2004 Blue Devil Iron Distance Race

Here's a republished blog of mine from 2004 during my first Iron distance race. Enjoy.

The Ironman can be labeled demanding, grueling and one of the most difficult feats an athlete could accomplish, but that still misses the mark by miles — 140.6 miles to be exact. In fact, if you go the distance as a triathlete, the only people who don’t think you are crazy for taking on the triple challenge are the ones who are competing along with you. Athletes push the limits of their bodies to finish a 2.4 mile swim followed by 112 miles of biking only to finish with a 26.2 mile marathon race on foot.

Monday October 11, 2004

As I woke this morning I rose with a clear mind, except for that one topic that’s been warehoused deep inside my head for the past three months. That one thought was of course the Ironman. Ironman is an addiction that is worse then any other addiction in my opinion, and July 27th 2004 changed my life forever.

I should have known what I was in for when I pushed that submit button on the internet, and witnessed $317 dollars disappear from my checking account. Let the intense training begin in other words.

The past three months have been very hard, and not just the training. The altering lifestyle that I’ve endured this summer has and will change my life forever. Instead of waking up on Sunday morning with a hangover from hell, I would wake up and join my training partners for a twenty mile run. On those weeknights that my friends would go out for beer and wings, I would be outside trying to get an extra 10 miles in on the bike before the sun disappeared on the horizon.

I always liked a challenge, and decided to pick the most grueling sporting event known to man. “The Ironman”. When I approach the starting line Saturday morning, I know my emotions will get the best of me, but that’s okay. That’s what the sport of triathlon is all about. Lance Armstrong said, “It’s not about the bike”, and I say it’s not about the race either. It’s those endless hours riding across the country side, running through the woods, and swimming across any body of water for any period of time that truly matters.

Everyone continues to ask me what kind of time I expect. In all just finishing the race and becoming an Ironman is an accomplishment inside itself. In my eyes, my race is already won. Whether I finish in Hawaii qualifying time, or crawl across the line after the lights go out my race happened this past summer.

I know that I worked hard in turn turning my body into what it is today. Just knowing the years I’ll add to my life makes up for the pain and suffering endured day in and day out.

Tuesday October, 12 2004

Today I feel completely rested. I did not work out last night, and I tried to stay off of my feet as much as possible. After work last night I came home, took a two hour nap on the couch, ate dinner, and was fast asleep. I knew I had to have at least a good ten hours of sleep tonight, so that’s what I did. Today will also be my last day here at the office, so I plan on getting to bed early again tonight, and sleeping till my body tells me to get up.

Nutrition for me this week is something that I really want to focus on. So far my meals consisted of the following over the past two days. For breakfast I had a Harvest Power Bar which was 250 calories. By mid morning I ate some cantaloupe, peanuts, and switched to drinking Gatorade opposed to my usual bottle of water. I plan on going for a light four mile jog soon with Sally at marathon race pace. By getting the right amount of sodium, carbohydrates, and electrolytes to fill my glycogen levels I should be stocked up enough for Saturday morning. At lunch I’ve been eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, as well as a side of spaghetti. In the afternoon I continue to munch on the jar of peanuts as well as consume a banana or two. Typical Ironmen put on approximately 3-4 pounds leading up to race day the following week, so as I saw the scale go up a few pounds, I didn’t worry.

Another one of my fears for Saturday is not being able to eat solid foods. In the past I’ve had trouble eating Balance bars or Clif bars during the bike. I am going to try and force myself to eat two bars early in the bike portion of the race and stick to Hammer Gels the remainder of the day. I guess we’ll see what happens.

I just got back from my afternoon four mile run with Sally. She’s really motivated me over the summer making me work hard on our runs at lunch. I had to tone it down of course today however. We ran at an easy pace. If I had to guess I would say we ran at an 8:30 pace for 33 minutes. Tonight I’m going to take it easy, get to bed early, and wake up late.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

I made sure I got a good nights rest and woke up around 9:30 this morning. The air was chilly, but I knew that I needed to get one last solid workout in. I jumped on my bike, and off I went. Wow was it cold this morning. There is nothing worse then riding down the road at 40 miles with the temperature in the mid forties. I biked for about a half an hour, and then went home again to rest. I really felt I was ready for Saturday, both physically and mentally. That afternoon I packed my bike and all my gear and we set out for Durham North Carolina. I drove to Durham with my dad and mother. Lisa and Alan drove down later that evening. The drive went really fast, and we were on the road for a total of 8 ½ hours. That included the hour that we stopped for dinner. I was exhausted from the drive down, so as soon as we got to the hotel, it was lights out and fast asleep for me.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

