A happy Timex clan in Kona!

(More pictures are located at the bottom of this report!)

I still can’t believe that last weekend I finished my 11^th Hawaii Ironman in a row.  It was a tough day for all athletes (as it is every year), but Kona has this lure that keeps pulling me back.  Nikki and my parents felt so lucky to be there one more time.  After arriving on Wednesday morning, I got my bike set up and went for a quick ride to “relive” the winds and heat on the Queen K.  Nikki and I rented a red Mustang convertible and went for a drive to Mauna Lani then picked up my parents from the airport.  Thursday we went for a swim at the swim beach and saw a 4 ft. sand shark that looked just likethis about 300 yds from shore.   We didn’t bother him and he didn’t bother us which seemed to be for the best.  I finished up the day with an interview with Roger Thompson from Timex which you can see here in three parts: Part 1, Part 2,and Part 3.  It was very professionally done and I thank Roger and Dave for taking the time to interview me.

 Friday came and I did my usual 20 min run, light swim, and rented a stand up paddle board for an hour with Nikki.  I had Doug Berner do a quick once over on my Trek and it was ready to roll!  I was excited for the race and was feeling great.  I saw my friends from Trek at the bike check in and before I knew it I was back in the room eating my pasta dinner and had one of my better nights of sleep before an Ironman.

 Race morning came and I was ready to go.  I gathered my stuff together while my parents got their usual spot on the sea wall.  I have to admit it was neat the last few years having my bike in the first row with all of the professionals since #40 was my bib number.  Just before I got into the water I was lucky enough to see my super cool teammates Jackie Arendt and Cindi Bannink and we all had a group “good luck” hug.  We all knew it was going to be a special day for each of us, especially for them since it was their 1^st time in Kona.  I swam out to the very front and saw the whole Timex crew right by the cannon (Keith, Tom, Tristan, Dave, Doug, Herbie) and told them thanks for all they have done for me.  Herbie shouted out, “No Tim, Thank You!!”

 The cannon went off and I was on my way.  It took about 14 minutes for me to get away from the majority of people.  Until then it was a lot of kicking, grabbing, and bumping among the athletes, the usual routine at this race.  My Aqua Sphere Kayenne goggles and Speedsuit worked perfectly.  I just hope everyone can try these products at one point, as they are superior.  I hit the turnaround with the 1^st age group pack and slowly moved up to the lead.  It was me and one other age grouper leading when he pulled ahead toward the finish.  I was 2^nd out of the water in 53:14, a new swim PR for me in Hawaii.

T2 was a quick 2:04 and my sponsors from Timex, Powerbar, Aqua Sphere among others were all cheering for me on the pier as I got onto my Trek fully equipped with Bontrager Aleous 6.5 race wheels. I was feeling really good and the winds were not too bad as I was still leading the amateurs out of town.  I got passed by one amateur around mile 30 or so, but just kept my focus and pushed hard to the turnaround.  I hit Hawi still feeling good and had a nice tail wind back to Kawaihae.  I passed Sergio and tried to give him some good mojo.  It was the 34 miles from Kawaihae all the way to Kona when the head winds really began.  It’s true, the winds have been worse in prior years, although they came at the worst part of the course, the remaining 34 miles, which forced people to dig even deeper to keep a good rhythm.  I knew they would come, so I just put my head down, and broke up the ride in to segments along the way: Waikaloa to Scenic Point to the Donkey Crossing, and finally to the Airport, when I knew I was close!  Although, it was a little tough at mile 85/90ish.  This is where the intensity of the race seems to catch up to me mentally.  I was fully expecting this, but my mind wondered a little and out of nowhere I thought, “I should go cliff jumping tomorrow.”  Crazy I know, but after 5 plus hours of racing I was trying to think of something fun to do after the race.   Read on to see if I actually did it.  After a bike time of 5:04, I hit T2 in 3:28 and was off on the run.

