IMSG Part 1

Ironman St George (5 May 2012)

What a day!! That would about sum it up if I could. At 7:14 that night in 12 hr 14 mins and 40 seconds I became an Ironman. The forecast for Saturday was mid 80s with 10 mph winds. But it turned into high 80s with 25 mph winds with gusts up to 40 mph. We started the race with 1432 athletes: 80 of them didn’t make it through the swim, 269 didn’t make it through the bike and 61 didn’t make it through the run. With almost 29% of the field getting a DNF, Notably St George has earned the title of the Toughest Ironman Course. And by far the toughest thing I had ever done in my life. Truly an Epic Journey!

Morning of:

That morning I woke up at 3:45 as planned to eat breakfast. After getting my breakfast down I did a final check on my wetsuit, swim cap, goggles, nutrition for my bike and my timing chip (of course). I went in to kiss the family as they slept. Then my Dad and I left to head down to Transition by the finish line to drop my special needs bag for the bike and catch the athletes’ shuttle (due to the swim being 21 miles from town) to the reservoir. I said good bye to my Dad, told him I would see him at the finish line, gave him a hug and loaded up on the bus with other athletes. It was pretty quite on the bus, couple people talking about the bike course and heard another guy say this was is 5th Ironman etc. Out of the group that started only 400 of us were Ironman virgins so I knew most of the people on the bus were vets. I put in my head phones, turned on my iPod while thinking about everything I had done up to this point. I was ready and it was time to apply all the long hours of training. Soon we arrived at Sand Hollow, I got body marked right away, headed over to my bike to put all my nutrition on for the day, pump up my tires and check over everything one last time. I had brought my pump with me so of course I made all kinds of friends that morning. I grabbed my pump and went down to find a few of my friends that needed a pump as well. We spent some time in conversation while applying sunscreen talking about the training and what we had been doing that week since arriving in St George.  We all seemed ready with a number of long hard months of training behind us for this one race. Then it was about time to get ready, I headed back to my bike to get changed out of my clothes and in to my wetsuit, dropped off the morning clothes bag and headed toward the swim start.  The transition area closed at 6:30 even though I was early getting out I wanted to be one of the first in the water to get good position. The Pro Athletes started at 6:45 and they hadn’t even started putting them in the water yet. So we just kind of stood in a corral like cattle.  Once the pros got in the water to warm up the herd started moving down to the water. I heard the announcer say the water temp was 62 degrees. It was already a chilly morning so I knew I just need to jump in over my head get it over with and swim out the start line when I could. Just as we started to get in the water the countdown and the cannon went off for the pros. Then it seemed like a mad rush to get everyone in for the start in 15 minutes.  I was glad I got in right away, just treading water next to the start buoys. I looked at my watch with less than 5 minutes left and many of the athletes are still close to the shore or standing on the sand bar (parallel to the shore line about 50 yards out). The weather was perfect just a slight breeze and I thought to myself this is going to be a good day. There were a number of boats, kayaks and body boards out to support the swim. The kayaks that were forming a line to keep athletes back began to move out of the way, it was getting close to finally starting this race. I said a quick prayer for strength, heart and safety. Closed my eyes and prepared my mind for the day to begin. 

 

Race Start: Calm before the storm

Swim 1:10:31

BOOM!! The cannon went off. I was able to start with the front group leading out; I lined up to not be too close to the big red buoy which was going to be our first turn in 800 meters and avoid the bottleneck of swimmers making a 90 degree turn (which is like standing in line for the bath room sometimes). There weren’t as many people in the front as I thought so I just stayed on the feet of the athlete ahead of me and got set in a pretty comfortable pace. Once we made it to first turn I glanced at my watch to see I was right on pace to swim this just under an hour, I was going to swim faster in this race for 2.4 miles then I had in any other race.  As we started to swim to the next turn which was only 350 meters, I began to feel some rocking motions coming from my left side, thinking to myself those boats are getting too close to the swimmers…so I looked up to yell at someone then realize there wasn't any boats around. It wasn’t too bad just had to make sure I stayed on line to the next turn. The closer we got to the turn the rougher the water was getting. By the time we turned for the long 1600 meter leg of the swim the swells grew to 4-5 ft. I had waves going over my head; it felt like swimming in a washing machine.  I was thinking "you have got to be kidding me!!" it is a mile to the next turn this is going to be a rough leg of the swim.

Any picture or video couldn't do the conditions justice

 Pretty soon I hardly saw any other swimmers around me but didn’t think much of it at that time. I timed a wave (getting on top of it) to look ahead so I could get some bearing to where the next red buoy was. Then  I remembered from the briefing,  I just needed to shoot for the corner of the island. Even with the huge waves I could sight off the island, well most of the time. I just keep sighting that island and timing my strokes and breaths off each of the waves as I continued. I realized the yellow buoys to keep us in line were drifting all over the place so many of the athletes were zig zagging the course. I kept with my plan to swim as straight as I could to the corner of the island. I then out of no where another athlete appeared next to me and we swam together until we reached the next turn. Then I noticed all the boats, kayaks from the beginning of the race were nonexistent. We passed the island out to the red buoy and back to the boat ramp to the finish. The waves finally proved some benefit during the last 300 meters of the swim pushing us to shore. I got out of the water thought “damn I hope the rest of the day isn’t like that”, realizing I had spoke too soon since the winds were blowing straight out of the north at about 20-25 mph (the direction I was heading on the bike). 

Coming out of the water

I got my suit unzipped and pulled down to my waist. I ran to the wet suit strippers, plopped down and this one guy had my suit off in no time helped me up and threw my suit on my shoulder. “Gitty Up” I thought. Looking back I think the years of experience in the water and multiple ocean swims kept me from losing my cool and giving up on the swim even though it was the hardest swim I had ever done.  I am just glad all the athletes made it safely out of the water.

 

T1 6:05

Coming out of T1, glad the swim was over

I ran through the T1 Bag area yelling “643…643…643” I knew where my bag was so headed right for it as a volunteer handed it to me and headed for the change tent. Once I got to the tent,  I had a guy take my bag following me to a chair, dumped it out and proceeded to help get me dressed. Getting my tri top on, socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses and making sure everything else I didn’t want to use got in the bag. I grabbed my Vaseline to hit the saddle spots and off I went out of the tent. Stopped at the sunscreen area and got my second coat for the day and then started back up with “643…643…643” to get my bike I pretty much had to grab it myself since I knew exactly where it was and the volunteer didn't even though she knew the number. I continued running down the carpet to the bike mount line. Got past a few athletes for some space hopped on my bike and away we went.