Some Ironman pictures and videos

Just some pictures from the race. More to come once the race-day photo people put them up for sale.

All ready to go in the wetsuit. Bottle of AminoVital+RedBull in hand, of course.

Unpacking my bike special needs bag. Not looking too bad. Even smiling a bit?

Headed out for lap 2 of the bike. About 64 miles in.

Dismounting the bike after 112mi. Not looking as good... Just been through 2 hours of torrential rain.

Heading out over the timing mat to start the marathon. I'm hurting.

The run improves as I find a buddy to hang with for the middle miles. I'd say the picture is blurry because we were going so fast, but it's probably just my dad struggling with the new camera.

Run special needs bag. Trying to figure out what I still need.

Discarding my bottle around mile 18. It was starting to feel heavy.

Finishing. I sprinted the end but didn't really have the energy to put my hands over my head.

Getting body-marked.

The final "sprint."

Splits and age group podium

So I got my splits:
Total: 11:39:12.90
Swim: 1:27:16 (9/10)
T1: 5:13 (4/10)
Bike: 5:45:31 (3/10) @ 19.4 mph
T2: 3:21 (2/10)
Run: 4:17:55 (2/10) @ 9:51 min/mi


And, came 3rd in my age group... and got a nice crystal paper-weight thingy... Not too shabby.

IronCam

Yesterday, I became an Ironman in 11:39 at the Chesapeakeman.

Instead of the usual race report followed by some thank you's, I'd like to give a quick shout out up front. As Margaret says, "It takes a village to raise an Ironman," and I really would not have been able to do this alone. First off, thanks to my parents, Posie and Blake for making it out to my race yesterday. Having you guys there made all the difference. To my friends at SBR and all my various training buddies: I really would never have pulled this off without you. When I needed advice, you had plenty of it; when I needed support, you had even more. (And, of course, David, when I needed to get yelled at so I wouldn't wimp out, you had tonnes of that to give!) And finally, my friends and coworkers, thank you for being there for me and for also reminding me (constantly) that there's more to life than training. In the words of Clarke, "This Ironman shit seriously needs to go. It's killing fun."

So now, on with the race report. I showed up to the race site on Thursday and on Friday did the usual registration, bike check-in, drove the course, etc. In general, I just laid low, did a short spin, and pushed the water/Amino Vital/salt pills. Quiet dinner with the family on Friday night and off to bed by 10pm. As expected, I had a little trouble sleeping. I was especially worried about the weather which forecast anything from high humidity/80s if the sun came out, to thunder storms and torrential rain. In the 6 hours of sleep, I also dreamt like nobody's business. The best dream had to be the one where I started the Ironman and then blacked out and woke up to be told that I had finished it... If only that's how it all worked.

On Saturday, I woke up around 5am, had a little breakfast and headed over to T2 to drop off my special needs and run bags. I headed back to the hotel for a little GI relief and then over to T1/swim start. I had about 20 minutes to get ready for the swim which was nice. Just enough to be comfortable but not so much that I would start to panic.

The gun or horn or whatever it was--I really don't remember--went off and we were off. The swim was a 2-loop swim in the Choptank River. Originally we were supposed to do a single straight swim with the current but conditions were spec-ed to be rough, so they revised the swim the day before. The 2 loops were nice because they allowed for a time split... but I didn't get any help from the current and was definitely tossed around a bunch by the chop. At this point, I'm not sure about my splits, but I put swim + T1 at about 1:30. Not as fast as I had hoped, but it was a nice, relaxed pace and seemed decent given the roughness of the water.

As I headed out on the bike, the rain started. Or at least, it seemed to start. Apparently, it had been raining like mad all during the swim but, of course, I didn't really realize this. The bike was a flat, but windy one. It borrows from the Eagleman 70.3 and is essentially a 2-loop course. During the first 10 miles I saw upward of 10 flats so that had me a little concerned, but I ended up being lucky and went flat-free for the whole ride. In general, the bike was good. It was quite windy at times but it always seemed to be a tail- or head-wind so I didn't regret having a disc/808. The course was beautiful but rainy. With no hills, the only really noteworthy part was a 1-mile section of flooded out road. It was so deep that my shoes actually dipped beneath the water tugging me left and right with every pedal stroke. Discs make funny noises, in general; in 5 inches of water, they are ridiculous!

