That one time I visited hell, and came back.... IMChoo 2016

Every triathletes goal is to get to kona (the ironman world championship) at one point or another. Some are smart enough to not set goals they can't accomplish and aim for a lottery slot (now legacy spot), others (ie; myself) will just plug away and try. After finishing my first 2 ironmans i though that i would have a chance. my 3rd one gave me confidence as i con't to shave another hour off (that's 1 hour off each ironman. i chose ironman choo (aka chattanooga) because it is known to be an "easy" ironman. with the exception of florida (and maybe maryland), i don't really think there is such a thing as an "easy" ironman. each course has its own challenges.
i chose choo because swimming is my worst discipline and i knew the swim was current aided (yeah, so what about it). i had a feeling whatever i gained on the swim, i would give back d/t lack of wetsuit, poor sighting, the extra 4 miles on the bike, and the humbling run. but then again, everyone would be racing the same course, so as long as i negated as much of my weakness as possible i would have an outside shot at kona.

i had done immt 5 weeks prior. i know, not the best idea, but it was good to get the long swim under me, the bike was a great ride. i knew the courses were going to be similar so immt would help me judge where i was. the run was easier at immt, but i wanted to use it as a long training day (again, i know, stupid).

the weeks following up to imchoo were uneventful, i trained well with my teammates (holla DRINKmaple crew), and i "raced" reach the beach with the channel 4 news team (ASSEMBLE!!!!). i pushed a little harder than i should have, and drank a little more than i should have, but whatever, i love my teammates and it was a great time. needless to say, i felt fine after a few days and i don't think it affected me race day.

week of the race i felt good. i flew in thursday and just hung out. checked in, explored the city and just tried to relax. i looked at the athlete guide, was bored at my air bnb, so i decided to check out some of the times of the other AWA folks (didn't even realize i was AWA, aka i race a lot so i score points, i'm not actually fast). immediate i found 5 guys who had gone sub 9:35, and another 5 who have gone sub 10... i pretty much thought, well, my kona shot is GONE.

friday i moved into a larger airbnb with a few folks i met at st. croix 70.3 in 2015. we became friends and i was able to lure some of them into racing imchoo with me. the place we rented was great, it was around 2 mile from transition and was right down the street from a bike shop, an awesome organic juice/breakfast joint, a great coffee shop, and most importantly, an authentic mexian street food spot.

my sister flew in late thursday night. so friday we spent the day exploring the city, trying out as many coffee and juice shops as we could, and seeing as many sites as i felt was ok for me to walk. i decided to hold off on running all week and use walking as an alternative.

pretty cool rock gym they have here. "outdoor" climbing, ha ha. 

the aquarium is pretty

it was pretty warm thursday night... i knew race day was going to be a scorcher

i know i'm going to get flamed for this.... but bluegrass grill just wasn't that good. i mean, it was good, but it was typical breakfast joint food. bacon, eggs, hash, sausage, grits and biscuits.. nothing "special", not worth the 25 minute wait. go across the street and have an acai bowl from the local juice. 

our airbnb host left us a bottle of whiskey. i mean, heck yeah to southern hospitality. 

impromptu marching band! remember when you were a "loser" if you were in band? damn, people are so mean in high school. i thought these kids were rad as hell. 

legit mexican food. i ate here 3 times on monday before my flight.... 

i finally found a whole foods, so trish and i went and grabbed some healthy food to make for dinner (though i still nabbed 2 tacos, ha ha). roasted some sweet potatoes, made broccoli rabe with ginger and tumeric root, some brown rice, fresh caught grouper, guac, and some red wine. 

and... the moment you've all been waiting for. the real race report. 

to start, i made a few mistakes. i picked up a new pair of bike shoes, and new cleats. the shoes were a bit more aero (yeah, i was looking for all the marginal gains), but after talking to my friend brendan (who vouched for their comfort) and a pro from slowtwitch (thomas gerlach), i felt it was a good decision to give them a shot. well, on the test ride, i couldn't clip into my pedals. figured i just installed the cleats improperly. i took them to the bike shop and they said i was just too light for the walkable cleats d/t the newer springs being harder. darn, back to the old stanky shoes. 

mistake #2. i forgot my aero bottle. i ended up buying a new bottle cage with a side entry. i knew it was going to cost me a few watts, but after learning so many fast guys were in my AG, i figured my shot was gone anyways. so whatever. 

mistake #3. i bought a bottle cage that was a side entry, never used with a side entry. 

anyways, the night before, i'm all prepped and finalized my nutrition. i knew it was going to be 95 at peak temps, so i opted for more liquid nutrition. i tend to be hungry often, so i knew i would want 350-500 calories per hour (yes, that's normal for me, i ate 500 per hour at immt), and upwards of 1200mg of sodium per hour (i took in 800 at immt and it pretty much rained and was cold for half of the bike. 

the red bottle had another 400 calories are carbo pro and 2 roctane salt tabs in it

race morning: 

we agreed on a 4am alarm. i woke up, ate 2 hard boiled eggs, drank 8 oz of fresh beet/apple/ginger juice from the local juice shop, had a gluten free bagel with fresh ground peanut butter on it, a bottle of green juice (kale, spinach, apple, kiwi, lemon, all kinds of grasses), 10oz of cold brew, and a kind bar. i also put half packet of skratch ultra hydration in 12oz of water and carried it with me. 

we get to transition early, everything is setup and i meet with folks and we get on the bus to take us to race start. 

everyone happy and goofing race morning

i get to race start and get in line for the pooper. i'm pretty proud of myself, 2 good poops before the race. we sit in line and wait. and wait and wait. i decided to check my goggles and realized i still had my di2 battery.. my heart sank. i took it off because i didn't want it sitting in the sun. when i moved my morning bottles to my run special needs bag, i forgot to move the battery. it was a pretty shitty feeling. luckily, jonathan was there and he was able to take the battery and get it to me at bike out. yes, i realize this is probably poor form in terms of the rules...

swim: 

goal time: 1 hour (that would be a 20 min PR)

real time: 1:08

with about 20 minutes to go, i really had to pee, but figured, i would just wait till i entered the water. bad idea, i just couldn't swim/pee. i grabbed the first kayak i saw and tried to pee. i still couldn't pee, my tri suit is pretty tight (i sized down to be as aero as possible), so i had to pull myself out and use my hand to gap the suit in order to pee. it was the LONGEST piss of my life. i literally gave up 3 minutes peeing. ok, i'm done peeing and off i go. i was told that i should swim in the middle as the current was strongest there. well, i suck at sighting, so i aim for what i think is the middle. i'm just all over the place. sometimes i'm with a ton of people, other times i'm solo. the one thing i didn't realize was how poorly the sleeves would work in the swim on my kiwami suit. each stroke my arm was a parachute for water. apparently i needed to size down 2 sizes for my arms..... regardless, i don't think it cost me more than 2 minutes. the swim didn't feel fast, in fact, it felt long. mostly d/t the fact that i felt lost very often. the tennessee river is quite wide, thus there were swimmers far right, and far left of me. at times the water was choppy, but i figured that mean there was a current, so i tried to stay in that type of water. all of a sudden, it was gone. i just gave up and aimed for the buoys. about 40 mins into the swim i had to grab my 2nd kayak. my regular race goggles broke (at the nose) so i wore my backup pair, some ones, but i lent them to my roommate all season so i had to re-adjust the tension. it felt fine at first, but after swimming my left eye socket felt like it wanted to pop out. i stopped once more to fix it, but just gave up. all in all, the imchoo swim is a fast swim. minus my mishaps, with better open water training/sighting i'm very confident i could have gone sub 60 minutes on this swim course. this was with only 6700 cfu released race day, vs upwards of 14000 in past years. a guy in my ag said he did a 47 minute swim... that's gnarly. regardless, with a 68 min swim, i still felt i was in the mix for a podium since i tend to race well in the heat. 

