The beginnings of my triathlon/motor sports blog, which sprung from my emails to my freinds and family about my triathlon training/experiences

I won’t lie, this one did not go nearly as well as I wanted.  I still had fun, but my time was 14 hours, 17 mins, 40.6 seconds.  It was a loooooonnnnnnnnggggggg 14 hours, lemme tell ya!  But I still had fun, and will do another one next year.  I will try and keep up my training regimen a bit better though, as that was what did me in this year.

The run was the worst, I just was not ready for it.  The swim wasn’t bad, and the bike was mostly enjoyable.  Bit of black humor;  the bike course was two laps, and near the end of each lap, we rode by a cemetery.  I figured that was convenient, if we died from exhaustion, they could just throw our bodies int he cemetery…

Anyhow, for those folks who keep up with my blog, thank you!

And here are a couple of pictures:

one from me getting ready at the start, I had already taken a practice swim, and was waiting for the race to start, thinking to myself “What the hell had I gotten myself into again?”,

second picture is me getting ready to get on the back, still wet from the swim, and thinking to myself, ‘maybe I can do this” and the

third picture is of me on the bike.  My poor little bike has to support my fat ass pedaling as hard as I could…

No pictures of the run, I would rather not remember that part.  It went poorly, as I mentioned.  Lot more walking than running.

Oh well, I will keep on doing this, and having fun doing it.  And just keep in mind, Tony Stark only did two ironman movies…I did three ironman races, so I got him beat!

Well, so now I am an official Ironman, instead of an Iron Distance Man (aka Vineman)  I suppose it’s not really much of a difference, if at all, but I am happy I completed my goal of finishing a true ironman race, IM copyright and all.  An yes, the race was different than Vineman, even though they are of course the same distance.  The crowd was much, much bigger, and the energy from the crowd made the run much, much better.  Of course, it doesn’t show in my times, but that’s alright, I had a fun time.  Completed it in 12:31, which is approximately 32 minutes slower than my time in Vineman.  If you want my individual times, you can look them up on www.ironman.com looking for bin #976 in IMAZ, but I won’t go into it.  You can also find pictures of me somewhere using that bib number.  I will, of course, send all the good pictures to my family.  I’ll even put a couple pics of me on this post.

memorable moments:

Seeing Rudy Garcia-Tolson out on the bike course, the first double above the knee amputee to complete an IM

Seeing my family cheering me on on both the bike and run course

Getting out of the water after the swim.  I hate swimming!

Crossing the finish line, and hearing them call out my name, where I’m from, and that I’m a US Marine, and then having all the volunteers in the finish gate thank me for my service.  No, thank you guys, we couldn’t have done this race without you!

Having a burger at a restaurant afterward.

I’d say more, but there isn’t really much to say.  I’ll be doing more triathlons in 201, of course, and do another IM at some point, as well.  Next stop is an XTERRA mountain bike triathlon in April, that one was incredibly fun earlier this year, and I expect it to be great fun again.

Now for the two pictures that I like.  Notice I am sporting my Rooly sunglasses on my bike, courtesy of the great folks at www.rooly.com who are unofficially my eyewear sponsor!

IMAZ Run

IMAZ Bike

The race at IronMan Arizona went well, although my times were worse than my Vineman times, on a supposedly easier course.  That’s alright, I had a good time, and realize that to keep setting my own personal records, I need to keep hitting the swim/bike/run fitness harder.

My official time is 12:31 and some odd seconds, compared to my Vineman time of 11:59:40, and certainly not anything to brag about compared to the male or female winners, both of which were course records, set by some great athletes and great people.  However, an even more special time is that of Rudy Garcia-Tolson, the first double leg amputee to complete an IM on prostheses.  This guy was amazing, I saw him out on the bike course, and he was just awesome, I don’t think anything I could do would ever compare to his spirit.  I’m honored to have run on the same course as him.

I’d like to write a bit more, and I will when I recover some more, but I wanted to get this out there for all my adoring female fans  to see that I do occasionally post on my blog.  I do want to give a shout out to whoever baked the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies at run aid station 2, those were the best cookies I have ever had in my entire life.

So, the Olympic distance on Saturday (Pacific Grove Tri) 1500 meter swim, 40 km bike ride, 10km run.  This was my first tri in 2008, so I wanted to do it again in 2009 to see how I did.  Things went mostly well.  I beat my last years time by about 10 minutes, and I would have done even better, if I didn’t have a flat tire on the 4th lap of the bike.  But hey, shit happens.  It is funny looking at my bike splits;  the first three laps are all about 18 minutes, with an average speed of 21 mph and the last lap is 28 minutes with a 13.5 mph average speed.  Oh well.  It means I probably would have beat my last years time by 20 minutes.  Still had fun, and I got to test out my new tri bike shoes, which are designed to wear sockless, and made to be easy to put on and take off, so that your transition is fast.  I guess it worked, because my swim to bike transition was 2:30 and my bike to run transition was 2:42; last year, both of these were about 5 minutes each.  So, definitely worth it.

