Ironman Texas 5-19-2012
Disclaimer: Before we get started
I need to say that the weather conditions in MSP leading up to IMTX at best
were Lows 80s. I read an article from a
magazine I picked up at the expo that said that in order to acclimate to warmer
weather you need to do approximately 100 mins of exercise outside for 10 straight
days.…….That didn’t happen.
Disclaimer #2: This is a long
read, if you want to skip to the race itself, just look for the RACE DAY
title. The stuff between here and there
is just my journaling up until the last and dreadful day.
And so it begins…………….Having
learned from our expensive road trip last year, the Butts family rented a car
this year for our trip from the north pole to the south pole of America. Why we hadn’t done this on other trips like
visiting Gretchen’s family and other assorted dashes across the country I do
not know. We packed up the kids in the
Chevy Traverse, which had three rows of seating, so there wasn’t so much of “he’s
touching me.” We left right after school
on Tuesday the 15th, about 5pm and headed south. All in all the drive went pretty
smoothly. We hit a patch between Tulsa
and Dallas that had us take a highway that had stop lights but we arrived at
about 9am Weds morning after 17 long dark hours. I do have to brag on my boys, they travel
awesome, 17 hours in a seat belt and not one real complaint.
Weds morning found us in the
Woodlands TX, 30 min north of Houston.
They advertise the woodlands as a master community; don’t know what that
really means. The Woodlands had a
pretty river walk, expensive shops, and nicer places to eat. A trendy city I suppose, very clean much more
wooded than I expected. So in keeping
with the trendy style we went to have breakfast at McDonalds.
After Mcds, we headed to the
Expo, it was held in the parking lot adjacent to what would be the finish
line. They had more vendors that IMCDA, but
standing outside for just 30 mins at 11am you could tell that the heat was way
different than MSP. I picked up my race
# and IM swag; they gave us cool looking backpacks this year, far superior to
the lame zip bags we got at CDA. We
walked around the expo for about 45 mins bought some shirts at the IM store. (Wouldn’t
have done that last year, but because I had already finished an IM, I felt like
I could buy anything I wanted, except for an IMTX finisher shirt, that would be
bad JUJU.) We went back to see if the
hotel was ready for check in, it wasn’t so we got a recommendation for BBQ, a
place called McKenzie’s in Conroe. It had a cool atmosphere, you could tell it’s
where the locals ate but honestly it wasn’t even on par with Famous Daves. After lunch we had some time before check in
so we drove what we could of the run course.
We checked into the hotel about 3ish
and got unpacked and then went to play in the outside pool. I tried to be conscience of being outside too
much and threw on a ton of sun screen.
After the pool we grabbed a bite to eat over at the Cheesecake factory. (Tyler is no longer eating off the kid’s meal
which is a killer increase on the bill.)
We went back to the hotel and crashed.
Thursday morning -AZ had flown into
Houston Weds late night, so he came over to the hotel about 9:30am and we
headed to the expo. He picked up his new
bag, which included an IMTX license plate cover and swim cap, neither of which
were in my bag. GRRRRR IMTX! Found out that the swim cap I could get when
I checked the bike in and I was too much of a wussy to ask about the license
plate cover. The family with AZ in tow
cruised the expo for a little while and then headed out to drive the bike
course. One of the nice parts of CDA
was the bike course was 2 loops so you only had to drive 56 miles to get the
full affect. The IMTX bike ride was one
long 112 lap. The kids quickly
remembered that driving the bike course last year kind of stunk weren’t pleased
to learn that this year it was going to take twice as long. The bike course headed north from The
Woodlands and the predominant wind as it would be on race day was at our back
for the first 40 miles. The course upon
review was flat as pancake from the car perspective, certainly nothing close to
the elevation changes at IMCDA. The roads
for the most part were in decent shape.
As we headed back south the wind was in our face, but nothing
terrible. AZ and I heard about this
dreaded chip seal, which is basically like a resurface treatment used for roads
that they are trying to extend the life of before they completely rip it up,
they used it for about 7 miles, as we drove the car over it didn’t seem that
bad at all. We got back into town, AZ
and I set up the bikes and we took an hour long bike ride just to get a feel
for the course. We grabbed dinner at a
New Orleans restaurant in downtown. AZ
and I then headed over to the course talk.
