third of the race and slowed a bit too much at water stops.  No biggie though, since this wasn't an 'A' race for me.

Typically the post race festivities at this race are really good, but we opted to skip them since the weather was so nasty.

I'll do this again next year.. Just a matter of if I'll do 13.1 or 26.2.  And I can't believe I'm contemplating another marathon.

As for now, I took off of training this week to get rid of some lingering soreness and get some recovery going.  I somehow tweaked my right ankle and my quads were sore.  Today though, I feel pretty close to 100%.  I'll go out on the bike in the AM and get a few miles in.

I'm registered for the Big Easy Sprint Tri on March 30th and will also register for the Crawfishman in early May.  I wanted to do the Ironman New Orleans 70.3 this year but I think Dopey killed that idea.  And the recent spate of cold weather has helped as I haven't been able to get in a pool yet since Dopey.

Garmin Data from the race is here.


Stay tuned as I update with stories of not swimming well in the very near future.

Time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me. - The Rolling Stones, Time Waits For No One.

Just Go Ahead And Call Me Dopey!

I did it!  5K, 10K, Half-Marathon, Marathon in four consecutive days.  Done.  Got the hardware.  Got the official times.  Got the pictures.  All of it.  I friggin' did it!

But it wasn't easy.  It was fun.  It was challenging.  It took more sweat and effort than I've ever put forth in a race.  And it was completely worth it...  Not just for finishing the four races, but the entire experience.  It was just incredible.  Pull up a chair while I tell you about it.

My last scheduled training run was Tuesday, January 6th.  It was supposed to be an easy 2 mile "shake the legs out run" as prescribed by Hal Higdon's training plan.  However, that Polar Vortex (or whatever that thing was called) plunged some serious cold weather all the way down to south Louisiana and I woke up to temperatures in the teens on Tuesday.  I don't own any running gear for weather that cold and tend to hibernate when temps get into the 20s, so I blew off the run to stay warm and pack for the trip.  Packing was fun... bringing not only clothes to go to Disney parks, but also gear to run 4 races. By this point I had been tapering, started carb-loading, and was excited to be going to Walt Disney World, so I was a ball of energy that needed an outlet.  It would come soon enough.

We left Abita Springs and headed to New Orleans Airport early Wednesday morning.  When we got to our gate for our flight to Orlando, we started playing "spot the runner".  I even met a guy with a purple elf hat embroidered with "Dopey Challenge 2014".  Denis (my wife's district manager and the guy that talked me into this foolishness) and his wife showed up shortly thereafter and soon enough we were wheels up on our way to South Florida.  Just before takeoff, I tweeted "I'm on a plane full of Dopey people".  When we landed, 110% Compression tweeted me that if I can get the people on the plane to sing Small World, they'll give me a free pair of socks...

"It's a world of laughter, a world of tears.  It's a world of hopes and a world of fears."

#SorryNotSorry

I got the free socks too.  Thanks!

On our prior trips to WDW, we've taken advantage of Disney's Magical Express and did so again for this trip.  Within an hour of landing we were at our hotel, checked in, and ready to head to the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex for the race expo and to pick up my bibs/shirts, Brynn's bibs/shirt, and ChEAR Squad stuff.  Since the Dopey Challenge started the next morning, there were nearly 7000 people passing through the expo that day doing t
he same thing, and all of us had that "we're really doing this?" look on their faces.  I managed to get through the entire expo picking up all of our stuff and only got annoyed once.  We left the Expo and then headed to Epcot for dinner at Teppan Edo and to take in a few rides.  I met up with someone I'd been talking to on the Facebook Dopey Challenge group, Bob G. from Wisconsin.  We had hoped to be seated together for dinner but it didn't happen.  After eating, Brynn and I rode Soarin', then the three of us went through The Seas with Nemo one more time before heading back to the hotel so I could be ready for the first of 4 ridiculously early mornings.

1/9/14 - 5K

Thursday morning my phone's alarm went off at 4AM.  This was the latest I'd sleep until Monday.  I got up, got dressed, ate a Clif bar, and headed downstairs to get on the bus to Epcot.  The buses dropped us off about a half mile from the staging area for the race, so I took the time for the walk to soak up the energy in the air.  It was an interesting vibe as out of the ten thousand registered entries for the 5K, seven thousand were Dopey runners.  It's not normal seeing Boston Athletic Association and Ironman Finisher tshirts at a 5K... It's just not right.  But there were several.

