Race Day Cont'd....The Run and Post-Race

I'm very late on posting the entry about the last part of the race. But here goes!

I arrived into the transition area after a little over 6 hours in the saddle. It was wonderful to get off the bike and onto the run. I quickly grabbed my transition bag which was hanging nicely on the racks and then headed into the changing tent. The changing tent had transformed into a wet nightmare. I sat down and began to change out my socks and pull on my shoes, being careful not to get my feet wet since that could be painful. I stashed my extra pair of socks and some fuel in the back of my jersey, got another application of sunscreen and then headed out. I felt pretty strong but I noticed that my heart rate was higher than it should have been. I was hovering in the 150's and that is higher than what I had trained with. My coach's warnings about staying in my zone until the second half of the run were running through my mind. It was hard not to want to run strong because people were lining the streets as I headed out of transition and onto Kuakini Highway. It was so cool to see my mom and dad who were screaming to me and waving their signs! There were so many people yelling go Army and that was very uplifting and motivating. The run route cuts back from Kuakini onto Ali'i Drive and heads out to the condo where we were staying. It's roughly 4.5 miles out to the turn around point. Even though my stomach was a little upset and my heart rate was high, I pressed on. I even made sure that I was consuming something, since I knew that would eventually come to haunt me if I was negligent on my nutrition this early in the run. This portion of the run is fairly flat and shaded which was nice. It ended up being roughly 10 miles of nice crowds and support. Then you come back to Palini and head uphill (brutal) to the Queen K. I am not kidding when I say that MANY people were walking up this hill, which didn't seem so bad on the bike. There was chalk lining the streets with phrases to push runners along. I managed to run up the hill and then stopped to change my socks since I had splashed so much water on myself with the sponges and water cups that my feet were wet. I didn't need to add another variable to slow me down. I then headed up the Queen K to the Energy Lab which is where the final turn around point is. I specifically remember hitting the ten mile mark (they post the mile markers so runners know where they are at) around 1 hour and 28 minutes and I knew that I was at a sub-9min mile pace. It was a lot farther than I remembered and I did my best to keep my head up and focus on "catching" the runners ahead of me. I'm pretty sure that I slowed down significantly at this point. As I entered the Energy Lab road I knew that this was where I needed to bear down and do my best. I ran through the Ford station where they displayed digital messages for the runners from loved ones. They were playing some great music which was good. I changed my socks again and then headed back. Each time I hit a turn around I saw how much time the competition (AF and CG) had gained on me and I also saw how close the Navy was behind me. At this point the sun was beginning to set and the temperature was dropping. This was great because it also allowed my heart rate to drop. However, I think the damage had already been done and I had burned all my matches too quickly. Sadly, with 3 miles to go to the finish, Navy final edged me out. By this point, I was using a strategy of stopping at the aid stations to walk and receive Coke, as this was pretty much the only thing I could tolerate in my system. I tried to alternate with water, but I didn't really care for that as much. I also remember taking a pretzel, since I felt the urge to switch from sweet to salt. It was tough to chew it though. I came down Palani and made the turn onto Ali'i and how sweet the finish line looked! My poor parents had come down and sat at the finish line to make sure they had good photos of me for nearly an hour! I give them a lot of credit for knowing where to be at the right times! So I was a little confused by the actual "finish line" because there were something like 3 archways and the finish pad was indistinguishable from the carpets that were laid out. At any rate, the finish line footage captures me looking rather stone-faced. :^/ Oh well! I got my celebratory lei presented to me and the honor of being called an Ironman for a second time! Then a volunteer escorted me to the finish area. I think I asked for a medical person to assist me and so I was paired with an ART/medic guy. He was very nice and patient with me, as I stopped repeatedly to sit down due to an overwhelming sense of nausea. I politely asked for an IV, but they refused me since I wasn't vomiting or passed out. Ultimately, I was reunited with my parents (each athlete is given 2 passes to give to family members so they have access to the finish area) and they resumed care of me. I followed the medic's recommendations to avoid sitting---as this would cause blood to pool in my legs, moving it away from my vital organs, and to just lay with my feet elevated. He also advised that I periodically walk around. I followed his advice and did my best to regain my hydration levels by sipping powerade and water. I also had some chicken soup broth which was good. We all sat there on the beach for a while before my dad offered to get my belongings out of transition. Using his special pass to retrieve my bike and gear bags, he was able to unrack my bike and bring it over to the Tribike transport station for shipment back to SA. There was some confusion about my run transition bag (he didn't realize they had separate racks for the bags), but we worked it out. I also retrieved my finisher's bag that included my medal, t-shirt and hat. The ice cream lady came around too. At that point, I was feeling a lot better and was able to eat 2 vanilla's. I also had some pizza. I even got up to get my photo in front of the Ironman board. Eventually we all headed back to the condo for some much needed rest.