At the talk they went over the normal rules about drafting, I needled AZ
because he got a penalty last year for it.
They covered the fact that the swim would be wetsuit optional, meaning
because the water temp was between 76-84 degrees those who wish to start in a
wetsuit would start 10 mins later than those who did not. It would also mean that those who swam in a
wetsuit would not be eligible for IM Kona slots; I wasn’t concerned about Kona
so I had already decided to swim the race with a wetsuit. They reviewed the course and minor changes,
nothing to exciting. After the Mandatory
Course talk, AZ and I walked past their open air pavilion and Dave Matthews was
doing his sound check for the concert they were doing Friday night.
Friday morning AZ and I headed
over to the swim practice at the lake.
One of the things I forgot to mention was that on Thursday while AZ and
I were out on our bikes we stopped by the swim start which had the buoys out
for the practice swim. One of the athletes
was saying he thought the buoys out there marked the whole entire course, AZ
and disagreed but he stuck to his guns. Fast-forward
to Friday morning, we got there about 8am and decided why mess up the wetsuits
so we decided just to swim in our tri shorts.
We swam the course that they had marked on Thursday and got done and
found out it that it was only a 1000 meters, basically a 3rd of the
course. (I wonder what our over estimated friend was feeling).
By Friday Morning AZ family had
arrived so after the practice swim, we caravanned out to the bike course and
the kids and the wives chalked the bike course with inspirational
messages. We headed back to the pool
after a lunch of Chick Fillet and swam a little bit. We headed over to dinner early and grabbed
pizza, it was while I was downing my second piece of pizza that the terror of
what I was going to do the next day set it.
I don’t remember getting nearly as nervous at IMCDA, I think I felt more
prepared, but because I had suffered the calf injury early in my training, I
had doubts. I was in a dark place for 15
mins or so, nauseated. It lasted until
we got up and we headed back to the hotel .
RACE DAY:
Got up at 5am, actually slept pretty
well thank you Tylenol PM, I think that helped take the nervous edge off. I got up and immediately went to the hotel
fridge and wolfed down two uncrustables and had a cup or two of PowerAde. Got my nutrition ready, kissed the kids and
wife goodbye, who were already getting up to get a good spot to view the swim start. AZ and Robyn picked me up at the hotel at
5:30am and we headed to the transition area.
I loaded my water bottle with powerade in the front and water down
below. The transition area was really
dark so it was tough to pump up the tires to right PSI without having to flash
my watch at the PSI gauge to make sure I was putting in the right amount. I heard at least one tire pop and you could
hear the group of athletes just grown, sorry for the guy it happened to but relieved
that it wasn’t any of us. We walked to
the swim start which is about an 8th of a mile and got there
probably about 6:30 plenty of time to stretch and get body marked. Then the first curve ball was thrown. While I was getting my body marking done the
volunteered mentioned that I wasn’t allowed to wear my compression socks on the
swim. I said no that can’t be right
because I would be swimming with my wetsuit on.
She wasn’t sure, I had prepared to wear the compression socks (which by
the way I purchased just for this race, because of my calf injury from early
this year) About 10 mins later, Mike Reilly the PA announcer for the IM, made
the announcement that absolutely no compression wear could be worn period
during the swim, well thanks a lot IMTX for the heads up, would have been nice
if you would have covered that at the mandatory course talk or athletes guide(in
reading other peoples race report apparently this was mentioned to during the
course talk, but it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the athletes’ guide.) There is $60 I had to put back in my morning
clothes bag. Fortunately for me I had packed an extra but
far more beat up pair in my Bike transition bag so I knew I wasn’t completely
hosed. AZ and I spent some time
stretching, a lot by our standards but not nearly enough by others in
preparation for the start. At about 6:45
they played the national anthem followed quickly by thunderstruck the mojo was
starting to flow. I can’t express the
excitement that you feel at the start; nerves are tingling, itching to go. The Pros went off at 6:50 and the non wetsuit
age groupers were to start at 7am, Mike Reilly was yelling for everyone to get
in the water so that everyone was in by the time the gun went off, but several
swimmers not willing to tread water for any extra time than they had to just
sat in the corral looking down at their watches. The gun went off promptly at 7am. AZ and I headed into the water at about 7:05. We swam out to essentially the middle and up
towards the front. I christened my
wetsuit, if you know what I mean, and then proceeded to pull down my front
collar and scoop in some water to flush everything through. In fact since we had gotten to the swim start
I probably visited the Honey Hole 3 times to flush the powerade. I looked over at AZ we wished each other luck
and it was time to start.