Within the Facebook group, a guy from Canton, OH (Robert W.) became the unofficial celebrity of the group and I saw someone wearing a sign with his name on it pinned to the back of their costume.  Yes, costume.  Along with the BAA shirts and M-Dot shirts were lots of crazy costumes.  And here I was in a generic Saints race shirt.  I introduced myself to the woman with the sign, and we walked to the staging area together and met up with other members of the group.  Finally about 5:45 AM they called us to our corrals to get ready to start the race.  I saw Denis there and we enjoyed people watching while waiting to start.  At about 6 AM they sent us to the starting line for the National Anthem and the race start.  Since we were Corral B, we only had to wait a couple minutes to go.

The 5K course was decent, although there was a nasty choke point at about the half mile mark that brought the pack almost to a standstill.  Once we cleared that we were in good shape on a nice wide course headed to a back entrance into the World Showcase.  Seeing the World Showcase at 6 AM was an interesting experience.  Many people even stopped to take pictures.  There was a photo stop with the ants from Bug's Life just outside the entrance to World Showcase, but I passed it with the intention of just running my race.  But at the 1.5 mile mark (just outside the Germany pavilion), there was Dopey!  I started looking for the end of the line when Bob G. saw me and let me jump in with him.  So I got my picture with Dopey, the only picture I had to have.  I went on from there to finish the 5K in uneventful fashion.  My time was 35:00 which is extremely slow for me, but I've never gotten to meet one of the Seven Dwarfs at a 5K either.  Most importantly I was done with the first race and still healthy and ready to go for Friday's 10K.

Garmin data below:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/429666591


1/10/14 - 10K

Friday's race was a bit different.  The distance doubled while the start time was 45 minutes earlier.  This time, the course went out on the highway outside Epcot, then doubled back before looping through World Showcase, then out on another loop around the Boardwalk area before coming back into Epcot through Future World and out a service entrance to finish again in the parking lot.  The earlier start time meant waking up at 3:15 instead of 4:00 (ugh).  The split between 10K runners and Dopey runners was about the same as the 5K, as was the pre-race staging and corralling.  


When I got to the Epcot lot, I passed through Runner Check-In and headed to the designated meet-up spot for the Facebook group and made an effort to be a bit more social than I was on Thursday.  I chatted with some people I talked to on FB and Twitter as well as with a woman I knew way back when in college.  I even had my first Robert W. sighting of the weekend.  After a little while the group started dispersing for their respective corrals and I met up again with Denis.  It was a touch warmer that morning, and still humid.

I got a good start and felt strong early in the race so I stepped up my pace a bit.  I treated the run as a bit of a speed workout where I'd run hard for bit, then back off a bit.  I wasn't being structured or rigid about anything.  I just wanted to have some fun on the boring part of the race until I got into Epcot where I hoped to get a couple more character pictures.  We took a similar route into Epcot as the day prior and outside the China pavilion I stopped for a picture with Mushu, the dragon from Mulan.  I was informed later that day by a friend from grammar school that seeing him in a park is a rarity, so I was glad I got the pic.

The best part of the route was the loop through the Boardwalk area.  That's probably my favorite non-park area of WDW and I love seeing it lit up at night.  I stopped for a couple other quick pictures (Genie, Chip and Dale, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum) and finished in 1:04:11.  I still felt good after the race, but opted to go directly to the bus to head back to the hotel.  Because I had to get Brynn ready for the Kids' Race and the Mickey Mile.

Garmin Data Below:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/429666603

Kids' Race and Mickey Mile

Later Friday Morning, I picked up Brynn and we headed to the ESPN WWoS complex for her races.  The Kids' Races were sprint races where the distance was age dependent.  The Mickey Mile was open to all kids under 13 (and parental escorts).  Brynn was excited for these races and looked forward to getting her "medals".

First up was the 100M Diaper Dash, followed by the 4-6 year olds in the 200M dash.  We got into the third heat and Brynn was ready.  I told her to just run and I'll hang behind her and meet her at the end.  She ran hard for the 200M, but missed Mickey Mouse at the end and was kind of bummed.  We grabbed some gummies, a banana and a couple cups of water after and headed to get her post race medal photo taken before finding some shade to cool off.

The mile race was a challenge for her.  We had run a few times and gotten up to 9/10ths of a mile but on those runs she held her pace back and was content running along side me.  We had also run at night when it was cool whereas now it was noon and pushing 80 degrees with no breeze.  But she still wanted to run the race and wasn't griping about being hot, so we lined up at the start.

