Imagine having 24 surgeries by the time you are 12 years old. And I am not talking about minor surgeries. No, I am talking about open heart surgery, open head surgery, removing muscles from one part of the body and reattaching to other parts of the body, re-positioning bones and then using pins to fuse them together, and surgery on the eyes. I am talking about surgeries that result in full body casts. Surgeries that last many hours.
Now imagine the pain that someone must feel after these surgeries. My younger brother John was born with Spina Bifida or as we used to say when we were kids, my brother was born with an open spine. I remember after one of John's major surgeries, he was in a body cast in a special bed my Dad put together for him in the dining room. I asked him if it hurt. His response was "yes, but it will go away." I never forgot his attitude towards pain and his subsequent high tolerance for pain. I took this with me into my adult life and used his attitude to help me make it through tough times in my life. Mostly my pain was self inflicted. But remembering John's situation has always helped me through difficult tasks. Like doing an Ironman for instance.
For this year's Beach to Battleship triathlon, the weather could not have been better. It was warm enough not to need any special clothing on the bike but cool enough not to have to worry about bonking due to dehydration. I have mostly been pretty lucky when it comes to weather on race day and I encourage others to race the races I am signed up for. Of course now that I put that out there, I have probably jinxed myself.
We arrived in Wilmington on Thursday evening around dinner time. Originally, I had planned to leave Friday morning but a wise teammate of mine, whose advice I often take, suggested that I do whatever I could to go down on Thursday. Luckily, I was able to make the necessary hotel and work arrangements to make a Thursday afternoon departure possible. Melissa had an afternoon meeting but she does most of her meetings on the phone anyway so she was good to go for the Thursday departure and would attend the meeting from the car. You gotta love modern technology.
Thursday night was a very chill night. We got some food at a local seafood place within walking distance of our hotel and then just relaxed and watched some TV. I did manage to knock out some foam roller in the hotel room. My tight hips and IT band had been acting up and I needed every little bit of therapy I could sneak in.
On Friday we had a nice leisurely morning before heading to packet pickup. Since this race was a point to point race, I had to get my gear bags, go back to the hotel, and then pack some of the bags. I must say it was a little nerve-racking trying to decide what to put in the bags and what to leave out. After packing my 'run special needs' bag, my 'bike special needs' bag, and my 'bike to run' bag, we returned to the convention center to turn in all these bags. With each bag I turned in, I felt a little relief, as that was something I no longer needed to worry about. After turning in the bags, we went to the pre-race meeting to get all the details that I needed to have a successful race.
After the meeting, we went back to the hotel, grabbed my bike and 'swim to bike' bag and drove from downtown Wilmington to T1 at Wrightsville Beach. We took a little pit stop at Whole Foods for lunch which was a nice surprise. Once we got to Wrightsville Beach, I racked my bike at T1 and put my 'swim to bike' bag in the proper place and then went to check out the swim finish at the marina. It was nice to see where we would be coming out of the water and where we would have to run to get back to T1.
With all the preparation work done, it was time to head back to the hotel to chill. We ended up walking to dinner again. We found a nice Italian place where I got pasta, salad, and garlic bread. It was decent enough. During dinner my coach called to give me a last minute pep talk and to discuss race strategy. It was a very nice surprise to hear from her and I was glad she called.
Finally it was time to get to bed. While I did not sleep all that great, I did manage to get some sleep, maybe about 5 or 6 hours tops. The alarms all went off about 4:30AM and we were up and at 'em. I had my pre-race smoothie that I had brought from home as well as a banana and some water. And then we were off to drive back to T1. I quickly checked the bike, put my water bottles on the bike, used the facilities, and then got on the trolley that would take athletes to the swim start. I was on the first trolley as I was anxious to get this party started. On the trolley I met a few people and we chatted a bit while I had some more nutrition. Once we got to the swim start, we dilly dallied a little before everyone started to don their wet suits.
Once the sun came up, we started walking down the beach to the swim start. The sand was pretty cold on my bare feet. At the swim start, I dilly dallied some more before finally jumping in to take a few strokes, mostly to make sure my goggles were on good and were not leaking. The water was not really that cold which was a nice relief.
Before you knew it, the race organizers called everyone out of the water. We had the national anthem of course and then the Eminem music started. As people were bobbing their head to the song, the announcer said that we were going to have a quick word from the race director. But then before he got on the mic, the horn sounded and we were off. I was up near the front on the beach. I made my way into the water and started my first ever 2.4 mile swim. This was a downhill swim so I was not too worried about it. If the current showed up as advertised, it would be the easiest 2.4 mile swim one could do, I think.
Overall I did well on the swim. I stayed in the middle of the channel where the water was moving the fastest. I sighted enough to make sure I was somewhere in the middle of the channel and where I could see racers splashing about in front of me. A couple of times I must have swam through some pools of diesel fuel which was gross. It was odd to be able to smell the fuel even though my head was under water mostly. Kind of disgusting but I guess when you swim in a channel, that is what you are going to get.