t1: i got out of the water thinking i swam a 1:30. i thought, kona chances are gone for sure... i still wanted to PR, so i moved my way into transition. i ran pretty hard, but took my time to make sure i grabbed all my nutrition, ate my cliff beet/bananna packet etc. i could have gone faster, but overall, i'm pleased. i wanted to go 3.5 minutes and ended up taking 4.5ish

bike: final time: 5:54 (garmin)

goal time: 5:10

i had one shoe (left) on the bike and i ran out with the right one in my hand. i snagged my bike and raced towards bike out where i saw jon and snagged my di2 battery. i plugged it in, put my shoe on and got on the bike and pretty much charged out of the gate. i knew i had some ground to make up, but with my generally slower than average swim, it meant a lot of cyclist in front of me (even though i was lined up pretty far up front in terms of the swim line), that means more slingshots. a few miles into the bike we crossed some train tracks. the course was still congested, so i was on my horns. as i hit the tracks, the left ziptie on my bta snapped and the bottle flew upwards. i quickly grabbed it. i didn't panic as this has happened in a race before (never with a new zip tie though). as long as i stayed in aero, i knew it would be fine as the right sided 2 zip ties were still on strong. i took it as a sign to stay in aero. 5 miles, 10 miles, 15, miles, 20 miles, 25 miles, 30 miles. i feel the temperature rising. no biggie though. i started with solid nutrition (i can't perform when my stomach is empty) so i ate two halves of a cliff bar, took in 3 salt tabs, and had a gu. by the time 35 miles came i snagged my first sip of my concentrated bottle in the down tube (red bottle from photo above). everything is feeling great. somewhere between mile 40-43 i had just taken a sip of said red bottle when i saw lump in the road. i was moving at a good clip, so i knew i had to get in aero to keep my bta from ejecting off. i quickly threw said red bottle in the age and got in aero. i hit the bump. no big deal.

- mind you, i'm also wearing a brand new aero helmet (the POC helmet), which has no vents. 

i reach again for the red bottle at 45ish for a quick sip and boom. it's empty. that's when i realized that i probably didn't get it in all the way at the bump and lost it. by this time the temps were climbing. i had 2 salt tabs left and i had the blue bottle. i still had 4 gels left (two were powerbars with 200mg na2+), but still not enough salt for what my body demanded. i decided that i needed to save the blue bottle for the last 25 miles of the race, so i left it where it was. 

by the time 55 miles came around i was starting to feel off. my power was down, my effort was down. a female athlete that was yo yoing with me asked if i was taking enough salt because my back was covered in salt (that has never happened before in a race). i thanked her and took another gel. looking back, i really should have reached for my blue bottle. the 2nd lap was pretty much the hardest 58 miles i had ever ridden. i know non ventilated helmets don't change core temp as long as you stay properly hydrated, but god damn. perceived temperature is a mental hootannani. i had to take the POC off and pour water on my head at one of the stops. all in all, i came to a complete stop 2 more times because 2 bottles of gatorade i got still had the safety seal on them. no biggie, kona was out for me and the volunteers were champs for even being out there. 

every water stop for me was dump bottle on my back/body, refil water, grab gatorade. 

by the time i hit mile 102-104, i saw a friend that i had just met the day before. he was pulled over with a flat. i asked if he needed anything and he mumbled some words. i decided that i wanted to help him. again, by this time my bike was just shot. 5:54 ride was just garbage. i gave him my pit stop, i had no idea how to use it, i explained the best i could (picked it up at expo since i flew in) and just rode off, hoping i wouldn't flat the last 10-12 miles. those were some haaard miles. i was really feeling the affects of the heat, it was about 2pm, at the peak of the sun and i was just roasting. i was out of salt, out of gatorade, out of gu, and just had some warm water. i just wanted to get off the bike. to give an example of how hot the ride was... i rode THROUGH the sonara desert in AUGUST with an 80lbs bike when i cycled across country (going through new mexico, arizona, and southern california), this was easily wayyyyy hotter.  

in case you wanted to figure out how hot it was. temps peaked at 97 w/ humidity at 87. this chart shows the heat index in shade. in direct sun, it says to add 15 degrees. it felt like an oven out there, i don't know if it was 170 deg, but it sure felt worse than 118 (when i rode through sonora desert). 

t2: i got off the bike and was surprised to feel so good running. i ran into the tent and when i sat down to grab my shoes it just hit me. i was sooooooo hot. the guy next to me was just staring into the roof of the tent, volunteers were just dumping ice and water onto him. i got all my shit ready and started to head out. until i saw pretzels. i stopped, grabbed a cup, sat there and ate it. grabbed ice water. put a punch of ice down my shirt and then covered myself with sunblock. for those who know me, that'll give you an idea of how hot it was.... i NEVER wear sunblock. for me to put it on, that means i was actually scared of the sun. 

expected time: sub 3

real time: 6:xx

run: this was my 7th ironman, NEVER have i seen people WALK out of t2. people are always running, excited because of the crowd. i saw people walking.. i thought, oh man, there is going to be some serious carnage out there. i tend to run very well off the bike, so i was going out fine. i had to remind myself to slow down. walk the hills and water stops. i talked to thomas gerlach briefly before the race and he reminded me how horrible racing in that type of weather could be for your body. the first 4-5 miles of the run were some of the hottest miles of my life. the course started off on the freeway and i felt the pavement just reflected even more heat. each water station i dumped 4-5 cups of ice in my suit, dumped 4-5 cups of water on my head, took in water, gatorade, and coke. i supplemented salt with base salt, mixed with roctane salt and salt tab salts. when i was running, i was doing 8-8:25 pace pretty comfortably, it was just hard to get motivated to run knowing that my goal of kona and/or pr were pretty much gone. oh, it was also really hot. miles 12-22 were the darkest miles of my life. i wanted to cry. i gave up my whole entire year to qualify. my body didn't hurt, i just didn't want to run. i literally didn't care. i wanted to just quit at lap 1, but saw my sister who encouraged me. a little kid ran up and asked for double high 5's, that kinda just helped me move on. he was sooooo stoked to get those high 5's. at mile 14, i regretted carrying on. like a lot. my water stop walks were getting longer and longer. at around 16 i totally just gave up and committed to walking. i stopped on the grass to stretch a little from time to time. i tried power walking, but i just suck at it. i was more fatigued power walking at 15min pace than i was running 10 min pace. 

