Ironman Arizona 2008
Brian Henden

I am writing my report 10 days removed from my first Ironman and have spent many hours reflecting on the race. For those that know me, I overanalyze everything. Thus, analyzing the Ironman is like "hitting the jackpot". The analysis started after the 2007 racing season when I decided I wasn't ready to make a commitment to IM in 2008. Then I got an email from Coach Pete informing me that registration was opening for IMAZ Fall 2008. With it becoming so difficult to get into a North American m-Dot race and the fact that my parents live in Phoenix in the winter, I consulting Jill, my incredibly supportive wife, and hit the accept button on Active.com thereby making the commitment.

Coach Pete and I had breakfast one morning in the earlier part of the summer to talk about "the IM plan". He told me your goal in your first IM is simply to finish, however knowing the athlete sitting across the table, he went on to say it would be okay to have a back of the napkin goal to only be shared with him. Pete decided to have fun with this and we both wrote my ideal time on separate pieces of paper (assuming neutral conditions). Ironically, we had written down the same time, and when all was said and done, I finished within 7-8 minutes of that time. I would be specific down to the minute, but I cannot recall with certainty what that time was.

Pete had me prepared and for the first time in my life I experienced a true taper. Unfortunately as I began tapering I went out on one of my last tempo runs about three weeks before the race and felt a slight twinge in my right calf. After a week of rest it felt good so I ran on it a couple of times two weeks before the race and the pain came back. Coach and I decided to not run until race day. Lots of massages, yoga and pilates for the last ten days before heading down to AZ. The calf was starting to feel better.

I arrived on Wednesday night after a lovely 13+ hour drive with my friend, and soon to be 2 time Ironman, Courtney. As Courtney will attest, I was surprisingly calm and excited for what was to come in four days, except when we got stopped by a train after 600+ miles on the highway. More specifically, the tripometer read 666.6 miles. How freaky!!! The next AM I woke up and my calf was killing me. I figured that driving had not helped matters. When I got down to the IM village I decided to buy some $60 compression socks after talking to some folks in the merchandise tent and everyone wearing them. I wasnÕt sure if I would wear them in the race or not but I wore them 24 hours a day up until race morning.

Spectacular weather greeted us other than some high winds on Friday AM that made the lake quite choppy, everything was looking good for race day. Two training rides on Thursday and Friday had me feeling confident (maybe overly confident) about the bike course and what was achievable. I hit the free massage tent on Friday and was introduced to kinesio tape (you know the stuff one of the women's Olympic beach volleyball players wore on her shoulder). I had read about it on Slowtwitch. The therapist was kind enough to give me an extra piece for race day and I promptly put it in my bike-to-run transition bag. As it turned out I couldn't get it to stick and it dangled from my leg from the beginning of the run and I subsequently tossed it out.

On Saturday before I left my parents' house I was greasing my chain one last time when my father pointed out a huge gash in my brand new tires. That set me off. Instead of being relieved we had found it I was thoroughly pissed off. I calmed down and went to the bike shop to have it replaced. Don't assume like I did that if you put new tires on a week before the race that you are good to go. Make sure to give the bike one last look before turning it in the day before the race. Around noon I was headed down to check in at the hotel, turn over my bike and bags, and await the arrival of my family.

Jill and I enjoyed a quiet dinner together and I was in bed by 8:30. Surprisingly, I slept very well that night and even had dreams, well they were actually nightmares, about the race. It was a succession of nightmares in which the normally calm Tempe Town Lake was in the eye of a massive hurricane with 20+ foot waves. In the last iteration they actually cancelled the swim, something that happened to me at Steelhead 70.3 earlier this season. It turned out the wind was blowing like it was on Friday, but it subsequently calmed down. After a good breakfast Jill and I walked over to the race with our friends Courtney and her husband, Sherpa Sean. Jill had made these great t-shirts for all of my family to wear on race day. I loved it.

The hour between arriving and jumping in for the start went very quicklyÉas it always does. Normally I hit the port-o-potty at least a couple of times to get the nerves out, but only had to once this morning. After pulling on the wetsuit and kissing the family goodbye, Courtney and I made our way to what I call "the herd". This was no ordinary goodbye. I could feel a sense of concern from Jill as we hugged one last time. Understandably so. This turned out to be the only time I was briefly really overwhelmed. There were so many of us moving slowly along to make our way across the timing mat and then plunging into the water. It reminded me of this antiquated video game I used to play and we were all lemmings falling off the deep end.