This race was funny.  We left the start at a really easy pace for both of us until a little boy who looked to be about 7 or 8 passed Brynn.  Then she took off in a full sprint, caught and passed him, and held the sprint for about another tenth of a mile before she blew up and had to walk.  So we walked a little ways until he passed her again and she took off after him again.  The second burst got us into the baseball stadium where she took a walk break to watch the cartoons on the jumbotron while we walked around the warning track.

Yes... cartoon break in a race.

When we left the stadium she again took off in a full sprint for about 50 yards and blew up again.  A lady saw her do this and looked at me funny when she started walking.  I just smiled and said "She's a Gallowalker".  (Runners get this joke)

With about 8/10ths of a mile left Brynn was done.  She didn't want to even walk the finish and looked for a tree to sit under.  I offered to piggyback her a little ways but realized we were just about at the gate for the track where the finish was.  I told her she had to finish on her own feet to get her medal and more importantly her high-five from Mickey.  She then dug deep and got one last burst of energy, finally figured out how to hold a strong pace and ran the last stretch of the race without stopping except to slow down to get her Mickey high-five.  Then she collected her second medal, hammed it up for her finish photo, and let me know she was ready to go to the pool and then to the Magic Kingdom.  We both wore our medals from the day to dinner at Be Our Guest and she was excited to show them off to The Beast.  So much fun!

1/11/14 - Half Marathon

At the Expo we received
two race bibs... One green and one grey.  The green was for the 5K and 10K and grey for the half and full marathons.  When I got back from the 10K, I swapped the bibs on my belt to make sure I wouldn't forget to in the morning and then tweeted a picture of the bib with "Shit just got real".  Because it did.  I was half-done by days at this point, but still had nearly 40 miles of running left and two races in which to do it.  Yea... It was real.

When trying to come up with a plan for Dopey I initially thought I'd try to PR the half and then run the full in tourist mode taking pictures and having fun on the course.  But after the Gulf Coast Half where I turned in my second fastest half-marathon and then having major calf soreness in the days following, I figured that was a recipe for spectacular failure.  So I resorted to Plan B... Play for the half and race the full.  (The downfall of that was I feared another month of painful recovery like after my first marathon last February.).  Plan C was to play around both days, but I couldn't bring myself to do that, so racing the full was the route I'd go.

By now the early mornings were getting to be sort of Groundhog Day-ish.  Again I awoke at 3AM, headed to the bus and found myself in the parking lot earlier than any human should be in a Disney parking lot.  Luckily I had sprung for Race Retreat at Denis's suggestion so I headed to the RR tent to eat breakfast and try to wake myself up.  I sent Denis a text telling him where I was so we could meet up and walk to the corrals together.  When they called for the second set of corrals (E-H) it was time for our walk.  The walk from the parking lot to the corral was probably 1.5 miles.  We got there about 20 minutes later, wished each other good luck, and went off to our spots to wait until start time.  I met up with another guy from the Facebook group, Charles, in our corral and we chatted about his injured foot until it was time to start.

When the race officially started, there was a spectacle of fireworks set off above the starting line.  And then another when corral B left.  And C.  As well as D.  Also with E.

But none for corral F.  I figured 5 sets of fireworks was enough and that's why we didn't see them.  But 3 minutes after we left... BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!  Bah!!

I ran the first 3 miles a touch slower than my goal marathon pace, maybe a bit too fast.  But shortly after the 3 mile mark I came across a display of a couple cars from the Speedway and a character from Darkwing Duck, so I stopped for a quick picture.  Then about 3/4ths of a mile up the road there was a fairly elaborate display with Jack Skellington and Sally from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas.  Since my daughter LOVES Jack I figured I should stop for a picture with him.  By now I'd lost a couple minutes and I wasn't even at the 5 mile point heading into the Magic Kingdom, but I was killing my legs either.  So I decided I'd stop for as many pictures as possible through MK and then run back to Epcot.

Except I'd slowed my pace down so much that when my wife got the texts at the splits and saw how much it dropped off she was somewhat concerned.  Whoops.

I even stopped in the long line for a picture with Donald and Daisy outside the castle as well as Cinderella just inside the backstage area where we exited the park.  It was fun to be running a half-marathon and not giving one iota about time or pace or nutrition... Just run a little ways, get a pic, run some more, get another pic, etc.

