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.

Unreal!

Hey yo! I'll give a proper race report later but wanted to drop a quick note to say everyone who followed me yesterday is awesome. When I finished the race I had like 30 emails/txts from family and friends, it was awesome. I was running high on emotions as well because I could not believe I went sub 13. I had written off ANY chance of that after 15 miles in the marathon because my pace dropped so bad that min/mile pace I would need to bring it back was too much to ask my body for. Turns out I was wrong. The last 6 miles saw no walking except aid stations and I flew the last 3 miles averaging 9-10 min miles for the most part. At the end of an ironman, that is flying for me. WIth about 1/4 mile to go I knew sub 13 was actually going to happen and was beside myself. I told you all I would bury myself and leave it all on the course and I certainly did. I took a 30 minute ice bath and my legs are still wrecked. This is the carnage I was after!!!! hahaha, I love it!!! My dream time was 12:59 as you all know and I finished in 12:55. Unreal!

My body is screaming for scrambled eggs, I must really need protein. Yes, I'm staying vegan but the day after ironman I'll eat whatever my body asks for...so eggs it is!!! Thanks everyone so much for tracking me yesterday. Having people cheering (even remotely) makes all the difference. I'm off to breakfast then driving home. And, no more ironmans for me in 2010.

It's on!

Yo yo! I'm here in Sandusky, OH! I ended up driving from 1am to 4am, slept in my car from 4-7am at a rest stop, then finished the drive from 7-11:30am. I couldn't check into my hotel till 3pm so I went to the race site, checked in, and dropped off my bike and transition stuff. I was the last person to register for the full ironman and they couldn't find my race packet. They gave me a new #, I'm racer #1397 now, and when I checked online I'm not in the system yet. Maybe that will get fixed overnight.

I'm going to sleep now, I'm tired from no sleep. Alarms are set for 4:15am. It looks like they'll have live race coverage and tracking available @ www.rev3tri.com. If you can't find me by name, try my race # instead. I'll stop by the timing station in the AM to have them double check that I'm setup. I think the athlete tracker is here:

http://iifvaweb1.iifdata.com/CedarPointSep2010/Athletes/Default.aspx

But check the main site, too.

Rock on peeps. Let's get this done. Out!

Jerz goes to Ohio

Sunday is the Rev3 full ironman race I signed up for last minute. It's in Sandusky, Ohio which I'm figuring is an 8 hour drive. I'm either going to leave tonight at 1am and drive 4 hours, sleep 4 hours, drive 4 hours. Or, wake up at 5am and just drive 8 hours straight through. I'll see how tired I feel later tonight. I want to get there by 1pm so I can do my race packet pickup and bike check-in by the 4pm deadline, leaving myself a couple hours padding just in case. Maybe I'll download an audio book for the ride, learn something new along the ride. I'm packing all my meals with me (salads, fruit, etc) because it is stressful finding food I can eat in a strange town.

Believe it or not I have a race plan for Sunday. The forecast keeps bouncing between t-storms and showers to partly sunny. In any case it should only be low to mid 70'sF which is perfect. KK told me it can get really windy along Lake Erie so that'll be the enemy on Sunday, as the course if very flat from what I can gather. I prefer hills over wind, hills have a start and and end, headwinds last foooorever. But, whatever.

Swim: I'll be in a wetsuit which will help my form so I hope to knock a few minutes off my IMLOU swim time. The swim is 1.2 mile swim, short beach jog, then another 1.2 mile swim. It's a mass start so I should have company the whole swim. I have no idea what to expect in terms of current, waves, etc but...let's shoot for a 1:20 swim time.

Bike: The bike course sounds like it favors me, no real hills, pretty flat. The only factor should be a headwind on the returning section of the course. If the wind isn't too bad I have hopes for a good bike time, on par with the 6:15 I laid down at IMLOU. If the wind is horrendous than all bets are off, it'll be what it'll be. I won't have heat to deal with so let's try to best my IMLOU time by 5 minutes and pull down a 6:10 bike leg.

Run: Again, this run is supposed to be dead flat so...should not be too bad. Then again, doing another ironman 2 weeks after completing one that I barely trained for could be a changing factor in that equation. I went 5:33 in IMLOU and that was in crazy hot conditions. I fought back strong on my 2nd lap there and I'll hope for a repeat effort at Rev3. I think it would be cool to go sub 13 hours. I don't know who long transitions are but I'll figure 15 minutes all-in to estimate them. If I hit my times above I'll be sitting at 7 hrs 45 minutes which leaves me 5:14 to complete the marathon. I need to shave 19 minutes off my IMLOU time, which I'm hoping will come simply from not having to deal with oppressive heat.

So there... 1:20 swim + 7:30 T1 + 6:10 bike + 7:30 T2 + 5:14 run = 12:59 FINISH!

No matter what, I'm super stoked to go racing again. I'm having a blast out there and trying pull these finish times out of my...hat....makes it even more fun. I want to hurt myself on this one, I want to be in pain the next day from my effort. So believe me when I say, I will leave everything I have out on that course this Sunday. JoJo will rock the Rev! OUT!

Another ironman?

I've felt really great after my ironman last week, ever since I got out of the ice bath I've been totally fine. Absolutely no pain, no cramps, no soreness, nothing. My old triathlon coach/pro triathlete/friend, John Hirsch, instant messaged me at work yesterday (Friday) to congratulate me on Louisville. During the course of the conversation I asked when the Rev3 ironman was that he and Phil were doing, I knew it was very soon. He said next Sunday, Sep 12th, and I should come do it!

I quickly googled the the size of the road trip (it is in Cedar Point, OH), and it would be 7 hours or so each way. Hotels are cheap, I felt great, always wanted to do a Rev3 race, so things were starting to align. Registration had closed several days before so I emailed the race directors with a nice request for late entry. An hour later I got an email back from Heather Gollnick herself, a pro triathlete and multi-time ironman winner, with a passcode for late entry. That was cool.

So now I had till midnight to decide if this is a go or not. Do I drop $1000 in a weekend (entry fee, hotel, gas, etc), lose a critical weekend of finishing up my house renovation, burn up another vacation day from work...or do I not? Well, let me explain how easy this decision was. From the second the thought of doing another ironman in 1 week popped into my brain, it was like I did a shot of tequila. I was literally drunk with excitement. Endorphins were pumping over my brain and through my body. This will push my home renovation into November but...whatever, it's been 2 years in the making already so who cares.

That's it folks. Next Saturday morning I'm off to Ohio to race my 2nd ironman in 2 weeks. I don't know how my body will handle the stress but I'm really curious to find out. I'll do a short 7 mile run this weekend and maybe a 50 mile easy spin just to flush out my legs, but that's it. I am getting myself amped up for next weekend baby!!! Rock on peeps. Out!