Race Day!!

Race day came and went quickly! I woke up at 3am as planned and we departed the condo by 3:45am. I guess I was a little bit ambitious in my arrival time because nobody was there yet except the volunteers. In fact, I was the first person in line for body marking! The only good thing about our early arrival was the parking. :)

They started body marking promptly on time at 4:45am. After body marking, I went to transition and discovered that I forgot my fluids. What a moment of panic and frustration that was. Fortunately, my dad and mom were there to help. My dad drove back to the condo in the crazy traffic while my mom sat in our parking spot. :) At 5:40 they returned with my frozen fluids! What an amateur move that was though and boy did it cause me some GI issues. And I will leave it at that. Apparently something similar happened to the male Army rep, Robert Killian, so it wasn't only me. We sat around a little bit while the crowd filled in and I got prepped for the race. The pros were started at 6:30am. Once the pros were off, the amateurs walked down the ramp to get in the water. It was amazing to see them start. The water had a float with a Ford vehicle on it in the middle of the bay! :) Spectators were lined up along the pier and the atmosphere was incredible! I got in the water and started shivering immediately, more due to nervousness than actually feeling cold though. At about 6:47am I began swimming out to the swim start to get positioned. I tried to stay to the left (direction of swim was clockwise around the buoys) so that I didn't get mowed over and slightly towards the front. The swim start was mass chaos with lots of arms and legs swinging and kicking. I got kicked in the face once too----something that surprisingly has never happened to me. The swim was nice and the water was fairly calm. I got into a good rhythm but was interrupted periodically by some wildly thrashing swimmer that nearly dunked me. I had another oh crap moment when I thought my chip (that is secured by a neoprene strap on the ankle) had fallen off and then later, I thought it got loose. I also had to keep pulling my swimcap down as it was constantly rolling back to the middle of my head. I figured that I had all my bad luck out when I forgot my fluids, but apparently not. In spite of all this, I had the swim of my life and I was certain that it was going to be a terrible time. I swam the 2.4 mi swim in 1 hour and 7 minutes. After finishing the swim they route you to your bike gear bag and then into the changing tent. I took my time and came out of the tent in roughly 5 minutes. I was wearing my bike shoes and I totally slipped on the turf. But since this is the World Championships and "big boy" rules apply, nobody offered a hand to help me up. I got up and went to retrieve my bike, being careful not to slip. Then I was off on the bike leg. I tried not to get caught up in the hype and keep my heart rate down but it was hovering in the 150's which is not smart for a race like this. There were more people than I expected with flats on the bike route. I finally lucked out in that regard. The bike route scenery was incredible! You travel north on the Queen K highway towards Hawi. There were gently rolling hills until you reach approximagely mile 55. Then some killer gusting winds hit us and I was out of my aero bars trying to stay stable on my bike. This lasted through mile 75 or so. It was very discouraging. When I reached Hawi the young kids that were handing out special foods bags missed me. I went to grab my bag but he was too far away. :( I knew it was my bag because I had attached pink string to the bag for easy identification. This was a trick that I observed at Ironman Florida. So I moved on and just let it go. The bike hand up stations were great. I took a lot longer than I expected on the bike. :(

Alright, I am writing this post-race at 10pm and I am wiped out. I will follow up and write more tomorrow!