After a while, there was a turn and I kept on trucking. It seemed like there was a large group of swimmers way off to the right near all the anchored boats and houses. I am not sure why there were so many swimmers hugging the side of the channel but it made my lane pretty luxurious. Soon, I started seeing a big wiggly man on the horizon which I knew was the swim finish. When I got closer to the finish, I started to aim for the temporary ladders they had built just for the race. I also started to kick hard for that last 25 yards. Up until this time, I knew there was current but I could not really feel it. As I floated past the first couple of ladders, I realized how strong the current really was. I pulled myself out and was really pretty amazed at how easy the swim was. I had finished the swim in just under 1 hour.
Once out of the water, I had help removing my wetsuit from a wetsuit stripper. She yanked my Xterra wetsuit off of me and then threw it on me to carry back to T1. The run from the swim finish to T1 was about 400 yards on sidewalk and pavement. As I ran with my wetsuit, I had a big smile on my face. All the preparation had paid off. I felt great running barefoot on the pavement towards T1. As I approached T1, I had my first of many Melissa sightings. There she was among the crowd cheering me on. She was in a perfect spot really and I took the opportunity to throw her my wetsuit. I had seen other people doing it so I figured why not. Like a good sherpa, she scooped it up for me and continued to cheer. It is always great to see Melissa on the course.
Once in T1, I grabbed my bag and headed for the changing tents. Inside, there were loads of triathletes in various states of undress. Some people simply wore their tri kit underneath their wetsuits so they had less to deal with. Some people stripped totally naked. I chose to wear just my bike shorts underneath my wetsuit. So when I got into the tent, I put on my cycling jersey, my socks and shoes, my body glide and IT band strap and then loaded up my jersey with all my solid nutrition - Honey Stinger Waffles, Cliff Shot Bloks, and Vanilla Hammer Gel.
Once I was ready to ride, I ran to my bike, put on my helmet, gloves, and sunglasses and then made my way out on the bike. My plan was to spin easy for the first several miles of the bike. I wanted to play it conservatively. After all, I had 112 miles to ride and I could hammer later if I wanted. I pretty much stuck to my strategy. The wind was not really blowing much and I was able to keep a decent pace as we headed over the drawbridge and out of town. Once I got grooving on the bike, I started my nutrition plan which was to eat and drink as much as possible as often as possible.
Unfortunately, my nutrition was just too sugar-rich. At about mile 10, I started getting a sugar headache. I don't normally eat sugary things in my everyday diet. All the sweet things I had put into my body started to takes its toll. My head pretty much ached through the first half of the bike leg of the race.
The bike course had several aid stations stocked with food and drink and included Porta Potties. I had to stop at the first aid station to use the Porta Potty. Some people just open the flood gates on their bikes. I was not ready to do that. Since it was not hot and I was not sweating that much, I ended up having to stop at several aid stations to use the Porta Potty. Sometimes there was a line, sometimes not.
Despite the headache, I was cruising along pretty well and was on target to make my 6 hour 30 minute bike goal. On target until the wind picked up that is. Around mile 45, we made a turn and suddenly I hit a wall of wind. It would be windy for the next 45+ miles. That really slowed me down. But, I was not hurting at all and I still felt pretty good overall. At the half way point, I stopped and got my special needs bag. I mixed up a weaker mixture of nutrition and then carried the nutrition powder with me. By about mile 60, my headache went away which was a relief.
Another thing that helped my headache was instead of relying on synthetic sugary foods, I started to eat bananas at all the aid stations. The natural goodness of the banana really made me feel better. From now on I know that bananas will be a part of my nutrition strategy.
Around mile 80, my butt really started to hurt. I had done two 100-mile training rides before the race. During these training rides, I was plenty comfortable for the entire ride but on race day, my butt suffered some serious discomfort. In fact, it got to be such a pain that I stopped at the remaining aid stations just to get a break. I did not stop for long. Just enough time to use the facilities and eat a banana.
Finally, I saw the end of the road. I had made it back to town and the cheering throngs helped guide me into T2 where I dumped my bike, grabbed my 'bike to run' bag and headed for the changing rooms. In the end, my total bike time was 7 hours and 18 minutes. My total ride time was 7 hours which meant I spent a total of 18 minutes stopped at aid stations. Not too terrible but I think I can do better.
After doing a full change into fresh running gear and using the bathroom, I headed out on the run course. I felt awesome. And it was then that I had my second Melissa sighting. I stopped and gave her a big hug. She had a big smile on her face to match mine. It was very uplifting to see her. Many have said it and it might sound cliche but she is the wind beneath my wings.
