What an adventure it was…

This was my first time racing in Kona and although I did not have the race I wanted, it was a wonderful experience and great fun! 

For that one week in October, Kona really is Tri-Geek heaven.   It’s a bit of a who’s who… did you see that… Rachel Ross did what? (Just kidding Rachel).

Just weird…

The strangeness started early, a week before the race while shopping for groceries.  I was approached by a man who introduced himself as the CowMan.  CowMan has been doing triathlons since… well forever.  The conversation turned from interesting, to funny, to weird and finally, just a little uncomfortable.

After racing as a bandit for the past few ironman Hawaii races, Cowman has now been bared from racing on Saturday (banned from being a bandit… I don’t know how this is possible).  As sort of a peaceful protest, he elected to do the ironman, unsupported, split between Wednesday and Thursday.

Highlights of pre-race training…

We swam from the amongst hundreds of hungry triathletes.  We had the opportunity to swim in the crystal clear water with turtles. We swam to a sail boat where folks were giving out Kona coffee. A friend of mine had a wonderful plan hatched the night before. He swam to the boat with two small bottles of Bailey’s tucked in his Speedo (Mike wasn’t just happy to see you that day Ben). So there we were, floating in the Pacific ocean, enjoying coffee and Bailey’s.  It even got more exciting as a dozen dolphins swam by.

Racing….

Um… had a good swim… went out a little too hard on the bike… foot hurt a lot on the run… it became an ironman walk… Here was my power profile on the bike… ouch!

After party…

I was told it was a good time.  I think this photo explains enough…

All this much fun and I didn’t even get a sunburn (or sun tan either)!

Or Ironman Lack of Recovery. Whatever you want to call it.

The last mile..

I think, well hope, I’m not the only one who gets ancy after sitting around for a week or ten days after Ironman, eating bonbons and peeling sunburned skin off my shoulders. While I understand the need for the body to recover, I also think some of the theories out there about just how long recovery takes are extreme. Made up by someone who wants to keep cyclists off the road, or wants to win the local 10k a month after Kona.. and is trying to trick you into staying home!

The whole one-day-off-for-every-mile-raced that many marathoners use seems extreme to me. 26 days off is not going to work for me. 140.6 days off? No way, Jose.

I had a chance this week to swim with Andy Potts. He raced well in Dallas 6 days prior to kicking butt at Kona, his first Ironman, so I thought I would ask him about a little plan I had brewing in my head and how best to recover. He said to alternate hot and cold tubs to repair the muscles. But not all of us live at the Oly training center, Pottsy. So he said ice baths are good. And then he said that when the muscle soreness of Ironman is gone, and you feel ready, throw in a hard run. If the pain comes back after, you were not adequately recovered.

I’ve renamed Kona. It wasn’t my race, it was my long training day for the marathon at Silverman, four weeks after Kona. I have been feeling good. Lots of swimming, very moderate running, and a bike still living in its box. So I ran 10 miles at marathon pace yesterday. And I woke up today more sore than I was after Kona. I threw the laundry down the stairs in order to avoid walking down. It was messy, but worth it. I guess I’m not recovered.

I guess it’s another week of swimming in store for me then.. happy recovery, all!

Rather than taking the time to organize a cogent, insightful race report, I’m taking the easy way out. Here are 10 race day experiences that are fresh in my mind and still make me smile.

1. It’s all relative. I saw Timex teammate Luis Alverez in T1, he looked at me and said “I had a terrible swim…..but you had a good one.” Funny (to me) but true.
2. Swim your age. Talk about great swims, Dean Harper swam his age (55) in Kona. Eat your hearts out golfers. Dean’s in my age group and it is not funny to come out of the water 18 minutes behind this year’s National Age Group Champion.
3. Just a training ride. 10 miles into the bike, my training partner, John Wilson, rolls past me. After riding thousands of miles with him, I know that it will behoove me to keep him in sight. As Dave Scott told the team at lunch “Everyone can ride 50 miles fast.” Smart pacing helps and we negative split the bike.
4. Jibe Ho! I watch the pros coming downhill back from Hawi tacking back and forth across the road, holding on to their bullhorns because of the wind. I resolve not to employ the “aero or die” position on this section of the bike course and survive to reach the bottom.
5. Perfect information.My wife, Joanne, is strategically stationed at mile 2 of the run to provide me with information of how I stand in my age group. All sorts of potential race strategies unfold in my mind as I run the first 2 miles. When I pass her I get no information. Later she tells me everyone over 45 looks the same. I don’t know if that means we all look 45 or 65.
6. UH OH! A little after the run turn-a-around at mile 5, I see Yves Tabarant, who is in my age group, running toward me. He is running faster than I am. I spend the next 2 hours and 45 minutes listening for his footsteps behind me. Not fun. I silently practice introducing myself in French for when he passes me. Not helpful. I try to stop thinking.
7. 60 year old guy. At the race meeting, head ref, Jimmy Riccitello, tells the men to swallow their pride and let the women who catch them pass on the bike. “You’re not racing them” he says. Reinhold Humboldt, who is 60, is ahead of me on the run. I foolishly ignore Jimmy’s advice and resolve to uphold the honor of 55 year olds by running past Reinhold. I don’t know any German, what do I say when he passes me back? I try to stop thinking again.
8. Cool Breeze on the Queen K. Usually, I hope it is hot during the run. I figure this makes the run longer for everyone and running is what I’m relatively better at. Since I’m being chased by a better runner, I welcome the cool breeze that’s blowing when we leave town on the Queen K and begin hoping for rain. I want the run to be as short as possible but I have 16 miles to go.
9. Screw the photo. I run across the finish line with someone else. I am worried about about getting caught from behind up until the last moment. It’s nice to finish first in the age group.
10. The Johnny Winter effect. I get about 2 seconds on the Ironman live finish video cam. My training partner, John Wilson, has a great day, finishes top 10 in the tough 50-54 AG and holds the camera’s attention well past the finish. The camera loves this guy, it won’t cut away. It’s the Johnny Winter (legendary albino blues guitarist), white hair effect. Next time I race, I’m getting a dye job.