- i've done my fair share of "hot" ironman races and "hot" marathons, i have never seen the carnage i saw on sunday on the run course (i was told the bike course was bad too), at least 15 people were carted away in golf carts/ambulances. i saw 10-15 laying on the ground with medics etc... i know it was epic in terms of heat/etc, but i'm confident that a lot of people could have saved themselves a lot of misery had they trained more in the heat, and actually understood proper sodium intake. 

my friend darryl (flat tire dude) caught up to me at around mile 21ish? right past the bridge, at the start of the barton ave climb. he thanked me, we shared a few words and he scurried along. i thought, well, i'm going down hill, i should at least run. i caught up to him, passed him, then jogged up the hixon pike before taking a bathroom stop. darryl passed me again while i was peeing, when i came out he was about 100 yards ahead of me. i was feeling ok, so i decided to jog up to him. we jog/walked and at around 24 i had enough. i was pissed, i just wanted to go home and shower. i regret not sharing a few words with him. idk what happened, i just snapped and took off. i jogged hixon and barton, ran over walnut bridge and con't to run hard to the finish line. about 20 yards to finish, i stopped fully in my tracks and acknowledged the crowd. it was an epic day for everyone, not just the racers. 

goal time: 3:30

final time: 5:05 

post race photo

i snagged 2 slices of pizza and a coke, just to get some calories in. i raced home showered, got a 15 minute cat nap in and headed back out to cheer on the rest of the gang. i didn't actually see anyone cross, but it was good to get post race photos. my friends were asking me how i had so much energy, as i was dancing to the finisher shoot songs and goofing around.. well, i was supposed to run 26.2 miles, i only ran about 10 of it at race pace, and the rest was walk/jog, lol. 

i didn't even care to check my final results. but the next day, i was surprised to find that i came in sub 12:30. final time of 12:23:xx.... it was over an hour slower than mont tremblant, which i did at 80% im effort as a training day. so many lessons learned....

the next morning we all woke up, cleaned up the house, returned to the local juice for some good stuff. and made our way to lookout mountain and ruby falls. PSA: do not wear shorts and a tanktop to ruby falls. it gets cold when you are over 1000 feet underground. if you go to ruby falls, try going when the tours are the smallest. it's really hard to enjoy mother nature when 50 people pull out their cameras and are flashing the shit out of everything. 

it's not really purple, they use colored lights

i'm like a mini buddha, except i can eat organic and vegetarian (most of the time) and not be a fatty like buddha. 

chattanooga, you were a hoot. loved the city, loved the course. you put me in a pretty dark place, you made my rethink my desire to race again, you made my rethink my desire to do another ironman, you made me walk in a marathon (that i didn't plan to walk) for the first time in almost 4 years. but thanks for showing me what hell is like, no more bad words (after this blog, that is).

good news though, i'm feeling pretty good. that means i went to the rock gym today to boulder a bit, and i'll start running again this week. time to set an open marathon PR and crush rock climbing season.

special thanks to the DRINKmaple crew for training with me all season long. never would have the fitness i have without all of you. good luck to folks racing maryland and kona in the upcoming weeks. 

thanks to my sister for coming and supporting me. it was really good spending quality time, very happy you were able to get a closer glimpse of what makes me tick. i greatly enjoyed the talks, cooking together, being my personal sherpa, and you putting up with all my crap. 

big ups to acosta for being an ultimate sherpa, for making some dynamite coffee every morning. believe it or not, i was much less stressed race week, simply knowing you were around. 

stacey: IM #6! i'm not sure how much longer i can stay ahead of you. keep up the positive attitude, your energy is infectious. 

daniel: it was great meeting you brotha. sorry you had such a rough day on the bike and run. knowing you, i don't think you would change it for anything. it's races like this that define your character. super proud that you stuck it through and never gave up. i still remember bumping into you at mile 18 and the words you said. it kept me from dropping out. 

tj: YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!! congrats on popping the cherry. friggang A man. i know you said you'll never do another one. but i swear, they are usually not this hard... plus, don't you want to know what it's like to have proper nutrition and do the whole race without throwing up? ;-)

jen: YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!! ditto what i said above (minus the throw up). perhaps next time, you won't PR a half marathon the weekend before, or run 5 miles the day before in 90 degree heat.... perhaps is the key word. 

edwin: it was great seeing you on the course, congrats on the PR. to do it on a day like that.... that's all character man. 

darryl: too bad about the flats man. glad you were able to get them worked out. it was great running side by side for the hardes 4 miles of the course. maybe we can do it again sometime, minus the heat.

john/jeff: congrats on finishing, i'm sad i didn't get to see you guys on the course, we were all probably zombies as we walked by each other. next time?

lastly: thanks to TOPO for sporting me with a pair of magnifly's for the race. 95% of my milage this year has been in TOPO's and i could not be happier. i know it's cheesy to thank a brand/company that gives you free shoes. but this is one of the rare companies that gives me free stuff that i would gladly pay for at full price (and those who know me know how rare it is for me to actually pay full price for anything). as a seasoned triathlete, as a physical therapist that has a special spot for gait analysis, i cannot recommend a better pair of shoes. 

Bike numbers for us "shorties"

I see it all the time at races. People with numbers taped poorly on frames. Draped over the top tube to the point where you can barely see the numbers, crammed onto the seat post, then covered by a saddle bag.

Those bike stickers were just not made for folks with small bike frames. The number is important, how else am I supposed to find photos of myself for facebook?!?!?! (moderate sarcasm there).

Personally, I have been cutting around the numbers and placing them on my frame in locations where race officials will not complain. Oftentimes, its the bottom triangle, others it's right at the end of the seat stay, under the seat.

Here is a photo of me cutting a race number. Notice how I taped it onto my frame (sideways). This was at patriot, the numbers were not sticky and I had forgotten packing tape, so that was the best position I could find.

At WTC races the numbers can really get STUCK onto your frame after a really hot race and leaving them on for a week (lets admit it, we all forget to take them off immediately). A neat trick is to put the number on a piece of packing tape (sticky side on sticky side). Trim the number again. Once you have done this, you can now place the sticker onto your frame and place packing tape over it. This will ensure a few things:

1) the number will be in the MOST visible spot, for photographs and what not

2) the number will not get in your way in terms of hitting your thigh

3) the number will not flap in the wind (which can be quite annoying during longer races)
4) the number will not have an aerodynamics drag penalty

- the last reason is especially true for slower cyclist. remember, the longer you are on the course, the more (in terms of total time) drag affects you.

My teammate, Jay Powell wrote up a nice piece regarding chain waxing. I won't echo him so here it is. I also added:

"i just started waxing my chain as well. Jay Powell i had great success with an ultrasonic cleaner. it's 70 bucks and i run it at 50 deg C for 15 minutes and the chain comes out silly clean. from there i run it through some denatured alcohol. 

for the wax, i use a slow cooker. i also suggest heating your chain in the oven to 120 degrees (or under 200) before you put it in the wax, this allows the wax to penetrate better. as the wax cools (when you take it out) the pressure will cause it to sit into the links.

for post wax cleaning, just use CLEAR mineral spirits and shake until it stays clear....

i personally rotate 4 chains so i can wax once a month. i find that each waxing lasts about a week and change for me (that's about 300-350 miles).

you can also add teflon powder at the end of your waxing treatment to give it an extra little boost.

for those who don't want to go through all this effort... try squirt lube. it's within .5watts of waxing your chain. "


Happy riding, everyone!