Sunday was the Sprint distance (0.25 mile swim, 13.1 mile bike, 2 mile run)  I had never done a sprint triathlon before, and I wanted to see what it was like.  I finished in 1:01:15, which was pretty good, I think.  Imagine going all out for an hour.  Sprinting for an hour, almost.  It was fun, but I felt exhausted at the end.  I would still rather do that than a full ironman, though (which I have my second one coming up at the end of November, IM Arizona)  No flat tire, on this one!

So, that’s my report.  Couple of things to note:  the waves were actually big enough to surf, which is highly unusual for Pacific Grove, so it made for an interesting swim. Water was quite cold, as expected (about 57 Fahrenheit)  The kelp was as thick as last year, so the PG Tri earns it’s name as the kelp crawl.  I was much less nervous for this year than last, because since last year, I’ve completed two half irons, one full iron, two olympic distance and one MTB tri.  The MTB tri was the most fun out of all of those, and I plan on doing it again next year.

Oh the double back title comes from doing two tris on the same weekend.

And back to my training for Ironman Arizona…

Weather was great, the marine layer kept us covered and in the low 60’s until about noon, or so, and then it started getting warm, but I think it never got beyond 80 or so. Other years have had 100+ temps, so we were lucky.

Bike course was rolling hills, only one really steep part, but since the bike was sort of two laps, you went up the steep section twice.

Bike course was also very bumpy! The roads were all older and paved poorly. Certainly not cyclocross action, but pretty bumpy. And I bike commute 16 miles each way on county roads, so I am quite familiar with bumpy.

Run was hilly, as I said.

Race support was great. Aid stations every mile on the run, almost seemed like there were too many!

The lines for the portajohns at race start seemed shorter than other tris, perhaps due to the lesser amount of people, but there were plenty of portajohns either way.

The swim took place at Johnson’s Beach on the Russian River. As I said, it was quite shallow, and the temp was around 73 or so. Wetsuit legal, but some folks choose to go without, and they were fine. me, I’m a crappy swimmer,a nd I need all the swimming help I can get!

Johnson’s Beach is a misnomer, because the name ‘beach’ implies sand. No sand, only rocks and dirt. Some parts of T1 were covered by carpet, but there was no way to avoid getting rocky/dirty feet. I put my shoes on in T1, so it wasn’t so bad, but if you are one of the tri shoes already strapped to pedals and run barefoot out of T1 kind of guys, it might not be the best place for that.

T2 was in a blacktop parking lot at Windsor High School, adjacent to the finish line. By the time I got there, the spare gels I had stashed there had completely melted. Sun and blacktop don’t mix. I suppose if I had biked faster and got there sooner, it still would have been cloudy. Note to self: bike faster.

As I said, race support was great, and they had plenty of good food for athletes at the finish. Pasta sald, chicken breasts, burgers, plus all the normal stuff (cookies, bananas, brownies, etc…) Much better than the dominoes pizza in a box that was at the Oceanside 70.3 (an IM branded event, I might add)

All in all, despite being a smaller, non WTC branded IM (or perhaps because of it), Vineman was a well put on, thoroughly enjoyable event, that I would highly recommend for anyone’s first IM (or second, or third, or etc…) I’ll be back next year, most likely.

Also, in the pictures below, you will see that I have a full jersey on on the bike , and a t-short over my tri suit on the run.  Couple of reasons, first to help prevent some sunburn, and stay a little cooler on the run, and second, to keep all my bike nutrition in the back pockets of my jersey on the bike.

Couple of pictures:

Regardless, it went well.  Vineman is in Windsor, CA, near Sonoma, and you ride through some beautiful wine country, and right by many famous vineyards.  Makes for a nice ride, albeit hilly.  Unfortunately, the run was not so scenic, and was oft accompanied by the smell of cow manure, or baby goats bleeting.  Still fun though.

Swim was 1:20:44, which was certainly not blazing, but good enough to get me to T1.  The Russian River was quite shallow, and at the turn around point, you almost had to walk, it was so shallow.  My fingertips were not gently scraping against the bottom, rather my entire forearm was smacking the bottom in those spots.  However, despite that, I kept swimming, and was faster than the people who walked.

T1 was 5:36, in which I put on a pair of bike shorts and a jersey over my tri suit.  I’ve found in training, that for long rides, I am more comfortable like that.

