IMTX

Pre Race

                After having a strong showing at Galveston 70.3, I felt confident going into this race, specifically on some of my nutrition issues from previous races.  It seems that I had made some strides in the correct direction to fix things.  Being an Ironman, I had all the normal questions of I did enough.  My body felt healthy and I felt rested, I felt the strongest I had felt going into a race ever.

                I arrived in the Woodlands on Thursday for check-in and did the normal pre-race stuff on Friday.  In hindsight, I was probably on my feet too much.  But it was good to be with teammates and try to keep my mind of things.

Race Morning

                I did sleep fairly well, and woke up around 4 am on my own.  I made a peanut butter sandwich and a small cup of coffee.  I started to get everything ready and finalized.  Was meeting some of the other team members at 515 in the lobby.  So Mollie helped carrying my stuff and I made our way to the lobby.  We took a picture and headed to transition.  It was fairly crowded and hectic a transition, I just needed to put my nutrition on my bike and do final checks on the bike (air in tires, correct gearing etc).  I was in and out quickly.  It was about a mile walk from transition to the swim start, so I wanted to make sure to start that walk with plenty of time to not feel rushed.  On the walk I ate a second peanut butter sandwich and was drinking a bottle of my infinit mix for more calories and sodium.  Once at north Shore Park, meet up with more teammates and started to get finalized and ready.  Most have been more nervous than I thought, I started to put my wet suit on with my normal running shorts still on (didn’t work to well), and come to find out later, I didn’t put my heart rate monitor on.  Once I correctly got dressed in my wetsuit, remember from last year it take a while to funnel everyone in, I wanted to make sure to get in the water.  As soon as the pros went off, I said my final good byes to Mollie (see definitely kept me calm all morning) and made my way to the water.

Swim

                We all had to funnel under the timing arch and then into the water.  It was a slow process, I guess people were uneasy.  Once in the water, I did a couple back and forth to warm up and then made my way to the start to position myself where I wanted.  Different from my previous races, I lined up to be in the mix, I lined up just off the buoy line and at the front.  I knew it was going to be rough start but if I could hold on, I could get with a pack and take the draft. Before I knew it the canon went off.  As usual, I got hit, kicked, literally swam over and pushed a few feet down.  But I felt that I was hanging on with a fast group.  I could feel myself in a draft, not necessarily of one person but in a pack.  I could also see people all around me, so we were in a big pack and that kept the contact close. But knew if I could stay with this, it could set me up for a nice swim.  The pack started to thin out as we got towards the first turn.  After the first turn, I was looking directly into the sun, which made it hard to sight to the second turn (which was only about 200M).  I ended up swimming wider than anticipated.  After the 2^nd turn to head back towards the canal, I had lost the big pack I was with, probably for a combination of reasons, me not taking the turn the best, others not either, the better ones pulling away, etc.  I had counted the buoys on the way out so I knew roughly how many I had till the turn.  I knew that I could cut a little bit off by swimming closer to the shore line when I got to the turn, so I wanted to know how close I was.  Since I had lost the big pack, I would try to find some people to draft off on the way back but it was sporadic at best heading in.  As I made the turn, I guess I was turning sharper than the person next to me and got swam completely over and pushed about 2 feet under.  Also had my goggles knocked so my right eye started to fill with water.  I ended up swimming the rest of the way with my right goggle filled with water.  The canal is a different experience on the swim.  The waves created by the swimmers roll out and crash off of the concrete walls and then roll back into you as a swimmer.  Because it is so narrow it does seem to make it easier to sight but I could also feel myself getting pulled in closer and closer to the right wall, so I had to fight to get back to the middle of the canal and tried to find a draft.  It is a pretty cool part of the swim to be able to see spectators along the swim course. I could feel my left calf was close to cramping as I was trying to give an extra kick on the last few hundred meters. So I backed that off and just coasted in.  I could see the team tent and knowing where they were located I was getting close the exit.  I made the final little loop turn to the stairs and was pulled out.  I looked at my watch as I lapped it but didn’t really take in the time until I was running to the tent and thought “wait did that say what I thought it said.”  I felt I had a good swim but was extremely happy with that time.               