Ironman Mont Tremblant 2016 Race Report

TLDR: great race, with great friends, family, and amazing venue. if you have a chance, go to quebec and do this race. skip to the end for meaningful non race talk.

i've been bugging my friend lindsay to do an ironman together for a few years. after florida she has been waiting for the perfect time. then she got engaged, had a wedding and well, you know how that goes. we were planning on boulder, but it filled up rather quickly, so we kept bouncing ideas around. eventually, we chose tremblant. fast forward a month and my friend robin flew up from st. croix for my b-day and i was able to "convince" her to sign up for immt, her first full distance. and then... well, that's what this blog update is for.

my goal all season was to try and qualify for kona at imchoo. i can't say i have a great chance, perhaps 10-20%, 40% if i have an amazing day and a few studs don't show up. immt isn't the best race to do 5 weeks prior from my A race, but the chance to do a race with good friends is hard to pass up. all in all, i had about 10+ friends up there racing, it was great to share the experience with everyone.

i rented a condo not too far from transition, about a 10 minute walk. robins mother, my father, and stepmom came up to be our support crew/sherpas. we drove up early thursday, with stops in hanover and burlington for food. it was a long drive, but we got up to mont tremblant at around 5:30pm. we got settled quickly and met up with my friend bike to ride the duplessis section. it wasn't bad, my goal was to ride it easy up and hammer down, to practice the lines i would take on race day. we got back and i went out for a short run. i won't bore you with details on the next few days leading up to the race, pretty typical stuff. meet up with friends, practice swim, gear setup, registration, stare at all the bike porn.


me and robin, goofing around

robins mom, it doesn't get more tourist than that... adorable

the venue is just fun, you don't see this at another ironman

love the athletes village, lots of fun little shops, tons of food

wildlife was abundant, and friendly

Race morning: woke up at 4:15am, friend an egg, had a sesame bagel, 20oz of water with a scoop of skratch (aka 2 servings, d/t stupid skratch ratios). i also drank 1 boathouse farm liter of vegetable/apple/green juice stuff, it was tasty. i sat for 15 mins and went back to bed for 20 mins. wokeup, got dressed and had a banana on my way to transition. i got to transition pumped up my tires. i immediately lost my friends and decided to just make my way down to the swim start and get my wet suit on. got to the swim start and barely got my wet suit on in time to get a 2 min warmup swim. i got in line and my wave was about to start.

swim: goal 1:10. result: 1:20
i'm an awful swimmer, always BOP. but for the first time in my life, i have been training for the swim. it's not a lot, but 100K yards for this IM, which is more than all my previous IM combined. the first 500 yards were great, i'm generally in back looking at caps, but i was in the middle of it, feeling good and taking a good line. i would say around 750 yards i noticed the water getting more choppy. no big deal, i'm ok. by the time i hit the turn the chop got worse. i never gulped any water, but i was definitely working harder than i had expected to. my pace slowed considerably as i was trying to site and find feet to follow. at one point some big guy swam up to me and literally punched me in the back of the head, i was pretty pissed as i was in open water, off to the side. the bad news: i swim slow, the good news: i wasn't tired at the end of the swim, my back didn't get tight. i was moving much faster towards the last 700 yards, i def didn't put the proper effort in.

transition: goal: none. result: 7:xx

transition was a bit long, but not bad, i passed a ton of people on the way to the tent. once there i decided that i should try off a bit and prioritize not getting sick, afterall, it was a training day for me. i slapped my shoe covers on, since i knew it was going to rain, and i put a trash bag laid flat, inside my suit. 

bike: goal: no time goal, just keep average ftp at 150, NP under 150: hr zone 2-3ish, no power spikes over 400. my ftp is 204watts, i weighed about 56kg (123ish lbs) race day. not ideally race weight, but i didn't want to starve myself to get lower. with it being a colder/rainy day, i figured the extra insulation would help. result 5:27

the bike got off to a fast start, i started swim wave 1 or 2, so i was able to start the bike dry. 20 miles in i decided to ditch the trash bag... ugh, bad idea. i also had gloves that i stuffed into my chest.... then... just as i did that.. the rain started. it never stopped by the way. 2:41 first lap. i kept power low. the climb at the end of the first lap wasn't bad, i did my best to keep the power dry up the climbs, i ran 11/28, but wish i had a 30, just to keep the power a little lower.

there was a lot of drafting the first lap, especially at the turn around on 117, i fought a pack, they passed back, i fought again. this went back and forth a few times. it was stupid of me, i should have learned after cozumel, you can't beat 10 cyclist. it wasn't until the duplessis that i was able to ditch them. it was raining, but i managed to stay in aero pretty comfortably coming down. riding it the day prior helps, being further up front in the course helped too. kept the skittish cyclist away, i guess.

the 2nd lap saw things spread out a bit more. i really wanted to hammer hard on the bike, but figured it wasn't worth getting injured, or burnt out, i only had a week to recover afterall. 2nd lap was more and more rain, hard to the point where it hurt your face and shoulders. thank god for the full suit. the wind and rain was considerably worse the 2nd lap, especially at the 117 turn around. honestly, i loved every second of it. until i had to climb duplessis again. it was definitely more difficult. i was happy to finish the ride. at one point i was riding with some guy at the legal length. it was amazing. we were both pushing 27, it totally made me feel/experience the "pro" race. i didn't think the draft was that strong at 6 bike lengths, but at that speed, it's there! we yo yo'ed each other for a good 15 miles until some guy pulled right in front of me, sat, up and started eating. i backed off so i wouldn't get a draft penalty, by then, it wasn't worth the watts to catch up to the other guy, i was pretty annoyed at this n00b. 

t2: 3mins. didn't rush it, but wasn't taking my sweet ole time either. 

run: goal: 9-9:30 pace, stretch a lot, not get hurt, it's a long training run. result 4:20:xx. i started the run with some guy in my age group. it was his first IM, he looked like a strong athlete, we ran together for about 2 miles at 7:35ish pace. i immediately shut things down and told him good luck, left him with the advice of "you can make up time, but you can never make up energy". at mile 3 onwards i walked every water stop, took in plenty of nutrients/fluids, walked the hills and stretched at every other water stop. i saw lots of friends on the course, the out and back was great. the crowd support was awesome, despite the rain. i ended up running most of the marathon with female pro caroline M. it was fun sharing experiences and how doing 2 im's 5 weeks apart is a bad idea (she was toast d/t doing one 5 weeks ago.... uh oh, for me... lol). 

the run course was great, after the first lap, i couldn't wait to run down that finish chute, the crowd was amazing.

final time: 11:19:xx. good enough for 53rd? in my age group. not bad for a training day. 

i felt great post race, of course the sun comes out as i'm eating and changing, ha ha. i saw my dad, snapped some photos and head back to the house to get in the pool to stretch and eat. i headed back out to the course to cheer on friends. i saw robin, corrine and deidre finish. i ended up staying out and staying for the midnight final finisher. it was great, the crowd was epic and i saw my friend terry finish in time to snag a medal. 

epic race finish, after 6 im's, finally made it to the midnight finish

tremblant was a great race for many reasons, but mostly because i was able to share it with friends and family. my father was pretty stoked to see me race for the first time in his life. i think it meant a lot to the both of us. making up for lost time as he said.... good news, he said he would pay if i did a race in china.. Ironman taiwan 2018... it's a done deal ha ha. i can't wait to eat everything tiawan has, then fly to china and eat everything there. do they let fatties on the great wall?

lindsay: we finally did it, captain! now you can go get preggers and do all that adult stuff. i'll keep carrying the torch

robin: i couldn't be more proud of you! i know you'll break 12:45 your next one, fix that knee injury asap! solid day, welcome to the club, girl!

john yen: so much for being one and done... solid day as well, sad i didn't see you on the run course.

mike: killer day man! congrats on your first 140.6. couldn't have asked for a more epic day.

corrine and deidre: holy cow, you gals killed it. 5th and 10th in age group at your ironman debuts? i hope the other ladies in your division are paying attention!

terry: i'm so proud of you. being on the course for 17 hours is no small task. way to come back and tackle the distance after being pulled off the course at immd just a year ago. i'm guessing your IM high is still not done.

mike ricci: pfft, this is your 5th one? you get no praise.. lol

rick, jeff, and walter: welcome to the club boys! i think you all went faster than expected! congrats, sign up for your next race yet?

rich: congrats on #2

pamela: congrats on #3, or 4? so proud of you, especially after a long string of injuries.

amanda: w00 h00! backing up a strong IMMD with a stronger IMMT!

amber: well, i think it was ironman #17th for you.. no big deal. congrats on the 4th place finish (female pro 4th place mind you). crush cozumel, remember to eat at burrito gorditos and tell tony the guy who wanted a torta in 2013 and his crew says hi!

last but not least, to my old man. glad you finally got to see what i waste so much time in my life doing. now only if i can get you to stop smoking, maybe, just maybe one day, you can be my on course cheerleader!

the croooooooo

me and my dad 

female pro caroline martineau, we yo yo'ed and took turns cheering each other onwards

i'm tired of typing, gonna have some chips. i hope my legs have something left for imchoo in 4 weeks....

