Ironman Florida – a clydesdale’s tale

Name of Race: Ironman Flroida
Website for the Race: http://www.ironmanflorida.com
Date of Race: Saturday, November 3, 2007
Location of Race: Panama City Beach, Florida
Type of Race: Triathlon
Distance or duration of Race: Swim – 3.84K; Bike – 180K, Run – 42.2K

Description of Race
What more is there to say about the race…it’s Ironman.  The mecca of long distance racing (well, at least my mecca).  NA Sports knows how to put on a show and that they did.  IM Florida is the last North American IM-branded race of the year.  It’s typically seen as the best place for a first timer due to its relative “ease” compared to other venues.  But that is really relative in my opinion.  Any Ironman has its challenges and just because Florida is flat, don’t think it’s easy.  The race itself is a two loop swim in the Gulf – if you’re not used to salt water and jellyfish, then I suggest you get a few swims in before the race.  The bike is a single loop on a fast course.  I really enjoyed it, others hate it.  The run is a two-loop flat as a pancake run along residential streets, city streets and through St Andrews National Park. 

Pre-race
My in-laws live in Fort Lauderdale, so we decided to fly there first and then drive up to Panama City for the race.  We had a full crew going to PCB (my wife, 2 kids, my parents, m in-laws) so it was going to be a fun time.  Arrived in South Florida on Oct 27, spent a few days relaxing and then made the 10 hour drive on Oct 31.  Once we got there, it was a little trick or treating for my kids and then time to hit the sheets.  The next 2 days were spent registering, biking, swimming, eating, relaxing and celebrating my daughter’s 3rd birthday.  It was great having so many friends and family at the race.  Made it more personal and fun! 

The night before the race, we had a big get together at our condo with 2 friends that were racing and their families and it made the whole night before very relaxing. 

Early in the week, we were told to expect wind and colder weather…this never materialized.  The weather was awesome.  The water was flat and you hit a nice warm current as you were about 50-100m from the beach.  The bike was sunny, warm and a bit windy on the way back in, but again, perfect conditions.  The run was warm to begin with but pleasant…weather wise.

I was up at 4:30am on race day…downed my unconventional breakfast of 2 large croissants, 2 containers of yoghurt and a large glass of OJ and headed down to transition.  Settled in, got body marked, saw Syd, and headed back to my condo to pick up my wife and father-in-law to walk back down.  Also had the pre-race bathroom break in the comfort of my condo (instead of the porta-potties that already stunk pretty bad at 5:30am).  Walked back to transition with my wife, gave her a kiss goodbye and headed into transition.  I thought I had loads of time…but when I finally wandered back into transition to load some water bottles on my bike it was 6:45am (15 minutes after it had closed) and I was the only guy there…well, maybe one or two other people but not many that’s for sure.  Got my wetsuit on in the quiet of the transition and then headed down to the water. 

Swim
I try to avoid the mess of the IM swim so I seeded myself to the outside and near the front.  Saw my friend Ron and gave him a quick good luck and within minutes the gun went off and we were on our way.  My goal was to swim comfortably, easy and just cruise.  I had swum a 1:04 at IMLP and figured even if I went 10 minutes slower, it wouldn’t matter.  Swim training was greatly reduced this year so I wasn’t expecting much. 

The first lap was a battle – physically – as I was punched, kicked, swum over and used as a lane line.  The swimmers were terrible – someone needs to teach people how to spot!  One guy was so bad that he was using people as his guide (swim left, bounce off that person, swim right, bounce off that person, swim left, etc) and then even swam right into one of the buoys…a huge, orange coloured, 4 foot wide, 4 foot high buoy.  How can you miss that?  I came through lap 1 just under 32 minutes, took my time on the beach (wash out my mouth with some water, took a sip, took my swim cap off and put it back on) and wandered back in slowly for lap #2.  Settled back in to the same pace and came out of the water in 1:08.  Not bad…5 total swims since July and I only dropped 4 minutes off my IMLP time.  Swim time – 1:08:48 (1:47/100m), 87/233 AG and 708/2280 OA

T1
Ran up the beach, washed off in the showers, saw my mom (she seems to be the only person I see during T1), got my stuff and headed to the change tent.  I wanted to move a bit quicker through transition this year but I had given myself 15 minutes total time for T1 and T2 so I had time.  Changed, chatted, slapped on some sunscreen and headed out for the bike.  Pretty uneventful.  T1 time – 6:35

Bike
My goal on the bike was to ride comfortably but to try and avergae 30kph.  I figured with a flat course, it shouldn’t be too tough.  Seeing as I don’t watch my computer for speed and focus more on cadence, I knew what I wanted my cadence to be while in certain gears, so that was my focus.  As I pedaled, the spinning was effortless and I was flying.  I purposely held back a bit in spots but I was going really well.  Each time I’d spin and it felt hard, I’d back off on the gears and spin easy.  I just kept doing this for 180K.  I was waiting for friends to catch me who I knew had better bike skills than me…but it wasn’t until about mile 100 that my training partner caught me and my other friend didn’t catch me until I was running out of the change tent and he was running in.  I knew I was biking well.

