IRONMAN NYC - RACE REPORT

DISCLAIMER - AS WITH ALL MY RACE REPORTS I FEEL THE NEED TO TELL YOU I AM A BACK OF THE PACK OVERWEIGHT TRIATHLETE WITH THE ONE AND ONLY GOAL TO FINISH.

IRONMAN U.S. Championship

08-11-2012

New York City, New York

Total Time = 16h 18m 24s

Overall Rank = 1961/2739 (2739 were registered)

Age Group = 40-44

Age Group Rank = 375/406

 

Pre-race routine:

I dropped off all my bags and bike with my buddy Fred on Wednesday night as I was taking the bus into NYC on Thursday morning because I was picked to be in the IRONMAN Full Circle Video and my interview was Thursday morning (Video posted in previous post).  After the interview I went to expo and checked in. Then took Ferry over to NJ where our hotel was.  Meet Fred over at the hotel and then went back to Expo with him.  Stayed over at the expo until the athlete dinner, then went back to NJ for the night.  Friday dropped bike at transition and just relaxed most of the day. Wife drove up on Friday and we checked into our room (I stayed with Fred and his wife the night before).  Went to dinner and everyone got a kick out of the fact that I ordered Jambalaya as my last meal before an IRONMAN.  Woke up at 3am day of race to get ready and catch the ferry. Wife was volunteering so she actually had to catch an earlier ferry than me.

Event warm-up:

Had to meet the Full Circle team off the ferry, they filmed me getting marked, kissing my wife (didn’t make the video).  And they filmed me checking out my bike race morning.  I pumped my tires up night before and was happy I did since it was crazy race morning.  With the logistics of this race there was no race day warm-up available but that being said I don't usually do much the day of the event to warm up.  Went to stand on line to be on one of the first ferries, I got on the second one. 

Swim (55:27)

Ferry ride was good talked to a guy to ease my nerves.  I ate a GU on the ride and drank a sports drink.  It took about 11 minutes for me to get in the water.  Got in and just started swimming.  Knew I was going fast (due to the current) but didn't realize just how fast I was going.  At one point I sighted and saw I was headed straight to a buoy but it was like 20 feet in front of me. I took two strokes and smashed right into it. Just kept swimming to T1.  Put my foot down and was in some pretty disgusting mud.  I thought I would come out of the water around 1:30:00 but finished at 55:27.

What would you do differently?

Not a thing, I will never swim that fast again. So if I am going to do another IM I can't expect to finish that fast.

T1 (10:50)

I came out smiling from ear to ear.  One of the IRONMAN Full Circle guys saw me and said nice job, I thanked him. I ran to a wetsuit stripper who did his job.  Grabbed my bike bag and went into the changing tent. Took my time to make sure I did everything right. I knew with the swim time I could take some extra time to just settle down.  Came out of tent and got lotion-ed up from the lotion girls.  Ran to my bike and the IRONMAN Full Circle crew was there filming me get my bike.  Said a few words to them and got going.

What would you do differently?:

I could have been quicker but I was happy with my time.

Bike (7:51:54)

You get hit with a big hill right when you mount your bike.  I guess after about 2 miles or so you hit the Palisades Parkway.  Hills up and down, first loop was not that bad.  I think coming in was harder than going out.  I got a 4 minute penalty for pulling next to a guy and talking after the first loop.  No complaint I did the crime.  The 2nd loop was a lot harder even though I kept plugging away.  Coming back in with the hills and headwind had me really questioning if I was tough enough to finish.  I saw the Full Circle crew again as they filmed me on one of the up hills, said a few words to them again.  Sadly my longest training ride had only been 80 miles so I was pushing new limits after the turnaround.  Having the aide stations on the course was the best. I just kept telling myself just make it to the next aide station.  Came off the Palisades and knew I had only 2 miles of big down hills to go.  I was so excited to be done with the bike but more importantly off the bike at around 4:15 pm. To be honest as stupid as this sound’s the almost 8 hours went pretty quick.

