MY JOURNEY TO BECOME AN IRONMAN

Ironman Wisconsin • September 2007
Brad B

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
Ernest Hemingway

The previous one year journey to become an Ironman ("IM") was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. The commitment of devoting hours to training and preparation, along with the financial costs, were far greater then I ever imagined. At first, completing an IM was just my next challenge, but ended up being so much more. Here’s the story of my journey.

Winter Park – August 2006

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
-Lao Tzu

I joined a few friends in Winterpark, Colorado in early August 2006 to celebrate our friend Brian’s 29th Birthday. The weekend included some hiking, mountain biking, and a little birthday boozing. It was a great way to get away from the heat in Denver to enjoy the mountains before the snow started to fall. I’ve always been energized by the mountains. Even on this relaxing weekend, I woke up early (7AM) to get in a 30 minute run before everyone else woke up. We then went mountain biking on the ski resort. I’ve never been a one activity-a-day kind of person. Afterwards, I found myself relaxing in the hotel room watching the 2005 IM Kona TV broadcast. Some of the others were napping/getting ready for dinner. I couldn’t pull my eyes off the screen. I was captivated by all the inspirational stories being told, including that that of John "the blazeman" Blais who completed the race with Lou Gehrigs disease, which eventually took his life in May 2007.

From that moment on I was hooked. I told my friends Aaron and Brian that I was signing up for an IM and they should too! By then, Captain Morgan’s was flowing, so I’m sure they didn’t take me seriously, but I was serious. Even after sobering up the next day, I knew I had to try it.

Denver – the Next week

"Only those who risk going too far can find out how far they can go"
-T.S. Eliot

I told Nick about my goal of doing an IM the following week. He was the first person I told that didn’t think I was ridiculous for even thinking about it. At the time, I didn’t know how big of a commitment this would be, but I did know I wouldn’t be able to do this alone, so Nick needed to be on board. He called his friend Jay the next day to get us signed up for the Wisconsin IM, September 9, 2007.

My rational was that I’ve pretty much done all three of the IM legs (separately of course), so why couldn’t I train and do them back (2.4 mile swim)-to-back (112 mile bike)-to–back (26.2 mile run)? And since the Wisconsin IM was a little over a year away, that’d be plenty of time for us to prepare. And Nick, despite being a runner all his life and 2:40 marathoner, had even less swimming and biking experience then I had, which wasn’t much. Neither of us had ever completed a triathlon before.

Harvest Moon Half IM – September 2006

I signed up for the local Half IM to get some experience (it was one of the last triathlons of the year in the Denver area). I had five weeks to prepare. Typically, athletes taper for three weeks leading up to a race this distance. Since, I only had five weeks to prepare, I didn’t have that luxury. I spent the next four weeks preparing for the race, but mainly during the week, which consisted of swimming a mile in the pool at lunch and either running or biking after work. I spent two of the weekends backpacking because I already had the trips planned and one weekend traveling back to Michigan for a wedding. So my only weekend committed to training was done the weekend before the race - I biked 56 miles on Saturday and ran 11 miles on Sunday.

I had never put on a wetsuit before, but rented one anyways because everyone else was wearing one. The swim was one of the hardest events for me, mainly because of the start line commotion. I got through it though in around 45 minutes – very average. I used my road bike that I paid $120 for the previous fall. Triathlon bikes, with carbon frames and wheels, start around $4,000. One of my friends that was watching the race, I think Craig, said it was by far the crappiest bike in the event. Oh well, I managed to ride the 56 miles in just under 3 hours. The run sucked, they always do, but I finished it in 1:52 minutes for a total time, including transitions, of 5:38 and a 5/15 place finish in my age group. I had no idea what to expect but if I can finish a half with hardly any training, then the IM is within reach!

Off Season – September – December 2007

"The journey is the reward."

I don’t know how you can call it an off season when I never really had a season, but I don’t know what else to call this section. I spent the next few months primarily mountain biking. I was sick of swimming so I found my self often skipping my lunch hour swim. And my foot really started bothering me after my half IM, maybe a stress fracture, so I didn’t do hardly any running until December to let it heal. And ski season started in early November for me, so I found my self spending at least a one day a weekend, and often two, up in the mountains skiing. My goal for this period was to stay active but not follow a structured plan, which is easy to do in Colorado. Despite being extremely active, I weighed about 188 lbs on December 31st. About my average weight, but about 5 lbs heavier then I was in September for the half IM.

