As usual, race day starts early but by now I am very used to the drill.  Wake up at 4:00am and eat a bunch of oatmeal and bananas.  Wake up my wife/ride and get into my race kit while she pries her eyes open.  Put on a warm coat and beanie.  Grab all the gear bags and get into the car.  Then, bail out of the car once we are close to the race site so she doesn’t have to park and can go back to the rental and go back to bed.  It’s kind of an open the door, jump, and tuck and roll kind of exit at a slow speed.

I try to get there when transition opens and make sure I’m taking my time getting ready.  No need to add to the anxiety.  At Ironman Arizona, that meant 5:00am.

First, I always get my bike set up.  Since I pumped up the tires the day before I only needed to fill my water bottles.  Fortunately, right next to my bike was the table with water so that went quick.  The folks who put your race number all over you with a Sharpie (body marking as it is called) were also right next to my bike so that was a quick and convenient service as well!

Second, I walked through the same path I will later take to get my bike bag and my run bag so I had that in my head.  With all these bags on the ground, it is good to know ahead of time where yours is.  That being said, by the time I come lumbering along most of them are gone.  It is a lot easier for me to find mine that say someone towards the front of the pack.

I also moved a long-sleeved Under Armour layer from my run bag to my special needs bag after seeing that it was going to be warmer in the afternoon than I had originally planned for.  Since I wouldn’t need that additional layer in the run until probably the second 13 miles, I moved it to my special needs bag so that I could access out on the course.

Next, I loosen up with stretching exercises and a little running.  I now bring a towel with me to lay down on some concrete somewhere where I can more comfortably stretch.  This works out great and I am impressing myself each race with continual slow evolutions of intelligence like this.  The triathlon caveman is rising.

Finally, I get my wetsuit on and by then it was around 6:40am when I heard the cannon go off to start the pro women in the water.  When the cannon goes off, you know it just got real.  It is a definitive moment.

I am a nervous bladder racer.  There, I said it.  At some point you need to come clean with your shortcomings.  I literally visit the porta-john probably about 10 times between arrival in the morning and getting into the water.  This day, I guessed I was more calm as my visits were about half of that.  Happy with that stat, I would find out later maybe that wasn’t the case.  Anxiety I found today can be in the form of a delayed reaction.

In the line waiting to get into the water, there is always the nervous chatter and it is always fun to learn about the stories of your friends in the back of the pack that I hang with.  More than half are first-timers and they all have a story.  Plus, we have a lot of time before it is our turn to get into the 63 degree water.

There was the story of the mom who spent the last 12 years focused on her kids and decided she needed to do something for herself.  Usually, there is a weight loss story of someone who one day flipped the switch and decided tomorrow was going to be different.  Everyone there has a story.  If there was a thought bubble above each one of their heads, it would be cool to see all of them because they are all special and powerful.  I don’t think anyone in the back of the pack does Ironman without an emotional backstory that hits you right in the heart.

Within the first 100 yards in Tempe Town Lake, I remembered a friend of mine who had told me the lake was not the most pristine and suggested I make sure I had all my shots.  Sure enough, this was a disgusting body of water.  The color:  Brown.  It was so dirty that as I would take a stroke, I could not see my arm from my elbow to my hand.  That’s right, I could not actually see my forearms and hands with an extended arm!  That can’t be good.  We’ll have to see how I feel a few days from now and if I catch some sort of disease!

The day before after I checked my gear in, I went over to my wife who was sitting on the wall next to the lake.  She commented that at least I could keep fed out there on the lake and pointed to a Cheeto bag and some Cheetos floating in the water.

Fortunately, it was a cloudy morning.  At most of my races, it is clear in the morning and the early rising sun is a combination of shining in your eyes and glaring off the water which makes it sometimes impossible to see where you are going.  This morning it was much easier to navigate the course even with the zero visibility in the water.

About halfway through the 2.4 mile swim, it was clear that the nervous bladder was back!  To date, I have never urinated in my wetsuit which is quite a common thing to do especially during a 2 hour swim.  I decided that today would be that day to join my triathlon veteran brethren.  It would be my day to graduate!  Upon making that career-defining decision, I discovered that I did not have the skill to swim and pee at the same time.  Maybe it is an acquired skill that you have to practice, but I was a rookie and the technique escaped me on the first try.

