Before delving into the race, a little about the pre-race festivities.
Friday morning, the Sizzler and I woke up, loaded up the truck and hit the road to Augusta. It is about a 6 hour drive and I wanted to get there in plenty of time to go through registration before it got too crowded. So 8:30, we load up the dogs, and hit the road. Drop the dogs off at Robin Hood Kennels, and then really hit the road.
Lunch in Macon, Ga. Macon is about half-way, and has plenty of good restaurants to choose from. I love the Honey Bear, H&H, Satterfield's BBQ, Jim Shaw's Seafood, etc., but had to pass. Decided to go to Sid's. Good stuff -- turkey on wheat with baked potato soup.
After a quick bite to eat, it was back on the road. Pretty back country roads through Lake Oconee, then a quick jaunt on the interstate to Augusta. I did this race the year before, so I knew exactly how to get to the hotel, check-in, park and then register. Our room had a nice view of the swim course.
Sissy had never been to a big race before, so when I exited registration and went through the expo, I found her with her arms full of stuff. I had to slowly talk her down into getting her a shirt and a bib for Baby Cam. But we did have some fun anyway...
Later I checked out my gear bag!
Once that was done, it was just cruise control.... We finished unpacking the truck, and were walking around the hotel and ran into Sandy Holt. She and some of the Tally crowd were going out to dinner (Charlie was running late), and invited us along. It didn't hurt that Sandy metioned those magic words "Boll Weevil" and "cake". Holla!!!!
Dinner was great, Andrea, Karen, Sandy, Sandy's friend (whoops, forgot her name, but a first timer at Augusta), the Sizzler and myself. Had the Habana Chicken, corn chowder and a few bites of the red velvet cake with cream cheese icing Sissy ordered. De-lish! Early to bed for plenty of rest.
Saturday, up at 7 and a trip to the hotel's restaurant for some coffee and oatmeal. Then we headed over to the swim start for a little tune-up.
From there it was off for a little bike tune-up. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/116702952
Then a little run tune-up.... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/116702956
After that, it was time for R&R and to watch some foosball. Ok, so FSU got their asses handed to them... again. Dinner with a larger gang at the Cotton Patch (food was ok, kinda greasy), then back to bed for Sunday am.
So, what you have been waiting for: the Race Report! Woke up at 4AM, had some Perform, powerbar and a salt-stick pill. Made it to the buses by 4:45 to be on the first bus. Next time, I may sleep in more, since my wave did not start until 8:04 (race started at 7:30). After waiting a few minutes for the bus to fill up, were were off to transition.
I guess I should clarify that at Ironman Augusta 70.3, Transition is about 1.5 miles from the host hotel, and has limited parking. Swim start is about .5 or so past the hotel. So the way around that is that buses are provided to drive athletes from the hotel, to transition, to the swim start.
So we arrive at transition and get body marked (#1028), set up the bikes/transition gear and drink another Perform. After wasting enought time, I get on the bus to go to the swim start. Bus starts driving, driving, past the swim start and back to the hotel. WTF? Bus driver is lost or... well, other choice words that I won't repeat here. Whatever. Get off the bus and start walking down the riverwalk to swim start. It is a pretty walk and we have plenty of time so it is no big deal.
.5 miles later arrive. Dang my toes on both feet are a little tender, must not be used to wearing my Crocks. It has been awhile since I've worn them. Chill around, watching people. Eat a bag of GU Chomps. See several of the Tallahassee crew, which is nice to see the home crowd up in Augusta, and scouted out the sim start.
Finally about 10 minutes before the pros go off, I start putting my wetsuit on and realize that the second toe on both feet has a blister. Damn Crocs! Double-damn the freaking bus driver who didn't know his head from his ass!!!!! Whatever, I'm not going to let a couple of blisters on my toes mess up my day. Then the pros go off!
Finally our wave goes off. It is a wet start, the staring line is about 10 yards downstream from this floating dock out in the river.
Horn goes off, and off we go. I didn't push too hard; rather, just focused on stroke and found a decent set of feet to draft behind.
I wasn't wearing a watch so didn't know my swim time; however, it felt like a good swim. I felt strong and seemed to be moving along at a good clip. After the first bridge, the pack broke up some and I found myself swimming with another guy. So I slowed down and touch and tucked in behind him. Man, it was like I wasn't even trying anymore. It wasn't until after I got back to the hotel after the race before I learned my time. I was hoping to break 25 min, and came in at 25:35, which if you count the loooong run to the timing mat at T1, the swim itself was well under 25. So mission accomplished.
For the bike, I haven't been riding any hills, doing flats getting ready for Florida. But, wasn't too worried b/c the course has hills, but nothing that bad. My goal.... well it was to cruise along at a hr avg of 150 (I go anerobic at 154).
