Florida 1/2 Ironman 70.3

Awesome Experience!

Swim 1.2 miles, Bike 56 miles, Run 13.1 miles

I arrived in Orlando on Friday. Robert Bales and I drove from Georgia in a quick 6 hours. For some reason, we both came down with some sort of respiratory bug and were coughing up odd objects. We figured we'd push on and went by the local YMCA/Aquatics center and got in a quick 800-1000meters (50 meter pool). We had dinner and settled in for the night. For some reason, my chest felt like it was caving in and I had trouble breathing/and still coughing. I fell asleep and awoke at 4:00am. I decided to head to the local Emergency Room/Department. Being a PA, I knew I just needed an antibiotic to get my symptoms under control. But after being told my Co-Pay would be $250.00 (yeah, I gotta get new health insurance), I decided to forego the visit. I went to a local CVS and purchased all types of OTC (over the counter) meds. I took what I could and went back to sleep until around 9:00am.

 Robert and I got up and had some breakfast on the go. We were scheduled for lower body massages around noon...which were excellent. Shortly after we had lunch and headed back to the hotel. We stopped to get gas and I randomly ran into my buddy Chris G. from San Diego. He and I trained together with Tri Club San Diego last year. How random was that running into him? Turns out he was there to do the 1/2 also.

I then met up with EJ and her family and said all my "hello's." I called it a night around 8:30pm.

I woke up around 4:30am and had 4 packets of oatmeal...I gotta find a new pre-race meal...ughhh. I met up with Chris G. and bummed a ride to the race site with he and his girlfriend (future pro). Setting up transition went well. I saw Scott Jones, Roger Hand, Nick Nothoff, Aubrey Linville, but didn't say much to any of them. I'm kind of "in my head" on race morning. As everyone headed down to the start, I stayed up to watch the pro's head into/out of transition. There were 22 waves, and my started last...so I had time to kill. It was exciting watching the pro's come flying through T1...and even more exciting when I saw my buddy Chris Bowker exit the water as the first age-grouper! Nice job Chris! He actually passed some of the pro women in the water! At this point, I headed down to the water to warm-up and get ready to rock-n-roll.

Talk about being pumped, as my wave was about 2 mintues from starting, they started playing Metallica "Enter Sandman" on the loud speakers...I was ready to go! I started off with my infamous dolphin dives (used when it is too shallow to swim, but too deep to walk) and immediately jumped into a rhythm. About a minute in, I ran into a pack of swimmers (from my group) and started clawing my way through them to find a good set of feet to draft. Scott later told me he recalled seeing/feeling me claw over him! Sorry buddy.

The swim went well and I exited the water feeling great! I hit T1 and trotted up to the "mount line" laughing, smiling and yes, talking trash to anyone who would listen. Joke being on me, as I jumped on the bike, I noticed my right foot would not clip in...I kept trying with no luck...so I looked down and to my horror realized my cleat was no longer on my shoe...gone...not in sight..no where to be found! I stood there for a few seconds (felt like minutes) trying to decide what to do. Understand I have put about 5-6 months worth of training preparing for this one moment. So I decided to chuck the shoe altogether and go for it! Yeah, hind sight is 20/20 OD/OS (right/left eye, respectively for you non-medical folks)...and I should have at least went and grabbed my running shoe...but no, I decided to go on. So I rode the entire 56 miles (actually heard it was 57.+miles) bare-footed. It was painful but funny. Everytime I passed someone, they would give me a hello/nod...and then about 2 seconds later I would hear "Holy Crap Dude!" I guess people would look down and realize I had no shoe. That being said, I felt my bike was still respectable. My dreams of hammering the bike ended at T1, but oh well...it's just part of racing!

So let's just jump ahead to the run...

So I felt good arriving in T2. I saw EJ and her family (thank you all for the cheers and support) and quickly put on my shoes and headed out. I was doing OKAY for the first 3 miles when my stomach hit the wall. My gut locked up and that was the end of running as I formerly knew. Walking became the norm, although painful. It hurt to walk, it hurt to run...the only solitude was the 10 seconds of sloushing in ice water at the few aid stations on the course. I'm a pretty competitive person and at/around mile 5, I stopped caring. My goal immediately changed to 1. living, 2. finishing the race (in that order). Dehydration, Hyponatremia (Low Sodium ratio) got the best of me...lack of preparation!

Needless to say, I finished the race and was happy with that. Yeah, things could have been different...I should have planned my nutrition...I should have checked my cleat on race morning...but I didn't, and that's part of racing and learning!

I enjoyed the experience and I look forward to capitalizing on my mistakes next year at Florida again! Thanks for reading!