24 hours before race day

Friday was nerve-wracking. I was in constant anticipation of the race. The following two things were constantly crossing my mind:
1.) There are x number of hours until the race.
2.) "At this time tomorrow, I will be (insert disipline here)..."

I woke up way too early---4:50am and had breakfast. At 6:35am I departed on my pre-race brick (this is a workout typically consisting of a bike and run. Brick implies that two workouts are conducted back to back to simulate race conditions.) Then we went to Walmart so that I could pick up some additional sunscreen. Actually this trip began as a trip to Ihop, but I didn't realize that Ihop is on the other side of the island, so instead I opted for McDonald's pancakes at Walmart. The pancakes were great. :) Always a favorite of mine. I also picked up some additional essentials for race day----some Red Bull (just in case of an emergency on the run), sunscreen, postcards and baby powder. I also got some M&M's (coconut and pretzel) for post-race. Then we went to BikeWorks because I wanted to buy additional race tubes. Yet again, I ended up buying more than intended. :) A chuck (a tool used in cycling to fill your tire with air using a CO2 cartridge), tubes and lace locks. We headed back home and then my dad went golfing for the afternoon while I prepped my gear bags and bike. I spent about 3 hours figuring out what I wanted to put in my bags. There are 5 bags. The first is the pre-swim bag. This bag is one that you put warm clothes in that you arrive at the race in. Those bags are available after the race is over. The second bags are for food. One is for the halfway mark on the bike and the other is for the halfway mark on the run. These bags are called special foods bags. They are specially colored and they are collected race morning. I had other things besides food in the bags. For example in my run special food bag I put a pair of socks in a ziploc bag and some chapstick. There are another 2 bags that are for race gear. The first bag is the bike gear bag. This is the bag you grab after you are done with the swim and getting ready to head out on the bike. The other bag is the run bag and you use this to dress for the run. These are also colored and labeled. I also prepped my bike. When we went to drop it off at 2:00pm I ended up locking the keys in the rental. Go figure. So we had to wait an hour for the AAA rep to arrive. Fortunately it was quick because the back window was cracked. Bike check in was pretty quick and the volunteers were great. They escorted me to my bike rack slot and gave me a thorough tour of the transition area. I also got pictures. It was very impressive how they fit all the bikes in such a small compact area. After dropping off my bike and my gear bags we returned to the condo. After picking up my dad from golfing we had dinner and watched Titanic. :) I went to bed at 8pm because I was planning to wake up at 3am.

"The Way of the Warrior"

I have been a bit delinquent on here. I never posted an update on the welcome dinner. The dinner was great. The food was okay, buffet style, and they had a luau followed by the official presentation. The presenters, who were staff of WTC (World Triathlon Corp) including the CEO, were pretty entertaining. They even invited the winner of the very first Ironman in 1978 (MAJ Collins) back to participate in this year's Ironman. The photos they had on their slideshow were priceless. His point was that if he could do it, then we could. The picture he had was labeled "Irongeek" and featured him with his Schwinn bike and before the marathon. He was actually wearing non-athletic shorts with a belt. I was hysterical with laughter when he said that. Can you imagine the chafing? And probably the sunburn too!? The dinner ended and was followed by the athlete briefing. The athlete briefing was pretty standard and lasted about 45 minutes. I was relieved that nobody was asking stupid questions as is per usual at most of their briefings. :) Everything ended at about 9pm and we came back to the condo and went to sleep.

The subject of the blog is actually the theme for this year's Kona Ironman. How ironic right? I thought it was pretty cool given that Army breeds warriors.