One of my friends who had did IMAZ in 2007 had told me the swim was not as chaotic as small wave start races he had done. This turned out to be my experience as well. I found a spot towards the front and all the way to the left and had plenty of space. The water was calm and I remember being very relaxed and caught off guard when the cannon went off. I was expecting a countdown and learned later they don't do that especially in an open water start as people will inch up past the start line. In my last two races I had panicked in the first couple hundred meters. Not today I told myself. I did have a bit of contact along the way but anytime it got too crowded it was easy to find open water to get away from it. I never looked at my watch, even at the turnaround. I just kept my head down and swam.

I hit the stairs at 1:17 and was thankful for the helping hand of a volunteer who helped pull me out of the water. The first thing I remember getting out of the water was how bloody cold I was. I never once felt cold in the water, but I was shivering heading into and even out of transition. 9+ minutes later I grabbed my bike which my dad had positioned at the end of my row saving me a few precious seconds. Nice to have a relative volunteering in bike transition.

I was very happy with my first loop and waved to the family as I rode by. As I rode uphill to the turnaround on lap 2 I had to go to the bathroom really bad. I had asked coach Pete and others about peeing on the bike but never practiced. Every time I tried I would have "stage fright" and chicken out. That was until today. Heading downhill I stood up and went for what felt like an eternity. Some guy rode by me and said, "I wish I could do that". No you don't, I thought. It was pretty disgusting at the time as everyone had warned me. Part of the Ironman experience I thought. I ended up peeing in both transitions and twice on the run. All in port-o-potties.

Other than the aforementioned bathroom break, the bike was pretty uneventful until mile 59 when heading downhill at nearly 30 miles an hour and watching my average speed tick up after finishing the uphill section on my second loop. My first ever raceday flat, and only my second one of the entire season. Fortunately it was my front tire. Unfortunately, I had lost one of my two C02 cartridges off the back of my bike earlier. I had one chance to get it right and I am not that experienced in changing flats. Ten minutes later I was rolling again, but elected to stop at the special needs bag station to grab my extra CO2. I wasn't taking any chances. I shrugged it off and made sure not to try to make up the lost time and suffer further on the run than I figured I would. I saw my dad and sister at the turnaround and yelled to tell them I had flatted. Had Jill been there she would have been so nervous that something was wrong as I was more than ten minutes slower on lap 2.

As I started the final lap my stomach was feeling bloated and I realized later that I can't consume too much Gatorade Endurance. During one other race I had to stop drinking it and resort to water. It leads me to a recommendationÉIf you plan to eat or drink what they have on course, make sure to train with it. On the third loop I was cruising uphill 2-3 mph faster than the first two loops. Was I getting stronger or had the winds picked up? It was the latter as I could see riders coming downhill sitting up out of their aero bars and actually working. At the last turnaround I said hello to yet another family volunteer, Jill's dad. It was nice to see him twice right at the end of the hardest stretch.

Two things I witnessed on the bike course. One, lots of other people changing flats. The other, quite a bit of drafting especially going downhill. As I came into the last 5 miles I was with a group of about 5-7 riders and we almost couldn't help but to draft. The road was narrow and we were approaching slower traffic without enough room to go more than two wide. I backed off in the last two miles and spun my legs as Coach Pete had suggested numerous times before. 5:39 bike split. It was time to run.

In my opinion, the three loop run course is the highlight of IMAZ. It is extremely spectator friendly and allowed me to see my family and friends multiple times. Afterwards, everyone commented on how fresh I looked when they saw me. Truth is I didn't want them to know how much I was suffering so I made every effort to run rather than walk when I saw them. Play it up for the crowd I guess. Once I was out of view most of the time I would take a much needed walk break. The drawback to a three loop race is that mentally challenging middle loop. I would encourage anyone training for a three loop race to mimic that in their long training runs.

When I exited transition to begin the run I was fatigued and the kinesio tape I applied was not sticking to my calf. The first couple of miles felt easy and I don't remember walking in the first loop other than through the aid stations. Before I continue, let me say how AMAZING the volunteers were. I was truly blown away. At the post race awards breakfast I learned that they actually had to turn people away who wanted to volunteer. The one I remember most was the 50-something year old man who began running alongside me as I approached the aid station at mile 1 and said, "Brian, what can I get you?" How is that for service? He was just one of many who helped me along the way. And I found out after the race that my son Max even got in on the fun passing out ice on the run and cleaning up the aid station.

I saw Coach Pete first on the run at about mile 3 and after offering me words of encouragement, he reminded me to keep my left elbow down. Always the consummate coach. At least a dozen times from mile 3 I consciously tried to follow his advice, as I usually do. I saw my family twice on the first lap, and I remember Max offering me his snow cone. It could have been the second loop. I should have taken him up on it. As I headed out on the 2nd loop I began to fatigue more and as I crossed the bridge to the other side of Tempe Town Lake around mile 10 my calf gave out.