Time:     1:04:58   1:40/100M 23^rd AG

T1

                I got my top half of my wetsuit off and had the strippers able to pull the rest of easily.  I ran up through the bags and was very happy with my location for the bag placement; I knew exactly where to do. I was up at the very top on the left side.  So I was able to quickly grab my bag and run into the tent.  I was able to get my bike and start my bike with no issues.

Time: 03:15

Bike

                I was riding my P5, with my Flo 60 and Flo Disc.  Coming out of T1, we get on woodlands parkway for the first several miles.  Which is a heavily traffic road but they had a whole lain blocked off for us.  This is where I realized I didn’t have my heart rate monitor on. I was trying to get my HR low starting the bike and kind of hard to monitor when I don’t have my monitor on.  So I tried to take deep breathes and get into a rhythm, hoping it was coming down.  I was trying to tell which way the wind was blowing right away to be able to determine the potential for the rest of the ride with the wind. It was hard to tell what it was doing.  It also took me about 15 miles to get comfortable and get into a rhythm.  I had to tell myself several times to ride my own race. Especially since I had a good swim and T1, I was up in the mix with people and wanting to ride away.  It continued to stay fairly hard to tell which direction the wind was coming from.  The weather report had stated it should be a wind out of the south southwest. However it didn’t feel like we had too much of a tail wind more swirling around.  I started to get into a comfortable zone and rhythm and for the most part the first half of the ride was pretty uneventful.  I was sticking to my nutrition plan exactly and taking my salt.  I was making ground on people and getting passed some but for the most part I felt I was moving up on the field.  I was taking a water bottle every aid station.  I had to pee for the first time at about mile 30 and had to pee about 6 times during the ride.  This is something I need to investigate, I feel that is a lot, however, it didn’t seem to cause me any stomach issues; maybe I was just extremely hydrated.  I tried to keep a high cadence especially into the wind or up hills.  I averaged a 90 cadence for the whole ride so I believe I was successful in doing so.  Knowing that the special needs bag is about at mile 60 I was doing the math in my head to make sure I had finished my nutrition bottles to start out on the bike for when I got there.  As we went past Richards, the miles started to get tough. I’m sure it was a combination of the rolling hills, the head wind, and the crappy road, but I was just hoping to get to special needs soon just because that was my mental break up point.  I was able to success grab my special needs, keep rolling and switch out my two bottles for two new bottles of infinite and then discard and keep rolling.  The road was still pretty crappy and was going to continue to be until about mile 85 which just rattles the brain.  However, I do love my new kit, I had zero saddle issues.   AT mile 61, I was stung by a bee on my left shoulder.  After I pulled the stinger out, I kept checking back to make sure it wasn’t swelling or showing any other signs of being allergic.  I didn’t think I was but it had been several years since being stung.  At mile 64, I was passed by Cort Prois from our team.  Honestly I was a little bit shocked.  I thought he would have beaten me out of the water and then he is a much stronger cyclist than I am, so I had no thoughts of seeing him on the bike.  This gave me two thoughts, I had a good swim and I was holding my own on a tough bike day.  About mile 69, I was then passed by Greg Colvin from our team.  Once again a little surprised, as he is a much stronger cyclist than I am as well.  And at our two previous Ironman races together he caught me about mile 25 and then at mile 43 respectively so once again I had the same two thoughts about my swim and bike.  And to this point, I had been seeing my average speed on the bike continuing to drop as the last almost half of the bike was into a head wind, so with that happening being discourage, I told myself everyone is having a tough day in the wind.  The remaining part of the course is rollers till about mile 90 and being into the head wind it was going to be tough going.   One thing I need to work on during my racing is I let other people get to me and not race my own race.  I passed a female racer and I guess she thought she would just latch onto me and let me pull her in the rest of the way.  She was sucking my wheel.  Not just drafting a little in the draft zone but directly on my wheel as if in fear of losing me.  So I would slow down and stretch out my neck and legs, just to mess wit her and she would not go around me, just sat behind me waiting for me to ride again.  I was not in the right mindset because of all this was going on the last when I should have been focusing on my race. This truly frustrated me, until about mile 80 and entire group of 15 in a peloton passed me (and my freeloader quickly jumped off my wheel to join them).  As soon as I was passed by them all frustrated and angry, I caught them and then surged passed them.   However within a mile they had caught and passed me again.  So no need to waste energy I sat back and let them go.  By this time we were getting close to back into town and as we made a right turn onto 2978 I could see the whole pack of them pulling away from me.  I basically rode the rest of the way without seeing another racer.  I did catch a few people once we were back on woodlands parkway that I am assuming feel off the group coming back into transition not wanting to appear to be close as a pack and then they just couldn’t hold the speed when alone, allowing for me to catch them.  As I made the final stretch in, I took my feet out of my shoes and dismounted.