 The thing about this race is that you never ever know what’s going to happen, as is life.  After the first mile, I knew I had to dig deep mentally for the remainder of the race.  Man, it was so hot out there, but I knew what I had to do and just ticked off the miles–26 of them, one at a time.  The Sugoi clothing worked so well…thanks Brian, you made all of us on the Timex team looking sharp and feeling comfortable!  I was holding 6:43 miles, then dropped to over 7 for a while.  I was passed by a few more amateurs and more in my age group.  I still focused on my effort only and ignored people that would pass me.  I got to the Energy Lab and saw my buddy Michael Lovato walking.  I told him I needed company and asked him to run with me.  He stayed with for a bit, but soon I was by myself again.  I saw a lot of people walking, throwing up, and everything in-between.  I don’t like the term “death march”, but I could tell it was a tough day for all of us out there.  I cranked out the last hill into town with all I had. 

 Rounding the corner onto Ali’i drive was magic.  That moment makes this race for me.  I saw my parents cheering for me like crazy and as I crossed the finish line, Nikki was there to greet me with my lei.  Finish time:  9:17.13, 59^th overall, 6^th American, 5^th in M35-39.  All things considered it was a good day.  No matter what, in my opinion it’s a good day if you get on the podium in Hawaii.  Of course I wanted to do better, but I cannot beat myself up too much for the quality effort I put out there mentally and physically. 

Sometimes it’s hard to balance it all with family and training, but in this months November issue of Triathlete Magazine (page 90), I try to explain how it can be done.  You also know it’s a good day doing an Ironman when your able to finish, shower, speak in complete sentences, walk in a straight line, and have dinner with your family before 8 PM the day of the race.  Luckily, this was the case for me because I know that wasn’t the case for a lot of athletes on Saturday. 

 Back at the finish line from 10pm to midnight was so fun being with the team.  Nikki, Trista, Cindi and I threw out a bunch of swag and a few watches to the crowd and had a blast!  The next morning, we had a Timex brunch and then I did go cliff jumping with my parents and Nikki by Keahau .  After all of us looking over the dangerous, jagged,  38 ft. high lava cliff, my dad told me, “Tim, my advice would be no.”   I still jumped (3 times) and had a blast.  We talked with Tim & Nicole DeBoom out there as they were going to meet Peter Reid to jump as well.  By the looks of Tim’s Blog I think they had a lot of fun and were safe.

  Before we returned home to Denver, Nikki and I went to the North Shore on Oahu and did some mountain biking, surfing, stand up paddle boarding, swimming and even took out an outrigger canoe.  Oh yea, and I ate a lot too.  It was a fun recovery week!

 A huge thanks to my sponsors this year including Timex, Trek, Bontrager, Powerbar (and the profile they did on me located here), Aqua Sphere, Tri-Swim, JT O’Malley, Saucony, Sugoi, among others for all the support they’ve given me over the years!  Thanks to Larry Rosa for the awesome pictures he took on race day, some you’ll find in this report.  He is the real deal and you won’t find a better photographer out there.  Also congrats to Jackie, Mike, Cindi, Sergio, and Tamara for making it to Hawaii this year, especially for Mike and Jackie for making the podium!!  Only one more little race in Florida on Nov. 7^th before the season is over! 

 Thanks for reading!

 Tim

A little reflection post race

Me, Nikki and Doug - The BEST mechanic!

6th American overall

A little scary...

A strong support team!

This was my first trip to the Big Island and it lived up to everything I imagined, both good and bad :)  I had high expectations for myself going into this race, but since I had never been there or experienced ‘Madame Pele’ I tried not to think too much about time goals.  I was lucky enough to get out to Kona 11 days before the race to get used to the weather, scope out the course, and get comfortable.  I’ll get right into the report:

 Pre-race:  Woke up at 4:30am, ate bowl of oatmeal and i was out the door w/my special needs bags.   I put up my thumb to hitch-hike my way to race start and (luckily) was picked up after a few min by a pickup truck.  Got to the start with plenty of time to check out my bike, top off the tires and relax a little.  As usual I felt fairly calm before the race and was ready to get started on a good long day of suffering.  I ran into some friends and Timex teammates before the race which was very comforting considering the huge crowd.