I wrapped up the bike in about 5:45--not bad! The final 10km sucked, though. Two hours of torrential rain had taken their toll on my mind. I really wanted to be off the bike, I was losing my focus and was just really dragging. The prospect of running a marathon afterward was so daunting. This was definitely the lowest point in my race.

I moved quickly through T2... Figured I was better heading in the right direction rather than sitting. The first 3 miles of the run were brutal. I felt sluggish and exhausted. The course was quiet and I just ran from aid station to aid station. As more people got off the bike, the crowds picked up; it was a 3x8-mile out-and-back course and this really helped me get into a groove as I started to recognize faces. By mile 5, I caught up with a nice guy--Garth--from Virginia and we stuck together for about 12 miles. He was a 22-year Army career man and we had a nice long chat which really killed time. Around mile 18, he was starting to slow so I took off. I spotted him at each turn around and we cheered each other on.

The final 4 miles were tough on the mind but knowing that I was headed home made a big difference. Also, at the final turn around, there was a Hawaiian-themed aid station. The guys there must have been drinking because they were more excited and sloppy every time I saw them. I got 'laid' with a lei on my final pass... glad to know I have game after 136 miles. In the last mile, I passed someone with "14" written on their leg. Must be their race number instead of their age, right?

"So you're not actually 14, right?"
"Ya, I am," he says. As he smiles, I see his braces.
"Wow, crazy! You're doing an Ironman!"
"I did my first last year..."
"Must be some kind of world record!"
"It is."

I laughed out loud and headed to the finish line. At least I beat the 14-year old, right?!

As I headed into the finish, Posie, Blake and my parents cheered me on. I could tell in my head that Blake wanted to say something like "Hurry the fuck up... Why are you so fat and slow?!" But, he held back. Thanks man.

Anyway, I finished in 11:39. Very, very happy with that time! And I beat David's prediction of 12:40-12:46. Also, ran my first (on-the-books) marathon in about 4:10.

Well, that's it folks. Thanks for reading and thanks for everything you've done throughout this year. It's been the most phenomenal journey of my life. Honestly. At this point, I haven't really digested the whole thing so I don't have many words of wisdom... I guess all I can say is that training for this has given me a focus and clarity that I never thought was possible. Am ready for a break and ready to get a little fratty for a while... But I'll be back at in not so long.

- IronCam.

PS: The finer details...
Swim:
David's Orca wetsuit--thanks!

Bike:
Cervelo 2008 P2C, 808 front, 900 rear

Run:
Brooks Adrenaline GTS

Nutrition/Doping:
1 bagel
4 x 700mL water
6 x 700mL Gatorade Endurance
8 x 700mL Cam's Special Cocktail (1/3 can RedBull + Amino Vital)
20 x Gu (Vanilla, Espresso, TriBerry)
20 strands of Twizzlers
6 salt pills
8 x 500mg acetaminophen

So this is it...

Figured I'd throw one more thing up on the blog before I leave to race in Maryland.

First, a quick training update. I've been a bit AWOL over the past month-and-a-half. I've (sadly) been avoiding social activities and even team workouts. As I see it, I needed to be a bit of hermit, dig in deep and put down good solo efforts to feel really prepped for this race.

I spent the end of August going for long weekend rides (6+ hours) and decent runs. Weekdays were filled with shorter, faster work and some recovery efforts as well. I took a brief break for some fun over the Labour Day weekend and then was back at it.

The last three weeks have been all over the place.