Armed Forces Photos

Another day is here. Today is Thursday, October 7th. Two days until the big race! I woke up early again and we headed out to Walmart to pick up some coffee and mac nut products. We also drove up Kuakini Drive, which is part of the bike course. That is quite a climb! Total ascent is about 1,500 feet! (I could be wrong, but that's what I gathered from the signs.) Then we headed back to the condo and dropped off the meltables and then went back downtown so that I could link up with the Air Force photographers for interviews and some photos. We were late. And of course I was not happy. It was partially because of the traffic surrounding the Underwear Run this morning. I am sad that I didn't get pictures, because I'm sure it was entertaining. After the interview and some photos I hopped in the water for a swim. I swam for 30 minutes out past the last buoy and then came back in. No stops at the coffee boat for me this time. I came out of the water and went down to the opposite end of the pier for the service photos and some more stuff. It was pretty funny to watch us rehearse and recite one line for their film. At this point it was close to 10am PST and we walked down to the Ironman village to enter messages at the Ford message center. I also checked out the Endless Pool display. My dad was getting anxious so I didn't bother waiting to get some video footage of my stroke. :( We did assemble some signs for the run though. Then we headed back to the condo for lunch. And now we are here waiting for my dad to return from the driving range. More news later....

Tattoos and other things Iron...

Last night's dinner was great. We had an amazing view of the sunset and the swim start. The food was good too and we had a nice breeze from the ocean. Army were the only nerds that wore their polos and visors. :^/ Go figure! Dinner was good too.

Before dinner, I even got out on the bike course in our car. We drove through the lava fields which was quite an interesting experience. There were lots of white rocks formed into words. I must have overlooked that in my research about the event. There was even a white rock formation of the UT (University of Texas) Longhorns symbol. I thought that was pretty clever. I almost got the urge to stop and create one myself! Of course, I didn't have any white rocks with me....

Also, a few additional details about the before dinner time. We had hopes of hitting up the Ironman village to get some messages put into the archway for the run. It was really cool to pass through the Ford Ironman station at Ironman Florida last year and see the inspirational messages posted by my AWESOME coach Stacey McMickens. However, we arrived at 4:15pm PST and the village closed at 4pm PST, so we just missed that. Instead we opted to walk around the shops downtown. I ran across a really interesting gift idea and I'll try to explain it here. Outside this shop was a sign that said, "Show me your nuts and send someone a coconut." Please notice (my fellow grammar nerds) that the possessive form of "your" is used here implying insanity versus the contraction "you're" implying something inappropriate. ;) Well, I had this crazy idea to send one to Justin who is at Ranger school. How funny would that be? I'll post a picture of this coconut later. And they do in fact have special postage stamps for the coconuts. All in all, the price for one of these is $17 including shipping!

Onto other topics though...namely the subject of this blog, "tattoos." For all you athletes aspiring to come to Kona here's some intel on these "tattoos." And I am not talking about the famous "m dot" trademark tattoo either. I'm talking about tattoos for different products. When you visit a booth or see a vendor on the street you politely ask for a temporary tattoo. Later in the day, you visit their booth wearing the tattoo and they will give you free gear! I wasn't too keen on doing this because it involves some foottraffic and unnecessary fatigue. But today, I lucked out and got 2 Nathan products. One was a 2 flask fuel belt, and then another handheld flask. Score! Free gear is always cool. And free gear at Kona is even better! For all you feminine types my fuel belt is PINK too! :)

Armed Forces at the Kona Canoe Club

Coffee in Kona

Around 10am PST we left to hit up a coffee farm/plantation. Very interesting place. They truly live with and love their crop. We took a tour of the Greenwell farm which is south of Kailua-Kona and inland. The weather was completely different when we ascended nearly 2,000ft to reach the farm. Cloudy, overcast and a mist. We took a short tour of the farm and bought some beans then drove down to the Keauhou bay which was very scenic.

