2011 Ironman Cozumel Race Report

This was an Amazing experience on many levels.  Before I start my report I must thank  Skye and the girls for their  understanding during the last year of training.  Although, the phrase that hurts the most is, "Does Daddy have to train again today?"  their support kept me pushing through the 14+ hours I was moving forward.    I also regret my decision to withdraw from the race with 8 miles left in the run but my body was not cooperating and although I constantly try to remind myself of this fact it doesn't help soothe my thoughts of not finishing.

Now on to the report.

We landed in Mexico on Tuesday November 22, 5 days before the race, which was good to help acclimatize.  Once we exited the airport and we started loading our bags into the van, I began to literally drip with sweat.  It was pouring off of me in buckets and I was barely doing anything...little did I know how important this moment was.  We spent the next few days hanging around the resort, did a short run, short ride and a short swim in the days leading up to the event.  I had been fighting a major cold for the two weeks of my final taper into the event and it finally lifted on Thursday!  I felt this was a positive sign and my body was raring to go.  The night before the race was not my most restful night of sleep but I wasn't too anxious yet.  The real anxiety came when the alarm went off at 4:27 AM race day.  I was already awake and had been for some time.  I checked and rechecked my nutrition.  Skye woke up and started taking pictures and video and I was really nervous.  I was not excited about the pics or the video.
Used the bathroom at least 3 times before I left and ate my normal pre race meal of Peanut Butter and Jelly with Banana English muffin.  I washed it down with some EFS Electrolyte Recovery drink and headed for the lobby.  Stopped off and filled my nutrition bottles with Ice for the long hot day and then met up with  Matt Rodgers and David Norton as we waited for the bus.  Dave had to run off for something so it was just Matt and myself on the bus.  I sat down next to Caleb, who had been staying at the Allegro with us.  We chatted for a bit and the conversation was the normal pre- race chatter, "Is this your first IM?  How many have you done?  How are you feeling?"  The bus dropped us off about a quarter mile down the road from the Swim Start and T1.  The walk to T1 was the easiest walk I've done before a race.  All year, this year, I've been tired before races, amped up mentally but I've felt heavy legged before each one of my races.  I've also had the longest taper of my Tri career in the last month which led to many more questions than answers.  Dropped off everything I thought I needed on my bike and reapplied Body Glide to various areas, mainly the armpits and got in line to get body marked again.  They marked us the day before but we're in Cozumel and it's hot and humid so by race day, most numbers were gone.  I still have a perfectly tanned 2 on my shoulder due to the great marking job they did. 
  The Swim

     They ushered us onto the docks and we walked down the entire length and about halfway down we saw the families!  This was great!  We shared high fives, took a few pics and shared a few last glimpses of the familiar faces that have supported us all year.  I felt great, still a little nervous but beginning to calm myself as we walked.  In the pre-race meeting they kept telling us that they had something "super special" planned for us before the start of the race so Matt, Tracey, Kristina and I waited as folks jumped in the water a full 15 minutes before gun time.  However, the officials were telling us we needed to get in the water.  We all shared hugs and wished each other good luck and headed our various ways to start our day.  Totally missed whatever they planned which I'm told was jumping dolphins.
I made my way to the front of the dock and a little towards the right, closer to shore. When the announcer told us we had 4 minutes to start time, I started to move forward to where I thought I'd be comfortable with my pace group, I had planned to not be in front but not be in the back either.  Being a bigger guy, this is one area where I can use my size to my advantage, as I moved forward in the pack, the horn went off and we were all scrambling forward.  Either that was the quickest 4 minutes ever or they blew the horn early. (Later I learned they had to blow the horn early as many athletes were creeping over the line)  I was now in the crazy full contact sport that is a mass swim start. 2300 athletes all crammed in to roughly 200 yards of a swim start line aiming for the first buoy 800 yards away.  I tried my best to stay wide and keep my line for the buoy but several folks who needed to get to that buoy first were crowding my line.  I stayed calm and in my zone, rounded the first buoy and headed for buoy #2, made the turn there and settled into a nice long and smooth stroke.  I kept hearing Coach Ken and Don's voices in my head to keep my head down and use the entire stroke.  This swim was awesome and about this time, I was totally settled in and feeling good and I became overwhelmed with the enormity of this event!  I yelled in the water, "I'm doing this MFer!"  The water was so clear you could see the bottom and  all of the safety divers they had positioned along the way.  I very rarely looked up to sight as you could see where the next diver was and where the next buoy was anchored the entire way.  I did see some huge fish about half way through the course and as I started to track the turnaround at the submarine, I thought that maybe I was closer to an hour swim compared to the 1:15 I had planned to swim so I backed off a bit and took a break for a while.  We rounded the sub and headed to the final big turn for home.  As I rounded the last turning buoy, I was along side a guy who was my mirror opposite for a while.  He and I matched each other stroke for stroke, for most of the way home.  I started powering it up as I could see the finish area and got to the steps before I even knew it.  I got out of the water and felt great!  I couldn't believe how good I actually felt!  I raised my hand to my family and gave them a big smile as I ran past.  This swim was awesome, clear, warm water and even the little jelly fish stings were nothing to worry about!

