First and foremost, I must give my grateful acknowledgements to my mom and Jeff. They have come to so many of my races (really I have pretty much dictated their vacation plans for the last year or two) and have done so much to help me get here. I would not have been able to do it without them (well maybe I could have but it would have been a very hollow achievement). In the end Ironman is great but there are things enormously more rewarding and important, the family.
Panama City Beach is a delightful place in November. It's not humid, nice and sunny, a bit chilly at night but quite pleasantly warm during the day. The beaches are as white as ground up elephant ivory and the sea is a lovely bluey-green, which bears no resemblance to the mucky brown gulf of mexico I have seen lurking around houston. And it is the south, holy cow. Waffle Houses abound and don't go talking about Obama.
There is a great deal of hoop-lah built up around the race. First off, the race directors have arranged it such that one must arrive a couple of days beforehand (definitely a good idea anyways) for registration and such. And holy cow, what an operation. THere are something like 2300 athletes, plus 3000 volunteers, plus all the spectators/supporters (I would guess at another 3000 at least) and they are ALL trying to buy their official IM Florida mug, tow hitch plug, drink koozy (does anyone really know how to spell that word?), beanie and all manner of IM-branded paraphernalia. I of course am above such materialism and restricted myself to purchasing a sole t-shirt and sticker. But the rest of the place is a zoo...vendors, people selling granola and cookies, indoor pools, bicycles, it's just nuts. So I tried to stay away and maintain my zen. Or more like my non-chalantness....'yeah, its my first IM, but you know, whatever man...no big deal.' A bit about non-chalantness in a bit.
Okay so we got all that stuff taken care of....it was time for the race. Get up early, eat oatmeal and banana, etc. Got dropped off and set up my stuff. Throughout all of this, I felt really really calm. It seemed to me that one doing their first IM should have been feeling a bit more anxious/nervous etc. I even slept pretty well the night before. I did experience two periods of nervousness, both at work, once on Friday from 2:17 to 2:28 pm and the other on the bus ride home between the S 128th st and burien transit park and ride.
So we are all assembled on the beach, waiting to go. The pros had started 10 minutes prior. Keep in mind, there's about 2300 athletes, one pretty darned wide beach, all shooting for one buoy. The course is out and around buoys in a rectangular formation, done twice. So we start and wheeeee it is like a washing machine except that instead of an agitator its a bunch of neoprene covered arms and legs. Luckily for me, not only does the hurly-burly not bug me, but I enjoy the flailing/beating. Things started to clear out but would always bunch up again around the buoys. Around we went. Things were going great. I felt very relaxed, warm, and FAST. I went around the first lap in 28 minutes or so. Inbetween laps you run up on the beach and back into the water. The hardest part was goign from swimming to running and back to swimming. All the blood got way confused about like where should I go??? Arms, legs? I am so lost! (thats the blood talking). Swim was done, time was 57:47 which was about 5 or 6 minutes faster than I was expecting. Fantastic!! I was ecstatic, like when you find out you've been offered at a fantastic place like Glosten. (little company plug)
Now the bike....well first the transition. Very speedy, its great having all those volunteer peeps to help you out. Some nice young ladies slathered some sunscreen on my back. I contemplated lingering to discuss with them their spring break plans but in the end decided to go for a bike ride. It was pretty chilly and so for the first 2 hours or so I really couldnt feel a whole lot of anything. My strategy for the bike was to find a nice speedy group in which to lurk. I didn't find one for a while....then as we were headed up some highway I spied in the distance a school of cyclists...they were a ways away and moving briskly, but I knew that I had to catch them. I told myself they were not only competing in an ironman but also carried with them gourmet artisanal cheeses and avril lavigne was in the pack too. But boy it took a while to catch them and boy it took a lot of work on my part. But I got em finally. I stuck with them for the next 40 miles or so, over hill and dale, through florida. It was fun at the bike aid stations, trying to grab water bottles out of peoples hands whilst rolling along at 20 mph. At a certain point, at about mile 75 or so the group fell apart and disintegrated. That was dissapointing. So I made the decision to bridge up to the next group that I could barely see on the straightaways. Boy that took a while too and took a lot of work too...300 watts was showing up far too often on my powermeter. but I finally made it and stuck with that group for a long while. Towards the end, mile 90 or so, I really had to pee. So I tried to go on the bike. Boy that was tricky. I realized that both the actions of pedaling and peeing involve muscles. Now while I am capable of using different muscles simultaneously to do things like change the channel while eating popcorn, or rubbing my belly whilst patting my head, I am not capable of unleashing my bladder and pedaling. So I resigned myself to stopping at the next porta potty. As soon as my high speed pee was done, I resumed biking and was utterly alone...no other bikers in sight. So I spent the last 20 miles or so solo, which was fine as I was able to hunker down super aero style and break the 'porter bratten riding a bicycle in florida' land speed record. Bike time was 4:59 for an average speed of 22.47 mph which was exactly what I wanted, a sub 5 hour bike. yippee!
During the bike I thought to myself (no joking) that if I am super hero, my super power was definitely IM non-chalancity. At no point before the race did I get all freaked out and even during the race I never wondered to myself what the heck am I doing, aaaaah, this is so hard, or any of the things one might expect. Instead I thought about things like peeing, french canadians, and other random stuff. and about my superpowers. because they are indeed super.
Now for the run. Ah the run. i had been looking forward to it because I had heard the female volunteers were super attractive. ha yeah right. There were a lot of boy scouts. They're not very attractive at all. Anyways, I started out and took the first 6 miles definitely too fast...7:19 miles when the plan was above 8 min/mile. d'oh. But you know I felt all good and so I was going too fast...oh well. The run course was out and back, done twice. It went through some very thick spectator support areas before heading into a bit more sparse residential areas and then a lovely state park with nice dunes. Not too much to say about it (bet thats a relief for those of you who have made it this far) but the first 13 miles were pretty easy, I was feeling good and taking in the calories with warm coke, gatorade, pretzels and the occasional cookie. yum. The second 13 miles....whoooo boy. That was when the whole 'iron' thing came into play I think. It was pretty much just make it from aid station to aid station. I started walking the aid stations, which felt pretty good, and just started telling myself, over and over, 11 miles, 10 miles, etc. It was really painful. My quads were just going nuts. My compression shorts I think were the only thing holding them together. Two or three times I just started walking inbetween an aid station, such was the pain. But hey if it was easy they wouldnt charge you 500 bucks and call you an ironman right?!
The miles winded down until it was just 2, then 1...A peculiar thing happened when there was about a half mile left. I started getting all....emotional! I was happy to be nearly done for sure, but my upper lip got all funny and I was obliged to 'hold it in.' The finish line drew near...I had thought for a while about what to do at the finish line but ended up just running across it, into the arms of the volunteers. And then I could let it out...I didn't bawl or anything but I did cry a little bit and then my mom was there and it was perfect and I was done. We went into the tent and sat down. A few times I just randomly let out a little sob and I was done!!! My coach came over and we talked a bit, I ate, got a massage, ate some more and I was done!! yay!!! And I loved it! Truly. It went pretty flawless, especially for a first timer, and my run time was 3:38, for a total time of 9:38.20, 107/2268 overall and 10/111 in my age group. yippee! Here I come ironman brasil!
To those of you who have read this far, congratulations, you have just made it through your first ironman-distance race report. As a parting picture, here's me with my coach and biggest and best sponsors.
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