Swim:  BRUTAL!  The start was crazy and the first half was actually dangerous!  I think I must have started a bit to far to the inside because whenever we came to an orange bouy I was smushed between like 20 bodies trying to fit through the same 3ft space.  I was at 32 min at the turn around and thankfully found a good line of people for a fairly easy ride back to transition with only minor bouts of nausea.  Time: 1:01

Bike:  I was excited to get this ride over with:)  I knew I would be okay once I was off the bike, so I just had to be steady and not go crazy.  It was exciting leaving transition and it was going well…my legs felt real fresh.  I got out onto the Queen K Highway for maybe 1 mile and ‘pssssshhhhhh’ FLAT TIRE!!!???? What?  Alright, I thought, no big deal.  I had practiced for this kind of thing just the day before the race, but as you may have read in Eric’s blog about this, I somehow managed to break the valve stem.  I just stood there for a bit, waving down anything that looked like race support, and eventually one came (12min total lost from time of flat).  For some reason I wasn’t really upset or anything and just went with it.  I had a little snack and some drink while convincing the race support guy to just throw on another wheel rather than screw around changing the tubular.  He put the wheel on and I was off; cruising away witha crappy front wheel with a SWEEEET blue tire :) and no more computer.   It was actually nice not having a computer.  I know my body well and going by feeling and perceived exertion have always worked well for me….sometimes having the data messes with that.   So the ride went by fairly quickly, I was usually grabbing 2 water bottles and 1 gatorade about every aid station.  One full water went on my body and I drank the other.  I only ate POWERBAR gels and POWERBAR gel Blasts (awesome!).   I noticed the wind, but didn’t dwell on it.  I kept my effort consistent and just kept picking people off.  I figured I had no idea how fast I was going, but if I was passing people I couldn’t be going too slow :)  Bike came to a close before I knew it and I was sooo happy with how it went.  I came close to my goal of 5:30, so no complaints.  Time: 5:39

Run:  I dismounted the bike with a little discomfort and walked through most of transition to try and give my legs a chance to get ready to run.  And after a couple minutes, I was off.  I heard from enough people to be careful not to go out too quick the first few miles, so I was cautious not to go crazy here.  With all of the people and excitement it would’ve been easy to go faster, but I’m glad I held back.  The splits for my first few miles were right on and I made a little plan for the day to try and keep it under 8 min miles for as long as I could (and maybe even the whole marathon).  I was smiling and having fun for all of Ali’i drive and was mentally preparing to keep it going for the Queen K.  I was passing alot of people and trying to keep my spirits up by talking and saying good job to everyone.  Soon I started to wonder ‘Where is my half way bag?’  Of course i should have figured out before the race that we don’t see the special needs food bag until mile 18!!  By mile 15 I was sick of Coke and jonesin’ for my Red Bull!  Miles 15-18 heading to the energy lab was a tough section for me…not close enough to the end to think about it and far enough into it to be hurt (I was over 8 minute miles at this point for sure).  I even got the the point where I started saying ‘one foot in front of the other’….it eventually worked and soon I was at the Energy lab turn around!  I grabbed 2 cups of Ice, got my food bag, and poured that delious energy drink into the ice.  Red Bull does crazy things to me, and I think part of it is mental, but I don’t really care because it works.  I chugged as much as I could and decided it was time to pick it up and push it into the finish.  I hadn’t just trained all year to bite the dust.  At this point I could no longer say good job to anyone because I was doing all I could to make it to the end.  Thoughout the run I walked every aid station and took in a mix on water, gatorade, ice and coke.  I think I ate 2 bags of the POWERBAR energy blasts and MAYBE 3 gels and a bite of bannana.  I was litterally running on caffiene and sugar…but I didn’t want a relapse of my HORRIBLE stomach sickness at Ironman Wisconsin in 2008 so I was steering clear of too many solid foods.  Anyhow…all in all the run went well and I managed to bring the last mile home in 6:51.        Time: 3:28  

Overall time: 10:17.58,  10th Amature, 40th woman overall, 4th in agegroup (25-29)