Three weeks ago, I put down my last really long workout: a practice almost-Ironman. I swam 2 miles, biked 110 miles and then ran about 11 miles. I was very lucky to have some help from my great teammate Margaret. She stayed with my bike while I swam, facilitated a quick downtown Manhattan T1, then met me out on the bike to do a bottle swap. Finally, she dropped off all my leftover gear back in the City. I really couldn't have done this workout without her. As a whole, things went well (all-in-all, about 9.5 hours of work) and I felt quite sore but not too, too brutalized afterward. Nutrition was nearly perfect.

Two weeks back, I had the pleasure of doing my last long ride with my buddy Nick Frey. He spent this past year riding pro with Time Pro Cycling and really gave me a good workout. We were out for about 4.5 hours and had a good time. I could tell that I was holding him back and really appreciated him taking the time to ride with me. We had a good long chat about life, his opportunities for next year and the possibility of me doing some serious cycling next year.

This week has been very tough. Taper is a lot rougher than I had expected. I feel abnormally anxious--guess that makes sense going from 15-20 hours of training per week to about 6. Also, I've felt extraordinarily tired... Guess the body is grabbing whatever rest I'll give it. At this point, I'm really, really nervous for the weekend. But, in my heart, I know that I'm going to finish this. There will be rough patches--it wouldn't be a challenge without them--but they will pass and I will get through this. I'd like to finish between 11 and 14 hours. My teammate David has pegged me for a 12:46; he claims to be nearly perfect at finish time prediction. Guess we'll find out.


And now, with the training update behind me, a few final thoughts as I head into this weekend:

For me, the best word to describe this past year is "weird." Fifty weeks ago, just after having finished my first Half Ironman, a fellow racer told me: "Well, you know what they say... If you can do a half then you can do a full." And so this journey began.

There have been ups and downs this year. Injuries. Bad races. Personal bests. Brutal winter runs. Early morning swims. Wonderful, summer-time rides. I've had bonks where I nearly fell asleep on the tarmack. And there have been 6-hour efforts out on the bike where I've felt like I have been reborn. When I look back on this year, I've gone through a lot of change, but my committment to this Ironman has always been constant. I've come to know myself in a completely different way and I can only imagine that this feeling will be amplified on Saturday when I cross the finish line.

So here I stand a year later, 26 lb lighter and 1000 hours more trained, waiting to undertake the biggest challenge of my life. Thanks to everyone who has been with me throughout the year--all my teammates on SBR, my early morning bike crew, my friends, my coworkers, my parents. As a teammate told me, "it takes a village to raise Ironman."

Catch you all in 140.6.

New Jersey State Triathlon, Race Report #5

One week after the NYC Triathlon, I raced the third annual NJ State Triathlon. I've competed in this Olympic distance race since it began in 2006 and it holds a special place in my heart as it was the very first triathlon that I ever did. My first year, I finished in 2:59--my goal had been to break 3 hours. This year, more experienced and much fitter, I was hoping to go sub-2:20.

The week between NYC and NJ State was a light one for me. I had decided early in the year that I'd try to pull off good performances on these shorter races by taking training light in July and then just kick up my volume right after. Although this decision might hurt my base that I was developing for the Ironman, I think it was the right decision in retrospect: it gave my some speedwork and variety in my training and I really did end up getting the chance to nail these two triathlons.

Anyway, coming in off of some easy weeks and basically having had 0 training post-NYC, I was nervous about how I'd perform in New Jersey. Also, I've neglected my swim pretty badly this summer and with no wetsuit and no current, I was a little worried about the water.

My parents had come down to the US with some friends to watch the race... exciting since they'd never seen me compete during my three years as a triathlete. Of course, this also added a little pressure to kick it hard.

I spent two days before the race just taking it easy with the family and showing them around the area--the race takes place right near Princeton. On Saturday, I checked in at the race site and heard the standard pre-race talk. I also took my bike out for a little spin just to check on the race wheels and do a little last minute tuning. I hadn't ridden these roads since I graduated over a year before and, much fitter now, I decided to have a little fun and gun it around my old haunts.