I woke Thursday morning full of excitement. Durham is a small town, and we soon found out that there wasn’t much to do in the surrounding area. Packet pickup began at noon. We had some time to kill this morning, so we decided to take a drive to Duke University. We walked around campus, and after a half hour decided to go back to the race site. The race site was eighteen miles from our hotel, and about a twenty minute drive. After packet pickup, we went back to the hotel. I napped for a bit, and waited for Alan and Lisa to arrive. After the two of them showed up, we went back to the race site for the kickoff pasta dinner. After dinner I called it a night, and went back to sleep.

Friday, October 15, 2004

One day to go! This is how I felt the entire day. I rehearsed the race over and over inside my head. I thought about my pedal cadence, how to pace on the run, and how to attack the race in general. When we showed up Friday for the pre race meeting, I noticed something that I wasn’t prepared for. WIND. The winds were relentless and blowing upwards of 20 miles per hour. We attended the pre racing meeting and afterwards I unpacked my bike from the car, and began to set it up in the transition area. So this was it. Less then 12 hours to go. I could feel the anticipation in the air. After we unloaded everything, we went out to dinner and I had a big piece of lasagna, bread, and lots of salad. I retired early since I knew I had a very long day in the morning.

Saturday, October 16, 2004 “The Ironman”

The alarm buzzed and I awoke from a dead sleep. Some people say that they can never sleep the night before a big race, but I always sleep like a baby. I showered, put my Tri suit on, and then loaded up on the layers of clothing. It was only 40 degrees outside when we piled into the car. The race was scheduled to begin at 7:00 AM with a mass start of 200+ participants. As 7:00 approached, the temperature only went up a few degrees. I walked down to the beach and the sand felt like I was walking on ice. I quickly got into the water to warm up. The water was 69 degrees, and with the air only at 43, the lake felt like a hot tub.

The Swim

As the sun crested the horizon, the Star Spangled Banner played, and the air horn went off. Over two hundred bodies raced into Falls Lake, and we began the first of two 1.2 mile loops. My first lap I felt really good. I got into a rhythm early breathing to both sides every third stroke. I came out of the water in my fastest 1.2 mile split of 33 minutes. I had planned on finishing the swim in 1:15:00 and was already four minutes ahead of schedule. The second lap I still continued to feel good, but also thought that I was going a little too hard, so I backed off and continued to pace myself. Although my form began to struggle, I tried to ease up on my legs, and focus on only using my arms to propel my body through the water. This in tern would save my legs for the long bike race ahead. About two miles into the swim, I started to get a slight pain in my right shoulder, but it soon went away as I thought to myself, “One event almost over, and only two more to go”. As I made the final left hand turn around the last buoy I could see the finish line. I ran up the beach, through the chute, and up the concrete sidewalk towards the first transition area. My swim time was 1:11:30. Wetsuit strippers helped me pull off my wetsuit and I proceeded to the first transition area.

The Transition T1

Since the first time I did a transition, a year and a half ago, I’ve made a lot of progress in the transition area. Off with the wetsuit, on with the helmet and off I go. That’s all there is to it. It sounds easy on paper, but after 2.4 miles of swimming you have trouble remembering where you’re at let alone what to take off and what to put on. I had the fastest transition time out of everyone in the race. It only took me 2:06 to run up the ramp, get out of the wetsuit, put my biking gear on, and head across the bike mounting line. Off I went on the 112 mile bike ride.

