thanks to the kindness and understanding of the WTC (World Triathlon Corperation), i’m registered for IMWI 2012 on 09-09-12. in all honesty, i made up my mind to give the race another go about two minutes after i woke up in that ambulance. i learned a ton during this year’s race and in the months of training leading up to it, and am confindent i’ll start next year’s race smarter, more prepared, and in better shape.

it’s still over eleven months out, but just typing this update is giving me butterflies in my stomach – i have no doubt i made the right decision.

next sunday, i’ll be running Ironman Wisconsin in Madison. the race starts with a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike. then, i’ll run a marathon (26.2 miles). above is a picture of the gear i’ll be using for the day (minus the bike, obviously). while i’ll likely be bringing extras in the event something breaks or gets misplaced, you can see there’s not a whole lot that goes into racing for upwards of 13 hours straight.

swim

– TYR Hurricane Category 5 wetsuit
– TYR Competitor Tri Singlet (i’ll wear this under the wetsuit and it’ll say on the whole race)
– De Soto Carrera Tri Shorts (these too will be worn under the wetsuit and used all day)
– TYR goggles
– bright green swimcap (i’ll have to wear the IM issued cap, but i wear two with my goggle strap between to prevent my goggles from being kicked / knocked off by another swimmer)
– Sigma PC-9 heart rate monitor (i’ll wear this all day and use this to determine pace times)
– H20 Audio earphones (i cut off the earbuds to the headphones to use as earplugs, keeping the water out of my ears. audio devices such as ipods are not allowed throughout the entire race.)

T1

transitions take place inside the monona terrace conference center, and i’m hoping for less than 5 minutes per transition. unlike my half iron race in Chisago last month, all race gear is kept in bags inside the changing rooms instead of by the bike outside. since i’ll be wearing the same top and bottom all day, i’ll just have to grab my socks, shoes, helmet, shades, and food and be off. no sense complicating the day by worrying about changing clothes, etc.

bike

– Felt B16 bike with Boyd 58 carbon clinchers, Sigma Rox 8.0, and Adamo Race saddle. on the bike, i’ll carry two spare inner tubes, tire levers, a few allen wrenches, and two CO2 cartridges to fill a flat.
– Lazer Tardiz helmet
– Pearl Izumi Ti Beam shoes
– Smith Pivlock shades
– Wigwam socks
– tri top/bottom from swim

T2

transition two is in the same room as T1, and this one should be quick. i’ll leave my bike shoes clipped to my bike at the end of the ride, so all i’ll have to do is ditch my helmet, grab my headband and pretzels, slip on my shoes, and be off – to run a marathon.

run

– Nike Vomero 6 shoes with Yankz! laces. elastic laces = speed and comfort.
– Buff headband
– tri top / bottom / shades / socks from bike

food
breakfast will be toast with peanut butter, a few ensure, and yogurt. i may drink another ensure 30 min before the swim start.

on the bike, i’ll eat peanut butter crackers, fig newtons, and Honey Stinger Waffles. i’ll wash it all down with water and Gu Brew electrolyte drink. about half way through the bike, i’ll have the option to stop and get things out of a special needs bag i’ll have packed prior to the race. in it, i’ll have a snickers (this might be a nice change from the other food after riding for upwards of 6 hours), a fresh bottle of GU Brew, an Ensure, a spare inner tube, and some tools.

on the run, i’ll only drink water, and snack on pretzel sticks i’ll stash in my back pocket. i’ll eat enough on the bike to be ok with pretzels only through the run. i will have a special needs bag available on the run as well, and i may grab an Ensure as those seem to sit well, have 250 calories, and provide a good amount of nutrition without much hassle.

that should be it. not too complicated. race starts at 7:00 am with a mass start swim which i hear is pretty cool to witness. swimming in it, on the other hand, might be a bit sketchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzCYBFR3BMU&feature=related  (see what i mean?)