Here's a picture of me headed out from the hotel to explore the area... I'm sporting my SBR team bib-shorts with my old Princeton jersey for kicks.

Saturday night, my parents, their friends and I all had a nice meal and then I was off to bed. I had already warned everyone that Sunday was going to be an early morning but I don't think it really hit them until I woke up at 4:45 am. My dad drove me over to the race site and I got all prepped in transition while he swung back by the hotel to pick everyone else up. I had a lot on my mind that morning--we had received news two days earlier that my grandfather had passed away suddenly--so I spent a little extra time in transition making sure everything was good-to-go and trying to clear my mind.

The week before had been a relatively easy race in my category; Ironman Lake Placid had a lot of the competition tied up. This race, however, had a really strong U25 heat and I definitely spent a good amount of time sizing up the competition.

We all headed over to the swim start (about 1km away from transition) right around 7am. I had to kill a fair amount of time while the sprint waves left... as usual I spent this chatting with people and giving a few tips/encouragement to first timers.

My wave headed out around 8:10. The start was fast but not too, too crowded. Only got hit a few times. Took me a long while to find a pace and, stupidly, I spent a lot of the swim trying to draft off of fellow racers. Unfortunately, I chose guys who really couldn't swim straight and this ended up costing me time and focus. Oh well. After the final turn, the swim just seemed to take forever and I couldn't really spot the exit. I eventually got out of the water, sprinting to the ramp out of the water. I checked my time on the way out: 32 minutes. Faster than last year, but in general, a pretty shitty time. I knew I'd have to make it up on the bike.

I gunned through transition and was out pretty fast. Having spent a good amount of time improving my transition technique, I think I was able to make up a few seconds here. The run to the bike start was long and that favoured me; I leave my shoes clipped in and slide into them while riding, so I'm able to run much faster with my bike during T1.

The bike went well. The first half has a lot of stupid turns to make up mileage and this becomes annoying. I spent a good amount of the race passing and then being passed by this one guy. At first, we were pissing each other off because everytime you are passed you're required to fall back about 10m to avoid drafting penalties. By the end, we were laughing at each other... we both had such close paces that we just couldn't manage not to do this back-and-forth.

Coming in off the bike, I had only been passed (without passing back...) once. A good sign. I gunned it through T2 and headed out for the run. It was a HOT day and I had trouble keeping cool. Thankfully, they had tonnes of icy towels and that made a huge difference. Managed 1 Gu during the run and a decent amount of fluid. By mile 4 (like the week before), I was hurting. I held strong through the final hills and had a decent kick at the end. I sprinted to the finish hurting, but ok. And, again, like the week before, I almost collapsed at the end. The race officials are so funny. They go to catch you but let you stumble as much as possible before grabbing you to avoid (if possible) getting covered in a mixture of lake water, sweat, Gu, "sport drink" and potentially other nice fluids. In the end, I was ok, lay down and checked my watch. 2:19 by my count. Personal best for the course and for Olympics in general. Nice! I'd like to think that my grandfather--an avid athlete--would have been proud.

My family gave me a little time to settle and then I grabbed my stuff and we headed off.

And now, a few pictures from the race...

Exiting the water after the swim.

Sprinting up from the swim exit into T1.

Running my bike out from T1 to the bike mount point.

Headed out on the bike and getting ready to put my feet in my shoes.

Defeating the purpose of a Giro aerohelemnt by looking down at something...

Running my bike into T2.


Headed out on the run.

About 1/2 mile into the run.

Grabbing some aid at about the 3-mile marker.

Headed out to the second half of the run.

Finished and ready to grab my stuff and go home.

My parents first time watching a triathlon!

Sue and Blaine--cheering section and official photographers.

Cleaned up and headed home.

Lots of thanks to Sue for providing most of the great pictures!

