Augusta Ironman 70.3

I finished! And I can tell you there were moments where I thought I wouldn't. As you all know I didn't do nearly the training I needed to do and the two weeks leading up to my race were empty of any type of training except maybe one long run. Taking all of this into account my goal was just to finish. I had a high hopes of breaking 5 hours this year and would have even liked to have beaten my time of 5:35:28 from last year, but I needed to be a realist and set an achievable goal so the idea of just trying to finish was a great one. This was still a feat to be proud of and something I could be excited about especially taking my training into account.

We arrived in Augusta Georgia around 1:00pm on Saturday and headed straight to registration. I love getting to drive through the downtown area and see all the triathletes walking around and all the bikes on their cars. There is an energy in the air that is just intoxicating and you can't help but get excited about what is about to happen. Registration was quicker than expected which was nice since we got into town later than we wanted to. The whole registration process was a great experience and it was almost impossible to get lost. After registration we went and dropped my bike off at transition which again was very smooth. I would have to say even though Ironman races are expensive, they are well worth the money. From the instant you show up to registration to the point you cross the finish line and well after that you receive 5 star treatment from all the staff and volunteers. It is incredibly well put together and so smooth that I would have to say everyone out there should do at least one ironman event just to experience it. With all of our triathlon obligations done we went to visits friends and a new family member that was born just the day before, what great timing!

My swim wave started at 7:48am so my goal was to get there around 5:48am so I would have more than enough time for transition set up and a warm up. As I was setting up my transition area I had a funny feeling come over me. A weird motion in the ocean if you will, a sense of "urgency" in my bowls. I shot straight up and knew something needed to be done. I shuffled to the porta-potties and as I dispensed that urgency I felt I also lost my contact... yes... in the porta-potty. "Great there is no way I'm even going to look for it in here much less put it back in my eye." Now that I'm half blind, squinting out of one eye trying to find my transition area I had left half set up I started to wonder if this was the start of a downhill roll for the rest of my day. I finished with my transition set up and I would have to say it looked great. All of my gear was perfectly laid out and I'm willing to bet a passerby would have taken a double take at the perfection that was my transition area. Alright maybe not, but still I was happy with it.

Now on to the swim start! I grabbed my empty bag, wetsuit, and goggles and headed out to the buses to catch a ride to the swim start. The line was so long and it was getting so close to my start time that I decided to just walk it at a brisk pace and get a light warm-up in, a two-for if you will. After a brisk 15 minute walk and throwing on my wetsuit it was about time to start this thing. There was a dock that went out into the water which was our starting point and as we walked across it swayed from side to side adding a level of difficulty that I didn't expect. I made it across safely, despite having to brace myself several times, and jumped into the water. It was way colder than I expected which was nice later on in the swim. Now we all know I am not a swimmer. I have been described as a "rock," a "retarded dolphin," and my favorite "safe only in the kiddie pool." All this taken into account I love this swim! It's downstream and the current is fairly fast so you can pretty much just float down the river. Now most people use the current to put out blazing fast times for a 1.2 mile swim, I on the other hand use the current to survive the swim. What can I say we all have our strengths and swimming is not one of mine. Once I was finished floating down the river I ranup to transition and plopped down in front of the "wetsuit strippers." Ha no no not that kind of stripper, but people who help you get your wetsuit off ASAP. Here's where I ran into a problem. I forgot to put on body glide and needless to say the strippers didn't pull as hard as they should have (that's what she said?). After several pulls they got my wetsuit off me and off to my bike I ran.

With the swim behind me and the run still ahead of me I wanted to take the bike fairly easy. I kept my overall pace above 19mph, but I made sure to spin up every hill and take them nice and easy. For the most part the bike course is fairly flat with maybe just a couple longer or steeper hills. Overall I felt great coming off the bike and was really starting to feel like I could finish this thing closer to my time from last year than I had expected, man was I wrong.