This was by far the toughest race I have ever done and for sure the hardest I have pushed myself.  It was fun, painful, awesome and an even better experience than I could have hoped for.  I am so thankful to my friends, family, and sponsors (Team TIMEX, Aquasphere, Trek, Elements Massage and Powerbar) for allowing me to be involved in this crazy sport and do what I love.   As always, I can’t wait until the next race :)

For some reason, I’m always drug tested when sleep deprived…

Late last night Justin Dyszelski called.  He’s a fellow ISCorp cyclist, as well as I triathlete who I coached for IM WI this year.  This season he’s worked hard and improved, and that came through is his race as he hammered the pace late in the marathon to place 4th in M18-24 qualifying for Kona 2010.  He was calling because earlier that day he had met with Mike Webber, the ISCorp CEO and an avid cyclist himself (hence his angel and title sponsorship of the cycling team), about starting an elite triathlon team with ISCorp as the title sponsor.  Justin asked if I would coach the team, and then we kicked around some ideas and a timeline for all the loose ends to pull the team together and make this a reality for next season.  Justin has a lot of good ideas, so I think it will materialize.  Clearly it was a good conversation.  The only downside was that it lasted until 12:30, and I was getting up at 5 AM for swim practice.

Fast forward to this morning…yes, I was a bit late to practice :)  Still, it was a good workout with North Carolina Aquatic Masters–stroke felt strong and smooth, and Sam and I stretched and chatted after the workout for a bit.  After a long shower, I drove home with breakfast followed by a long nap on my mind.

As I pulled into the cul-de-sac there was a Suburban driving very slowly in front of me and looking lost.  I pulled around, drove down our long gravel driveway, and parked.  It was a cold wet morning, so I was wearing a TIMEX wool pull-over and also put on the bright orange TIMEX Zorrel jacket as I hopped out of the car.  It was pretty obvious which team I raced for.

The Suburban had followed me down the drive and a man and woman were getting out of it.  I didn’t think anything of it because my dad had mentioned someone coming over this morning to look at the landscaping, gutters, or water heater…I can’t remember.  So, as I approached to introduce myself and show them to the gutters, or landscaping, or water heater, I was surprised by a “We’re from USADA and we’re here to drug test you!”

“Oh, no worries.  Come on in!”

Ok, now rewind to last week.  I was racing the Pinehurst Triathlon on Saturday, and staying on Friday night with my long-time friend and sometimes cycling training partner, Parker, who’s a GP in Sanford.  I had asked earlier in the week for his street address so I could update USADA with my whereabouts for the evening.  Pro athletes are subject to non-advanced-notice (surprise!) out-of-competition drug tests, and we fill out quarterly whereabouts forms to inform USADA of our travel, competition, training, and residence(s) locations and schedules for the upcoming three months.  This is a daunting task, but it’s manageable.  And, if our schedules change, we can simply update them online.  The bottom line is simply that USADA has to know where you are at all times.

You can imagine that sometimes this can feel like an invasion of privacy.  Not that this applies to me, because I’m lame, but let’s just suppose a hypothetical pro  athlete picks up a hot girl at a bar, and they go back to her place for a wild night of…s…Scrabble™.  He’d have to immediately tell USADA:

Why yes ladies, I would be up for a Scrabble™ Triple-Word-Score. Let me notify USADA of my whereabouts.

“Yo, USADA, I’m at 123 Main Street, Luckytown USA. But please don’t test me now because I’m getting LUCKY!!  That’s right baby, this chick has the most Balanced Rack (equal number of vowels and consonants) in the game, and I hear she’s known up and down the East Coast for her Double-Double (covering two DWS (double word squares) in one play, for which the player receives quadruple the word score, including any DLS (double letter squares)).”

And, in the heat of the moment, sending that text or e-mail update just wouldn’t be cool.  “Am I not smart enough for you anymore!?!  Am I’m not Scrabble™-able?!?!  Who are you texting??!??   Am I just your Scrabble™-buddy?!? Do you have another Scrabble™ date tonight?! Is this just your ‘warm-up’?” Plus, you’d get accused of cheating in Scrabble™, and maybe the USASCA, (US-Anti-Scrabble™-Cheating-Agency) would come bust you, because cell phones are on their prohibited methods list.