Until Denis caught up with me.  That was about mile 8 outside the Polynesian Hotel.  I left him at a picture stop and ran back to Epcot at my original pace that I started with for the race.

I finished the half marathon an hour slower than I ran the Gulf Coast Half.  But I wasn't beat up or hurting at all.  I felt really good actually.  I walked through the runner finish area, finally met Robert W., and we chatted for a while until my bus showed up.

Saturday evening we went to Chef Mickey's for dinner.  The food was fairly mundane which was perfect for my needs.  Then while Shellie and Brynn looked around the shops, I went to the bar to catch the end of the Saints game.  We had a little scare soon after when the captain of the boat back to our hotel said the weather was making them park the boats for the night as a cold front was coming through with a rough line of thunderstorms.  We lucked out however when his dispatcher said he was clear to make one more run before the weather got bad.   It wasn't long after that I was sound asleep for final day.  The Marathon.

Garmin Data Below:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/429666630

1/12/14 - Marathon

The morning of the marathon started even earlier than planned.  I woke up at 2:30 AM and could NOT get back to sleep for anything.  I killed some time reading about the Saints game until 3ish, then got up to get ready for the final bus.  I made my way downstairs and was on the bus by 3:30, eating a Clif bar and drinking a bottle of water.  Shortly after we were back to the Epcot lot again (Groundhog Day) making our way to the runner check in.  I headed to the Race Retreat where I met up wi
th some more people from the Dopey Challenge Facebook group and we tried to burn off nervous energy while not falling back to sleep.  About 4:45 we got the call for corrals A-H to head to the start area.  Denis had finally showed up by then, so we stopped at bag check to drop his bag and then started the walk.

I could feel the nervous energy in the air on the way to the corrals.  There were twice as many runners as there was the mornings of the 5 and 10K, some were fresh and tapered and ready to gun for a marathon PR.  Others were running their first 26.2.  Some were running their second race in as many days for a Goofy Challenge medal.  And there were about 6000 other Dopeys looking to get their final race in four days underway.  We saw Robert W. again and he was a ball of nervous energy as he was shooting for a Boston Marathon Qualifying time.  After running 22.5 miles over the 3 previous days.

Somehow I managed to take even longer to get to the corral as the day prior which meant I only had to hear "The Cupid Shuffle" once instead of twice.  And "What Does The Fox Say" got cut short for pre-race announcements.  It was shaping up to be a good morning.

I planned to run comfortably for the first half of the race and assess how I felt at the 13 mile marker before deciding how I'd handle the sec
ond half.  I wanted to go out at about an 8:45 pace which I thought I could carry nearly the whole race and it would get me comfortably below my sub-4:00 time goal.  My nutrition plan was to eat a Gu at the first water stops past the 5, 10, and 15 mile markers, and then eat one or two Clif blocks at each water stop thereafter with another Gu around the 20 mile mark.  I thought the extra calories coming in steadily from the Clif blocks would keep me from hitting the feared "wall".  I also planned to walk the water stops, grab one Powerade and one water, drink all the Powerade and chase it with a gulp or 2 of water.

At 13 miles if I felt strong, I'd push my pace and and shoot for a sub 4:00 finish.  If not I'd step back and take it easy and just finish.   If I felt bad or fatigued or like something catastrophic was going on, I'd start walking some and hope to not get swept.  But the way I felt Sunday morning I knew that wasn't going to be the case.

The way the course is laid out, it almost works out to a 5 mile run followed by seven 5Ks, each with their own unique aspect.  It was a good way to mentally break up the course into manageable chunks instead of "ohmygod I've got 17 miles left".  The course started on the highway outside Epcot, headed to the Magic Kingdom, out a back door past the Grand Floridian and Polynesian resorts, around the Speedway, through the Animal Kingdom, then through WWOS, followed by the final stretch through Hollywood Studios, around the Boardwalk, and finishing through World Showcase and ultimately out Epcot to the finish line.  I even made a playlist and timed it through the sections so properly themed music played at appropriate points on the course based on my target pace.

Finally around 5:53AM the fireworks for Corral F went off for us to start.  I was at the back of the corral and had to pick my way through a crowd initially to find a hole to run in.  I settled in to a pace a touch faster than my goal but the cool front was coming through, temps were dropping and I was feeling great.