Ski Season/Pre Season – January – March 2007

"And so you ask a very good question. Why go on? Why even start off on such a path? What is to be gained from embarking on such a journey? Where is the incentive? What is the reason?"

(Good questions, don’t look at me.)

This was my first full ski season in Colorado, so I wasn’t going neglect it for the IM. However, I did make a conscious effort starting January 1st to train according to a 36 week IM training schedule that I found online. The plan called for 8-12 hours a week of training for the first 20 weeks to build an aerobic base. Typically, I trained 6 – 10 hours a week because I skipped a lot of the longer weekend workouts to go skiing. It wasn’t a total waste though, because I’d often started or ended the day of skiing by hiking "skinning" up the mountain instead of riding a lift. This usually took 45 minutes to an hour (each trip), and it was great aerobic training at altitude. I even drove up early one Saturday and did two laps at Loveland Ski Resort before the lifts opened. Standing atop the continental divide alone, before the lifts have started running, gave me a feeling of having the entire resort to myself.

By the end of March, I’d logged the majority of my ski days for the season – 25 resort and 12 backcountry. It was now time to start focusing on training. I had a decent base built up at this point and could comfortably swim 1-1.5 miles, run 13 miles, and bike 2 hours on the stationary trainer. Riding on the stationary trainer is great during the winter months to get in higher intensity workouts without worrying about riding in cold icy conditions outside. Because there are no hills or stop signs on a stationary trainer, 1 hour on the trainer supposedly simulates 1.5 hours outdoors, etc. because there’s no resting on a trainer because resistance is always on. I got through the boring workouts by watching videos and listening to music. I was ready to get outside.

The mid-week two-a-day workouts became routine and my recovery time between workouts was decreasing. I found myself running as fast during an evening workout, after biking in the morning or swimming at lunch, as if it wasn’t my second workout of the day. This was progress and I was gaining endurance! I was also gaining an appetite. I began eating constantly throughout the day. No matter what I did, I was always hungry. By this time I was weighing about 185 lbs.

Despite getting sick for a week with the flu and taking 6 days off from training, I decided to run the Platte Trail Half Marathon in late March to see where my fitness was at. I finished in 1:44 or 8 minute/mile pace. Considering I as at altitude and still recovering from the flu, I was satisfied. The run is not my event, so my goal for the race was just be able to gut out the marathon in under 5 hours – this is a walk/run pace.

I should also add that I suffered my first bike crash of the season the day before the race. Krista, who I met through the Rocky Mountain Triathlon Club, invited me to ride with her coaches at Mile High Multi-Sport in Highland Ranch. About 15 miles into the ride, I was talking with one of the coaches as Krista started fish tailing directly ahead of me before wiping out - her rear wheel came loose. I didn’t have time to steer myself around, so I ended up hitting her and flipping (without my bike) over her and landing on my back. It was quite embarrassing for both but neither of us were injured. While Krista had more triathlon experience then me, we were both inexperienced and this incident was the first of many.

Pre-Season – April & May 2007

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey."
- Kenji Miyazawa

The month of April was pretty uneventful. The weather finally allowed us to bike outdoors (it was one of the coldest/snowiest winters on record for the Denver area), which allowed us to increase our weekend rides to 3 – 3.5 hours. Krista and I flew out to Madison to meet Nick to get in a training ride on the IM course – 82 miles, which was my longest ride of the year. The day before flying to Madison, I paid $10 to get a massage from a student intern at the local Denver Recreation Center. I learned a valuable lesson about cheap massages, because she triggered back spasms that lasted the upcoming week in a half. What great timing, I could hardly haul my bags up to the hotel room in Madsen. How was I going to ride the next day? Surprisingly, even though I had trouble walking, my back felt fine on the bike. The following morning was another story, I struggled to get out of bed. I ended up taking some time off from running to let the back heal, but kept up with everything else – which most likely delayed the recovery, but it’s not like me to sit back and let things heal properly.

By the beginning of May, I was getting sick of the weekend routine of biking on Saturday and running on Sunday. All the weeks/weekends started to blend together. It became apparent; our summer was going to suck! And we hadn’t even started the peak training months of June/July/& August!

