Since it's still early in my Ironman CdA training, and technically I haven't started my official training plan yet (but soon, very soon!), I'm taking this time to test the waters on some workouts that I've never done before. And Thursday brought hill repeats, on the bike, followed by a brick run.
The Captain met me at my house around 9:15 a.m., and we got our stuff on and headed out the door. We did a nice, easy warm up pace on the bike for the first 4 miles, then started our first set of hill repeats. Our initial plan was to do a set of repeats, then ride for about 20 miles, and follow that up with another set of hill repeats. After our third time up the hill, I reached forward to adjust my front shifter and felt it suddenly come loose. It took my a moment to realize what had just happened. I stopped my bike and looked down, expecting to see some major destruction to my bike, but was relieved to find that my front shifter cable had just come out of the little screw that holds it to the derailleur. I messed with it for about 30 seconds before deciding that this would be best done at home. So, we altered our ride and decided to just do another 5 hill repeats, gradually increasing in intensity. This was actually perfect because I only had my easier gears available to me. The rest of the ride went smoothly and we headed home to do the brick run.
The run was actually very nice. We headed out for a four mile run, and picked up the pace a little bit on each mile, with the last one being done at 7:40. I enjoy doing runs like this because I get to push The Captain to his limit, whereas he pushes me during the swim.
Another successful workout in the books, and it's a good thing because it's holiday time now, and who knows what is going to happen to my training this weekend (actually, I know...and it rhymes with zero).
At this past Ironman Arizona, I set a new PR for the swim portion (and for every other part of the race too!). My time was 1:19:47, which for me is pretty fast. I knew how to swim growing up, but not properly. So, when I decided to do an Ironman, I teamed up with The Captain, who swam in high school, and started working on my technique. From where I started, I can notice a huge difference, but I know that I still have a long way to go.
I took a few weeks off after the Ironman and didn't do any scheduled training. I just simply did something if I felt like it. Since I am not a big fan of swimming, I didn't do any swimming...until last week, which was just shy of 4 weeks post Ironman! I met The Captain up at LA Fitness for a short, but hard swim workout, with a nice and easy 6 mile brick run to follow.
I should start this by explaining that there were two goals for this particular swim. First was to remember how to swim. Second was to try and replicate a swim workout that The Captain and I had done just four days before the Ironman. In short, he tried to kill me during that swim and was attempting to do it again. Well, I was actually pleasantly surprised with what transpired during our first swim of this new season. We did 4 sets of 5 laps, finishing in 4:10, 4:08, 4:07, and 3:56 respectively. And we only took thirty seconds of rest between each set! I am 100% positive that I have never swam that fast before. Again, maybe it's not super fast, but for me it's pretty darn good.
About a week later, I got up at 5 a.m. and headed over to the pool for some laps. I didn't have The Captain there to pace me, but I still swam much faster than I normally do. Which makes me very optimistic for my near future. I'm not going to get my hopes up quite yet of anything spectacular for IMCdA, because it is 6 months away. My hope is that I can continue my swim training, and not push it to the side like I normally do when my training volume starts to increase. Only time will tell!
My beautiful bride holding up her very first half marathon finishers medal!
The other day, I was looking at the pictures on my phone and I came across this one. And it reminded me just proud I am of my wife for battling her way through the Las Vegas half marathon. She kicked some major butt! And it was only her first one (with more to follow...hopefully!). Woo hoo!
My daughter standing next to her future bike...hopefully!
Back in October, when I was in Tucson for the Mount Lemmon Half Marathon, I took a little trip over to the TriSports.com store. While we were there, we stumbled across this miniature Felt bike. Which got me thinking...if I get my daughter training now, she could be the next Chrissie Wellington! But seriously, how awesome would it be to see a kid cruising down the road on this little bike?!
In case any of you wanted to see the 2011 Ironman World Championship, but failed to either watch it when it aired or tape it, you're in luck! Someone has been nice enough to upload the entire thing to YouTube for your viewing please. And since they were nice enough to do that, I'll just link that video here:
If you can't see that video for some reason, go here.
My peak race for this year was Ironman Arizona. I had been training for 42 weeks, so I was more than ready for some time off. Since Ironman Arizona took place on November 20th, I been hitting my recovery head on. And by that I mean I really haven't been doing any workouts.