What would you do differently?:

Not weigh 252 pounds and train more.   I should have had a 100 miler under my belt before the race.  And maybe have a 28 or 29 cassette on the rear.

T2 (16:19)

Had to serve my 4 minute penalty in T2 since the penalty box was already shut down on the bike course. So basically just got to rest in T2.  This was actually cool as I got to talk to my wife and friends Lu and Mari while serving penalty.  They took many pictures while I was there.  Served penalty grabbed my t2 bag and took my time in changing tent.

What would you do differently?:

Nothing, just making sure I got all I needed and didn't forget anything. Funny even with the 4 minute penalty it didn't feel like 16 minutes.

 

Run (7:03:54)

My training was 4 min run and 1 min walk. I actually started doing this, after the first big hill out of transition. But it didn't last long.  I couldn't keep up with the 4 min on the up hills.  So real early I went to mostly walking.  Walking fast but still walking.  I knew early on that I could walk the marathon and still be able to finish before midnight barring any physical injuries.  So although I could have ran more I pretty much shut it down.  I got the George Washington Bridge and did some running again (round mile 15-16).  Ran some more after the bridge because there was a nice crowd off the bridge. Then settled into walking fast again.  I was passing others that were walking and there were not many running at this point (remember back of the pack).  As I passed people I tried to encourage them to just keep moving forward and if they can do 20 minute miles they would finish.  For the last 6 miles or so I walked with a lady named Irene who was happy to have company and we both pushed each other to walk fast.  We plugged along and with about 1.25 miles to go I saw my uncle Dan walking towards us.  He and a friend were coming the opposite way hoping to catch up to me and encourage me.  My uncle is a former 2:45 marathoner so I think he was expecting to see me running.  His friend was with him and is an 11 time IM finisher and he let my uncle know not to bother trying to get me to run.  He knew I was pretty much done at this point.  I saw the finish line (after another hill) and gave my fuel belt to my uncle and ran for the last .25 miles or so through the finish line giving high 5 to the spectators still there.  The IRONMAN full circle cameras followed me for the last .10 of the run.  I got to see Mike Reilly at the finish. No sound system passed 10 pm but he did tell me I was an IRONMAN.

What would you do differently?:

Again not weigh 252 pounds. But also not be afraid to push it a little early on the run.  I kind of knew I would finish so I was content to walk rather than push harder and run a little more.  My run pace wouldn't have been much more than my fast walk but I could have pushed a little harder.

Post-race

Gave last interview to IRONMAN Full Circle and meet up with my friends and family. Gave them all hugs and thanked them for coming and waiting all that time for me.  Got some water and pizza in me.  Just took it all in for a little bit.  Then had to walk to ferry which took forever and went back to the hotel.  Next day made it back to NY for the expo and spent some money on finishing gear.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Myself, I didn't train hard enough and didn't watch my diet enough.  My longest ride in training was 80 miles and my longest run was only 13.1 miles.  When I finished I said I would never do it again. Well 3 weeks later I don't feel that way any longer and think I will sign up for IRONMAN Wisconsin next year.

Event comments:

Logistically it was not a great place for a race.  Would have liked to have had my kids there but with my wife having to drag them around all day going on ferries back and forth would have been crazy.  But as my first IRONMAN it was spectacular. 

 

The Good Wife and I (Fred over my wife's shoulder)

 

Uncle Dan, me, and Uncle Joe

 

 

Me and Fred

 

 

Waiting for me at home

IRONMAN FULL CIRCLE - yes that's me.

I know I haven't done a race report yet but while I still work on that I wanted to share the IRONMAN Full Circle video from IMNYC. I was so fortunate to be a part of this production. I will discuss further in a post after I work on a race report.

IRONMAN NYC - Race Report - Almost

Well not yet first I have to go back and try to fill in the holes that I left from not blogging this experience. 
 