Nautica New York City Triathlon, Race Report #4

The Nautica NYC marked the beginning of my 2008 triathlon race season. The event, an Olympic distance triathlon (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run), was a pretty lightweight challenge given my Ironman training and was a good chance to just go all out and see how I could do. From the moment I got out of the water, I had planned to go as hard as possible and, in the end, this seemed like a pretty successful strategy.

My only beef these days with Olympic triathlons is that they're pretty short for the amount of preparation involved. Having not raced anything but road races since my Half Ironman last October, I had completely forgotten what goes into a race weekend. On Saturday, I spent an hour checking in at the official race hotel and then took it easy for the afternoon. Later that evening, I hauled over to the west end of Manhattan to get my bike checked in and prep my transition area.

By the time I arrived home from all of this, it was 9PM and I still hadn't started getting my nutrition and swim and run equipment ready. It took about two hours to get everything ready (since I hadn't done real race prep in so long) and by 11 I was finally ready for bed.
I managed to squeeze in 5 hours of sleep and then got up so I could eat a little and get down to the race site. Although my wave didn't leave until 7am, the race started quite early and the transition area was closing at 5:45.

Unfortunately, when I went downstairs, I found that a massive party had gone down and a bunch of drunk people had moved all my nicely prepared gear in every direction. After 30 minutes of scrambling to find my heartrate monitor, shoes, wetsuit, etc. I was finally out the door. I greeted the local corner drug dealer and hopped in a cab headed down to the west side.
The transition area buzzed even though it was only 5am. I took my time doing final preparations on my bike and running gear and laying things out nicely. At 5:30, I met up with other guys on my team; we all Body-Glided up, grabbed our wetsuits and made the 1 mile trek uptown to the swim start.

The race consisted of swimming about a mile down the Hudson River, hitting transition, biking north on an out-and-back 40 km bike course, transitioning again and then making the final haul--a 10km run--into and around Central Park.

The swim went quite well, although currents weren't nearly as favourable as expected. I tried to do some drafting but the group broke up a fair amount and this was tough. Adding to the difficulty was avoiding the many jellyfish--only got stung 4 times-- and navigating around the physically challenged wave. (As an aside, hats off to these champions. Everything from the legally blind to people with various amputations, these guys really made you realize what can be accomplished with hard work and dedication.)

I finished the swim in about 22 minutes, jump up on the make-shift pier and gunned it to transition. I wasn't really sure how far back I was but I suspected that my swim had been pretty weak (I've neglected this leg far too much this year). As I ran towards transition (which was more than 500m away), I passed a bunch of guys. This was all in keeping with my plan to go as hard as possible and not worry about blowing up.

Out on the bike, I blew past a bunch of people in my age category in the first 20 minutes. Then, I just started picking off people from the swim waves that had left 30 minutes before me. My legs were screaming, especially on the hills, but I settled into a decent pace and felt reasonably good out on the bike. The aero helmet and Zipp 404s really added to my confidence and, in the end, I think I took down about 400 people on the ride.

Getting back into transition, I was worried about my legs. I hadn't done much short course preparation this year and was pretty sure that a hard ride was going to kill me on the run. But, in the end, the legs were pretty good. I made it out of transition, worked my way up the first hill and then picked up my pace as I headed for the Park.

Things didn't start to really hurt until about mile 4 of the run and, at this point, I was so close to the end that I just sucked it up. There was a brief moment of in-the-mouth-vomitting but other than that, things went pretty well. Passed a good number of people on the run and gunned it at the end. Crossing the finish line, I had no feeling for how I'd done in my age category, but given that I nearly fell over a few steps after finishing, I knew that I had given it my best. I was also quite happy with my 2:25:29 as it was a personal record.

A day later, I checked online and found out that I had come 3rd for U25 men and had qualified for the age group national championships out in Dallas. Now, I'm just debating if I can race those post-Ironman. More to come on that front.

And now for a few pictures from the race...

On the way out on the bike, drinking from my aero bottle.

Downhill coming back around kilometre 21.

Drinking from the aero bottle.