[TMI Alert On This Next Paragraph]  I instead pulled over out of the way of the swim traffic and bobbed up and down in the water where I was able to comfortably “release the pressure” inside my wetsuit.  A description of the sensation immediately entered my brain.  It felt like I had climbed inside a hot water bottle and I was surrounded by the hot water.  Fortunately, this was kind of a good thing since at this point I was on the other side of the lake where the water was clearly colder than where I started.  A little warmth was actually appreciated.

With that, I was off again.  By the time I ended the swim, I had to be a human water bottle two more times which pretty much put me back up to my 10 time nervous bladder swim count including a stop to a porta-john immediately after exiting the swim.

Exiting the swim was pretty typical for me with my equilibrium out of whack and the volunteers helping me not fall over.  However, within usually about 15 feet I get it together, find the wetsuit strippers, get my wetsuit off, and start running to transition.  Due to the cold water temperatures, running this time was on frozen feet which kind of hurt but you do it anyway because it will wake up the rest of your legs before you get on the bike.

From the swim exit to my bike bag was a stupidly long run.  In fact, it was literally a half-mile!  I’m not sure who the course design clown was, but they need to get a new career.  Additionally frustrating was that the time it takes you to run this half-mile gets added to your swim time!  My official swim time was thus 2:11:55.  Almost 20 minutes slower than my first Ironman race, unfortunately.

My transition was slow as usual but non-eventful.  I made up a little time on the transition in comparison to my first Ironman.  The last time it was 18:12 and this time it was 15:48 gaining a few minutes back from that epic post-swim half-mile run!

Fully sunscreened for the long day, I emerged and got on my bike.  I immediately inhaled 500 calories of Larabars to put down a long release base and replace what I had lost in that swim.

Out on the bike course, it was a little hard to get my bike legs going after such a cold swim that froze them.  I should have kicked more during the swim to warm my legs up, but you can’t rewind so all you can do is peddle.

The bike course is a three-loop course.  That meant the pro women were still out on the course and would soon fly by me.  Pretty much on cue, they came smoking by me on their second loop.

I hate three-loop courses whether they are a bike or run courses.  You work hard to clip off miles, but no matter what after that second loop it is just painful to do another one and not head to the finish line.  Plus, you have already seen this movie twice before.  It is just mentally a drag.

The upside of this course is that it is relatively flat.  That being said, the first half of the course is uphill all the way.  In other words, for 18ish miles is a steady uphill climb of around 2% to 3%.  Nothing hard, but it is constant and does wear you down a bit.  Coming back is quite epic though.  You bomb it and make up tons of time!

The first part of the course is mostly getting out of the city.  After that, you head up the Beeline Highway through the desert dotted by Saguaro Cactus.

With each loop, it became a little lonelier out there as the front of the pack was finishing and heading onto the run.  However, there is an upside.  My poor swim always puts me in the back out of the gate.  But then I get to pass tons of athletes on the bike course.  Most people who are not good at the swim are equally not epic on the bike either.  I am certainly not epic on the bike, but my ability is better than the average back of the pack triathlete.  That always adds some positive mental motivation as I put one after one of them behind me.  Case in point is shown below.  When I finished the swim I was 183rd in my age group.  However, on the bike I was 61 places better at 122nd!

I also finished way ahead of my first Ironman race in regards to my bike time.  In Santa Rosa, I finished with a 7:37:13 while this time I clocked a 6:47:49!  I made up a ton of lost ground from that bad swim time!  Granted, it was an easier bike course.  I was hoping that I would be able to do at least a 7 hour bike and it felt good to beat that goal!

My transition to the run course was also a little faster than my first Ironman.  In Santa Rosa it was 8:17 and in Tempe I was able to shave it down a little to 6:12!

The run started at an even pace, but my tummy was feelin’ funny.  I didn’t feel the best from all the Infinit solution I was drinking earlier on the bike course.  I made sure to take in a fair amount of water at the first two aid stations to get a little more balanced and wash out that salty-sweet taste from my mouth.  That seemed to help and the run became more palatable.  The crowds helped as well.  One of the big differences about this race is that friends and family can easily access most of the course to cheer you and others on.  The first 8 miles are packed with people which adds to your energy.