Swim:
The Gun went off, and it was
crotch kicking, nail flying, free for all.
Because I started towards the front of the wave it wasn’t nearly as bad
as it was at CDA, don’t get me wrong it sucked but it didn’t suck as bad as
CDA. The flesh ripping was tough for the
first quarter mile, and then I started catching the poorer swimmers from the
non wetsuit division. Several times I
just swam between to two people where there really wasn’t a space but what are
you going to do, swim around, nay nay. I
am not a brute out there I don’t do anything on purpose but I don’t swim around
people or wait. For the first half mile
I was feeling tired, my muscle strained but I knew from enough swimming that
this is common for me that either Ill slow down or my muscle will get used to
it. About probably around mile 1 I was
feeling pretty good. I was having a hard
time seeing the course buoys but by this time we were heading back to the start
before the turn down the canal so I just focused on swimming straight at the
bridge that we started under.
I think I will call them turtles;
these are the swimmers that decide to stop right in the middle of the swim to sight,
fix goggles or rest. Couple the turtles
with Lake Woodlands being the muddiest lake I have ever swam in (you can only
see about to your elbow). This perfect storm
happened to me around 1.5m. Some guy
stopped right in front of me and just as I am almost at his side he decided to
get started again and kicked me right in the chest. All the air goes out from my lungs, I
completely stop. This torked me off a
little so I swam “strong” and swam right over his side. He then in turn decided to put hit elbow in
the middle of my back and hold it there……..well played fellow age grouper. We parted ways no harm, but plenty of
foul. At around 2 miles while I was trying to sight
the buoys I started having a neck pain.
Apparently while I was christening my wetsuit earlier I might have
folded the swim collar on my wetsuit and it was rubbing against my neck instead
of laying flat, it was really starting to tear flesh. The rest of the swim went pretty uneventful,
we swam into the canal and at one point I could feel the bottom with my
fingers. I looked over at one spot and
could see the kids and Gretchen and AZ’s family, I gave them the thumbs up
between strokes, and it was great to see them.
I thought for sure I was hauling, I really thought man, I am getting out
of the water and going to crush my CDA time which was 1:15:58, I reached the
swim out and looked down at my watch 1:14, and I said out loud are your frickin
kidding me? It was a good swim probably
couldn’t have done it any better.
T1:
I don’t know what happened I had planned to
get through the transition much faster than IMCDA . The swim out to where you pick up your bags,
to where you get on your bike seemed much further than did at CDA. IT also took me a while to get on my backup
Calf sleeves and make sure that I got covered in sunscreen. All this took me 7min, about the same time as
CDA but I really thought it was going to go faster.
Bike
I was hauling butts for the first
40 miles, the course was flat didn’t seem like there was any wind, I was even
whistling at one point. My plan/hope was
that the sun wasn’t going to catch up to me on the bike and for the first 40
miles it didn’t. What did catch up to
me is the liquid that I had been dutifully drinking, about mile 40 my kidneys
were about to shut down. Keep in my mind
the reason I tell you this is because last year at CDA I had to pee probably and
I am not kidding, 6 times on the bike which probably added 15 mins to my bike
time. Well at 40 miles I couldn’t hold
it anymore and I decided that I would go at the aid station, well when I rode
by there were 3 guys in line already, so I decided forget this I am not going
to stop. Well that feeling lasted about
another 2 miles and I pulled over and “took a picture.” This was only the beginning. At about mile 45 we started heading west and
off to my left I could see the grass bent sideways coming at me. I knew that when we started heading south the
wind was going to be a factor. I have
been doing this enough to know that just because you feel good doesn’t mean you
won’t feel bad and vice versa. Well for
the first 40 or so miles I was feeling good, the next 20 I was feeling ok. At mile 55 I had to take another picture
which I thought was odd, but oh well. (Quick observation there is some type of
mystical voodoo that up until mile 60 or so you feel like the morning is just
flying by and that IM is kind of fun and you might finish early, and then about
mile 70 on the bike it feels like you have been out there all stinking
day. At mile 60 I was starting to feel
pretty cruddy, the heat was bearing down, it was about noon and I was feeling
like crap. To make matters more fun I
was heading south the wind was directly in my face although not terrible it
really sucked at times. Without getting
into the rules of drafting the idea is
that you have to stay about 4 bike lengths behind the person in front of you
and if you do get into this area you
have to pass the person ahead of you.