After snapping some pictures we headed back to the condo for lunch. My dad made some pretty impressive pasta sauce and so we enjoyed that before going to the pool for a bit. We have the Armd Forces intro dinner tonight at 5:30pm PST at the Kona Canoe Club. We walked by the restaurant in downtown Kailua yesterday and they have an awesome view of the race start. That's all for now. Hopefully I'm not boring you (my reader) with these mundane details about the trip. It can only get more exciting from here! :)

Day 3 in Kona & a wrap-up from Tuesday

Yesterday went by in a blur. After lunch my dad and I headed to pick up my bike from Tri Bike transport. This company is great! This is the second time that I've used them and I have been really pleased with their service. Although pricey, they take all the hassle out of getting your bike to the race venue. All I had to do was remove my pedals and take my bike to the bike shop in San Antonio, Trisition Area. The only drawback is that I had to take my bike in to get shipped out on September 25. So I went without a bike for a week. Fortunately, I was able to ride my road bike during that time. After I picked up my bike and their complimentary water bottle and hat, we were on our way back to the condo. You see, I had forgotten to bring my bike shoes and my rear wheel. This was an amateur move on my part, but I didn't replace my cleats on my bike shoes before I departed. I decided to do it here and I ended up stripping the screws. As for my rear bike wheel, I needed to have the cassette (think, gear shifter thingy) from my training wheels to my race wheels. This is really a simple procedure but I was lacking the tools to do so. So we returned to the condo picked up the aforementioned items and headed towards the airport to a bike shop called Bike Works. They were very helpful and had me on my way in a matter of 15 minutes. We returned to the condo and then I went out for a run. When I came back we walked out to the coast to view the sunset and the volcanic cliff. It was beautiful. (Pictures to follow.) During all this time, we managed to miss the parade of athletes down in the IM village. :( By this point it was around 6pm and we decided to head out for some dinner. I will keep this short, but dinner at the Sheraton's Kai restaurant was disappointing and overpriced. I will leave it at that. When we returned to the condo it was 8:30pm and I was ready for bed!

Fast forward to today, Wednesday Oct 6th!! I woke up early, 5am PST and headed downstairs. Our coffee pot broke, but my dad was clever enough to improvise. I suppose that would have been a good excuse to go to a local place. ;) Maybe tomorrow....after some breakfast a discussion surrounding---among many things---contentious health care reform, electronic classroom mediums and more I headed out for my 75 min bike ride at 7:30am PST along Ali'i (pronounced ALI-EE, kind of like Hawai'i) Hwy. Things got a little interesting when some tour buses drove inches away from me, but I survived. I rode the first half of the run course and then hit up the first part of the bike course, traveling on the Queen Q Hwy up to the Energy Lab. (This is also the second part of the run course.) The road surface was smooth and clean! The shoulder was wide and even the bike path showed an image of a biker with a helmet!! On my return, I hit up the Muscle Milk, Cytomax and Powerbar stations for some electrolyte beverages. I also sported my new ice arm coolers. What a great invention! Now I am back and showered and waiting to go to the beach.

Tuesday, Oct 5th - Taking it all in....

