Race Report - Rev3 Cedar Point Ironman

On Sunday, September 12th, I raced my 4th ironman race. And my first ever back-to-back ironmans, separated by only 2 weeks. This one is the Rev3 full ironman distance race in Cedar Point, Ohio.

On Saturday night was shot from my overnight drive and was fed and asleep by 8pm. I set the alarm for 4:15am so I got a full 8 hours of deep sleep, I felt well rested and awesome. My hotel had a fridge and microwave in the room which was really convenient because I brought salads and fruit bowls from home to eat. After the fatties in KY I don't leave food to chance anymore when going to a strange town. I was up at 4am and nuked 2 plastic coffee cups worth of oatmeal and had a banana. I took a shower then headed down to the race start to hang out with the CREW members also doing this race. I was a little nervous, wondering if I'd explode today or if my body would hold up. For sure, it would be a first and a new adventure.

Swim [1:25:50]
We walked down the beach of Lake Erie from the transition zone to the swim start. The swim consisted of swimming 2 rectangles separated by a short beach run. You swam straight out, bang a right at a buoy, then parallel to the short and bang a right at another buoy, then straight back to shore. Then you run down the beach for 50 yards and do the same thing again. You didn't repeat the 1st loop, it was a 2nd loop that the 1/2 ironman racers were using as their swim course. The swim was a little weird because the water didn't get past waist deep till you were 100 yards off shore. It was faster to power walk in the water than to swim so that's what most ended up doing. But that's a little extra wear and tear on the old legs who still have a lot of biking and running ahead of them. Other than that, the swim was uneventful. I got hit in the face a few times but not hard enough to bleed or get a black eye. One dude did it like 3 times and I almost "accidentally" ripped his googles off and punched him back in retaliation.

T1 [3:01]
The swim exit leads right into the transition zone. I got changed outside the changing tent since I don't change my clothes and it was too dark inside. I took my time but tried to make a little haste.

Bike [6:12:31] 18mph
The bike has a loop section that starts about 15 miles off of Cedar Point. So you ride to the loop, do the loop twice, and ride back. On the way off of Cedar Point I was fussing with my watch and wasn't paying attention...nailed a traffic cone head on doing like 18mph. It made a loud noise and I thought maybe I broke something on my bike but all was fine. I was lucky not to fall and crash. I was moving really good in the beginning, and it was really windy. In most cases it felt like a cross wind but there were a few turns where it was clear you were turning directly into the wind....usually reflected by a bike speed of 12mph displaying on my watch. The course was dead flat, like a pancake. It was so flat that there was never a good time to come up out of the aero position. Either you're flying with the wind to your back or trying to stay low while fighting a fierce headwind, or cruising at 20mph with a weird cross wind...none of them good times to come up and give the back a rest. So my back was killing me. I'm pretty sure it is because I have a week core, so my lower back has to do most of the work of keeping my upper body in the aero position. I need to work on core this winter. The wind eventually became annoying as hell. No sooner would I get a thought in my head and the wind would blow it right out. It was noisy in my ears blowing all around my aero helmet and what not. After 60 miles my quads started get fatigued. It was then that I knew I wasn't fully healed from IMLOO. But I just tried to keep hammering along and would slide my butt forward or backward to mix up the effort between my quads and hamstrings. The final 4 mile drag back to the transition zone was freaking endless. I seriously thought I was going to die an old man out there on the road.

T2 [3:10]
I was so happy to get off the bike. Another short and quick transition into my running shoes and hat and I was off.

Run [5:10:32]The run course was a 2 loop course. You ran down along the water and through a marina, along a paved walking path, etc. We ventured through some neighborhoods that this warehouse/SoHo vibe going on, very hipster and artistically feeling. The course was very flat, which was nice. So I guess as far as a marathon can go...it was easy. I felt good starting the run but the wheels started to fall off quickly. The temps didn't get very hot but it was hot enough in the sun...I mean, you were soaking wet in sweat. Shortly after starting the 2nd loop I hit a real bad patch. I couldn't run, I had these weird cramps in my sides and stomach. All I do out there is recalculate what pace I'll need to break 13 hours and after every mile it was looking bleaker and bleaker. Eventually I threw that goal out because there was no way I could match the required pace to achieve it. At mile 14 I started taking cola at the aid station. I also packed 3 Double Espresso PowerGels in my shorts for the end of the run. I tool one then, another about mile 20, and the last one at 23 miles. Things started to turn around. I could hold a jog from one aid station to the next, that's good! At the 20 mile marker, with 6.2 miles to go, I got real pissed at myself and reminded myself that I wanted to give myself a good hurting at this race. I wanted to be in pain. So why was I walking if the pain could be found in RUNNING?! So with 6.2 miles to go I decided I would not walk again until I crossed the finish line. It was hard, and I was getting heavy doses of pain like I wanted. With 3 miles to go I saw I made up enough time that sub 13 was still on the counter. I sped up. I still walked the aid stations to take in more cola but I was running the rest. I blew by everyone on the road in the last 3 miles and no one re-passed me. I turned myself inside to not have to walk, it was awesome. With 1/2 mile to go I knew I was going to bad a sub 13 which I felt was a reach coming into this. I don't remember many times in my life when I was more proud of myself. My personal stock went through the roof when I crossed that finish line in 12:55.

Thanks everyone for all the emails and txts after my race! And all my sisters taking screen shots of the live video feed as I crossed the finish, thx! Congratulations to the rest of the CREW on their accomplishments and very special "holy crap" to Philthy Phil who went 10:25 in his race that day. That is ridiculously fast dude. So as I shut down my 2010 triathlon race season I take 2 things into the long winter with me as fuel...my sister Liz going 5:39 in Timberman a few weeks ago and Phil going 10:25 at Rev3. These 2 events will be my inspiration to train like Rocky and go 11:20 or better at Ironman Canada in 2011.