I ran into the Change tent feeling on top of the world. T1 was uneventful, other than having difficulty getting my tri top on and the fact that I didn't drink anything nor did I reapply sunscreen.  As I said, I felt great!  I was out of the water in 1:07:03 and out of T1 in 7:03, so my time starting the bike was 1:14:06.





THE BIKE

   As I exited T1 and hopped onto my bike and as a seasoned Ironman athlete had warned me, my legs did indeed feel like never before!  I felt so good that as I powered onto the course I let out a very loud war cry whoop!  I'm pretty sure I scared the crap out of the guy next to me.  Anyway, the first lap of the bike was awesome!  I had told myself that I needed to work on getting my heart rate back in the 130s on the first lap and it took me nearly the entire 33 miles to accomplish that feat.  Another rookie mistake was made in the first 10 miles of the bike.  I neglected my nutrition plan for the first 10 miles of the bike and did not force myself to take on Endurolytes or water for the first 10 miles.  I also think that I may have misjudged the amount of Perpetuem I needed in each bottle and should have taken 3 Two hour bottles instead of 2 Three hour bottles. The first lap was great and the fan support was amazing.  I felt like a Rock Star when I got back to town. and pumped up the crowd as well as did my best Hulk Hogan impression.  Then back to Allegro, still feeling strong. The straight stretch down to the Allegro was awesome, fan support at the swim start and along the way at various points still rocked.  Went by the family for the second time and still feeling great!  I stayed in aero position for my pictures and waved at everyone as I passed.  The girls had worked hard on making signs for us and it was great to see them!

Tracey passed me just after seeing them and I was unable to stay up with her which should have been my first sign that I was in trouble.  Once I hit the windward side of the island I began to struggle, and I started to feel my quads burning a bit.  I made sure that I didn't draft all day and I didn't ride inside of anyone on the windy side and it may have hurt me a bit as well.  I was starting to get over-heated and made a deal that if I could make it to the last aid station, I'd stop and get some ice to cool down.  I stopped at the aid station and as I stood up to dismount my bike, my right quad seized up in a vicious cramp.  It sucked up so far into my quad that my skin around my knee was instantly wrinkled beyond recognition.  I spent the next 10 minutes trying to massage the muscle and release the spasm, then I packed ice in my shorts leg and got back on the bike to get going again.  By the end of the day I would be very solid in my pronunciation of hielo (ice).  I tried to eat part of my Macrobar at this point and I had been good at taking my 3 Endurolytes per hour on the bike.  The cramps were here to stay.  Lap 2 was worse than the first and Lap 3 of the bike was a game of making it to every other aid station for refill on water, hielo (ice), and shade.  I faked it past the family for pictures but Skye knew at that point I was in trouble as I didn't interact with anyone I just rode through with a smile on my face. 