The Bike

It takes a special kind of person to attempt an Ironman. You have to mentally block out all of the pain, and just keep moving forward. Everyone should try swimming a mile, and then try to pedal a bike. Your legs refuse to work like they should. Your quads hurt, and especially your butt hurts. When you start to hurt, you need to tell yourself that it will only get better from here. The bike ride is like a chess match. If you go out too hard, the people you pass at the beginning will pass you at the end. If you go out too slow, you may never regain the time on the run. Also you need to make sure you stay hydrated, and continue to take in the same amount of calories that you burn. I had estimated that I lost 300-400 calories on the swim. I ate a Harvest bar that was 250 calories, and soon after that a Power Gel containing 150 calories. It took me about 30 minutes before I settled into a good rhythm, but once I found that rhythm, the day started to fly by. The bike course was lollipop shaped with two 45 mile loops. In other words, you biked out to the loop 10 miles, did the loop twice, and biked back the same way. On the first loop I didn’t know what to expect of the terrain. I continued to eat gels every 20-30 minutes, and also ate salt / magnesium caplets. The temperature was only in the mid 40’s so I didn’t sweat too much. There was one major hill climb on each of the loops, but the hills were the least of my worries. My worry was the wind. I had to face 22 mph head winds on the bike for at least 30 miles of the ride. At one point in the ride, I almost got knocked off sideways. My speedometer quit working around mile 80 due to a Gatorade spill, but I knew I only had a little ways to go. As I approached the finish there were my parents cheering me on. I was right on my goal to break 11 hours in my first Ironman competition. I thought it was possible, but those winds really took everything out of me. I crossed the dismount line in 5 hours 52 minutes and 11 seconds.

The Transition T2

The second transition was again well thought out and rehearsed in my head. I would dismount my bike, run to the changing bags. Take off my bike shoes, empty out the pockets in my shirt, put on my running shoes, race belt, and begin the marathon. Sounds easy, and it was easy. In just 1 minute and 37 seconds I was off on the run.



The Run

During the last ten miles of the bike all I thought about was, “Man there is no way in hell that I’m going to be able to run 26.2 miles feeling like this”. Man was I wrong. I dismounted the bike, flew though the transition area, and took off at a nice and easy pace. I couldn’t believe it. It felt like I had a new pair of legs. I began to pace myself with one of the guys that were on a relay team. He had a GPS unit attached to his arm and he kept telling me what kind of pace we were doing. We were running around an 8 minute per mile pace, and this felt alright at the time. He actually got me through the first ten miles of the marathon with ease. The marathon was five 5.2 mile loops. At first I thought, “Five loops.” That’s going to be so mind troubling as the run gets further in. I held pace for the first three laps, but when it came to the fourth lap, I was having trouble. I could tell that I was running 11 minute miles now, and didn’t know how I was going to finish. I sucked it up, and kept moving forward. Near the end of the forth lap Alan caught up to me. He was on his second lap, but I knew that if I would run with him, I could pace myself to the finish. He saw that I was having some trouble, and encouraged me every step of the way. He ran with me the entire way to the finish. I’m sure he could have run faster, but he stuck with me the last five miles of the race. The support on the run was tremendous. The energy that people brought with them was out of this world. The constant cheering and non stop encouragement made every step along the way worth the run. Some aid stations even dressed up as characters of the Wizard of Oz. It always brought a smile to my face every time we passed them. As I approached the finish line, I thrusted my fists in the air and high fived my dad who waited for me at the finish line. This was truly the best feeling I have ever had. I had gone the full 140.6 miles and now it was official. With a finishing time of 11 hours, 25 minutes, and 51 seconds, I was now an Ironman.

After constantly moving for 11 ½ hours, your body aches. I could barely walk after the race. I got a massage, but nothing seemed to help. I started to get really cold, so I needed to keep moving. I patiently awaited Lisa and Alan to finish the race. They both had awesome times. Everyone walked away with an award. I took 1st place in my age group and 16th place overall. Lisa took 4th place overall in the Female division, and Alan won 2nd place in his age group.

Special Thanks

I’d like to thank everyone that has helped me accomplish my goals over the past year. Without you guys, none of this would have ever been possible. Special thanks goes out to my parents and family for believing in me and supporting me the entire way. Tom Mal for getting me back into running a couple times a week, and eventually back into 5K races. Lisa and Alan for helping me train and keeping me motivated. I can’t wait till Ironman Wisconsin in 05. You guys are going to do incredible. Special thanks to Drew and Sandy for adopting me on the weekends and turning me in to a much better cycler. Whether it was the MS-150, a long 8 hour ride up Chestnut Ridge, or a 50 mile ride to Twin Lakes they always made me work and supported me along the way. I’d also like to thank Mike Fallon for waking me get up at 7:00 am on Sunday mornings while all of my friends were still hung-over sleeping at home. I’d like to thank Sally Carey for calling me at work every day, and dragging me outside for those fun runs at lunch. I’d also like to thank the entire Irwin crew for the Tuesday night track workouts, and the Thursday night runs to North Irwin. I really couldn’t have done it without all of your support and motivation.

posted by Chad Holderbaum @ 1:41 PM Comments: 0