Day 9: Ironman's Version

It is still hard to believe I’m an Ironman. I think of the awe I have for people completing Ironman races. But now that I did it doesn’t seem that special. I guess it goes to show your body can get use to just about anything. The hardest part is the time for training. And the most important is the support Jocelyn gave me. She made every inconvenient work out convenient, encouraged me when I needed it most. She forced me to get massages and take swim lessons. She did everything I could ask for and even when I didn’t know I needed it.

The race morning was little confusing for me, where the special needs and dry clothes bags go, I went the wrong way to the swim start, then had to go back to activate my timing chip, this is not what I had planed in my head. So I stand on the beach far the right so I don’t get swam over, pretty soon Todd and Mike come over and we start talking. This is great I start calming down and feeling more ready, Todd asked me what time it was I said looks like we have 4 minutes, then the gun went off? I guess we were so far to the right we couldn’t hear the announcer. I hurry in to the water to start my swim.

The waves are so choppy when I look up to sight a buoy all I get is a mouth full of water so I got behind someone’s feet and stayed there. The next time I looked up I had turned both buoys and was heading back to shore. The unique thing about an Ironman start is there are so many swimmers I was swimming in crowd the whole swim, the mob never thinned out entire swim. I was gently striped of my wet suit by two nice ladies and I thanked them for not dragging me across the grass.

I entered the transition tent with my bag of choices, the problem with today’s race is the weather was an unknown, and there was a 50% chance of thunder storms? So I skip the jacket go with the full jersey and arm warmers.

I take off on the bike feeling real good. I soon notice that I forgot my two flasks of gel, crap!! I am left with the gels they give out; I just hope they don’t affect my stomach.

The weather was looking good and the crowds were out cheering us on, there were cheer squads, Elmo playing the drums, teenage boys in American flag Speedos flexing there muscles, clowns, rednecks with bullhorns and tons of people sitting in there front yards hanging out. The real surprises of the day were the rolling hills they advertised these were more like little mountains. We had more than 30 hills that were like biking up Haws. I took the hills then coasted down to get my heart rate back down. I saw the family both times coming back into town. I was luck enough to get off the bike before the rain started coming down.

I transitioned to the run and felt good and my heart rate was down. The farther I ran the slower I got, it was like I couldn’t make my muscles fire, I felt good I was actually starving. I saw Jeff at the final turnaround his knee was hurting pretty bad, I walked with him awhile then continued on. I reached the finish giving people high 5’s all the way down to the end when the announcer said David You are an Ironman.

I felt pretty good afterwards, I think the cool temperatures were very helpful, still the short walk to the house after was little longer than I remembered. I lay in bed ready too fall asleep when I heard them call out in the distance the final finisher. I still couldn’t believe I was an Ironman.