Of course, "workouts" is a relative term. Sure, I've ridden my bike a few times, run on the treadmill a time or two, and even ran the Las Vegas half marathon with The Wife. What I haven't done is any workouts with a purpose or goal. Usually, when I'm doing my training for a race, I have a specific goal for each workout, whether it's a distance, time, or speed. So my way of recovering has been to just sort of do some cardio when I feel like it. And since I hate swimming so much, I haven't even looked at a pool over the last few weeks!
But it's just about time for the rest period to end. I actually should have ended it last week, but life has been pretty busy lately, so I figured another week would be alright. So now I get to work back into figuring out a way to work out almost every day! Woo hoo!
As for the actual training plan that I will be following, that's top secret. I've been receiving threats from some of the other guys that I'll be racing with in Ironman Coeur d'Alene, and so I'm going to keep this one close to my heart. Ok, that's a lie...I'm still going to post it (the threat part is absolutely true!!!). I'm actually getting the plan that a buddy of mine used in Ironman Arizona to go sub-11:00. Now, I'm not saying that sub-11:00 is my goal (or, am I?), I'm just saying that he obviously had success with this plan, so I'm going to give it a whirl. This plan doesn't actually start for a few more weeks, so until then I'm just going to get back into working out regularly and do a lot of technique work (because I suppose I can improve on technique. Shocking, I know).
And with that, I'm off to train! Thanks for reading!
(ok, I lied again. I'm not going to train right now. It's 8:45 at night and I'm just going to watch some TV and go to bed. But tomorrow! Tomorrow I will begin training! Ha!)
First off, I have no affiliation with Restaurant.com, or with Vegas. I just enjoy saving money and eating a lot of food.
On our recent trip to Las Vegas for the 2011 RnR Las Vegas half marathon, The Wife and I decided to try out Restaurant.com. This is a website that offers "vouchers" for a list of restaurants, and sells them for a few dollars. Typically, you can get a "$25 off of a minimum purchase of $35" voucher for about $2. At first, this seems like a slam dunk of a deal. But when you read the fine print, it's not as clear. When you use these vouchers, there is an automatic 18% gratuity added to your bill, and it cannot be used toward tax/tip. So, your bill has to be $35 for food/drink, then they add tax and an 18% gratuity, then they take off $25. We figured that we would still end up saving around $10 per meal by using these vouchers. We did some investigating and ended up with 6 different vouchers.
I should mention that these vouchers can be purchased in a number of different denominations, and the discount is not always the same. Sometimes it is $10 off of $25, or $25 off of $35, or $50 off of $100 and so on. It really just depends on where you are planning on going and what you would normally eat. For us, the $25 off of $35 seemed like the best deal.
Figuring out which places to eat at was kind of a pain in the butt. It's pretty hard to tell, without having been to any of these places, which place is going to be a dump and which one is going to be nice. It actually took me a fair amount of time to decide on the 6 places that I chose. Even still, we had no idea if these deals would work out.
The first voucher we used was for Aromi d'Italia. For the amount of food we ate, it ended up being a great deal. I'm not going to go into exactly what we ate and how much it cost, just know that it was worth it. In fact, every one of our vouchers ended up being a good deal. So, if you're headed to Vegas and looking for some good places to eat and want to use a Restaurant.com voucher, try these places:
Aromi d'Italia
Coconut's Beach Bar and Mexican Grill
The Alexis Garden restaurant
Strip Burger
I know I said we had 6 vouchers, and we did. We actually had 2 vouchers for Aromi d'Italia, so we ate there twice (I'll get to this in a moment), and we had one for El Segundo Sol, which we didn't have time to eat at, unfortunately (but it looked very, very good!).
Part of the stipulations of these vouchers is that you are only allowed to use one restaurant specific voucher, per party, per month. In other words, you can only use a coupon at the same restaurant one time per month. We knew that this was printed on the coupon, but we figured we'd just try it a few days apart, and they didn't seem to care. Now, had we gone in on consecutive days, maybe they would, but whatever.
Next time you're going on vacation, why not try out restaurant.com and see if there's anything on there that looks good! We did, and it seemed to work out pretty well!