I would have probably DNF'd if it wasn't for something coach Pete told me just 12 hours before the race. We were sitting at the hotel pool and I was massaging my injured calf. Knowing my personality, he said, "stop thinking about the calf until the race is over. You will have plenty of time to think about it after the race." At mile 10 my calf gave out. I resorted to walking for a couple of minutes and entered the first real dark period where I questioned my ability to finish. I started to think about the calf, but was reminded by what coach Pete had said. It motivated me to go on and forget about it to the best of my ability.

I definitely walked more than I had anticipated in the last two laps, but that allowed me to savor the chicken broth like my good friend Jeff Spiegel. It sure hit the spot. My goal was to only walk through the aid stations. I was frustrated as I was running so well on my long runs leading up to the race. Then again, my long training runs didn't include a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride. Numerous times I would be asked by non-triathletes what I thought my finishing time would be. I would always tell them I could predict my swim and bike time within 5-10 minutes (unless it was really windy), but I had NO idea how long it would take to run a marathon as part of the IM.

As I prepared to cross the bridge the last time I actually ran up a small incline and remember a 52 year old woman I passed applaud my effort. She had decided to walk the incline and subsequently passed me on the bridge. I returned the compliment as she hammered it. That is what I love about triathlon. At mile 25 I finally saw my good friend Courtney Ring. Pete had told me five miles before that she was just in front of me. Courtney was in great spirits and the last thing I remember was her shouting, "dude, you are going to be an Ironman". Later that night she became a two-time Ironman and we celebrated with a beer with our coach. Truth be told we both drank about 1/4 of the pint.

Countless times during my training runs I would feel myself running down the chute towards the tape hearing the words, "Brian Henden, you are an Ironman" and would get choked up. I wondered what my emotions would be when I hit the grandstands. Would I fight tears back, would I cry, or would I be overjoyed. One thing I would not do was sprint to the finish encouraging the crowd to cheer even louder like football players do. I did that five years ago in my last marathon and I subsequently cramped up and had to drag one leg across the finish line? As I came to the last corner before the turn down the chute I clapped both hands from one side in a gesture of thanks to all of the amazing spectators who had gotten me through the "dark periods" of the run that I was warned about. I definitely didnÕt savor the run down the chute like I have seen so many do on TV or the Internet. I was ready for the journey to be over. I joined my Ironman friends who never heard Mike Riley proclaim them as Ironmen. If I want to hear it, I guess I will have to spend another $14.95 to buy the video clip. As I hit the tape I raised my arms and then I performed the "cardinal sin". I looked down and ruined my professional finishing line picture. It is aweful.

Fortunately, my father was one of over 3,000 volunteers and was working the finishing chute as a "catcher". He got a great picture of me before draping me with the tin foil, grabbing my shoulders and not letting go. I was anxious to get beyond the ropes to find the three people who sacrificed more than I did to get me across the finish line. All along I have told people that anyway you look at it, training for an Ironman is a selfish request. I am so incredibly fortunate to have a wife who was so supportive from the day "we" agreed to sign up for IMAZ until the last time she saw me on the run at mile 21. And she never told me about all the times my boys would wake up on the weekends and begin to ask where daddy had gone before stopping mid-sentence and saying, "oh yeah, training". Two days after the race I was playing "king of the bed" with my kids when my nearly 9 year old stopped and said, "it is good to have the old daddy back". It sure is.

Too many to name, I want to thank all of my friends and family who helped me exceed my goals and complete my first Ironman. And, as for my coach. I have known Pete Alfino since he was a rookie, "wet around the ears" cyclist in his late 20Õs. Being much younger, I was in college. We'd ride together back in Chicago as part of an Allstate Insurance biking group along with my dad. Three years ago I learned that Pete had started a coaching business and referred two friends to him that he helped get across their first IM finish lines. I subsequently hired Pete about 18 months ago and would strongly recommend anyone to Pete Alfino. He was more than a coach to me, and at times I am sure he thought he was more psychologist than coach. He never stopped giving me advice throughout my training that I recounted numerous times on the course. And he is an amazing cheerleader to all his athletes. I can remember seeing him as I came to the end of the first loop of the bike pumping one fist and cheering me on. I think the other had a beer in it. Thanks for everything coach Pete.

Finally, I keep getting asked the same question after the obligatory congratulationsÉIt is the same one you field after having your first child. So when are you doing your next one? It is hard to say given the challenges of getting into a race these days, but I hope to become a two-time Ironman in 2010. For now, I am ready to enjoy the offseasonÉand spending more time with my three biggest fans.