I knew Shellie and Brynn were getting up early to see me in the MK, so when I got in the park, I drifted left to run along the barricade to look for them.  The crowds at oh-dark-thirty were AMAZING!!!  I haven't seen crowds like that on a barricade since marching in Mardi Gras parades in high school.  Everyone was cheering and high-fiving runners.  The boost from that was great, except I didn't see my wife and kid.  I then made my way around the carousel and to the castle where I stopped for a quick picture before running along the second set of barricades.  Again I looked for Shellie and Brynn but missed them.  I did see Denis's wife Jen though and told her hi.  On my way out MK I did stop for a quick picture with Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.  I was about 6.5 miles in and was running solid.

The next landmark was the Disney Speedway at about mile 8.  The course took us onto the track for a lap where there was a car show set up.  Entering the track was tricky because the ramp going under the racetrack was extremely steep.  I was concerned I'd bust my ass going in but slowing down was almost impossible.  I was relieved to have to climb out.  Running the racetrack, however, was fun.  They displayed the cars from the Richard Petty Driving Experience, the Exotic Driving Experience, and had a mini-car show on the race surface.  I slowed to check out all the cars.  Very cool.  Fortunately we left the track through a gate on the main straightaway and didn't have to go through that underpass again.

Leaving the track I had the same issue I seem to alway have on long runs around mile 9.  Unfortunately the only choice I had was a row of porta-potties instead of the park bathrooms like on my training routes.  So, yea.  And I lost a couple minutes there.

After that we hit a section of road I'd never seen that took us to a service entry for Animal Kingdom where were greeted not by a Disney character but by a ewe.  Not any ewe either, but one that knew how to sit and shake hands.  He was pretty cool.  The rest of the run through Animal Kingdom was quite nice as well.  It's a beautiful park with plenty to look at and stay distracted.  The exit of AK was right at the 13 mile mark where I did a quick self-assessment.  No pain, legs felt good, weather was great, and according to my Garmin I was a hair under 2 hours.  I figured it was safe to go for the sub-4:00.


After Animal Kingdom the course led to ESPN's Wide World of Sports Complex.  This was, by far, the worst 3 miles of the course.  It meandered all over the place, got too narrow in several spots, had too many turns, and seemed to never end.  Even running on the baseball field warning track wasn't fun, as I got stuck behind the 4:00 pace group and couldn't pass them.  Finally after 2.5 miles of torture the course left WWOS and headed to Hollywood Studios.  And passed the magical 20 mile point.

There's several tales of lore of the 20 mile mark on a marathon.  It's where the infamous "wall" pops up.  Some say a marathon is a 10K with a 20 mile warm up.  Others say the halfway point of a marathon is the 20 mile marker.  Your training will get you to 20 miles, but your guts will carry you the last 6.2.  And at this race it was between the worst part of the course and the best.  Perfect.

The playlist I put together worked out really well.  I figured out what point in time I'd hit 20 miles, and set Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us" as the song to come on at that point.  It's the perfect 20 mile song.  It's upbeat, driving, fun, and was just what I need to hear at that point.  I stopped for a quick snapshot of the mile marker, sent it to Shellie with "45 minutes" to give her an idea of how much longer I'd be.  45 minutes was obviously optimistic at best.  Doing the math to figure out an accurate finish time wasn't happening.

From the 20 mile mark the course went over an overpass to a back entrance at Hollywood Studios, through Hollywood Sudios, out the front gate to the walking path that leads to the Boardwalk, around the Boardwalk into Epcot, and on to the finish.  I was cruising at this point.  I was passing people left and right, never got passed, and still had the energy to high-five people in the crowds and cast members on the course.  I expected to fade but it never happened.  I even passed a guy on a hand cycle before coming out Hollywood Studios.

The walkway from HS to the Boardwalk was where I saw the 24 mile marker.  I took a quick snapshot of it and sent it to Shellie with a text letting her know I'd finish in about 15 minutes so she would be looking for me.  I grabbed my last Powerade and water of the race and started in on the last 2 miles.  I went down the path, over the bridge, and in front of the Beach Club towards the Epcot service entrance where...

DOPEY!!!


A motivational genius put Dopey at the 25 mile mark just before the course goes into Epcot.  I'll mess with characters with my daughter, especially face characters, but by myself I may only wave.  But this day... I ran to Dopey, gave him a bear hug, and got a picture.  Dopey high-fived me and gave me a thumbs up as I ran through the gate into the park.  I was just about a mile away from finishing the Dopey Challenge.  I couldn't believe it.  I was pumped and excited to finish.