I talked Krista into signing up for an adventure race in Buena Vista, Colorado on May 11th. Like myself, Krista is open to taking on new challenges and after a couple drinks at the Rock Bottom Brewery following a swim workout; I was able to persuade her into signing up. It was hilarious, we had no idea what to expect. The event featured orienteering, trail running, mountain biking, and kayaking. Krista had been on her mountain bike 3 times. I’d never been in a kayak. And, we were depending on my navigational skills…which I wasn’t worried about but Krista was. Race day was scorching hot and the mountain bike (last leg) was way harder then predicted. We ended up finishing in 6 hours 30 minutes, and we thought we had finished last. After all, the race was forecasted to take between 3 and 5 hours. When we were returning our gear, the race director told Krista we’d finished 2nd in our division! Supposedly, they had to modify the course away from some private property that morning, which made the course WAY longer.

The adventure race weekend was just the break we needed. We even went white water rafting the following day (after an 11 mile run) which was another adventure. We were ready to get back into the routine of IM training. Peak training season was just around the corner. However, the following weekend or May 19th, I failed to unclip my feet out of my pedals as I was coming to a stop on my bike, nearly 200 yards away from the car (we were just starting our ride). I tipped over and took the weight of the fall almost entirely on my right thumb, which obviously couldn’t withstand my weight (I weighed around 181 lbs at this time). It swelled up immediately and I knew there was something wrong, but I finished my brick workout - 70 mile ride up Deer Creek Canyon followed by a 5 mile run. The entire time, my right hand was worthless. I suffered a tear in the Ulnar Collateral Ligament, which required surgery to pin the ligament back into place.

I was devastated. Following my ER visit on Saturday in which the doctor predicted I had a ligament tear, I called my cousin (Jeff), an orthopedic surgeon resident in Chicago, for consultation. I had to wait until Monday to see a hand specialist. After seeing the xrays, Jeff laid out all my options. Surgery was inevitable; it was a matter of using the right kind of sutures to repair the ligament so that I’d be back in the pool as soon as the stitches came out. Jeff didn’t charge me for his advice, but I wouldn’t put it past him to send me a bill, as it wouldn’t be the only time I sought his advice this summer. For the first time, I truly appreciated how difficult the IM race distance was and at the same time I was concerned whether I’d be able to cross that finish line in 17 weeks. People like myself, who sign up for the IM distance with very little triathlon experience, are often criticized by veteran triathletes for not "respecting the Ironman distance."

Including the pre-surgery splint, I’d be in a cast for a total of 10 weeks (1 week pre-surgery splint, 1 week post surgery splint, 4 weeks hard cast, 4 weeks removable hard cast). I couldn’t swim for nearly 2 weeks. I couldn’t even ride the stationary trainer for a week and a half because the pain and swelling was so severe post incident and post surgery that I couldn’t keep my hand below my heart for any extend period of time. I was mentally stressed; completing this event became more of an obsession at this point. Krista could tell how difficult this was for me. I’d never been sidelined before due to injury. Krista talked me into using Pete Alfino, owner and coach at Mile High Multisport to coach me through this. Pete suffered from a severe hand injury before the 2003 Wisconsin IM, that forced him to swim/bike with a brace on his left hand. Knowing that he made it through the race with a similar, even more severe, injury was reassuring that he could coach me through it too.

I had surgery on Wednesday following the fall. I had a temporary cast on for a week until the stitches were removed. The doctor provided me with a hard cast that had a waterproof Gore Tex liner that I could swim with, which would be on for 4 weeks. During this time I could only bike on the stationary trainer. And while I was excited about being able to swim with the cast, this turned out to be another potential obstacle. Swimming 2,000-3,500 yards with a cast severely overloaded my right shoulder…obviously, right? So, I had to cut back on the distance so that I didn’t screw up my right shoulder too badly. I also had to concoct a more efficient cover for my cast to reduce resistance. I found a yellow rubber dish washing glove worked best. I got some pretty strange looks in the pool with this nice set up.