Well as the course of the race goes on its quite possible that you pass
and get passed by the same people time and time again. It just so happened this was going on with me
and another women, she was faster on
the flats and I was better on the hills, so we played leap frog for several
miles. At one point while I was trying
to pass her on a hill, I just ran out of steam and fell back, she turned and me
and said something and I asked her what she said, she said you are drafting me,
you are not allowed to do that. At this
point it was mile 70ish, and I yelled back worry about your own race and go
ahead then. It would have been one thing
if we were on the flats but somehow me being behind her for 1 minute was
throwing her IM off. If that is your
biggest issue of the day, go buy a lottery ticket. Also about this time I could feel the world
ending the sun was beating down, I was sticking to my game plan about drinking
and eating but I was just feeling terrible.
Just about that time AZ with sunshine coming out his backend goes
roaring past me, yelling he’s feeling great and that the wind doesn’t even
bother him. I tried to crush his throat
with my Vader mind trick but he survived.
Also about this time we hit the chip seal, and although it didn’t feel
like anything in the car, it felt like riding on cobble stone, my front water
bottle buzzed for 10 miles. I don’t know
where but at some point I saw the family out on the course, it was great to see
their smiling faces and I am blessed to have a wife who understands how
important this is. Around mile 80 I
started getting what they call hot foot or needles in feet, my feet felt like I
had blood pooling in my shoes, it killed so I just kept trying to wiggles my
little piggies. About miles 85 I took
another picture, I have lost count by now but it’s probably the 4th
pic I have taken. Mile 85 is bringing
all the heat and I have realized that this isn’t going to be the banner day I
was hoping for, just too much heat. No
one was going to be blame me for just finishing today, I saw several guys
sitting under the shade trees just trying to cool down, I so wanted to be one
of them. At mile a million or somewhere
there about, there was a volunteer holding a red flag, and for a second I thought
holy crap they are calling the race because of the heat, when I rolled by I
asked him what the flag meant, he said that we need to go single file for a
little while because traffic was bad. (Let me chime in here and say something to
sports nutrition companies. Why in the
world do you make your packaging so difficult to open while exercising? I had to open several Gu Chomps with my
teeth, I tried several times to open with my fingers but they were either
sticking with perform or slick from sweat, rework your packaging!) Anyway back to the ride. Let’s do some math; 112 miles minus 90miles
leaves……..you’re nowhere near the end dude.
It might look like it on paper but I can tell you even the last 12 miles
takes your average biker another 45 mins or so.
So even when you think you are close, you ain’t. I saw several post accident scenes, athletes lying
in the road with blood on their faces, ambulances on scene, and I thought at
least they get to ride in an air conditioned ambulance. The last 20 miles of the bike I just wanted
to stop and get off, it wasn’t any fun and I had no hope of being able to run a
fast marathon, but although I was feeling lousy, hot and nauseated I was still ridding
and going the right direction. I was so
happy to get off the bike but had no clue what the run was going to hold. Bike 6:21, 8 mins faster than IMCDA.
T2:
Having pretty much gone into
survival mode I wasn’t burning up the transition, as I sat in the change tent with the other naked bingo flabby armed men, I put on my shoes….
slowly and asked a volunteer to clean my sunglasses on their shirt, for I had
no dry spot left on my person. Another 7 min rest stop, not good.
Run, sort of:
My strategy was to get through
the first loop as strong as I could try to do the best with the second loop and
I could care less what happens on the 3rd loop, It wasn’t like I was
going to not finish but at this point I was looking forward to walking the last
loop. The course was HOT, but flat,
actually the course and the volunteers were great, the canal area, was packed
with people, at one section it felt almost tour de France like. For the most part the first lap was all in
the sun expect for a section out east and when you went behind some building on
the west. I got on the first lap about
3pm so pretty much at the peak of the 92 degree day. I had
done a good job taking my salt pills and putting ice under my hat, and I was
still peeing every hour at least. The
laps although progressively slower they got progressively less painful and
although you wouldn’t know it from looking at my time I ran from aid station to
aid station, no walking in between. Lap
3 finally came and I started focusing on finishing, sadly the whole entire day
I had wasted my energy on thinking about how sucky this was rather than focusing
on finishing. By lap 3 my quads were
barking but I knew I had only 8 miles to go.