i’m feeling good, a bit nervous, but trust i’ve put in the training time to get me through. how much time you ask?

in the past 4 months, i’ve:
– run, pedaled, and swam around 2,500 miles, which is roughly the distance from LA to NY.
– swam about 135,520 yards. that’s 2,710 laps at the pool. (1 lap = down and back)
– rode over 2,000 miles.  considering i cruise around 17-19 mph, that’s a lot of hours for thinking.
– ate over $400 worth of groceries per month. (i’m eating well over 4,000 calories daily just to maintain my 143 pounds.)
– trained for 245 hours, which is equal to 30, eight hour work days worth.
– completed 254 workouts, burning the calorie equivalent of 938 donuts.  yikes!

wish me luck.

after waking up at 4:00am, stoob and i made our way to the race site up in chisago city, mn. stoob drove so i could eat my breakfast of peanut butter toast, ensure, and yogurt which is always hard to get down at 4:30am. i picked up my race packet yesterday, so setting up for the race was cake. after a quick bike check, a double check of my spot in transition, and getting on my wetsuit, i made my way down to the swim start shown below.

this one shows all the half iron racers lined up in their wave just before the start of the race. i’m the one in the black wetsuit with the green cap.

the opening image shows me just prior to my swim start taken courtesy of Ms. Anne Cartman (my old supervisor from Polk County) who came to watch the race. (my suit is red in the back and has white lettering down the sleeve) stoob also took her turn shooting the pictures in the blog, so thanks to both of you for that.

the swim started well, and with the water temp in the high 70’s, i was able to settle in and find my groove rather quickly. the course was an out and back, made slightly difficult by the fog that rolled in just before the start making sighting the course buoys a bit tough.

i came out of the water in 35:48:50, and considering i was shooting for 35 minutes, i can’t complain. the water was a bit weedy, and i had to break my stroke a few times to pull the weeds off my face. other than that, i had no problems.

upon getting back up into the transition area, i noticed there were tons of bikes around me. that’s a good sign – it means you are one of the first out of the water in your heat. stoob and anne were waiting near my transition spot to snap a picture, and stoob said i was the 6th runner out of the water. i was super happy knowing there were about 50 people i’m my wave and i was 6th! 2:46 after i left the water, i was on my bike and heading out for the 56 mile bike.

the ride, although a bit windy at times, was fantastic. at race start, it was a really comfortable 61 degrees with cloudy skies. PERFECT weather for racing. it remained cloudy until the last 5 minutes of the bike, so i was super happy about that. i rode at a steady pace, and didn’t push things too hard knowing i had a long run after. i finished the ride in 2:48:23, which is just a hair over a 20 mph average pace. and like the swim, i was hoping for anything less than three hours, so 12 minutes less? perfect.

i was into transition 2 and out running in just over a minute and a half. slower than i had hoped, but the transition area was packed making it hard to get in and out quickly.

see what i mean? crazy.

like i mentioned earlier, the sun reared it’s ugly face just 5 minutes before the start of the run, and while it never got too hot, it made for a tough run. i felt good through mile 6, got a bit of a stomach cramp from 6-8, and felt like i could never pick up the pace through the finish like i had hoped to. even with dumping ice down my race top every mile or so, i just felt like my core temp was crazy high. i ended up running the 13.3 miles in 1:48:57 which works out to an 8:11 minute mile pace. i was hoping for a 1 hour, 40 minute run, but what are you going to do. could i have found 9 minutes out there, probably. am i going to beat myself up over it considering how well the race went overall? not for a minute.

total time: 5:17:26 which was 26th position in my age group (out of 66 total) and 140th overall out of 405 dudes that ran the race. success? yes. time for a break? nope. i’m up tomorrow morning at 5:00am to swim, and will be riding tomorrow night. time’s ticking for Ironman Wisconsin in SEP, and since all the distances in that race are double what i ran today, there’s definitely work to be done.