The run is also social.  You get to hear more stories and meet people as you share your pain and motivate each other.  You also run into people like Fat Marcus and Elle Goodall who both have lost hundreds of pounds through changes in their life.  I ran past both of them multiple times.  They ran across the finish line with jthese cut-outs of their former selves.

At mile 10 I kind of hit a bit of a mental wall.  The long day added up me I realized there were still 16 long miles to go.  I also started to cramp in my hamstrings which have been a big problem for me in every race so far.  In other races, it has been incredibly painful where I could barely walk.  Since I changed my running technique from a heel striker to my forefoot it has subsided tremendously.  However,  I have never finished a race where I didn’t cramp at the end.

Right at this moment, I passed the Base Performance tent out on the course.  Base sells these special salts that also have electrolyte properties.  I have used them before but I didn’t bring any with me this time.  I grabbed a few vials and within the second lick of the salt and a little water to wash it down the cramps were gone.  I was back in the game!

By mile 13 at the halfway point I was into a really great pace and form.  I was in the zone and chugging along at an even and sustainable pace.  I was able to keep that pace and form all the way through the end of the race passing a lot of athletes who were fading at the end which is very typical and expected.

Unfortunately, my first 13 miles weren’t as stellar.  I usually run a lot faster in the beginning.  I finished slower than my first Ironman with a 5:36:19 marathon as opposed to a 5:03:16 in Santa Rosa.

Yes, I lost time versus Santa Rosa.  But, after adding it all up I actually did set a new Ironman Personal Record of 14:58:10!  Ok, it was only like a minute faster than 14:59:27 in Santa Rosa, but hey a PR is a PR!!! 

Additionally, as you can see above, I also performed better in my age group than in the swim or the bike.  In the swim, I was 183rd, on the bike I was 122nd, and in the run I was 92nd!  So, maybe the run is my strongest leg?  The marathon is where the wheels come off the bus for most everyone so the fact that I can hang in there with a pace all the way to the end seems to be a strength.  A strength even with walking every other aid station and walking down hills so my hamstrings don’t lock up.

I guess what was gratifying was that I started out 183rd out of 186 in the swim and ended the race 127th moving up 56 places throughout the day!  Yeah, yeah I know…maybe I should learn how to swim better!  Considering I have only been swimming for the last two years of my life, I am just happy I get it done at all.

Now, I am in recovery mode as shown below with my traditional day after In n Out meal of a double double, fries, and a strawberry shake.

I have also added another Ironman sticker to the back of the Subaru featuring my various endurance accomplishments.

So, what’s next?  Let’s just say there’s still plenty of glass to cover on that Subaru!  Last year I set the goal of completing at least 3 Ironman distance races in my life.  This was number two.  Where will number 3 be?  No idea.  I had originally thought Boulder, Colorado.  However, Ironman canceled that race.  They just announced a full Ironman race will be returning to Coeur d’Alene in 2021 which would interest me as I loved that 70.3 Ironman course and how the city was so welcoming.  My wife keeps bringing up that I should do my third one overseas somewhere which shows I am the luckiest man in the world to be married to her.  Stay tuned and we will see what comes of this plan as we enter 2020 and beyond.

Thanks to everyone who offered personal support to help me get to Ironman #2 and to those who also donated to Challenged Athletes Foundation.  I will keep the donation site active for another two weeks if anyone would still like to donate to their cause.

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Please join me in my efforts to support the Challenged Athletes Foundation as I take on my own challenge to complete my second Ironman race.

At my own cost, I will attempt to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles on November, 24th, 2019 in Tempe, Arizona to bring awareness and funding support to the Challenged Athletes Foundation and the needs of their clients. This challenge race is intended to raise at least $5,000 in funds to make those dreams come true for challenged athletes everywhere. Please click on the donate button and give what you can to help CAF athletes overcome physical disabilities and be able to afford the cost of equipment such as sports wheelchairs, handcycles, mono-skis and sports prosthetics, and resources for training and competition expenses.

The Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) raises money to help people with physical challenges pursue an active lifestyle through physical fitness and athletics. CAF’s mission is clear: give those with the desire to live active, competitive lifestyles every opportunity to compete in the sports they love.

Thank you for any donation you can make to this cause at the following link http://bit.ly/2lIDEI4 or just click on the CAF button below.