But, again, I’m lame and don’t live life in the fast lane—except during rec swim hours—so stimulating nights of Scrabble™ don’t apply to me.  But the funny thing was that when I called Parker to let him know I was running late but on my way, he said “There’s a man with a pee cup standing on my porch.”  I had not yet been to Parker’s new house, so my first thought was “He must be living on the wrong side of town if there’s a homeless guy peeing in a cup on his porch.  You’re a doctor, Parker, is this the home you provide for your wife and daughters?” My next thought was, “Oh, it’s USADA.” And I asked, “Seriously?” not because I was surprised, but because if they were there, Parker would not be allowed to call me and let me know, because it has to be a surprise test for me. “No, I’m kidding dude” Parker replied with a dead-pan delivery.

Now, back to the current test.  The two USADA Doping Control Officers and I come into the kitchen and start going through the notification process, which is all pretty familiar by now.  But, I wasn’t feeling the urge to pee.  In med school they teach us that glomerular filtration rate (GFR)—the rate at which the kidneys filter blood to start the process of making urine—is autoregulated via variation in renal blood flow and dilation and constriction of the afferent and efferent arterioles, which are under the control of the macula densa that controls the flow rate to each individual nephron (the kidney’s functional unit), such that GFR remains constant across a range of blood pressures.  However, whenever I exercise, I have to pee, a lot, certainly more than normal.  GFR must not remain constant at the limits of cardiac output.  Anyway, the one thing I’m a guaranteed to do when I swim, run, or ride is to head straight for the bathroom—not good when biking to class late.  Since I had already peed several times this morning, I was dry, and started drinking copious amounts of water to stimulate the 90 mL of urine I’d need to produce for the sample.  We had a bit of time to kill and made small talk.

Then my mom called:

“Eric, can you look in the fridge and take out the roast.”

“Got it.”

“Ok, now put it in the crock-pot on low, and add about an inch of water, and just let it cook all day.”

“Ok, mom. Got it.  Gotta go.”

“And add some carrots.”

“Ok, will do.  I-”

“Now, don’t forget to peel the carrots. And cut them up. Not too small, but not any wider that a half-inch.  Well, if you wanted them to be 5/8ths of an inch think, that’s ok.  They’ll be soft sitting in the crock pot all day.”

“Ok.  Thanks mom.  I think I can handle it.  Consider it done.”

“Oh, you can add some potatoes too…”

“Ok-”

“…and an onion.  That would taste good.  Do we have any red onions?  Well, no worries, use a yellow onion if that’s all we have…a medium one.  And tell Michael to clean his room because we’re having company this weekend, and you guys clean the bathroom.”

“Ok. Got it.  I’m on it.  Commencing Operation: Crock Pot. 10-4.  Over n’ Out”

So now that the USADA agents new the dinner plans, I was hoping we’d wrap this up before dinner so I could grab that nap before this evening’s track workout.

Rinnnggg….Rinnnnnggg

“Hello?”

“Eric, one more thing.  Did you remember to stick a hole in the potatoes?”

“Yes, I stabbed them with a knife.”

“You may want to cut them in quarters.”

“Ok, I’ll take care of it.  Consider it done.”

*click*

So by now the water was doing it’s job and I was ready to do mine.  “Let’s do this thing!” I exclaimed banging my hands on the table.  The chaperon followed me to the bathroom, and I rinsed my hands with water, but not soap, as per USADA protocol.  And then, also according to protocol, dropped my pants to mid thy, pulled my TIMEX wool sweater up to chest level, and the sleeves of up to my elbows, and stood ready to pee in the collection jar.  You can’t be shy here, and being in the medical field I’m more comfortable with bodily functions and anatomy than most, but still it’s a bit awkward when you’re the one in the fishbowl.  For starters, you’re peeing in front of a stranger.  And this isn’t the standard “I’ll stand behind you and let you do your thing” but as describe above it’s a “Pull ‘em down, lift your top up, and I’m going to stand by your side to watch.  Stage fright?”