New Orleans Marathon race report

Soon after the savannah marathon was over Ben and I had plans to sign up for another race. We knew we wanted to do a race in a state neither of us had run in, and we knew it was going to be a RnR series since we had free admission d/t the savannah marathon being cut short d/t sever heat.

4 days later, we settled on the New Orleans marathon. We chose it for a few reasons, it was far enough away where we could chill and get back into shape, it was in NOLA which neither of us had been to, and it was an east coast race which allowed us to reduce vacation time taken.

Not long after we chose the race, I talked Matthias into coming. He had planned to do his first half marathon in jan/feb since i convinced him to sign up for a half ironman (having never done a tri and not knowing how to swim when he signed up) and thought NOLA fit in perfectly. From there, I sent an e-mail out to a bunch of folks gauging interest. During the same time frame, my DRINKmaple crew had a few e-mails going out regarding a marathon in arizona and other west coast locations. i might have dropped the idea of NOLA (or it was already floating, i can't recall 100%) and it sort of took off. a week later we had roughly 10-13 people going. It didn't take long, but we soon had Julia interested. First, she was coming to cheer and eat, then she said she would do the 5k (ok, so i lied, there was no 5k, tee hee), then she said she would do the 10k. next thing you know she is signed up for her first race since high school and first half marathon ever. ahhh, i love positive peer pressure.

I generally gain 20-25lbs over the winter and run a whopping zero miles. I really wanted to make sure I put in a solid effort, mainly to start my triathlon season off strong. I was just sick of spending the first 2 months of the season dropping the 20-25lbs i had gained over the winter. I knew i wanted to improve my run this winter and the only way i was going to do that was to run often. i decided to set a goal, run 80 days out of the next 100 days. day 1 was december first. I also realize my limitations, that is, i just don't hold myself accountable, that and i'm lazy. so i decided to make a fb group and invited a bunch of like minded individuals that would keep me socially accountable. the grew started with a few people. there were no rules, you could set your own goals, but a lot of people really jumped on the 80/100 bandwagon and off it went.

you can see my training log here

my thought process is quite simple. i believe that volume = success in the marathon world. not just any volume. coming from a triathlete background i believe that complimenting cycling, overall fitness, and a strong core results in success. my best time in an open marathon had been 3:40. my pr in the ironman marathon was only a handful of minutes more. that could be 1 of 2 things. 1) i run INSANELY well off the bike, or 2) i am leaving a lot of time on the table in my open marathons.

i personally feel it's a little bit of both. my plan was to run often and slowly increase volume weekly. i did not do any specific speed work. almost all of my runs were of descending pace (negative splits) or even splits as close as possible. i rarely went out hard and slowed down for the latter part of the run. i also DO NOT believe in long runs. over my career (as an athlete and professionally) i have yet to see/find/feel the benefits of the long runs (runs over 15/16 miles). i personally feel that one is better off running 8 miles 5 times a week, than it is to run 5 miles 4 times a week and do a 20 miler on the weekend. i firmly believe in what i call "aggregate running". with that said, i did one 15 mile run. it was on the treadmill before work. I did it 3 weeks out from the marathon. the primary reason was because i wanted to get a larger volume in that week and i was out to NH on friday so i wasn't going to be able to put in any decent volume. overall, i put in 12 weeks of training. 4 more weeks than i have ever trained in past.

fast forward to race week. i flew into NOLA on friday and met with julia, we rented a car and got to the house where we shortly met up with ben, brian, and i got to meet nora. the house was nice, it had a rustic feel to it, yet was quite modern. it was also equipped with an outdoor, heated, saltwater pool.

Once we got settled, julia and i head to 1000 figs for lunch, we crushed some falafel and other "yummies" as she would say. from there we made our way back to the house and just hung out and relaxed for a while. not long after jay and ashley showed up we went out to dinner and had paella at a local restaurant. it was quite delicious. we came home, hung out a little and crashed. the next morning we picked up tim and matthias from the airport and headed to the expo.

julia picking up her first race bib since high school

matthias picking up his first half marathon race bib

after picking up the bibs, i found my way to purchase my obligatory race pint glass. by this time we were all getting slightly hangry and decided to wander the big easy to find food. it took a lot of yelping, a lot of walking but we finally settled on a specialty cheese shop that sold some craft chocolate and honey. the food was pretty good, solid choice and exactly what i needed for lunch pre race. we finally made our way home, relaxed a little, probably ended up in the pool and then all went our separate ways for dinner. julia, matthias, and i found our way to Peche and had a little of everything. the star at this restaurant is the whole grilled red snapper and no doubt, the smashed sweet potato, it was to die for. don't get the oysters, they are not as good as new england oysters. afterwards we hit up whole foods to pick up breakfast items. we bumped into the maple crew there and snapped a group photo.

that's a solid looking bunch!

we came home, talked a bit of running and what not and head to bed. i set my alarm for 4:30am (yeah, i know, it's not an ironman) so i could eat food. i had some almond yogurt with granola and dried cherries. i also drank 8 oz of kombucha, a banana, and a bottle of suja juice. i went back to bed. and just laid down and relaxed. my alarm rang again at 5:45. i immediately got dressed, went out and chugged a can of stumptown nitro cold brew. i had another half of a banana and just wasn't feeling like eating anymore. i went on to increase my power to weight ratio and we called and uber. unfortunately there were 6 of us (jay, tim, and ashley left earlier to get to the race earlier), so that means 2 of us had to sit in the trunk.

brian and i getting cozy in the trunk

we got dropped off at the race, found our way to the bag drop off and sort of lost each other. i waited with ben and nora for matthias and julia but eventually gave up. i decided that i wanted to get into the corrals and stay warm with a bunch of people. on my way over i bumped into the DRINKmaple crew and we snapped a sweet pre race selfie!

the crew minus jay and timmy

i walked with folks and we exchanged our good luck hugs etc when they got to their corral. i worked my way up to what became the front of corral 2. i stood in the cold for a good 10 minutes, watching my HR fluctuate between the high 70's and low 90's. i could tell i was a bit nervous at times. the national anthem was sung, she did a great job and the first waves were off. i had never been at the front of a wave before, but next thing i know, i was at the front line of corral 2. my good friend brad callow once told me years ago that "you can always make up time, but you can never make up energy". that has something i have held near and dear to my heart and race day planning. the idea is that if you run a perfect race, your first half time should be the same if not a hair bit slower than your 2nd half. ie; a perfect 3:30 race would be 1:46 first half, 1:44 second half. my goal was to run 3:30. i knew/felt i was in 3:15 shape, but i'm also realistic that a lot can go wrong and shaving 25 mins off a PR is pretty unheard of. not to mention i have bigger aspirations this year, this was simply to have a good time with friends, tick off another state, and getting a pr was just the cherry on top.