As for the bike, Pete began giving me 4 – 4.5 hour brick workouts on Saturdays. A typical workout would include – Run 30 min/bike1.5 hr/run 30 min/bike 1.5 hr/run 15 min. My neighbors had to have thought I was nuts, if they saw me run from my house 3 times in one day (usually before noon). Pete gave me cycling training DVDs to help pass the time. He also let me use his compu-trainer, which allows for you to program any course, wind, hills, etc. I did the 70.3 California IM course one morning in his basement. That was the longest continuous time I spent on a trainer – 2 hours 55 minutes. I new I wasn’t going to gain any fitness during this time, but I couldn’t afford to lose what I’d already built up. It was one of the most mentally challenging things I’ve ever done. To do these workouts alone and inside, was brutally exhausting. I was so obsessed with finishing the race, it wasn’t an option not to do them or to cut them short. So I did them all.

As for the run, it wasn’t an issue on the shorter distances, but the cast caused my shoulder to cramp/ache during my long runs. I even raced in an Estes Park Half Marathon on mid-June with my cast and finished in 1:45. This was slower then my earlier race, but considering the higher elevation (7,500-8,000 feet) and hilly nature of the course, I was satisfied. I finished 3rd in my age division.

COSTS

I had no idea how expensive this race was going to be. If people only knew, that in addition to the crazy training hours, how expensive it is to train for an IM, they’d think we were even crazier. For instance, here’s a quick and dirty tally of the costs I incurred leading up to the race….and counting….

IM COST ANALYSIS

Bike: $4,005

Swim: 370

Run: 325

Total Race entry fees: 1,030

Massages: 230

Coaching: 575

TOTAL IM COSTS: $6,430

This doesn’t even include travel costs to/from races this summer. Travel costs to/from Madison (twice) and many miscellaneous costs included in bike maintenance. Nor did I include my surgery costs or new training clothing – technical clothing is expensive. In total, this may end up costing me up to $10,000.

PEAK SEASON - July & August, 2007

"In this Life You Don't Have To Prove Nothin To Nobody But Yourself"

I finally was given the ok from my doctor to begin biking outside again. In order to do so, I’d have to ride in aero position and with my bulky brace so that the road vibrations would be mostly absorbed into my elbows and not my hands. I re-built my bike handle bars to do this and also switched the braking/shifting levers to the opposite sides because my dominant (left) was now going to be responsible for the active controls (rear derailleur and rear brake). This was goofy at first, but I got used to it quickly. I was just happy to be off the trainer and on the road. In fact, I put the trainer in my closet with the intent not to use it (rain or shine) for the rest of IM training season.

By mid-July I was riding 100 plus miles on Saturday and running 15-20 miles on Sundays. Other then the swim, my mid-week workouts did not intensify. At this point in the season, I started losing focus during my mid-week workouts. It was all I could do to get through them in order to be prepared to go hard again by the weekend. In total, I had 6 days that exceeded 100 miles during this stretch. Two of these weeks, I’d logged 200 – 250 miles per week on my bike. And, when you factor in the 25-35 running miles per week and the 5-7 swim miles per week, it was far more then my body has ever endured before. I didn’t notice any increases in my speeds, however, my recovery time between workouts decreased. Even during workouts, I’d feel like I was hitting the wall and then recover to finish the workout strong. During a 100 mile ride, this could occur 2-3 times. It was a mental battle to stay focused. When including preparation, training the multiple disciplines, and transitions, I’d spend 8-9 hours (a work day) training on Saturdays.

Krista and I scheduled a 4 night/4 day training weekend in Vail on the last weekend of July to get away and help maintain our focus. We’d need it, because this weekend included a 115 mile bike on Friday, 60 mile bike/2 mile swim on Saturday, 16.5 mile run on Sunday, and a 50 mile bike/2.25 mile swim on Monday, which was all at altitude with a lot of elevation gain. The run is a little deceiving because it was on a trail at 9,250 ft, with approximately 1,000 feet of elevation gain. I’d say it’d be equivalent to a 21 mile run down in Denver, at least based on total time – 3 hours 15 minutes. To top it off, this was the end off a three week "build-up" period. So we were beat up from the start of the weekend. On Sunday morning, after going to bed at 10PM Saturday night, we both woke up at 4AM starving. We didn’t have any food in the room besides power bars, gels, and sports drink. We are so sick of eating cliff bars and power bars that we can hardly eat them outside of training. But, since it was all we had, we scarffed down a couple bars to hold us over before eating another buffet style breakfast at 7:30 AM. We couldn’t eat enough calories in the day to keep up with the number of calories we were burning during the day and caloric deficits that we started with. Following this weekend I was under 180 lbs. I haven’t been this light since my freshman year in college, in which I was an inch shorter then I am now.