Another note to make here is that there are some bodily functions that go together, as Forrest Gump would say, “Like peas and car-ROTS.”   You just accept them as normal…when you’re alone.  But in front of another person, especially a stranger, they make you a bit self-conscious.  For example, when I pee, especially early in the morning, I usually fart simultaneously.  I’m not sure what’s going on physiologically, and I haven’t had the (Forrest) Gump-tion to ask any of my professors, but I just assume it’s sphincters in the same general area relaxing.  While this phenomenon hadn’t crossed my mind as we headed for the bathroom,  it became apparent as I relaxed my urethral sphincter.  “Oh well” I thought “this can’t be the first time he’s heard this.”

Hope your morning was as entertaining!  Now it’s time for me to get to that nap.”  :)

Good morning! I asked for a group photo for the blog, but apparently that's prohibited.

Yep, that was my first DNF, dropped out of Ironman race in 10 years. How do I feel about it ???, not so good. Although a decision I’ve made was right.

I got this injury on the bottom of my foot, which going on already for more than 3 months. It doesn’t feel like it a bad one, but it doesn’t let me run without pain, it’s just there all the time. I can’t get any diagnose right now, because I am in US at the moment and I can’t afford it and I don’t want to finish the season earlier. I thought I can do a few more races and I did. After Ironman 70.3 in Augusta I treated my foot as well as I could: massages, icing, acupuncture…. it felt much better. At the race day I felt good. And everything else was fine, like the time when you feel that everything fits together, like in puzzles. I was calm, of course I had a small butterfly in my stomach a day before the race (it’s very normal before such a big event).

Race day. We get into water about 10-15 min. before start. And it felt a little bit chill, but I though: “it’s probably a last time today when I feel cold”. I was right it was one of the hottest days in Kona. I swam with plenty of people around me all swim course and it felt fast, but my swim time was the same like in 2007 (hope water was flatter back then :)) But I came out of the water with bunch if people and I was in the right spot. So on the bike I wasn’t alone, I had 3-5 girls I could keep eye on. It was a god pace to be in and I felt pretty confident on the bike. After Hy Wee turn around it was windy, not crazy windy, but normal Hawaii wind. At the end of bike course I still had a power to pass a few people. And I was ready to start a marathon. 1 mile mark behind, 2 miles mark behind, 3…., I started feel it, the pain in my foot, and I already knew how I’ll feel in 1 or 2 hours. Should I damage myself now and make it last race of the season (I also knew that with this kind of pain no way I can make it to top 10 or top 20 and maybe even walking at the end of the marathon) or try to heal during another 4 weeks and do Ironman Florida, which I planed to do anyway. After 5 ml mark I made a decision I stopped running and started to walk to make it back to transition aria. On the way back I walked by the hotel, where we stayed, and I needed something to drink, so I went to the hotel took a shower, got plenty of water and wend back to the transition to see how Ironman people finish this day.

I thought I can handle it, but then people kept asking me how did I do and there was too many times saying: “I didn’t finish” and to many times hearing “Oh, I am sorry”. But there is nothing to be sorry about. It just an injury, which I’ll take care of after Ironman Florida. Yes, I’ll give it another try and I am doing Ironman Florida.

Tom's Island Cruiser

This was my second trip to the Big Island for the Ironman World Championship race.  Both times I have gone with clients who have qualified. This year, I had 6 additional athletes come with me to enjoy the training and the race.  It was great fun to have a mini training camp in Kona! It’s a great place to test your run fitness in such heat and humidity!  The highlights of my trip were swimming everyday with the fishies and spending time at the Timex Tent; I love the occasional Timex family reunions!  A HUGE thanks to Tristan, Keith, Dave, Herbie and Tom for all they did for me while in Kona.  Additional thanks to Jon with KSwiss, Brian with Sugoi, Justin with Aquasphere and Scott with Nuun. Ya’ll ROCK!

Congratulations to all the athletes that qualified this year and their finishes!  Now, back on the bike for the final weeks of training for Clearwater. www.tristafrancis.com

Trista and Athlete Denise

 Enjoy your training =)