Last weekend was a pretty special weekend in my household. Not only was it The Wife and my 6th anniversary (woo hoo!), but we got to experience a couple of firsts in our relationship. The first, well, first, is that we took a little trip to Las Vegas, together. We both have been there separately (I went back in 2009 for the greatest concert ever...311 day!), but we had never been there at the same time. The main reason for us never having taken a trip to Vegas together is because Vegas really isn't my kind of place. If I'm going to go on vacation, that's not the first place (or even the tenth place for that matter) that comes to my mind. And, with us having a young daughter, Vegas is definitely not a place that I think kids should go...but that's a whole other story. This trip ended up happening because of the wonderful opportunity that I've had to be on Team Marathon Bar.
The strip with the Cosmopolitan Hotel with its blue lights
As a member of Team Marathon Bar 2011, I had agreed to race in at least one Rock n Roll Series event. I chose the Las Vegas half marathon as that event. And somehow, even though she had never run anywhere near that far before, I convinced The Wife to join me in the race! We made arrangements for my parents to watch our daughter and our trip was ready!
We arrived in Vegas on Friday afternoon. My dad had come with us (to make a long story short, he hooked us up with a hotel room by using his player's club card, and in return we paid for his plane flight home. It was much cheaper than paying for a hotel room) and was to be heading home that night. We checked into the hotel, got the room all situated, and went to grab some lunch. After lunch we headed out to the Disney outlet store to see if they had any sweet deals before returning back to the room. Part of getting a free room through one's player's club card is that you agree to gamble a little during your stay, so my dad had to go play the slots for a bit. The Wife and I took this time to participate in a TV show screening research study, which ended up paying each of us $30 cash and a ticket to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel. Sweet! After that was over, we took my dad to the airport, had some dinner, and went back to the room to get some sleep before we had our big day at the expo on Saturday.
THE EXPO
As I mentioned earlier, The Wife and I had participated in a TV show review panel in which we were compensated for our time. Well, I woke up early enough and had some time to kill while The Wife got ready for the day, so I headed back down to the review panel and participated again! Another $40 cash money into my pocket! Alright, now for the expo...
The Rock n Roll Series puts together expos like nobody else. The only other races that I've been to that even come close are the Disney expos. There usually sooooo many vendors at the RnR expos that you are guaranteed to walk away with at least a couple free things. The Wife and I made it a point to walk up and down every isle to see what there was to sample. And we definitely scored! The Wife got her IT band taped with some kinesiology tape for free, we picked up about five 5-hour energy bottles, we each got a couple t-shirts, some flashing lights, Sports Beans, wine samples, and a whole crap-ton of other stuff. I had agreed to meet at the Marathon Bar booth at 1 p.m., so we had arrived at the expo around 11 a.m. and spent a couple hours walking around.
When I met up at the Marathon Bar booth, I wasn't really sure what was to come. I was asked if I wanted to participate in a Rock Band competition, to which I declined (had I sampled the wine a bit more, I would have agreed!). Then I was asked to judge the competition instead. And heck yes I agreed to that!
No, I did not play the Simon Cowell role
The 3 of us judges, judging away!
The competition was actually very fun to watch, and I wish I would have agreed to play in it. But oh well...there's always next year!
After the Rock Band competition was over, we took a few Team Marathon photos of the members that were there, and did some filming for an upcoming weight-loss piece that is going to air on Lifetime some time early in 2012. I'll keep you posted if I learn any more about this. After the expo, it was off to dinner, then up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, then back to bed. For our Eiffel Tower experience, we planned to be at the top during sunset. We thought it would be a great view, and it was. Check out this sequence of photos The Wife took (sorry for the quality...the battery on The Wife's good camera died so we had to use our little pocket camera. Still pretty sweet looking in my opinion though!)
The Bellagio
Looking South from the Eiffel Tower (Mandalay Bay/race start is the gold building off in the distance)
The Flamingo hotel
Planet Hollywood hotel
The Flamingo again, with the sun setting so now it is lit up!
Looking South again, with some lights on now
And South again
And again...
Planet Hollywood is brightly lit
The Bellagio is very majestic at night
And the Flamingo hotel one more time
RACE DAY
Race day was going to be interesting. I had never run a night race, and The Wife had never run a half marathon, so this whole thing was going to be new to us. We planned to wake up at a decent time, head out to lunch and be back around 1 p.m. or so in hopes to take a little nap. Our plan hit a minor snaffu when The Wife realized she did not pack a crucial piece of her running attire, so we spent some of the morning searching for a replacement, which worked out well because we ended up at the same mall where we were planning on eating lunch. We enjoyed a small lunch, headed back to the room and took about an hour nap.
