Race report for myself

[Archaea]

and for the few of you to humor me.

Ironman started in 1978 with fifteen lads trying to show who is best, the swimmer, the biker or the runner. This event was held in Hawaii, on Oahu.

The first guy won in something over eleven hours, completely self-supported.

Ironman is now a multi-national, multi-million dollar affair. Coeur d'Alene pays a few bucks for the honor of hosting it. They are usually contracted for five years, or one year renewable contracts.

They are very clever at marketing, encouraging athletes to raise money for charities of the athletes' selection. Just this race raised about $1.2 to 1.3 million dollars for charity.

All ages participate from teenager to very old. It is an event now and fun to participate.

It takes place on one day, but with marketing expos and check-in, it requires many days to attend and to participate.

Physical preparation is another matter, but although I believe, a working person can participate, it is difficult for such person to "race" the event. By that I mean, it's difficult to be fit enough, to go hard throughout the day. There are physiological reasons and simple race preparedness reasons.

If you are retired or individually wealthy, or have no family, you can participate, but racing is unusual.

My brother has done about ten of them, starting six or seven years ago.

Two years ago, while I contemplating watching him in New Zealand, he enticed me to try.

Mind you, I had not been on the bike since the mission, hadn't swum since high school and meekly ran a few easy half marathons. Naive is the word.

So I trained for the 2005 New Zealand Ironman, suffered some bad bike mechanical problems but still finished under 13 hours. Nothing spectacular, but, hey, a finish.

Fast forward to CDA 2006. I wanted to see how many family members would participate. Originally hoped wife and two brothers, one sister and one sister-in-law would do it. Only bro and sis did it, but it was fun.

Preparation was shortchanged in May, so I was weak on bike and going into run. I knew this, but family matters precluded some of the work I needed.

Nonetheless, I figured I could gut it out.

About 2400 entered, but maybe only 2200 actually started on a narrow, two loop, 1.2 mile swim for a total swim of 2.4 miles. The first leg was scary.

I'm confident as a swimmer, but I wanted to swim to the kayaks and leave, until I made the first turn. At that time, my heart rate was lower than 120, so I was swimming very easily. Time of 63 minutes, not fast for me, but it was very easy, so I came out rested, even though I took my usual eternity in transition from swim to bike.

My plan was to go out easy and press a little on second of two loop, 56 mile bike course. First loop was easy pace, but it was heating up. Stupid thing for me is that when I feel good I don't eat much. I did drink a lot, but didn't down many Gus. Second lap was going fine, except as I ascended up hill, I noticed hip flexor tightening, and other electrolyte symptomatic stuff. I knew I had two more climbs but they were only a couple of miles each between the 5.5% to 7% grades, so I wasn't too worried.

It was a picturesque ride, but riding back into the wind, one remembers, hey, my last 100 miler was in February. Oops. Still riding easy cuz the run's still there.

Finish the bike slower than I had hoped. Where did I lose those fifteen minutes on the second loop? Hmm.

Started running. Back up a minute. I heard the prerace seminar by hall of famer Paula Newby Frazier of Australia, say, you need lots of endurolytes before and during the run. I loaded up on them at end of bike, and started having a bad feeling down there.

I was all prepared to jog a 4 hour marathon and have my best time, out of two, EVER.

Well, legs started cramping and despite endurolytes and all my mental efforts I could run a bit, before the horrible twinging would start me walking. So I lost an hour, due to non-cooperative physiology.

People tell me the conditions were harsh, as times were an hour or more slower than the year before. Bike and run was in 90s.

Any how, I would "shuffle" by anybody I knew so as not to embarrass myself, but my bro and sis both qualified for Worlds in Kona, whereas slow man, old brother did not.

Whether I will ever have sufficient time to achieve a result desirable to me is unknown. At my age I'd be happy in the 11 hour 20 range and ecstatic under 11, but I haven't been close in my two efforts.

The Ironman tests one's knowledge of one's own physiology, fitness and race intelligence, plus luck.

Personally I prefer the half Ironman races as they do not require as much preparation and even I can race it if I'm fit.

Thanks for reading, the four or five of you.

If you ever want to Tri one, I'd be happy to share additional, maybe useless, insights.

There are all sorts of success stories out there.

One guy aged 50 has raced 47 of the full Ironman events. He wins his age group.

Another guy lost 136 pounds to be able to finish.

Another man ran with his new artificial leg.

Another woman lost her husband to ALS and raced to raise money for the ALS foundation.

Ironman is now sponsoring programs where athletes go into schools to talk about fitness in an effort to stem obesity.

My friend, a very good soul, lost one hundred fifty pounds to complete his in just under 16 hours 23 minutes. He had to learn to swim, learn to bike and to improve his run. He walked for reasons unknown to me.

Couples participate.

If you ever want to truly challenge yourself, prepare for one, you might enjoy the challenge.

[creekster]

Great report. So you expected to average better than 19.09 on the bike? That is pretty impressive. Next time you do one we should get somebody to design a cougarguard jersey for you to wear. Great job!

[il Padrino Ute]

You're a much braver man than I to do this Archaea. I don't mind being in shape, but I'm not one to really test myself physically. The distance running I'm into involves 90 feet, a 45 degree turn and another 90 feet and so on two more times.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by creekster

Great report. So you expected to average better than 19.09 on the bike? That is pretty impressive. Next time you do one we should get somebody to design a cougarguard jersey for you to wear. Great job!

I had hoped to time trial about a 5:40 or 12 minutes faster. I know I can TT about a 5:10 if I didn't have to run or swim. Unfortunately, drafting is NOT legal. 5 to 6 hours in the aeros is hard, but we usually use a less aggressive profile than a pure time trialist. Unflexible old guys like yours truly really are much less agressive.

Saw lots of P3 Cervelo Carbons though, with expensive wheels. Untill I earn my wheels, I stay with clinchers.

Unlike you, I've never broken five hours for a century, so in reality, I'm not a true cyclist, just a wannabe.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Unlike you, I've never broken five hours for a century, so in reality, I'm not a true cyclist, just a wannabe.

The 'me' that did that was a different person from the 'me' that I see in the mirror these days! No way I could come close to averaging 19.09 for 112 miles. A couple of years ago my wife and I average 19.9 on our tandem for the second half of a century with a slight tailwind. Nothing close to that since (at least not for anything over 20 miles)

[Jeff Lebowski]

Hey, if you can stagger across the finish line (regardless of the time) then you have my deep respect. That's amazing. Bravo.

[stonewallperry]

Originally Posted by homeboy

Hey, if you can stagger across the finish line (regardless of the time) then you have my deep respect. That's amazing. Bravo.

Hey - to get my respect, all a person would have to do is prepare for one then give it their best shot whether or not they actually finish. (Note to all, I may try one of these someday, I'm setting myself up for success)