There are two stories to how I got to actually registering for the inaugural 2012 IRONMAN US Championship in New York City and New Jersey ("IMNYC" going forward).  There is my story and my buddy Fred's story and since this is my blog you will of course get my version.  Race was opening at noon on June 15, 2011.  The one fact we agree on is that I did make the first call to him around 10 am that morning letting him know that the race was going to open and that it would likely sell out in minutes.  Fred was signed up and training for his first IM - 2011 IMFL first week of November 2011.  And as my story goes for the next two hours "Fred" did his best to convince me to sign up for IMNYC.  Telling me how great it would be since it is close to home (2 hours away).  Travel would be less expensive and it would be great that our families could come see us race (we would later find out this was not a very spectator friendly race).  So after hours of "Fred" convincing me to sign up I called the good wife and got her blessing.  We were both lucky enough to get in the race before it sold out 11 minutes after it opened.  

I knew my goal was to someday be an IRONMAN but I also knew at my current weight (on 6/15/2011) of 280 pounds it would not be a good idea.  My plans were to follow a 30 week program from the book called "Be Iron Fit".  But as it turned out we were 60 weeks away.  So I could start the 30 week program and not do the real big weeks since my goal was not to do an IRONMAN 30 weeks before my actual race.  Things started out good and in the first 8 weeks I was down 20 pounds, at this pace I thought I could do the race at my birth weight.  But then a week of Disney with the family and I quickly put 10 back on.  From there the weight was up in down between 260 and 275 over the next few months.  The official 20 week plan was scheduled to start on January 17, 2012.  I would be lying to you if I told you I had even one week where I hit every scheduled workout.  And to be honest I think I may have missed more workouts then I actually made for most weeks.  Now you see why I was in no rush to blog about my training. 

I did my best to hit the long rides and runs on the weekend, and tried to get in the water at least once a week.  I know not your ideal training for an IRONMAN but that is what I did.  Then the reality test came and Fred and I went up to our scheduled Half Ironman up at Hunter Mtn first week of June.  Long story short I had a great (great for me) swim and started out with a nice ride but at about mile 17 - 20 came up with some bike issues.  First flat tires, then after getting that fixed and having walked on my already beat down cleats my cleats would not click in to the pedals.  The last part of the bike was the more challenging and not getting to ride it was not good for my training.  Not to mention not getting to run.  My weight was 265 when we went to Hunter Mtn.  I had major doubts in my head at this point and although Fred and I didn't discuss it I am sure he had major doubts for me as well.  I should also mention there was another issue I had on another local ride we went on in May.  I mentally broke down and called my wife 13 miles from my house to come and pick me up.

At this point Fred and I had been doing our long rides and runs on the weekends together but after Hunter I didn't call him and he didn't call me for the next weekend workouts.  I just felt like I needed to get my ass out there and find out if I could do this or not.  I also didn't want to drag him down and hurt his training.  So I refocused my diet and did my best to make as many workouts as I could.  It wasn't every workout on the schedule but it was more than I was getting.  I was hitting 60 - 70 miles on long rides but running was more lower miles more times a week.  Running almost every day for an hour but again not getting a long run on Sunday like the schedule called for.  Fred and I were still talking to each other just not working out together.  Then one week our rides crossed each other and we rode a little together before I had another bike issue.  My rear rim actually cracked 56 miles into what was to be one of my longer rides (I was feeling a lot better on the bike now).  Fred got in 100 miles that day I was hoping for 85.  After that day we started riding and running together again.  Our runs were being done over in Philly on Sunday mornings (really a great place to run).  I switched to 4:1 run/walk and this was just what the Doctor ordered.  Fred and I did this for the last few weeks up to the race. 

I seriously doubt I would have got to the starting line if not for the help of Fred.  There was also a trip up to the race venue in the last month or so of training.  Real eye opener seeing the course especially the run course with all the hills.  YIKES.

Race day weight was 252 pounds.

Blogging from the IPAD test

Maybe this will get me to blog again. I really do miss it and after the Ironman which is only in 4 days I hope to get back to it.

Story that ran in local paper about my Ironman