This training weekend was followed by a much needed rest week. Our rest weekend included a 2.25 swim/50 mile bike/5 mile run on Saturday and we hiked a 14er (Mt. Sherman) on Sunday for Brian’s birthday with some friends. Mt. Sherman is considered an easy 14er, but in reality, no 14ers are easy. It was for us though! This was exactly one year after our Winter Park trip, in which I committed to doing this IM! I couldn’t believe it had been a year but that means I’ve almost made it! As I hiked up the mountain I reminisced on my training, from the foot injury last fall, to the thumb surgery in May, and everything in between that I’ve given up to make it to this point. I’m healthy and feeling prepared. Only 5 weeks left, and 3 of those are taper weeks!

Back in Denver, I joined some friends (all WI natives) to watch the Rockies play the Brewers on Monday night. The game wasn’t very interesting as the Rockies had the game in hand from the start. I was even good and only had two beers during the game. I bailed out during the 8th inning to get home and go to bed, as I had to get in a 2 hour 45 minute brick workout before work the next day, which meant I’d be getting up at 4:30AM. Considering how lame I’d been for the previous year, my friends have been extremely understanding and supportive. That doesn’t mean they didn’t give me crap, but in the end, they knew how important this race was to me and were supportive. Typically, people who don’t do endurance events don’t get them. My family didn’t get it; I can’t tell you how many times I heard, "Why would you want to put your body through that?" In the end, I know they were just looking out for me, but it wasn’t supportive and annoyed me.

I woke the next morning, pumped my tires, filled my water bottles, grabbed the essential biking gear, including my head light (it was still dark at 4:45am when I left the house) and began my 2 hour ride. Other then forcing myself to get up this early, I love early morning rides. The sunrise in Denver is gorgeous, and when no one is on the trail, it feels like I’ve got view of the sun hitting the Front Range Mountains all to myself! And even during the hottest 100 degree summer days, the mornings in Denver are cool, great for training. Nearly 4 miles from my house, I made a sweeping turn onto a wooden bridge, like I’ve done all summer, however this time, it was wet and as soon as I hit it, my slick road bike tires went out from under me. I slammed into the bridge and slid, with my bike still with me to a stop. I was so pissed, what a rookie mistake! Although the pavement was dry, I should have known the bridge was still going to be wet - it rained last night. And a wet wooden bridge is as slick as ice on a road bike. I pealed myself from under my bike, inspected it, and jumped back on it to continue my ride, cussing the whole time. Other then some scrapes my bike looked to be OK. However, my left thumb was throbbing.

After a few miles and when the pain didn’t subside, I knew it was broken. How could this happen again? I’m an idiot! With only 4 and a half weeks until race day, I couldn’t go into another cast, let alone have another surgery. I finished my 40 mile ride and went straight to the urgent care to get x-rays. It was broken in two spots – horizontally across and vertically down and into the joint, in summary, it was smashed. I had to see my hand specialist to get recovery/casting options. If I had to go into a cast, my IM hopes might be over. To make matters worse, I couldn’t get into my hand specialist until Thursday. I’d have to wait nearly two days with my IM hopes up in the air. All this training for nothing! On Wednesday night, I couldn’t do my swim, so I got back on my bike and road 45 miles – with two casts on! I couldn’t stand waiting for the diagnosis. I could hardly hold onto the bars, because both hands were in braces. I had to shift with my index fingers, and any road vibrations, shot right up both arms. I didn’t care because I was back on my bike.

The following morning I went to see my hand specialist. The only good thing was that I was able to move my 12 week follow up appointment for my right hand (previous injury) into this appointment! Hand specialists aren’t used to repeat customers, especially so shortly after an injury. The appointment went well, after taking more xrays, he said that my thumb was similar to an egg shell and that any impact would shatter it. However, by wearing a thumb splint for 4 weeks, it should fully heal. I wouldn’t be in a cast and even better, I’d have my splint off by the IM, I was back!