We had plans to try and meet up with some of our friends that were also running their first half marathon prior to the race. We thought that maybe it would be a little difficult trying to find 2 people in a sea of 44,000 people, but it actually wasn't bad at all. We met up with them, found our way to the bag check area (which I thought was very, very well organized) and checked in our bags which we would pick up again after the race. We spent a few more minutes inside killing time, but eventually found our way outside so we could soak up the race experience.
The Wife and Krista
The Wife and me
Krista and Zak
We failed to consider how cold it was outside, and that we had over an hour prior to race time. So after we took these pictures, we searched out some of those outdoor heaters. We huddled around the heaters for a while, then decided to go watch Cheap Trick finish their pre-race concert, and wait to watch the Jabbawockeez give a little sample of their hip hop anonymous dance show. Once they were done, it was time to head to the corrals and wait for the race start.
Depending on where you read the stats, it's reported that there were 36,000 people registered for the half marathon. I think we all headed to the corrals at the same time. When we got over to the corrals, we immediately hit a brick wall of people and stopped moving. We realized we were only at corral 12 and had a long way to go until we reached 24. We saw a little break between corrals 12 and 13 and decided to try and walk to the other side of the corrals in order to get out of the crowd and be able to move back to our corral. Well, we realized, once we were already half way across, that this was not a walkway, and we were in fact now in corral 12. I made the executive decision to just go ahead and stay in this corral since we would never make it back to our corral in time. We planned on running at the start to get out of the crowd and make our way to the side so we could walk.
I'm sure some people are upset with what we did, but trust me, if you saw the rush hour traffic jam that was going on, you would have done the same. And I could tell by looking around at other bib numbers near us that a lot of people did do the same thing. I know that doesn't make it right, it's just a result of over crowding.
After a few technical problems with the sound system (we didn't hear most of the pre race talk and national anthem), the race started! We slowly worked our way to the starting line, waiting until it was our adopted corral's turn to start.
The first 4 or 5 miles of the race were very entertaining. It was really cool to run down the Vegas strip with all of the lights on.
The other part that was awesome was since this race was an out-and-back style, we got to see all of the race leaders running toward the finish. Those guys and girls are fast!
The middle portion of the race wasn't as visually appealing, but it was still fun enough. There was actually a section where there was runners moving in both directions. There were people everywhere!
After that little section, it was time to start heading back toward the strip. The nice thing about this race was that there were plenty of land markers to reference where you were headed. To know that we were headed back toward the strip, we just knew we were running to the Stratosphere.
Finally, we were back on the strip and headed toward Mandalay Bay to finish the race.
And the big finish...
Woo hoo! The Wife just finished her first half marathon! And she did an awesome job. I really couldn't be prouder. And she was obviously feeling pretty excited at the time, because she walked right by the medals without getting one! I had to run up to her and grab her and tell her to go back and get a medal!
POST RACE
The post race amenities left a little to be desired (like ripe bananas instead of green bananas, and maybe some electrolyte drink?), but it wasn't bad enough to ruin the moment. We grabbed whatever we felt we needed at the time and headed back inside Mandalay Bay to get our bag from the bag check area. When we entered the hotel, there were runners everywhere. There was now 44,000 runners who didn't feel like walking back to their hotel lying all over the place. It was pretty crowded to say the least. But we still made our way to the gear check area without any problems. We found a spot to sit down for a few minutes and I went and got our bags. I changed into some regular clothes (since I didn't want to wear my spandex running pants out to dinner), met up with Krista and Zak, jumped on a charter bus that drove us down to where we were planning on eating dinner. We limped our way over to Strip Burger and enjoyed a fantastic post-race meal, including these bad boys...
That's right, 32 oz beer is a great post race rehydration tool!
And with that, the night was a success. Everyone finished the race and lived to tell about it.
THOUGHTS
There's a lot of negative press out there about this race. There's stories of many, many people getting sick (the rumor is that the race water may have been contaminated), running out of finisher medals, running out of race t-shirts, etc. Some of these things were possibly avoidable, and some perhaps not. We ended up having a great time, and didn't really let any of the problems that other runners seem to be caught up on bother us. I can see that if you were trying to run this race for time, then you may be upset. The one thing that was pretty messed up was how the marathon and half marathon were supposed to "share" the road. There was one lane marked for marathon runners and between 3-5 lanes for half marathon runners. Unfortunately, nobody really took note of this and the marathon runners sort of got screwed. Unless they were on pace to run a 3:00 marathon, they met up with 36,000 half marathoners and had no room to run their race. But the way we looked at it was, it's a race in Vegas, it probably shouldn't be taken seriously.