As I made my way through the first mile, I tried my best to slow down. I was pretty jacked up from the bike and my first mile was pretty fast. Soon, I would not have that problem. Around mile 3, I felt a twinge in my knee. That's not good I thought. I kept running. My twinge slowly turned into pain. It was only mile 4 of the marathon and my knee pain decided to flair up. I knew it was going to be a long, long run if my knee was going to complain the whole time. And complain it did. I slowed down, I walked, I nearly cried at times.
As the sun went down, I started doubting myself. I started making calculations in my head. Would I make the cutoff? When I started seeing my mile splits of 15 minute miles, I was really worried. I would walk for a while and then start to shuffle. I would shuffle along as long as I could before my knee pain would be too unbearable. It did not hurt at all when I walked so I knew that I could probably finish but my brain was not working too well and I was not convinced. This was not the way I wanted this to go. It was at this point in the race when I started to think about my brother. I pictured these two pictures of him and thought, "John would keep going." Despite any pain, John just kept going. The pain would be temporary. It would go away eventually. That was John's attitude and that's what kept me going. I just kept plugging along, grunting, groaning, shuffling, walking, and running.
My brother John's first steps on his own
at Children's Hospital in Washington DC
John with his usual smile
Around mile 15, I started with the coke and water. That was a great boost. The sugar and caffeine helped keep me positive. Since caffeine is not part of my regular diet, I truly did get a nice boost from it. Despite the pain, I was still having fun with volunteers and other racers on the course. I had wanted to run a much faster marathon but I would have to be content with a much longer run than I know I am capable of. Also, I got to see Melissa on the run course which always makes me feel great.
Finally after all the bananas, coke and water, Endurolytes, porta potty stops, grunting and groaning, I was on the home stretch. While I was running and walking the course in the dark, I was thinking about how I would finish. Would I yell? Would I raise my arms up to the sky? What would I do? In the end, I just ran-- fast. With about half a mile left, I put the hammer down. Interestingly enough, my knee did not bother me once I started to run fast. And I did run fast. I blew through the last 400 meters as if I was on the track running intervals. And before you knew it, I was across the finish line and I had completed my first Ironman. I felt pretty darn good about the whole thing despite the grueling 5:12 marathon. I had completed the whole race in 13:49. Not bad for my first Ironman.
After the race, Melissa took some pictures of me with my finisher medal and post-race space blanket. We wandered around a bit and then went back to the hotel. After getting cleaned up with a hot shower, we walked back to downtown and got some fish tacos. I was hungry but not starving. After eating, we went and retrieved my two special needs bags and headed back to the room. Melissa had already collected all my other gear including my bike. She is an A+ sherpa! Sorry folks, she is not available to rent or buy.
It took me a long time to wind down. I texted my teammates, family, friends, and coach. I looked at the pictures that Melissa had taken, watched some tv and finally started to feel sleepy about 2AM. It was a good day overall despite my knee problems. It will take some time to recover but I am well on my way to recover and start training again. It will be another week or two before I start doing any training again. I have done a few swims and a bike ride but I will need time off to heal. I have started a physical therapy regimen and have started doing Yoga again. I need to heal up for the next event and of course for next year's Ironman events.
Finally, I would like to thank all the wonderful people that contributed to my success. First and foremost, I have to thank Melissa. Melissa is extremely supportive of everything I do and does so many things to help me train, fuel, and recover. She puts up with my endless discussion about my training schedule and all other things triathlon-related. It was she who really got me into the whole triathlon thing in the first place by doing one herself. Thank you Melissa.
Big thanks also goes out to coach Karen at
ProK Racing. Karen took me from barely being able to swim 25 yards to where I am at today. I still have lots of room for improvement and I look forward to continuing my triathlon journey under her watchful eye.
And of course I have to thank all my Pro K training partners. Thanks for letting me tag along. Riding with you fast people has been great training and has really catapulted me up from where I was a year ago! Thanks to Jon and Meredith for their sage advice in regards to training, gear, preparation, nutrition and PT. Thanks to Gerdie and Millie for all those long runs. Thanks to Sara at
Hands-On Wellness MT for keeping this old body in the game. Thanks to Craig and
Richmond Cycling Corporation and
Richmond Bicycle Studio.
I also have to give a quick shout out to my new bosses at work. We are extremely busy at work but I could not really ask for better supervisors. Sometimes getting new people at work can be stressful but on the contrary, R&R are the best. They are both smart, dedicated workers who look out for me and always ask about my races. Thanks guys.
And thank you for reading. I appreciate you taking the time. And now on to the pictures.
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| T1 Before heading to swim start on the trolley |
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| There's me running from the swim finish to T1 |
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| Getting ready to head out on the bike |
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| Walking across the timing mats to head out for the 112 mile bike ride |
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| Mile 1 on the run right before I gave Melissa a big hug! |
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| Triumphant and smiling at the finish |
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And finally, for my PT friends. This is what I did to my foam roller earlier tonight.
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