Time: 5:17:23  21.17 MPH avg  18^th AG

T2

                I handed my bike off to a volunteer and started my run to get my run bag.  Last year the concrete was extremely hot, however this year they had us on the grass and then had carpet lying down.  Once again, I knew where my bag was at the very top on the left side.  My legs felt a little uneasy on this run but I was into the tent and got my running stuff on and out the tent quickly.

Time: 3:08

Run

                My legs were feeling good as I started the run.  As always I knew I was going to start too fast.  I made myself run like I felt like I was walking; however that pace was still too fast.  I wanted to be around an 8-830 pace for the first few miles.  My pace came in around 7:50, however I kept telling myself to slow down, but I felt extremely comfortable so after the first few miles, I just kept with that pace and was holding it comfortably. I had been told by Dave and Brian that I was in 18^th coming off the bike and I had mentally noted that I had passed 3 people in my AG by the time I got to mile 3.  I was continuing to feel comfortable and had started to take in some of my nutrition and drank water at the aid stations.  I knew that shortly after the section coming through the neighborhood I would get along the water way and would see the OUL tent. Right after I came through the path from the neighborhood I saw Dave and Brian.  They told me I had moved up some slots. They gave me some pointers and as always “run the tangents”.  I knew the team tent was coming but I wasn’t sure what exactly it was going to be.  As I got to where I could see the tent everyone was literally going crazy.  Later in the race this will really become helpful.  Austin was yelling on the megaphone, everyone was screaming and they hadn’t even seen me coming yet, this was for everyone else.  As soon as they saw me it grew significantly.  It helped immensely to have such great friends, teammates and support crew cheering and yelling for you.  Ian ran with me for a second and told me I looked comfortable and to stay loose.  The next few miles along the water way can be tricky to keep pace and footing with some of the turns, where the spectators are and the fellow athletes.  This is something if I do this race again will need to remember and run the tangents, especially with all the curves and turns.  Just before starting the next loop there is an out and back about 1 mile total.  It is the farthest north east part of the run and is completely open to the elements and extremely windy.  Up until this point I had felt extremely comfortable in my 7:50ish pace.  This is where that pace broke and my legs didn’t have it to get it back.  The next few miles was around an 8:20 pace and seemed to continuing to slow from there.  I knew that mentally the second loop was going to be the hardest and it seemed double worse since my pace had broken.  I got to my special needs bag at mile 10.5 and decided to take it then, I had two flasks of my nutrition in it and picked them both up leaving my original flask.  My pace was continuing to slow; my legs just didn’t have anything left to get my pace back up.  I was continuing my nutrition plan and taking water in at aid stations and salt.  I saw Brian first and told him that I was starting to hurt and my legs were just dead, he told me to try to maintain my form and keep my head I was still looking good.  Then I saw Dave shortly after I came out of the neighborhood again.  He told me I had moved up a few places, this re-energized me a little, even with my pace starting to get harder and hurting I was still moving up in my AG. I just had to keep pushing and hold on and see if I could knock off a few more people. Then I was coming up on the team tent, once again, they never ceased to amaze me.  After I got passed the tent and headed towards the farthest east part of the course, running around the Anadarko building, this was my slowest mile and really into a dark place mentally. Going through the aid station, I basically stopped took in some water and stretched my legs.  This was the darkest part of the run by far, but told myself I only had 10 miles left. My spirits started to pick up and mentally was in a better place once I started my final loop.  Just knowing that this was the last time I would have to run the loop and all I had to do was keep running and it would take me to the finish.  Before coming to the end of the waterway, I saw Ian and Mollie; they had come over to this side of the waterway to tell me that I was in 9^th place.  Mollie knowing that if I knew that I would keep pushing with all I had.  (Come to find out later they had jumped in and swam across the canal to get to me, they are the best).  I told them my legs were hurting so bad they were literally tingling.  Ian told me “that leg pain will heal, as long as your stomach is good keep pushing”.   As I went back past transition, I was able to get reapplied with sunscreen, the sun was very heavy and I knew this would help.  My pace was nothing fast but I just knew I had to keep moving.  Overall I was still moving past people on the course.  However, it was becoming more crowded and I had to be careful with my running line to stay the tangents and not get caught behind someone slower. I didn’t have much energy to pick the speed up to go around if needed and didn’t want to get sucked in behind.  I knew I just had to get myself through the neighborhood on the back side and then would be on the home stretch through the team tent and the crowds.  As I came out of neighborhood I saw Dave again (can’t thank him enough), he told me that I was 9^th place and that I needed to move and try to pick people off.  Just one person at a time in front of me.  Told me it was going to be tough but leave it all out on the course.  I passed through the team tent one last time and knew I only had about 2.5 miles left.  I didn’t have much left but I did give it all I had.  My pace picked back up for the last miles in.  I kept focusing on Dave’s advice and picking one person off at a time.  As I headed to the final out and back that had been crushing to me earlier in the race. As I was heading up the hill to the U-turn, I saw a guy that I knew was in my AG and was in front of me on the way down the hill from the U-turn.  He saw me coming too and we made eye contact.  I knew this was my chance to make up one more spot.  I took in my last cup of water and took the downhill as fast as I could (not fast).  I could see him up ahead and he kept shoulder checking to see where I was.  Once he had done that I knew that I was going to be able to overtake him.  With about a half a mile to the finish, I passed him.  He told me good job, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to keep up with me and I told him the same and id see him at the finish.  After I crossed, my legs felt the most uneasy that they have felt after any of my previous Ironman’s (do be honest this is the first one that I ran and didn’t have to stop for “bathroom breaks” or walked the majority of the time) so that was too be expected.  Mollie, Karen, Dave and Brian meet me at the finish.  I was so happy to see them, and appreciated everything they did along the way.  Turns out both my heels had been bleeding from being rubbed raw by my shoes.  My socks had fallen down and then because my shoes were wet they had rubbed my ankles raw.  I didn’t really feel it during the race but it was bleeding heavily after.  I guess my mind was focusing on other pain in my body.  Grabbed a drink and then headed back to the hotel to shower and change, so that I could head back out on the course to cheer on the rest of the team.  Everyone did a great job and was an honor to be on the course and be able to cheer everyone on.  My hamstrings as usual with my body were the sorest part.

Time: 3:46:46  8:46 per mile pace  8^th AG

Overall Time 10:18:33  8^th AG

Final Thoughts:

                My goal going into this race was to break 10, and I missed that by decent sized margin but I am learning every race and I know that I will get there.  I am extremely happy with how my race day came together.  Texas is a much more difficult course and conditions than Florida was.  And to PR by 11 min on a tougher course in just about 6 months, I couldn't be happier.  I am actually seeing the training I am putting in come through.  I still have a lot of improvement to do but I am proud that I was able to continue to make improvements throughout the field and my AG as the day went on.  My huge take away from this race is that I did not have the same GI or nutrition issues that I have had my previous races, so I believe that I am starting to get that figured out.  Only a few days after and I am already strategizing and figuring out what I need to do to improve and take it to the next level for next time.

I want to thank everyone that was there for me and involved in this day in some way or another. I would not have been able to do it without the help. Couldn't have done it without Mollie, she is the best Sherpa and girlfriend I could ask for. She was up early with me to get everything ready and help calm my nerves.  And was all over the course making sure to check in on me.