The whole entire marathon I was protecting myself by taking it nice and
easy, by mile 23 I started feeling pretty good and started passing a lot of
people, I lengthened my stride and grit my teeth. One of my pre race strategies was to collect
race #s and talk to people and then see their results when I was finished but I
didn’t chat up one person on the bike or the run, I was stone faced the whole
race, I think I missed an opportunity. Regardless I looked down at my watch and
realized that I had a chance to beat IMCDA time and perhaps even get under 13
hours. I was starting to pick up the
pace and it was going to be tight to get under 13 so I let it go in my mind and
just focused on trying to get under IMCDA.
Well at mile 24 I had to take another picture. I think when I go back
and count I must have gone 11 times from the first gunshot, I had pretty much kissed the sub 13 goodbye
and didn’t even really care about the IMCDA time. But I got to the split where you either go on
another lap or go to the finish, I turned to head to the finish and someone
said you have half mile, (I think we have all been there when someone says you
are almost there, or just right around the corner or you only have a half mile
and it turns into what seems like another mile.) Well this time they were
probably a little short because it felt like it was a couple hundred
yards. I came into down town and I was
pumped. I had completed the IM, under
brutal conditions, (I hadn’t given up, and I kept grinding the whole way. I was dare I say it very proud of myself, are
their regrets, I have one I wish somehow I could of made it more fun, but that
also led me to being a little prouder of the fact that I didn’t give up. I got through the finish line gave a fist
pump and Christy Wellington presented me my medal, she is undisputable current
queen of the IM completion she has won Kona every year she has done it for the
last 6 years. So it was cool to get a
little love from Wellington. Run time
5:07 which was 3 min faster than IMCDA.
Conclusion:
I know the investment that my
family and particularly my wife had to make for me to train for the IM, and
that is why when I saw them I tried to put on a good face. I failed miserably on the first lap of the
run, I was just dying, I felt terrible and I think I told them so, which I
should have kept to myself. But on laps
2 and 3 my smile came back a little each time.
I am so happy they were there supporting me, it meant a ton.
The kids ran up to me after I got
through the chute and gave me a big ole high 5, they were huge supports and
they looked beat from a long day on the course.
Gretchen wasn’t nearly as emotional as she was at IMCDA I think sitting
in the car and the heat took a lot out of them.
But I know she was proud of me, we pretty much skipped mother’s day and
her Birth day for the IM. I owe her.
I got a post race massage and it
felt great, I wasn’t as sore this as last race but the massage was a lot better
this time then it was in CDA. After
about 45 mins I had the courage to eat a burrito which was good, and drank a
little chocolate milk. The family was
good enough to get our bikes and bags and we headed to the hotel, I would have
liked to have stayed or come back for the midnight finishers but the kids had
been up since 5am and they were destroyed, I hope to do it next time.
I liked the medal and the shirt
was also a lot better than CDA. The food
more plentiful. To critique to the
event: The swim I think was more fun
than CDA just because we got to swim down the channel and see family. The bike course was certainly easier but the
crowds were more sparse. The run I liked
better than IMCDA just because it was easier and the fan support along the
canal was really crazy. I didn’t care
for the weather at IMTX at all, the town although trendy was difficult to drive
in and it seemed like The Woodlands wasn’t quite prepared for the traffic. If I had to choose between the two races
again I think I would do CDA, I think the town was a little bit more to my
liking and they seemed happier to have you there. But I would certainly recommend IMTX, I would
just do more heat training.
I was lucky in one regard and not
to get to emotional but It was great knowing that someone else was on the
course with me at the same time and although AZ and I saw each only once on the
bike and on the run it was nice to know I had a friend on the course. The whole experience of training, going to
the course talk, the expo, you name it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun unless
I had someone to share it with. I would
highly recommend it in fact I don’t think I would ever plan to train or do an
IM by myself.
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