Apparently the bionic thing isn’t available yet, I’ve decided to take my own, with enhanced functionality. This is my birthday present to me. Last year I bought myself a new toilet seat. Seriously.

I have 3 issues:
- Severed ligament
- Damaged cartilage
- Bone edema (fancy word for swelling)

In case you don’t follow my life in detail, I have a chronic sprain situation. Years of soccer with about 10 sprains and then 3 bad sprains in the last 3 years — the last two occurring just before Kona in 2007 and 2008. What a relief to understand why it felt like there was a rod being jammed and twisted in my bone (it is swollen, which doesn’t feel so good — I didn’t know that bones could basically bang into each other and cause bruising). Horray to understand that I feel incredibly unstable, even walking, because I have a missing ligament. And to think I get to rid myself of that strange clicking. On top of it, it will feel like my foot works.

Although it appears that I’m really tough to race IM on this malfunctioning joint, the real scoop is that I’m a wimp. When I asked, “will I be able to push off when I run?” my doctor smiled. Check him out by the way: www.txortho.com - Dr. Brannon Smoot – quite a guy. He said that I have the functionality and my muscles are actually quite strong (25 years of rehab on the same injury does have a few perks); however, my body wouldn’t let me because of the pain. I guess I’ll have to work on my mental game or practice holding on to a hot stove. Or maybe that’s why we sense pain to begin with. Yeah, I’ll believe that so I feel better about myself.

This means that I should have plenty of time to work, blog, and become a Facebook junkie. Or practice push-ups on the ball (since I usually do that only annually, at camp).

Autumn is freaking out because I can’t ride my bike (ok, he said 2-3 weeks, then I can ride a trainer, but we have to visualize riding to school after 2 weeks or Autumn will disown me) with her to school for awhile.

So there it is. My mom is coming to visit, so I signed up for the earliest date and time possible – Monday 11:30 central time. Send me some positive thoughts or heavy duty drugs.

If they are willing to take photos, maybe I can figure out how to post them.

10 days later

10 days ago was the day before KONA. The perspective that time goes on no matter what can certainly keep things from getting unmanageable in one’s mind. I was reminded of that recently.
So, Kona provides a fabulous experience for Ironman. As a relative rookie at the distance, I am still amazed at the experience.

Plan: Leading up to the race, I recalled the 2 things learned in 2007 that I would do differently:
1. Nutrition – last year, I got really sick while racing. Since then, I’ve ‘figured it out’. I made sure my accommodations would work for me. I had a kitchen and easy access to a grocery store.
2. Swim start – last year, I was hanging on to the dock about 50 meters back from the start. This year, I was more comfortable.

Adversity: There is always some adversity or challenge facing you of which you are aware; and then there are the things that you don’t know are coming. I knew that running was going to be difficult at best. Although I used visualization to ‘run pain-free in Kona’ and ‘miraculously be able to push off (it’s like riding a bike with a flat – my foot just doesn’t work), my chronic ankle sprain situation has reached a new plateau. I promised everyone who was concerned that I’d go to the doctor as soon as I returned. (Yes, I went).

Summary: On race day, I was quite calm and enjoyed the morning. I bummed a ride to the race from Patrick Evoe (first-year pro from Austin, Texas) and began the logistical preparations. The swim was beautiful, the bike was wonderfully challenging, and the run continues to offer some opportunity. The highlight of my morning is that Amanda’s friend, Summer, thought I was in the 20-24 or 25-29 age group.

The swim: I was very calm, which is progress. My time was different than I expected. Swim times remain somewhat a mystery to me.

The bike: I love the bike. Me and my speedy Trek are speedy. Yes, it was windy, but I harnessed tons of energy on the bike. My dad told me I was in 2nd in my age group off the bike….. I had the fastest split in my age-group, and one of the fastest amateur splits of the day. And I still felt I had lots in the tank.

The run: I ran pain-free for about 3 miles, then soreness, then at mile 10 it was arduous. The most frustrating part isn’t the pain, it’s the lack of functionality. As I saw in the ‘finish video’, it was ugly, kind of an uneven hobble. I think I was passed by 25 people in the last 2 miles (downhill).

Joy: Honestly, my favorite part of the run is seeing people I know and cheering for them. Ok, I like the finishing stretch, too. Most of all, the Ironman Journey fulfills me; the race itself is just one part of the experience.

Setting a record: I set the record for number of books read on a racing trip. 5. Seriously. 2,544 pages. All fiction. My favorite was The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. When a book begins, “When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily.” I have to read it. Certainly parents mess up their kids, but as a mother, I had to find out more.

Sadness: 10 days ago, my friend, Steve, was alive. Now he is dead. http://southwesternpirates.cstv.com/sports/c-swim/spec-rel/101608aaa.html
That is real pain. The pain of suffering and loss that consumes.

Next: The bionic ankle (hopefully). We determine my plan of action tomorrow, which is also my 39th birthday.

Family: My family still loves me. Autumn and I went to Dallas and saw the King Tut exhibit and the
Dallas World Aquarium. We stayed overnight and watched Mama Mia and read books. We did her “Bug For President” assignment. Michael travels to Wyoming this week for work. The routine goes on. The melody of my life that brings me joy on a perpetual basis.

10 days later.

(I’ll post some pics if I find some and can figure it out).