as the gun went off i caught myself for the first 50 yards keeping up with folks. i immediately knew this could only mean that i was going too fast. i checked my watch. sure thing 6:47. i gut checked myself and slowed down. one by one, people who looked much slower than me started blowing by me. by mile 1.5 i was near the back of the 2nd corral. by mile 1.75 i could see corral 2 distancing me and by mile 2 i was being overtaken by the corral 3 folks. am i really running this slow, or is everyone going out too fast. i kept asking myself that. i checked, rechecked, and then checked my watch again.. nope, i was on pace. 

my pace/goal was to run an 8:05 pace for the first 13 miles. coming out to 1:46ish. from 13-16 i would pick up the pace to 7:50 to even out the 5 seconds lost by going 8:05. from 16-20, i would pick up the pace a little more to 7:45. from 20-26.2 i give myself 2 options. 1) go all out, it's 10k, race it as that. 2) run 20-22 at a higher pace, then let loose at 24-26.2 if you are close to any time goals. 

racing with friends is great. i saw timmy and jay at around 3.75ish as they were coming the other way. we exchanged waives and quick words of encouragement. by the time i had reached the turn around and made my way back 4.5ish miles were already banked. at mile 5.5 ish i saw ben. he was rocking his head phones and in the zone. he looked good, i called to him, but he didn't hear me. not long after that, when i was at around mile 6.5-7ish, i saw matthias and julia. they both looked great. i also saw kate, then demello and they were looking strong as well. 

i was feeling strong, i kept checking my garmin to keep my pace in check. at around mile 8.6 i felt my left calf tweak. it was a sharp pain, middle gastroc. felt like the fascia between the two bellies tore. it was not good, but i figured i wasn't limping and would either run it off, or completely blow up. i let it go, took some salt and next thing i know i was at mile 13, still feeling strong. at the turnaround, i saw kate again and i also caught a glimpse of kimball.

from 13-16 i decided not to up my pace too much, i moved to try and hold a 7:50 or slightly below pace. i felt comfortable the whole time. i started to use gu in addition to my water and gatorade intake at each aid station. miles 13-17 were quite uneventful. they followed the western border of the park. once i finished mile 16 i decided to up the pace a little bit. i found a few folks that i caught up to, hung with for a second and decided to leave since they couldn't pace and were running 30-45 second pace swings. i think for most people mile 17-22 were the most difficult. the course was the most exposed here and there were some overpasses etc, making for mini "hills" perse. i caught timmy running the other way when i was between 18 and 19 miles. he was looking strong (apparently not feeling strong though) at around mile 20ish (after the turnaround) i saw kate, then john, then lynn who screamed to me that the 3:30 pace group was right in front of me, then kimball doing the kimball shuffle.

i knew the 3:30 pace group was not far ahead, i thought i was running a 3:30 pace and they were going fast. especially when they were a whole .5-3/4 mile in front of me at the turnaround. i decided that since it was mile 20ish i only had a 10k to go and would drop the pace and try to catch them. i was in quite the dilemma though, do i drop down to a sub 7 pace and risk blowing up before i caught them, or do i say more conservative, trust that i will catch them and drop only to a 7:30. that indecisiveness is the reason my pace was a 7:38 that mile. after that mile i was feeling strong and decided to go a little faster until i caught them at 23.4ish miles. from there i hung with them for a few seconds. the group, which was 30 strong at first dwindled down to the 2 pacers and 4 others, 2 were barely hanging on. the pacers had gone out too fast and blew everyone up. their pacing was terrible. i pushed onwards as i was feeling great. i decided that i had a chance of running 3:25 if i held my pace. i wanted to finish strong and run hard, but i also didn't want to shred my legs. i opted to find a good balance at the low 7's which i held to the finish. the last 1/4 mile i decided to just let loose and run a tad harder. i was able to find a good stride with little effort. my favorite quote was "go MAPLE, you're killing it....." followed by "ooooh shit, and he's doing it with the MANBUN!" as the crowd erupts in claps, cheers, and laughter. in the end, i crossed the finish line at 3:25:13 (garmin) and 3:25:57 (offical time). i had set a new pr, by over 14 minutes and i had run a 5 minute negative split. my final 5k time was sub 22 minutes and my final 10k time was sub 45 minutes.

i dropped to sub 6 to cross the finish line. not because i was chasing a time, i stopped looking at my watch, but because i was feeling good and i wanted to put an exclamation on my race. i finished, was greeted by julia, matthias, nora, and brian. we shared some laughter and comments and waited to cheer on ben. one by one my friends crossed the finish line. it was really great to see folks finish and share stories, struggles, and more laughter. 

seeing these two finish with such great times was a really awesome feeling. i wish i could have been there to scream at them as they crossed as they did for me. it was just awesome hearing about their race experience. just love it when people lose their race distance virginity.

lynn finished, then stayed in the gates and chatted with mark and me until kimball finished. that's what friends are for!

kimball post race, he's had better days. lol

making our way to get clothing bags, happy crew!

after hanging out a little bit i was starting to get stomach pains from the lack of food. i worked my way home alone (2 mile walk) and it was really nice to just reflect on what got me to the finish line.

thank you matthias for all those times you got on the bike with me when you didn't want to, thank you for all those times you got out and ran with me, at my pace, despite your heart rate being in the 190's. thank you for not complaining once, even though you have every right to. 

thank you julia aka "fisheater" for making sure i was well fed pre and especially post race. i'm know to travel for races and gaining 5lbs, but now, when i travel with you, i will be known to gain 10 lbs.

thank you to the DRINKmaple crew. from summertime century rides, to bricks, to the billion e-mail chains that end up costing me hundreds to thousands in race fees, to the awesome family of like minded individuals that opened their arms and brought me in. thank you for allowing me to be part of this great group.

thank you brad callow, chad vest, robin seila, sofia and her husband (i'm not going to refer to you unless you speak more in social settings, keith), and julia stoner for all your support and encouragement throughout the process of this race, it definitely means a lot. thanks to maureen for the 6 pack challenge, i'm sure the extra core workout helped me during the race worthy of a shout out. thanks to bethany for asking me a billion questions, which require a billion answers, which helps me reinforce why i train the way i train. thanks to all my dog walkers, you guys make my life so much easier!!!

big ups to the "did you run today" formerly secret facebook group and everyone in it. i made the group to make myself socially accountable. thanks to ya'll, it was fitting that i completed my goal of running 80 days out of 100 days and that the 80th day of running came on marathon day. there were moments (many of them) that i didn't want to run. there were moments i wanted to run 2 miles, or 5 miles when i ended up running 5 miles and 10 miles. it was you guys, posting your daily morning runs as i was still on the treadmill. it was you guys, who posted your evening splits while i was just doing a warmup run before climbing. it was you guys that i put in more miles than i ever had. 

special thanks to ben gebo. brother, you are such an infectiously positive human being. so much so, that i think you are on psychedelics, like.... all the time. which is highly possible i guess. lol. i'm pretty sure i could sell you the idea of running a marathon through syria as long as i smiled whilst doing so. acadia, savannah, and now new orleans.... iceland 2017 for sure! i still technically owe you a marathon of your choice and i am highly contemplating vermont....

i'm sure i'm missing a whole bunch of people. it's 1:30am and i really wanted to get this RR out before i just gave up and skipped it all together. i apologize if i missed anyone. you guys all kick ass. and honestly, if you don't want me to forget you on my RR, just come to the race and run with me! haha.

total tally for new orleans training:

dec 1st - feb 28th.
80 days run out of 90 days
95 runs in 90 days

(not including marathon on 90th day)

345 total miles run 

4.37 miles per day run

3.67 miles per run

New Orleans Rock n Roll Marathon 2016 strava file

Official race results 

The power of nudge

I had just gotten home, it was a busy day at work. My first patient cancelled and I utilized the time to get my daily run in. For those who do not know, I am participating in a winter running challenge. Run 80 out of 100 days, starting December first. It's 12/21/15 and I had only missed 1 day. Purposely skipped in order to avoid a scheduling conflict. I had logged 3+ miles on the treadmill, in new shoes, without socks. The result? Run #20 in the books and a medium sized blister on my right foot.