The bike was great (for me) 5:43:35.  Averaged about 19.5 mph, and passed a whole lot of people that swim faster than me.  Got clipped by an RV around mile 25 (he passed to close, and the awning support sticking out the side brushed me)  I managed to stay upright, and yelled and flipped the driver off.  I’m sure he is hurt by it…  Around mile 70, my rear wheel decided it didn’t need one of it’s spokes.  Fortunately, the spoke did not get wrapped up in the cogs, or anything.  I had to stop and thread it out, but got back on my way just fine, minus one spoke.  Finished up, and realized T2 was still only lightly populated with bikes, so I must be doing well.  And then I realized I still had to go jogging for a while.  Bummer.

As I had dreaded, I basically exploded on the run.  It was a three lap course, each lap approximately 8.7 miles.  First lap was 1:24:40, which, if I could have kept that up, wouldn’t have been terrible.  Second and third laps, though were both in the 1:40 area.  Oh well.  I did managed to finish, though.  Walked the hills, and jogged most of the rest.

Final time was 11:59:40.  My soft goal was 12 hours, and my hard goal was 13.  So, I made my soft goal by 20 seconds.  Makes me happy. 109/684 overall, 99/423 in mens, and 31/114 in M35-39. I’m obviously not earning a Kona spot anytime soon, but I think I did well.

Nutrition worked out well:  1 clifshot block in T1, 10 GU shots on the bike and gatorade and water,  and gatorade and cola at each aid station on the run. No intestinal problems at all, although I did have to stop at the last 4 aid stations on the third lap of the run and pee.  Obviously, I was quite well hydrated.

Some memorable notes:

Did have to stop once on the run and sit down for a #2.  I’m sitting in the portajohn, and I get really dizzy, and then I think to myself that if I pass out in the portajohn, no-one will know, and I will probably die in here.  So, I took care of business, fought off the dizziness, and got back out of there and ran.  Good thing!

At the distant turn around point on the run, saw the CHP officer who was directing traffic writing a ticket to two young gentlemen.  Apparently it was either a DUI or open container bust, since there was a open can of budweiser on top of their car.  Nice.  Glad these two drunks didn’t hit anyone for the portion of the course they had to drive on to get where they were currently at.

Bike course was quite scenic, as mentioned.  Hills weren’t to bad, at least compared to the Auburn Half (6000′ of climbing in 56 miles)  Vineman full has 4000′ of climbing in 112.

Run course was stinky in spots, and the hills were no fun.  Two quite steep spots, and the rest was rolling hills.

Next race (and I use race as a relative term) is the Pacific Grove Olympic Distance, and then in October, a MTB tri as part of Scott Tinleys Adventures.  Then, finally, in November, IMAZ, where it’s ok to call yourself an ironman afterwards.  My goal for IMAZ is 11:30, which includes not blowing up on the run.  So, more run training in my future.

I’ll post some pictures later.

“…the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon will be packed with heart-pounding action featuring a 1.5 mile swim through frigid waters from Alcatraz Island to shore, a grueling 18-mile bike race, and a demanding 8-mile run through the rugged trails of Golden Gate Recreation Area.”

They weren’t kidding when they said the run was demanding.  It was the longest, hardest 8 miles I have ever run.  I think that 8 miles was harder than the 13.1 miles on the Auburn Half Iron triathlon.  Running in the deep sand, very few flat sections, two trips up stairs, including the ‘infamous’ sand ladder

“…reach the dreaded Sand Ladder (400 steps up the cliff). This experience will drain the legs of even the best professionals, as there is nothing like it anywhere in the sport of triathlon. More than one triathlete has used the hand cable to help them walk up the stairs. The stairs are to the run what the currents and waves are to the swim.”

And yes, I used the cable to help pull myself up the sand ladder.  They even have a timing mat at the bottom and top of the sand ladder so you can see how fast you went up.  Despite e feeling like I was dying going up it, I went up in 5:55, which was 487/1690 finishers.

My overall times were 3:19:39, which was 829/1690 overall, 157/276 in my age group (males 35-39).  I did 53:37 on the swim, 1326/1690, 1:03:05 503/1690 on the bike, and 1:12:40, 728/1690 on the run.  yes, obviously I need to work on my swim, as that is my slowest discipline.  I’ll get to it…

The course was great, we took the ferry out to Alcatraz Island, and then jumped off the side of the ferry and swim cross current to the shore.  The current is actually pretty strong, you have to swim diagonal to get to the right spot.  Then, we ran 3/4 of a mile to the transition area, and then biked and ran.  Bike course was easy to me, because I ride a lot of hills, but plenty of folks said it was hard.  the run course was what was really hard to me, as I mentioned.

Regardless, it was a fun time, and well worth doing it once, especially with the beautiful views of Golden Gate Bridge, from the water, a spot most people don’t get to see often.

It was hot out there, mid 80’s, but last year it was supposedly 101, so I can’t really complain.  Oh, and in a change from my last half, my gastro-intestinal system was cooperative.  No problems there.

I’ll leave this with a picture of my intense concentration in T2 as I contemplate running 13.1 miles after killing my legs climbing hills on the bike…

Intense Concentration!