Despite breaking my thumb in two places five days prior, I raced in my first open water swim on August 12, 2007 – The Horsetooth Reservoir 2.4 Mile Swim in Fort Collins, CO. It is rare that I enter into a race without any expectations, but since this was my first timed open water 2.4 mile distance swim (and longest swim of the season), I didn’t know what to expect. Earlier in the season I suspected my IM swim would be around 1:30. Pete had said in early June, that if I wanted to beat the masses out of the water and into T1, I’d have to swim it in sub 1:10 (around 28 minutes per mile). My finishing time for the Horsetooth swim was 1:09:41, 19 seconds faster then my goal of 1:10. And, I knew I could go faster! Krista, Chris (a co-worker) and myself proceeded to ride 97 miles back to Golden following this swim. It was a long day, but after a stressful week, I was just happy to be back biking/swimming at all!

The Taper

"Waiting is painful…"
- Paulo Coelho

The taper consisted of reducing the training volume from 19-21 hours a week to 10-13 hours per week. This period allowed our bodies to finally reap the benefits of the peak season workouts. By the end of the period (Race Week) I began to feel incredible. For the first time in 9 months, I didn’t have an ache in my body. As race day approached, I became anxious to finish what I started over 12 months ago. I weighed 176 pounds for total weight loss of 12 pounds.

The Race – Sepember 9, 2007

"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins."

-Bob Moawad

My alarm went off at 4:00AM on race morning. I ate my planned breakfast - two eggs, bowl of cereal, banana, power bar, granola bar and cup of coffee. Gaining the physical stamina to endure the IM distance is only half the challenge. Nutritional strategy is just as critical to compete in an IM. I developed my nutritional strategy from tips from my coach and various articles, but mainly from what worked for me during training all summer long. I didn’t intend to try anything new on race day and it started with breakfast. At 5:00AM we left our hotel and headed down to the start area. We had to pump up our bike tires, load up our bike with drink and food supplements, drop off our special needs bags, get our bodies numbered, and check our transitions bags one last time. The weather for the day was nearly perfect, a high of 73 with wind speeds at 8-10 mph. At 6:15 I put my wetsuit on and began walking down the parking structure to the swim start. It took nearly all that time (6:15 – 6:50) to enter the water because all of the 2,200 athletes needed to cross through a narrow arch in order to engage the timing chip strapped on to our ankles. The water on the lake was glass, perfect.

2.4 Mile Swim: The starting gun sounded at 7:00AM. I decided I’d rather have people swimming over me then vice versa, so I had positioned my self in the front of the 2,200 person herd. The first 500 yards was a frantic battle to stay above water. My wetsuit, in addition to being a great flotation device, also served as great body armor. I was kicked, scraped, and hit. Despite this, I maintained my composure which allowed me to survive and settle into my rhythm all the sooner. After two laps, I came out of the water at 1:05:45, or 4 minutes 15 seconds faster then my goal time of 1:10. 2.4 miles down, 138.2 left…

112 Mile Bike: My swim placed me 333rd out of the water, which allowed me to start the bike ahead of the masses. For the first 20 miles, I peddled at a comfortably easy pace. The bike course consisted of a 15 mile ride to the city of Verona and then two loops through hilly farm country, then back to Madison. IM Wisconsin’s bike course is known as one of the hardest North American IM bike courses because of its steep continuous hills. Having road the course in May, I new that I had to keep the legs fresh until the second loop or I’d burn up on the bike and not have anything left for the marathon. This comfortably easy pace put me around 17.0 mph. I was being passed by everyone, but I didn’t care, this was important so I didn’t bonk in the hills.

The first loop went by smoothly and by the end I had increased my average speed to 18.5 mph. I’d stuck to my nutritional strategy and had consumed nearly 1,500 calories of Hammer Strength Perpetuem, Accelerade, Cliff Shot Blocks, and Cliff Bars. I attacked hard on the start of the second loop and increased my average speed to 19 mph before backing off for the last 20 miles to get ready for the run. I finished the bike in 6 hours 1 minute or an average speed of 18.6 mph. I missed my goal time by 1 minute. 26.2 miles to go…

26.2 Mile Run: After a 5 minute transition I headed out on the run feeling surprisingly strong, partially because I was so sick of being on a bike for the previous 6 hours. I finished the first 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 4 minutes. All I needed was to run the next 13.1 miles in 2 hours 35 minutes and I’d achieve my pre-race goal. Easy right? Not exactly. The marathon course consists of two 13.1 mile laps. The turnaround for the second loop is about 200 yards from the finish line. Mentally, it is awfully hard to make that turnaround after seeing the finish line and hearing "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN" shouted to other racers crossing the finish line. I wanted to be done. 13.1 miles seemed like forever away.