Shortly after I entered the house, my housemate returned. We caught up a bit, spoke about our work days and the discussion lead to her not wanting to go to yoga. I was texting back and forth with Amber, who had just finished her workout. I told her I was considering getting in a 2nd run to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. Her response, "Do it". I told my roommate that I was considering a second run, but could see in her eyes that yoga was not in the books. I knew I couldn't let her down. I suggested that if she spun, I would join her. 20 minutes later, we were side by side on our trainers, watching Episode 3 (she's catching up on star wars before we go see Episode 7). An hour later, I finish my ride, put my sneakers on and realized by blister was still painful.

I decided to switch to my tri sneakers and headed out. My last words before I left? "Just one quick mile". As I turned right out of my house, then left down Curtis, I couldn't help but realize how amazing the weather was. I thought to myself, what a waste to not run more than 1 mile. Again, I saw Amber's text "Do it", and I did. My mile run turned into a little over 5 miles. I didn't look at my watch, I just ran to Porter, then Davis, then Teele, I leg my legs go wherever they chose.

It's amazing how we all have a sense of direction, we all know what we want to do, what we should do. Sometimes all we need is a little nudge.

More about the "power of nudge" can be learned by reading the book "Nudge". It was a great read recommend by my friend Brad and I highly recommend it as well!

Rock and Roll Savannah Marathon 2015

This race came into fruition sometime in mid July. I had e-mailed Ben since we talked about a fall marathon. I sent over a list of races that made sense for me and we narrowed it down to Savannah. I wanted to tick off a state that I had not done and I wanted it to be in the south were the weather was likely warmer. I didn't have any expectations as I had IMMD on Oct 3rd (later pushed to Oct 17th) and Manchester City marathon the week prior. I was just hoping to carry my fitness over and tick off another state. 

Fast forward to mid Oct. It was the Saturday before Savannah marathon and the night prior to Manchester City marathon. I realized I had missed the bib pickup and ultimately decided to not race Manchester City marathon. Instead I drove to Stow and "helped" my friend Kendra with her morning workout. Quotes because she was in her final build for IMCoz and pretty much paced me for 10 miles. It was my 3rd run after IMMD the first two were 30 min (3 miles or under) treadmill runs and I had thought my legs were back, until mile 5. Things tightened up and by mile 10 I realized my legs were not back yet. That Tuesday night I opted to run 30 mins on the treadmill prior to climbing and for the first time I was able to put down some speed without feeling any big aches. Thursday came and I opted to have a few beers at home instead of workout. I had planned to get a short morning run on Friday morning prior to my flight, but I overslept my alarm and hurried to get things packed and head to the airport.

My flight was ok, I ended up sitting next to this lady who had her 2 kids across the isle. She was a cardiologist who worked in Boston and was flying to Savannah. She had originally planned to run, but sprained her ankle and decided to go down anyways to visit her father. She was a nice lady, but had a lot to talk about. I mostly hated the kind of parent she was, you know the type that asks the kids what they want nonstop. There is only so many times that you call out your boys name before you need to realize that 1) he has headphones on and 2) he has totally tuned you out. Anyways, she was a nice lady, I was just hoping for a little rest on the plane. I hope she gets that foot taken care of and comes back strong next year to run Boston and Savannah as well.

I landed in Hilton Head airport pretty early. I got in touch with Ben and after about an hour of phone tag and figuring things out I decided to take a cab to the hotel to check us in and just get ready. This will be the last cab that I ride voluntarily. I was going to order an uber, but decided to support the cabbies in the area, never again. The cabby looked unhappy to take my to my location, no hello, no how was your flight. I got a "where you going" and that was that. When we arrived at the hotel the meter showed 15.74. While he was struggling to unlock his phone and attach the square cc reader the meter jumped to 16.08. I gave him my card and I watched him punch 18 dollars onto his phone and swipe my card. He then handed the phone to me to sign and had this look on his face when I chose the no tip option. Cabbies wonder why people don't use them anymore. Lets see, uber offers better rides, nicer drivers and they don't tip themselves. Needless to say, we took about 10 rides over the next 2 days, all uber rides, oftentimes there were cabs in front of us and we pulled out our phones right in front of them to wait for an uber. Ok ok, you're here for a race report, not a rant about cabbies.

After checking in and settling a bit, I called an Uber which promptly took me downtown where I met up with Ben and we took the ferry across the river and picked up our bibs. The ferry ride was nice, it was free and it gave us a different vantage point of the city. Downtown Savannah is very similar to Charleston, SC. Maybe a little dirtier.

I thought the expo was very well run. Getting our bibs and bags was very easy. When I picked up my bib I saw #DRINKmaple and I thought "wow, kate and jeff are sponsoring this race? that's huge". I was showing my buddy Ben and was so stoked to be wearing my DRINKmaple hat. I was like cool, people are going to think I'm some kind of sponsored athlete. I was so excited for my friends I took some photos of my bib.

We decided to sit outside and wait for Brian outside. We laid on the grass by the river and took in the last hour of the day. The sun literally set on our ferry ride back, it was pretty cool. 

Once we crossed we decided to walk around a little. We ended up getting apps walking around a bit more and ended up grabbing dinner at a little pub. The food was ok, nothing to write home about, other than Brian got hosed on the angle hair pasta.

After dinner we did a little more walking and found a cool little bee shop. I picked up a few products while Brian picked up some royal jelly. I had never had it before, neither had Ben. We're both adventurous eaters so we said yes when Brian offered. I thought the flavor was interesting, there is not much that grosses me out in terms of edible foods. I can't say it was a flavor I enjoyed, but it didn't bother me. I knew it was good for me so I didn't mind it. Ben on the other hand, didn't fair as well. I can't remember exactly how he described it, but it was something along the lines of "the most foul thing I've ever had". I laughed, a lot, for a long time.

We got back to the hotel and began prepping for the morning. I set the alarm at 4:40 so we could eat and take the free shuttle down to the race start. I woke up first and then woke the boys up. Breakfast at the hotel was pretty weak. The coffee, which came out of an automated machine, was the worst coffee I have ever had in my life. It helped me get my 2nd poop of the morning, which I was proud of and made me feel ready for the race. That morning the 3 of us piled into a minivan with 3 others. The lady in the front was complaining about the RnR marathon in New Orleans last year. She was complaining about how there was not enough water, this and that. Lady, do a race in Mexico, you'll never complain about races again. At IMCoz in 2013, volunteers peaced out when it rained, lol.