This is just out of transition

T2 went off without a hitch and I was off and running. The plan was to take the run in 4 stages. Each about 3 miles long and work on getting negative splits. Last year I went out way to fast and didn't have enough nutrition so I didn't want to repeat that mistake. I started with a nice 10 minute pace and wanted to use the first 3 miles to find my legs. I was feeling tired, but I knew this one wasn't going to be easy. This feeling was going to come eventually and I was surprised it took as long as it did to show up. As part of my motivation I want to count out the miles, one down, two down, and so on. The only problem with that was I also started thinking "12 more to go, 11 more to go, aww man this hurts!" As I reached the 3 mile mark I was still feeling like I hadn't found my legs yet so I decided to keep the 10 minute pace until I got to mile 6. Mile 6 came and I died. From mile 6 all the way to the finish it became a unbearably painful. My legs were screaming at me and my whole body was starting to ache. I started setting goals like; "reach mile marker 7 and you can walk for a bit," which then became; "run for 3 blocks and then you can walk one block," and ultimately became " just run to that tree over there!" It was rough and I can tell you if my parents, wife and mother-in-law weren't there cheering me on I would have disappeared around a corner and taken a nap. At the last aid station I took a shot of water, then powerbar perform, coke, and I just started to run. It wasn't fast but I was determined to at least run across the finish line. I rounded the corner entered the shoot and decided that since my time didn't matter I was going to get a great finish line photo. As I come up to the photographer 2 guys go sprinting by me and deflated any hope I had of taking a cool finishing pic. I could just see the pic now, three guys crossing the finish line in a sprint for glory and me in the background with my arms held out oblivious to what was going on around me.

There I am coming around the corner in the blue jersey

There are those two guys coming up behind me...

and there they go stealing my thunder.

Needless to say it was a difficult race and I really suffered, but I would do it again in a heart beat. It was a great experience and I learned that even though I can do a 70.3 without much trainer I never want to do one without training for it again! I came in just over 6 hours and comparing that time to last year I only really lost time on the run. I feel great about that and I know that next year I will rock it!

Anticipation

Here it is, my big race, the thing I've been waiting for all year and I feel completely unprepared! I chose to say "waiting" instead of "training" because well lets be honest I've done less training than I had hoped to, and now that I sit on the eve of my big race I would be lying if I didn't say I had some regret for missing so many workouts so close to my race day. Now that I sit here thinking back on my season and how it has strayed far from my plan I can't help but to wonder what, if anything went wrong.

This was a year full of high expectation. I purchased a new bike, hired a new coach, and really had the desire to change my priorities around. As I looked back on my season I have mixed feelings about it. My times were faster than last year, but always fell short of what I wanted to meet. I probably missed just as many workouts as I made and I don't feel like I've met any of my season goals. Are these really failures? Does this mean that I'm sub-par? Or does this mean my goals were to high and I expected to much out of myself? Honestly I think the answer is no. I heard a quote the other day and I think it very appropriate.

"The greatest danger for most of us in not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it's too low and we hit it." - Michelangelo

As I thought about it I realized that even though I sent high goals just because I missed them doesn't mean I didn't accomplish anything. I did beat my times from last year and I also found out the other day that I place 3rd in my age group for the series. Tri The Parks is a local triathlon series that goes from state park to state park in Georgia. For each race you get a certain number of points and at the end of the series they determine the placings for the whole series. So even though I didn't win a race or meet any of my personal goals I did make a great accomplishment that I can be proud of. This was something great that I wasn't even expecting and I should be proud of my achievements even if they weren't expected.

There has been a lot that has gone on in my life and my training has had to take a back seat. This is something I learned from a friend as I watched her sacrifice what some would say was to much for her workouts. I watched her struggle in school and I have learned that even though I love to do triathlons I can't lose sight that it's a hobby and should never be an obsession. Even though sometimes I use this as an excuse to get out of training when I really do have the time, I can say that this is an ideal I need to maintain. I do want to become more focused with my training, but never at a sacrifice to my livelihood or my family.

I had a conversation with my coach earlier today and it was really reassuring. Instead of saying you can do it, or don't worry about it he actually had a plan. This to me was way more reassuring than denying my weaknesses and actual gave me more confidence in my abilities. This doesn't mean I'm not nervous and have random feeling of "woe is me", but it does mean that I have something to reassure myself. A proverbial rock to keep me anchored in the sea of regret and doubt. So even though this year of training was not what I expected it was still a great journey and I can only hope to learn from it and use it to improve myself next year. Speaking of next year my best friend has been trying to get me into doing an ultra-marathon and I think he has finally worn down. So as my triathlon season ends my running season begins with a new goal on the horizon. I don't know where this journey will take me but it most certainly will be a fun one.