It started to rain as I pedaled into town and at this point I was unsure if I was even going to make it out of T2.  I finished my little bike ride in 8 hrs and 55 seconds.  I fought the cramps for the last 5 hours and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to put pressure on my leg to run after that.  I dismounted my bike and I didn't collapse so on to transition and hopefully some magical recovery agent that would allow me to complete a marathon.


T2

Surprisingly, I was able to walk.  As I walked into the tent, I was pissed, however, there were several guys in there with me in the same boat.  One guy told me he had his girlfriend grab him a hotdog.  At the time I thought he was crazy.  In hindsight, he's an Ironman vet and knew what he was doing.  

The Run 

  The "Death March".  I walked out of the tent and saw Skye and I was more upset than I've been in any race to date.  I threw down my ice in a fit and told her that I would be lucky if I finish.  Then I saw my "Support Crew" Mom, Sis, and the girls and I started to run.   I ran with my buddy, "HotDog guy"  through the first aid station which was over a km from Transition.  Just a little way past that I had to start my walk/run/walk game to push towards the finish.  So 1 mile into my run I knew I was going to be running for bits and walking for bits.  The good news is that almost everyone still out on the course was in the same boat.  This was also our first aid stations with Pepsi, so I took some of that and some Gatorade and started to feel a little more human.  I filled up my FuelBelt bottles with water and had more Perpetuem and some EFS electrolytes in the bottles.  In the future I will have all EFS in my run bottles.  I also only budgeted for 4 hours of Endurolytes in my belt and given that I had gone over my 6 hour ration on the bike by 2 hours I was in severe need of hydration and electrolytes.  I managed to push through to the Half Marathon point in just over 3 hours and knew that if I could maintain this pace, I'd finish.  However, as I made the turn on the second lap headed back to town, I started cramping again.  I yelled for hielo (ice) at the aid station but the volunteers didn't hear me.  So I stopped to turn around and pick up a bag.  Mistake!  As I turned back around to resume my shuffle both of my legs below the knees felt like they were asleep and stuck in concrete.  Both of my feet and calves started to cramp and began to seize up.  I had been locked in my own zone of trying to maintain a 15 minute mile and now I didn't think I'd take another step.  The medics came over and kept asking if I was ok.  I couldn't speak to them, my voice was all but gone and all I could do was wave them off and try to massage my cramps out.  Eventually the muscles released and I could pick up my feet.  I moved forward again with the grace of Frankenstein for a few steps then realized my speed walk was now a walk.  I thought I could get back to my 15 min pace but I was stumbling pretty bad.  Now I wasn't sure I would make it back to town.  I tried to jog and couldn't, I tried to get back to 15 min/ mile pace and couldn't, I was now in the late stages of dehydration and my body was shutting down.  Somewhere along the way I had stopped sweating and the cramps were so bad that I slowed to a 22 min/ mile pace.  I started doing math in my head the best I could and thought I still had a shot but 30 minutes later I started to come to grips with the fact that my night was done.  I made a deal with myself, make it back to town and see Skye and the girls and then see what happens.   I made it back and told Skye and Carrissa I was done.  

The girls were all asleep on the sidewalk and everyone was tired.  Matt had finished almost 2 hours before and was waiting to try to push me on, to no avail.  My journey on this day was done, the Med tent and fluids were in my future.  

20/20
  Hindsight being what it is, I am truly disappointed in my inability to finish this race but after compiling this rather lengthy report I understand more clearly why I ended up in the shape I did at 14:20:36 of the race.  I failed to plan properly for nutrition and hydration and I was not prepared for the worse case scenario.   I spent almost 2 hours longer than I had planned to on the bike and my run was doomed from the start.  I did not plan for that kind of electrolyte deprivation.  Overall, this experience was awesome!  I enjoyed the path to getting here and the milestone achievements of epic rides, runs and swims leading up to the big day!  Thank you again to everyone that helped along the way. Also, thank you very much for my support crew of Skye, Bella, Sadie, Carrissa, Mom, Ellora and Cai!  It meant a lot to have my family there with me! 

I am planning on taking 2012 to get my nutrition locked up and do a couple of Half Ironman races as well as continuing to work on my running.  Ironman Switzerland in 2013!!!