IRONMAN ARIZONA 2022
Well, I finally had the chance to step to the line of a full Ironman race last Sunday. My goal going in was simply to stay ahead of the cut line in each discipline and not die. Of the 2400 athletes that went into the water, 1994 would complete the race. The water in the Salt River was 60.5 degrees at 7:19 when I dove in. I had an expected goal time of 1:30 to 1:45 for the 2.4 mile swim. It took about 200 yards to warmup and get comfortable with the water and my stroke pace. It was then that I saw about 5 or 6 people, with looks of shear terror on their faces, retreating back to shore. Open water anxiety is real. I know that feeling but have been blessed with another year of swimming experience and knew that as long as I kept moving forward I would get out of the swim before the 2:20:00 cut off. I had a pretty good rhythm going with the exception the occasional bumping and grabbing of other swimmers. No big deal, it happens in Ironman swims...keep a positive mindset would be the mantra of the day. At about 500yds from the swim end there are two left hand turn bouys to navigate. There was some real confusion near the bouys as some people had been sighting to the left one and then had to course correct to the right bouy then back to the left to the finish. This caused great deal of swimmers to be gathered in the same area with some people in distress. My wife was watching from shore and she said it looked very confusing with swimmers and kayakers and jet skis all gathering in the same place. I was swimming along fine until the jet ski almost ran me over on his way to help someone else. He looks down and asks, "are you ok?" "yeah, I'm good if you would just GTFO my way!" It seemed like that last 500 yards took forever. I got out of the water in 1:53:39 and my legs were moving but I couldn't feel them as I jogged to transition.
T1=22:29....really? It felt like I dried off and changed pretty fast? Guess not......On to the 112 mile bike with an expected finish time of 6:30. The bike route at IMAZ is (3) 37+mile loops that runs from downtown Tempe out the Beeline Hwy to Fountain Hills and back. There was a 15 mph headwind that greeted us and promised to get stronger with each passing loop. Something to look forward to! I felt good on the first loop with the exception of having to pee the entire time. This would be the theme for the day. I had been eating and hydrating to my plan so I was surprised that on the next subsequent loops my legs had no "pop" in them. Every time I tried to push it the quads would be like, "Nope!" Cramps. OK, so just keep hydrating, eat bananas and as
@tri-man 47 advised, "take what the course gives you." Awesome advice GB, Thank You! Positive mindset! Smile, Thank the Volunteers, remember that this is the victory lap for all of the training you've endured. It just took me for e..v...e...r to get that bike done. 7:34:50. I estimate 30minutes in the porto-lets and personal needs bag stops. But, again, I'm ahead of the cut line and moving on to the run. It's just a marathon....You got this!!
T2=16:19... a little better but would have been less had I not taken half the time to relieve myself of all the Tailwind, Uncrustables, gels and bananas I had consumed on the bike. But that needed to happen! I changed into my run gear and was off. I took the time to stop and get some Love from my wife & support crew and take a few pictures with friends who had come down to cheer me on. It is so awesome and humbling to have everyone there to support and give you that boost you need at just the right time. I started off with the plan to run easy and walk through the water stops of which there are many along the route. As I would find out later, I had developed hypothermia induced diuresis. I had to pee..... the whole time. It was incredibly frustrating as I felt really good considering what I had been putting myself through for the past 12 hours. I wore an airtag in my Flipbelt so that my wife could track me real time. She volunteered at the finish line putting medals on people and when she saw that it took me 19 minutes to complete mile 15 she felt like something might be wrong. She left the finish line to come find me. There was nothing wrong except that I had to, again release a "bear" and in doing so, I fell asleep sitting down in the porto-let. I estimate it was about a 5 minute nap. I awoke feeling a new sense of freshness and less need to pee every mile. Let's finish this! She found me at mile 17 and ran with me until mile 18 and really kicked me in the rear to get it done as again, I was up against the cut line. The last 8 miles was incredible! Volunteers still cheering us on, chicken broth at mile 20, the lights of Tempe along the Salt River, the wonderful smells of the restaurants. The whole last half of the race you could hear Mike Reilly's voice echoing in the dark, "You Are an IRONMAN!" It seemed to pull me towards the finish line. I finished with a time of 15:58:57 not even close to what I expected but I didn't have a clue how difficult it would be. Becoming an IRONMAN was the hardest thing I have ever done and I am very proud of myself for having completed what I set out to do. I want to Thank everyone in this thread that helped encourage and inspire me along the way! Enjoy the Holiday Season....we are Blessed and have much to be Thankful for.
x in a very boring manner, I’ll give myself a chance at chasing it down on the gradual downhill return.
Think his average was like 87 or something.
