IRONMAN RACE REPORT PART 1

There were 2273 people that finished IMLP this year.  There was also an 11% DNF rate (did not finish).  The average finishing time this year was 13:30 which is the slowest it has been in 4 years.  The experts say this was due to slower than usual bike splits which then led to an average marathon time over 5 hours.  I am pretty sure you can blame the heat and the ridiculous head wind on the hardest part of the bike course for those statistics but we will get to that later.  I actually slept well the night before the race and was up at 3:45 AM. Melatonin is da bomb!!!!  I had my usual pre-race breakfast of a bagel with peanut butter, a banana and coffee.  I put body glide on each and every part of my body I thought could possibly chafe and donned my race day uniform.  I took a few deep breaths and Quinn and I set out for the less than half mile walk to the transition area.  Before heading in I stopped to get my body marked as they wrote my number all over me.  It was then I realized I forgot the damn Sharpie I brought from home so I borrowed one from the body marking people and wrote the very important "FOR DAVID" on my hands.

As the sun comes up athletes are getting body marked

 I headed over to my bike and put my bottles on and filled up the aerobottle.  I found Kerry and used her pump to top off my tires and we headed up Mirror Lake Drive to the swim area.  Quinn and I had set a tent out along there earlier and my coaches condo was also right there so we had a place to hang out and even better go the bathroom before the race started.  There were a million things going through my head as we waited but at that point I just wanted to get in the water and do this.  After a team picture at Jeff's condo it was time to put the wetsuit on and head over to the swim start.  My family had only made it as far as the playground on the way to the swim start so I would see them before heading into the water.  In retrospect this was a good thing because when I did see them there were quite a few tears and I needed to block all that out.  I hugged all my peeps and Kerry and I headed over through the arches into Mirror Lake.

You're right Josh...we do resemble a pink penis

We got into the water just as the pros were starting and had 10 mins to decide where we wanted to be.  We ended up in the open space between people who wanted to be up front and people who wanted to be way in back.  It was weird to be in open space but I knew it wouldn't last.  I floated and choked back tears as I realized I was actually about to start this race and despite my feelings about swimming I wasn't nervous at all.  BOOM.  Off goes the cannon and for a whole 30 secs it was good.  Then we hit the traffic jam all the while everyone behind us was approaching.  It is kind of like the worst highway pile up you could imagine...only in a lake and we were smack dab in the middle.  From then on it was more like water rugby.

 I am not sure I did anything that resembled swimming on the way out that first loop.  It was sorta like swim swim swim ouch hit in arm swim swim swim ouch hit in leg swim really dude do you have to swim over top of me.  I was constantly adjusting to avoid flying body parts and a few times got sucked in towards the cable where it was worse.  It is virtually impossible to free yourself while you are there so you just grin and bear it.  The return trip was slightly better but still a lot of contact.  It was on the way back that it struck me....despite the fact that I am swimming and getting beat down on occasion I am having fun!!!!!  Holy crap...how did that happen?  As I got closer to the end of the loop I could here the crowds screaming.  I got out of the water and looked at my watch.  46:23.  I was happy with that. Through the arch back in the water for lap two.  I did stop here and stand in the water to pee.  Just sayin.  I had to go.  I knew the second lap wouldn't be as fast because there wouldn't be as much as a draft effect since it was spreading out some.  I managed to get on the cable for a great deal of the second lap although there were times when it got dicey again and I had to get out of Dodge for a bit.  Again as I made my way closer to the swim exit I could hear the crowds screaming and knew this was it...my 2.4 mile IM swim was almost done.  When I got out of the water I looked at my watch and saw 1:34.  Holy shit.  My best case scenario for my swim was 1:40.  I think this picture pretty much sums up feelings about my swim

I pulled my wetsuit down to my waist and a volunteer looked at me and yelled "You, on the ground on your butt!!" I did as told and whoosh...off goes the wetsuit and thankfully my shorts stayed on.  I stood up grabbed my suit from the stripper (wetsuit stripper that is) and headed out for the quarter mile run to transition.  It was awesome to run down a street lined from beginning to end with people 3-4 deep screaming and clapping for you.  Even better I saw my family and my awesome friends Cindy, Bonnie, Deb and Patty.  As I entered the Oval I got my bike gear bag and entered the changing tent where an amazing volunteer told me to sit down, grabbed my bag and asked me what I needed.  I had a note in my bag of things I needed to do so she worked through the list with me.  Dry off, socks on, bike shoes on, eat, drink, take advil, race number on, turn on GPS tracker, arm coolers on, helmet on, sunglasses on, gu in pockets, watch off, Garmin on.  I went to the bathroom and when got back she had all my stuff back in the bag and pointed me in the direction of my bike.  I ran out of the tent and another awesome volunteer handed me my bike and I ran to the mount line.  As I got on my bike and clipped in I looked at the clock.  I was an hour and 50 mins into my Ironman day and off I went on the bike.  I spent 15 mins in transition which is a long time but not all that uncommon.  I had stuff to do and I didn't want to forget anything.  In case you don't know you can click on the pics in the blogs and view them in a bigger size.  Stay tuned for Part 2.  Check out the link below for a pretty good video of the swim madness and traffic jam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8dA1EJAigs