Well, that worked for about the first three miles. Then, I got tired of all the guys passing me, so I picked it up some (ended up with an avg hr of 158). Originally I figured I would only push for a few minutes. Then I stretched it out for another few minutes. Then I got to the point that I kept wanting to pass the guy/gal in front of me. So I pretty much pushed the whole bike. Once I started picking up the pace, I thought I was going to come in at 2:30, nine minutes faster than last year. However, about 20 miles from T2 (the mile 37 aid station), I could compare the times/distance and knew that wasn't going to happen.
Sidenote -- during the bike ride, one thing that stood out at me was that none of the aid sations had powerbars. They had the gels, but not the bars. I was shocked. Last year they had the bars at all stations, and the info said there would be powerbars -- but at all three stations, I didn't see a single bar. Luckily I happened to grab 3 gels at the first aid station (with a bottle of perform), and 2 gels (and a bottle of perform) at the next two aid stations. So I did get nutrition, but not what Ironman promised, and not what I had been using during training. Not a good thing.
Even looking back now, I can't figure out what happened on the bike re my time. I know I pushed harder -- ended up with an average hr of 158 (last year 152), and weighed 9 pounds less. I just can't figure out why I was 3 minutes slower. Same rims, stronger bike frame, same type of tires. Last year I had a speedfil, this year a bottle holder on the aerobars. Maybe it was the weather -- last year rain/cooler, this year warmer w/some sun? No idea. Still that shouldn't have messed up my bike ride.
To make matters worse, or I guess more accurately stated as what goes around comes around -- about at mile 50 I could feel my legs running out of energy. I had to fight/focus to finish the ride. I knew that the run was going to suck b/c I had spent all of my stores on the bike, rather than burning fat on the bike and sugars on the run. Crap. Well, T2 came and went. Again, my plan had been to spend the last 5 miles slowing down and lowering my hr. Didn't do that. So I came out of T2 with a hr in the 160's, rather than in 145-150. I could tell within the first mile that I was toast on the bike. Hammys twinging, hr in the 160-170 range, running slow. It was all over but the crying. It was hot, damn hot. Humid. And the aid stations were few and far in between.
Could I have pushed on? Maybe, but I'd say 60/40 that I'd have: (1) injured myself; or (2) gotten heat exhaustion. So, I decided to implement damage control and focus on staying healthy for Florida. So, by mile 3, I had decided to shut it down and try to just finish.
However, even that was almost impossible. I was pouring water over my head at the aid stations, drinking coke, and pouring a cup of ice in the front of my jersey and another cup of ice in the back of my jersey. The ice would be melted 1/2 way to the next aid station.
I didn't have any energy, most of the run it was all I could do to walk. Anytime my hr went above 155, my breathing went ragged and a couple of times I started to get dizzy/blurred vision. So I just walked, and walked and walked, then jogged for 100 yards or so, then walked some more.
My run time was horrible, but in all honestly I was happy to even finish. There were several times when I just thought about quitting -- DNFing -- or forcing myself to run that extra minute or two in the hopes that I would just pass out and wake up in the back of an ambulance. Man, I really thought about that latter a lot. So, I guess there is good news that I sucked it up and finished the run. Lesson learned -- next time hold back on the bike, or else run goes to shit.
Afterwards, Sissy and I ate a mid-afternoon lunch at Boll Weevil Cafe, then I had to go pick up my bike. Long story short, security wouldn't let us drive to transition so I had to walk.... in the rain... in lightning... on a dyke... with steel light-poles... to get my bike. Thanks for that. Then ride my bike (wearing a helmet) a mile back to my truck, load it up and go back to the hotel.
Had the shivers all night, hoping that was just the sun. Mon am, woke up and drove back down to Tallahassee. Stopped several times along the way, loaded up on gummi bears, chips, stripling's sausage, and when I got back to Tallahassee had some sausage & pepperoni pizza.
So, although it is difficult to compare times from different years, here are my times for 2011 and 2010:
2011
Swim -- 25:35 (Div 61, Overall 328)
T1 -- 4:01
Bike -- 2:42:02 (Div 109, Overall 495) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/117088555
T2 -- 2:09
Run -- 2:57:41 (Div 269, Overall 1605) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/117088578
Total -- -- 6:11:28
2010
Swim -- 28:10 (Div 125, Overall 813)
T1 -- 4:10
Bike -- 2:39:30 (Div 116, Overall 632) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50663469
T2 -- 1:27
Run -- 2:13:55 (Div 168, Overall 1002) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50663476
Total -- 5:27:12
Peace out.
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