One thing I have to mention about Florida…the drafting and blocking is brutal.  Absolutely terrible.  Now its tough to not get caught in a pack and then try and distance yourself, but the amount of blatant, wheel sucking, drafting that was occuring was apalling.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  I watched one woman in the 45-49 category stick to people’s wheels the entire bike course.  Not one time did I see her on her own (and we passed each other back and forth a few times).  I made a note of her race number just to see how she did in the end…well, she won her AG and got a spot to Kona.  Pretty sad in my opinion but if she feels good about herself, so be it.  I purposely tried to avoid any drafting so that I could feel good about my bike time.  I paid for it near the end as I was struggling, but at least I had a good conscience knwoing I rode on my own. 

In the end, the bike went well, my body hurt a little, but not too much, and I hit my goal time…actually, I beat my goal time and went sub 6 hours on the bike.  Not bad for a guy that went 7:07 a year earlier in Lake Placid.  I guess a focussed effort on improving the bike worked!

Bike time – 5:48:20 (31.0 km/h), 104/233 AG and 955/2280 OA.

T2
I almost wiped pretty bad in T2 trying to get my bag (damn bike shoes!).  I actually had to physically run into the bags to get mine as the kids doing the bags didn’t hear my number (although it was yelled a few times by myself and others).  Hit the tent, saw some guys really struggling, changed my shorts and socks and headed out.  T2 time – 6:36

Run
I kind of knew what to expect here.  Lots of run/walking…lots of struggling, but mentally I thought I was ready.  I was so wrong.  At mile 4, my running from aid station to aid station had fallen apart. I was mentally unable to get myself going again.  My legs didn’t hurt too bad, my feet were OK, aerobically I felt good.  But mentally, I was telling myself that I was done.  So I walked…and I walked a lot.  When I hit the park, I walked with Rick Choy for a bit and we chatted.  I tried to run again, but that only lasted a short while.  At two points on the second loop, I thought I had rocks in my shoes so I took one off to clear it out…but nothing.  And then I was so worried about what my feet would look like that I was scared to take my shoes off at the end of the race (for what its worth, they looked fine).  I played this mental game until mile 18, when finally I convinced myself that I needed a plan and that I needed to get myself moving again and at a more deliberate pace.  It started as a 10&1…and walk the aid stations.  But that degraded to a 5&1…and walk the aid stations.  And finally by the end, I was doing 3&1…and walking the aid stations.  It was late, it was dark and I had a glow stick around my neck (I didn’t want one of those).  I was doing the math to try and figure out how slow I was going.  Let’s just say it was very slow… 

Just before mile 25, during a walk break, a guy in a lawn chair asked me if I could read the sign up the road…”Sure, it says Mile 25″ I replied…”So, what are going to do then?”….I thought about it for a bit and just replied “I’m going to run it in…” and his reply “Well get moving buddy cause I’m watching you.”  And that’s all I needed.  For some reason, this guy, sitting in a lawn chair on the side of the road, was enough encouragement I needed to get moving again…and I ran, and I ran comfortably (but not fast) until I could see the finish line.  And then I just took it all in.  By now, my goal time of 12:30 was gone…but there was still a chance to go sub 13 hours.  I saw the guy ahead of me sprint like a demon out of hell and cross the line to a huge ovation in 12:59:59…I just shrugged my shoulders, took in the crowd feeling bad for me and cruised through in 13:00:12.  Run time – 5:49:53 (8:17/km), 185/233 AG and 1780/2280 OA. Terrible run, not happy at all.

Overall
What can I say…I am a 2 time Ironman finisher.  I took almost an hour of my PB.  I weighed in at 210 lbs and still put forth a decent time.  But I was bummed.  My run time was slower than my bike time…I missed my goal time by 30 minutes…and I felt that I let myself down.  All I could do was think about what went wrong.  Did I go too hard on the bike? To this day, I don’t think I did.  Could I have been a better runner, better trained, better prepared, in better run shape? I believe that’s it, and that’s all it is.  I need to run better.  I need to go back to basics.  I need to reinvent myself as a runner and then couple that with my swim and bike fitness.  And so that’s what I will be doing in the next 2 years building back to another assault on Ironman.

Overall time – 13:00:12, 157/233 AG and 1413/2280 OA.

In the end, I had a great race, amazing support from my family, a wonderful experience (again!) and great words of encouragement before and after the race.  In retrospect, there are things I could have done better, but I had a great season and a great finish to it.  Just more to build on for next year as I’m still relatively new to the sport (only my 2nd full year of racing).

Until next year, when the “Clydesdale Tales” will hopefully be retired and replaced by those of a budding “Running Man”.  But not until after the Santa Speedo Run…now that won;t be a pretty picture!