After a little road blockage snafu, we found our way to about 5 blocks from the race start. As we walked, Ben retold the story of how he shat himself at the BAA Half. I laughed so hard I likely would have shat myself if I hadn't gone twice already. You plan for these races and always imagine something along the race will be the most memorable. I can say without a doubt, the 3 of us laughing our asses off (pun intended?) walking to the race start was the most memorable moment of this trip. Typical right? Poop story....

We hung at the Hyatt hotel whilst waiting for the race to start, I got my 3rd pre race poop in, hooray. By 6:40 we decided it was a good time to head out. Brian jumped in at corral 1 while Ben and I scurried to the bag check. We hadn't realized how far back it was so it was a bit of a scramble. We worked our way back to the start line and entered corral 3. After about 10 minutes I realized we were in corral 3 of the half marathon start and corral 3 of the marathon start was another 20 yards up. We decided it wasn't worth pushing past people and stayed where we were. It was a cloudy, foggy morning. You could feel the humidity, it was high, but not too bad. The temperature didn't feel bad either, felt like mid 60's. Ironically the race director sent out an e-mail the night prior regarding the heat. I thought it was cute, seriously? 80 degrees with 80% humidity warrants a warning? I've raced ironmans in warmer weather.

The race was late to start, I believe 10 minutes. The first few miles were slow. I was trying to be conscious of my pace as I knew my legs were not fully recovered from IMMD. I decided to hold an 8:30-8:40 pace. It was hard, a few times I got caught up with folks and my pace quickened to the low 7's. It's always hard when you see people who you know are slowing blow by you as if you're standing still. Not meaning that I don't want them running faster than me, but you think you're running too slow when you see folks crush by you, so you speed up, only to check your watch and realize you need to slow down. I can't say I like races that mix the marathon and the half marathon start together. 40k people is too intense. I couldn't believe the people crushing by me the first mile. By the time mile 2 came around there was a slight uphill and by uphill, I mean a bridge. I noticed my HR was a bit high so I scaled back the pace but was still passing folks that burned too many matches the first 2 miles. I kept steady and saw Ben out of the corner of my eye a few times. By mile 4 I lost him and just focused on myself. I had to pee but was hoping to just hold it off, by mile 6 I knew I had to hit a port a potty. I made a quick stop that took about 34 seconds. By this time I was running next to a girl who had a really good pace. She was holding 8:35's very consistently. I pushed the pace a bit in order to catch up with her, which I did. I hung with her for a little until I realized the soreness I felt at mile 5 wasn't going away, nor was it getting worse. She fell off her pace and I never saw her again. When I hit mile 10 I pretty much felt exactly how I felt after running with Kendra. I was pretty worried, 16 miles to go, I'm running 15 seconds slower than I was 6 days ago and it's only getting warmer out. Crap!

At mile 9.5(ish) the race split (THANK GOD!) the half marathoners went right, the full went left. There was an immediate water stop and like all stops I dumped 2-3 cups of water on myself, had some gatorade then rinsed with water. The girl next to me was running an 8:30 pace (ish) so I pulled up next to her and we ran side by side for a good half mile before I decided to talk to her. We spoke about the "lonely" part of the race, but both agreed how much nicer it was having the half folks out of the way. I found it was her 2nd marathon and she was trying to BQ. She needed a 3:35. I told her she was slightly off pace. She told me she intended to pick things up at mile 13. I offered her the advice that she should wait until mile 16, I felt with the heat, 13 might be too soon. She opted to take my advice. I told her I would do my best to pace her to a BQ and that I would tell her when I could no longer hang on. Next thing I know we were running low 7's. The stretch of the highway was nice, long stretch, really allowed you to get in the zone. I kept staring at my watch and kept us under 8:40, trying to hold 8:35's best we could. At around mile 14 I decided to pick up the pace a little bit to 8:25's. I knew in order for her to BQ she had to stop bleeding time. When I looked back I saw that she was about 30 yards back. I thought about slowing down to link up with her, but decided that it was better for me to hold the pace and make her work back up to me. It never happened, a mile later I saw she was further back. There were 2 guys that were playing yoyo with me. Both guys very energetic, slapping hands of supporters, making jokes, goofing, just having a grand time. I was so jealous. I was running on fumes, my calves were sore. GAH, some people are just so fast! At around mile 16 I saw Brian run by. He was maybe 10 yards behind the first place female and he was in 6th overall. He looked ok, his shirt was off and he didn't offer me any words, we fist bumped. I felt inspired. I decided that mile 16 was where I was going to put down my best work. 10 miles. Anyone can suffer for 10 miles. About 4 minutes went by and my shirt came off. I tucked it into my tri shorts. I caught one of the guys that I was playing yoyo with. We ran side by side and had some good conversations for about 2 miles. His buddy John then ran past us and stayed about 25 yards ahead. Mile 18 came and about 2 minutes later I decided I wanted to lift the pace and just put some energy out. I caught John within 45 seconds and decided to just keep pushing. I worked up to mile 21ish and all of a sudden I saw a TON of runners ahead of me. I knew I was in good position, likely top 160ish. But all of a sudden there were hundreds of people in front of me, with bib numbers in the 5 digits. Something was off, people were complaining, people were on their cell phones off the side of the roads. I caught wind that they were calling the race because it was too hot. I was glad that I made the cutoff (or so I thought). By the time mile 22 came around there were thousands of runners in front of me. They were turning folks back at 3 points of the race, then the half marathoners merged in with us again. I was looking for mile markers and didn't see 23, something felt off. The race marker said 24, but my watch said 22.XX. I caught up to a guy with a lower bib number than myself. I asked him if the race was accurate, he looked at his garmin and said yes. I just assumed that my garmin was messed up. I kept pushing the pace, feeling good, but frustrated that I had to cut in and out of all the folks that simply gave up and were walking on the course. I crossed the line at 3:25:26, my garmin showed 24.7. I was pretty stoked, I thought I had set a huge PR, but in the back of my mind I was slightly nervous. I knew my first half was too slow, I ran a conservative 1:49(ish) so I knew I had a monster negative split. Regardless, I worked my way over to the meetup point and stretched etc until Brian showed up. We chatted a bit and about an hour later, found Ben, took some photos and headed back to the hotel. 

STRAVA MARATHON FILE

We all felt pretty trashed, so we opted to take a photo with the trash can, or what was left of it. Brian and I hit the pool to swim a bit and loosen up. Afterwards we checked up on Ben, who was alive and well. After showering I caught up a bit with my friend Jess who ran the half and we headed out into town. We ended up at Vinny Van Go Go's for pizza and beers, then spent the rest of the night around town exploring and wrapping up the night at a dueling piano bar. 

On the plane I sat next to a guy who was slightly ahead of me at the race until mile 22ish. He told me he was the first guy to miss the cutoff, resulting in a 24.7 mile race. That's when I realized that I had not completed the whole course. Pretty bummed. I'm more annoyed than anything. I really don't understand what cutting 1 mile off does. In the end, with 40k people racing the race director has to do what makes sense for them. Just because I know how to properly pace and keep properly hydrated doesn't mean that the race should go on just for me.

I'm very happy to say that my racing season is finally over. Looking at my pace, how I felt and how many miles were left, I still would have set a PR if they didn't cut off 1.5 miles of the course. 3 weeks after my ironman PR too!

What's next? Rest and relaxation... HAHA, JUST KIDDING! I think it's time to focus other aspects of life for a bit. I want to not lose too much fitness this offseason, get stronger at the rock gym and really hit some ice climbing goals, catching up on a bunch of books I want to read and really improving my skills in the kitchen!