I bonked at mile 14. I couldn’t see myself running one more mile. I new I had plenty of time to finish, I planned to walk to the finish. I was rationalizing that finishing the Ironman was enough. What’s an extra 15-30 minutes? Hardly anyone knows what an IM is, let alone what a respectable time is. My stomach was unsettled. My knees, hips, and feet couldn’t handle the pounding of even a slow jog. If I could stay awake, walking was the only way to the finish line.

Since it was an out and back course, I crossed paths with Krista around mile 16. She was finishing her first loop and I was out on my second loop. She still had a smile on her face and was maintaining a strong pace. Having completed 13 marathons before, this was her strength and it showed. We slowed down (she slowed down, I was slow to began with) to share our thoughts. She was positive, I was negative. I told her I was done, come catch me, I’m walking to the finish.

Knowing she was on the course running was enough to get me going again. Knowing we put in the same hours, in the same heat, in the same mountains, all summer long gave me the strength to get going. She’ll probably say that I started running because I was afraid of her catching me. While I admit, I didn’t want that to happen, deep down I realized I’d regret it if I quit and walked to the finish. I remembered a quote that Krista took from Lance Armstrong’s book, "Pain is temporary regret is forever." She was enduring pain, so I would too. I ran to observatory hill (mile 18) before walking up. This was the only steep hill on a relatively flat run course. At this point in the day, walking up was probably faster then running anyways. At the steepest section, I remember thinking; I may not make it up this thing.

I received some words of encouragement from Chris’s wife, Jen, at the top, who said something along the lines of "get your ass moving, this is the Ironman, you’re supposed to hurt, you’re almost there – IRONMAN" as she ran beside me. Jen was a 2006 Wisconsin IM, so it meant that much more, knowing she had already endured the test. I ran down the hill and onto State Street which was lined by drunk college students and fans, so I had to keep running. State Street was an out and back, so I saw Pete twice. On the way out, I told him "I’m hurting." He replied, "I never promised you it wouldn’t you got 10k to go…you have run 10k a number of times...stay focused…make sure you eat and drink….Go." Whatever they said, it worked. 6.2 miles didn’t seem like that much anymore. Until Pete told me, I didn’t even know how many miles I had left, nor could my brain barely calculate even the most elementary math problems. It’s 5:50PM, I have 6.2 miles left, what pace do I need to maintain to finish by 7PM? It didn’t matter, aid station to aid station, that’s all I focused on.

With 2 miles to go and 30 minutes left, I knew I had done it. For the first time, I knew I was going to be an Ironman, all the hard work had paid off. The muscle pain, joint pain, and stomach cramps suddenly went away. I absorbed it all. I passed my friend John and his girlfriend, Brian and his girlfriend, and Pravin at the Capital Building. Brian chased me down along the sidewalk, yelling you look good man, you did it! If he only new how I looked 6 miles ago. The finish line was right around the corner. I crossed the finish line in 11 hours 48 minutes. I was an IRONMAN.

Afterwords…

I’m still not able to tell you why I chose to do an IM. I do know that I’m a better person for taking on the challenge and going through the journey. I owe a lot of it to certain people who helped along the way. Nick (11:12 IM WI Finisher) – I may never have even signed up if you hadn’t jumped on board so easily. Krista (12:59 IM WI Finisher) – having a training partner to train with and talk IM with all summer was so helpful. While our friends were going out to the bars, we were going home to sleep. But, because we had each other, it didn’t register how much we were giving up along the way. Coach Pete – I’m convinced having Pete yell at me to keep going at mile 20 of the marathon was worth every penny I paid him in coaching fees for the season. I’m sure his training plan and coaching had something to do with my ability to keep going at that point, but having him there to put it all in perspective made a big difference. My Parents and friends (Brian and Sarah from Denver and John from Chicago) who made the trip to Madison to cheer me on. It’s nearly as exhausting to watch an IM then it is to compete in one. Every cheer helped along the way.

In total, my race preparation starting January 1, 2007 tallied 410 total hours, including: 84 swim hours for a total of 137 miles; 107 run hours for a total of 751 miles; 142 bike hours for a total of 2,370 miles; and 77 stationary bike hours for a total 0 miles.

Brad