(Proof photo while I wait for MarathonFoto to finish sorting pictures from the races)

But then there was Belle... So I got a quick picture with her.  Belle's cute.  Really cute.

I finished the loop around World Showcase, passed through Future World and then out the side gate past the gospel choir at mile 26.  Right before we entered the finish chute, I saw a woman who looked kind of wobbly bend over, then try to squat before collapsing backwards.  I helped her up and some guys that looked like they were with her thanked me and helped her to the side.  I hope she's OK, but she looked really bad there.

Finally, in the bleachers I saw Brynn and Shellie just before I finished.  I waved to them, ran over to say hi to Minnie Mouse, and crossed the finish line in an official time of 3:54:17... which was a nearly 7 minute improvement over my first marathon.  A volunteer put my medal around my neck and pointed me towards medical where I got ice packs put on my knees.  I then went through hydration to get a bottle of water and Powerade before heading to the Dopey/Goofy line where they verified the wristbands, awarded the Goofy and Dopey medals, and took the official finisher's photo.  I met up with Shellie and Brynn shortly thereafter and we headed to Race Retreat so I could get some food.  We sat with Denis's family and talked with them for a little while until Jen got the runner tracking notification saying Denis was at mile 20.  I wanted to see him finish, but I wasn't waiting another hour, so we made our way to the exit.

On the way out I saw Bart Yasso at the Runners' World area.  Bart followed me on Twitter a few months ago, so I had to go say hi.  He was very welcoming and even took a picture with Brynn and me.

Garmin Data Here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/429666660

Somehow I managed to find the energy to go to the Magic Kingdom with Shellie and Brynn.  They split off to take a monorail while I grabbed a beer and then headed to the buses.  I asked the volunteer at the bus to my resort what time it was leaving so I'd know how long I'd have to finish my beer.  She saw the Dopey medal and told me I could do anything I wanted, so I took the beer on the bus.  Walking the MK was probably pretty smart as I haven't dealt with nearly as much muscle soreness as I did after RnR last February.

I've read several race reports where people talked about how emotional they got finishing Dopey.  I can't say I'm one of those people.  I'm a firm believer in "think like a bumblebee, and train like a racehorse" and it's served me well through several races.  I was quietly confident that I'd finish Dopey without issue, but I didn't think I'd run so well in the marathon.  So while I wasn't emotional, I was pretty stinking proud of myself.

The people I met from the Facebook Dopey Challenge group were all great.  Bob G. and I crossed paths several times throughout the weekend.  Brent T. and I talked for a while on the bus post-marathon.  Saskia, Amys E. and B., Alison, and the other ladies couldn't have been more friendly.  Charles M. amazed me with gutting out the half on a broken foot.  And Robert W. turned out to be the best sport putting up with his pseudo celebrity status.  I owe everyone of those people from the group a big thanks for simply being awesome.  Especially the admin of the group, Heath and the guy that seemed to bring out the silliness in everyone, Carl N.  You guys rock.  BOOM!

And not that anyone will read this that I'm about to mention, but I'd also like to mention the companies that make the gear I used to train for and run Dopey: Headsweats, Yurbuds, Oakley, Lifeproof, Tasc Performance, Nike Running, ProCompression, Swiftwik, Garmin, and Brooks Running.  These companies all make great gear and I never had any gear related issues except for having to reboot my Garmin before the 10K.

I also would be remiss to not mention the inspiration from Steve Gleason.  Steve's battle with ALS and the way he's handled it has been a total inspiration for me.  I only hope to one day have a fraction of the grace and determination he has.

But lastly, I need to thank my wife and daughter.  My wife, for putting up with the long evenings training after my already long workdays, as well as washing the pile of disgusting running gear I leave on the floor of the laundry room every day, and being understanding of planning our weekends around my training.  And also for being such a good sport about me teasing her for not being at ALL THE RACES!!!

And lastly my mini-me.  She's the reason I try to set such an example.  I want her to see you can set crazy goals and go after them and succeed.  And it's fun coming home after a 15 mile run and watching her run in fear of getting a "sweaty hug".

So what's next?  Why, another half-marathon on Sunday... and one 2 weeks after that.  And a sprint tri in March.  And if I don't drown, a 70.3 race in April, and another sprint Tri in May.  Then I'll work on getting faster with the goal of a PR at the Jazz Half in November.



The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. - 
It's kind of fun to do the impossible. - 
If you can dream it, you can do it. - Walt Disney