As I write this, sandwich in one hand and water in the other, I have had a full and satisfying morning. It started early (6am PST) and I had a good breakfast followed by a drive out to Kailua-Kona where the race begins. My plan was to get in the water for a swim followed by some pictures and then race registration. The streets were filled with athletes as we drove north to Kailua-Kona along Ali'i Hwy. In fact, we drove past THE Chrissie Wellington who was out running. Sadly, I did not get a picture. Then we parked and walked down to the pier. There were IM signs, banners and other parafanelia (sp?) everywhere. It was absolutely amazing. There were also lots of different vendors (Gu, Powerade, etc) with tents set up along the way. One word, "AWESOME." Even my dad mentioned that he could feel the hype. There were close to 100 athletes at the pier when I arrived. I checked my bag into the Gatorade bag check and then proceeded to get into the water. I had on my new TYR Torque speedsuit, which feels so FAST. Athlete attire varied from swimsuit to tri suit to speedsuit. At any given time you could hear a variety of dialects being spoken. I recognized some German, but there was more. I entered the water and began stroking and getting my breath into a rythm while trying to look around for spotting cues like the church, pier, Sheraton, etc. The buoys were useful too. ;) I had read on another blog about the boat that serves espresso and I thought that I spotted it. So I took a chance and swam out to this little sailboat. The blogger was right!! They were serving coffee and dispensing the milk and sugar from fuelbelt flasks. There was even a dog out there. (They gave the dog watered down gatorade.) The company sponsoring the coffee stop was apparently Aqua Sphere. They were also offering free goggles to anyone that would swim down and grab a handful of sand. It was 25 feet and I was not risking my ear drums for that one, so I downed my coffee and swam back to shore. I came out and ended up sitting with my parents at a restaurant before going to registration. While going in line for registration I ran into Robert Killian and we discussed the race (he did Kona last year) before we were weighed in and got our swag bags. Apparently I was in line for close to an hour. After that my family and I headed to the IM store where I bought Carlisle (our miniature Schnauzer) a collar that said "swim, bark, run." So cute! I also bought some other ridiculous stuff. :) Not surprisingly, much of the gear and other merchandise was gone already. Then we walked back to the car and got ready to head to the airport to pick up the rental. We're now back at the condo eating lunch...mmmmm. Some great energy here, and of course some great gear. I'm excited to head back to the IM village this evening and hit up some of my favorite vendors. :)

I just added the picture from registration. The lady that was taking care of me probably thought I was nuts since most athletes were focused on getting their registration knocked out and moving on.

Monday, Oct 4th - Finally arrived in Kona!!

Well, I was delinquent in updating after I arrived yesterday. My flights were all on time and I arrived in San Francisco with just enough time to make my way over to get a yogurt and board my flight. The timing could have not have been more perfect. My seat was 25F, which was thankfully in the aisle. The flight was uneventful and bordered on boring. There were a lot of athletes and their families on board. I caught glimpses of lots of water bottles, transition bags, Lava magazines, etc. The hype was only beginning! Then we touched down at 11:30PST in Hawai'i! I stepped off the plan into perfect weather----in the 80's and retrieved my bags. As I mentioned earlier, I had one large roller (57 pounds), a hard wheel case and then my 2 carry-ons. So from that point on I felt tethered to a bench since I wasn't about to lug all that gear with me around the aiport. Hawai'is airport is open air and the leis were out in full force. After about an hour sitting there, I swallowed my pride and decided to call one of the other guys from the Navy/Marines to ask for a ride. My original plan was to wait for Robert Killian (All Army male athlete) to arrive and bum a ride from him. But his flight wasn't scheduled to arrive until close to 3pm. I will spare you the mundane boring details and just say that they came and picked me up and I also got a visit from the Muscle Milk reps. I was so grateful to finally "arrive." I took a shower and then went out to see the complex. I do not have an ocean view, but there is a walkway where there is some cool volanic rock and great views of the ocean. I snapped some photos and then came back to do some dreaded schoolwork. I took 2 quizzes online and then closed my laptop for the evening. After picking up my family from the airport we went out to dinner at Ohana Grill Jackie Rey's. Dinner was nice and then we went to pick up some groceries (extremely overpriced of course) from the local store. Then it was to bed to get rested for the next day's adventures! I had a full morning planned with swim, registration, bike pick up and rental car pick up.

Waiting to board my flight....

Well today was an early day, but that will be no different from race day. Everything is packed and ready to go. Hopefully my baggage will arrive in time and everything will be in tact. My large checked bag weighed 57 pounds! I guess I can't say that I'm low-maintenance. :) I'm sure there was some redundancy in my packing and I'm sure I will still end up forking out a few $100 at the expo, but that's par for the course. It's hard to believe I am finally making the journey to Kona! I only wish that Justin was able to share this with me. Back to Starbucks before my loooong flight! Good luck to all my classmates taking the Finance exam this morning! I think you will find you spent more time than you needed to studying.