On that note, The Wife's performance really blew me away. I went into this thing expecting to finish around the 4:00 mark, and we were under that by about 45 minutes! The Wife has been having some pretty severe IT band issues, which had prevented her from really training, at all. We ran 8 miles back in July, and since then she has only walked 3 miles at a time. So for he to get through this race and to do so like she did was amazing!
Congrats on finishing your first half marathon!!!!!!!
Today (I am writing this on Monday night) is the day that most people will be starting their 30-week training plan for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I, on the other hand, am still taking a little time to recover from Ironman Arizona, which apparently involves running a half marathon in Las Vegas. Anywho, I'm currently going through the process of figuring out what I want to accomplish for this next Ironman race.
I have a few goals on the table that I need to filter through in order to decide what my game plan is going to be. First off, my overall goal will be to finish Ironman CdA. Since I've never raced this course before, I won't really know what to expect, so just finishing it will be a successful day. The next step up would be setting a new PR. And while I had a phenomenal day at Ironman Arizona last week, there is still plenty of room for improvement. The question is, how high do I set the bar? Do I go for an even 11:30, or go big and say sub-11? Lastly, there is a rivalry goal that I must consider. Well, two of them actually.
The first rivalry goal is that I have to decide if I think I'm capable of finishing first out of the group of people I will be racing with. Realistically, this doesn't matter. But, it's one of those things that just exists. We are all going to be thinking that finishing first out of the group would be awesome, but of course, no one is really going to come out and say it. The other rivalry this has much more pressure added to it is my rivalry with The Captain. Now, we don't really have a rivalry, because we are good friends and we do a lot of our training together. But the way that our racing has played out is that he had beaten me in 2 previous Ironman Arizona races, and I finally beat him last week. Well, he is going to be doing Ironman Arizona again next year, with the goal of beating my current IMAZ PR of 11:39:49. So my rivalry goal for IM CdA is to set a new PR that The Captain will be unable to beat at IMAZ. I do think that this is wishful thinking.
I'm not saying that I'm actually going to include all of these goals into my training planning. I'm just saying that these are some of the goals that I have to consider so I can figure out what my real goals and expectations are for this race.
I'm hoping to have the basic outline of a training plan within the next few days, and I'll post it once I do. Until then, I'll just be doing some easy training to allow my body to continue to recover before I get going again.
In the midst of writing up these novel-style race reports (sorry they were sooooo long!), I forgot to include a couple of pictures that were pretty funny.
At one point in the race recap, I explained that The Wife and her sister had bumped into Eric Byrnes' wife. Well, The Greats (The Wife's grandparents) are actually big fans of Major League Baseball, and more specifically the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres. It took some explaining, but the instant that The Greats realized that Eric Byrnes' wife was just on the other side of the bike-start chute was priceless! See for yourself:
Here is my mom explaining to The Wife's grandma that Eric Byrnes' wife is just across the way
Here is the look on her face when she finally understands
And now here's my mom laughing at that particular reaction
I think she would have passed out if she saw Eric Byrnes go by on his bike! Definitely an awesome reaction.
Ok, I think I'm finally done talking about this Ironman race. Maybe. Eh, I'll probably find something else to write about it. Ha!
Thanks for reading!
*And thanks Rachel (not The Wife, like I incorrectly stated in a previous post) for the pictures!
Guest post time from The Wife! (Please pardon the long-windedness of this post & any errors, because I had to write it TWICE due to a glitch that erased half of it - yikes!)
The Wife & Little One - We are one proud family!
Pre-Game Prep
After
an 8pm bedtime the night before, I shook Jason awake when his alarm
went off at 3AM. (He was wearing ear plugs because our hotel was half
full of ironman athletes, & half full of rowdy football fans in
Tempe for the ASU/UofA game. It took a lot of convincing to get him to
wear them, because he thought he would sleep through the alarm.) From
that point on, I am awake for the day, but I am trying to stay quiet so
our 3 year old sleeps in as late as possible.
Side
note: If you are looking into places to stay, we have tried out 2. Both
are great hospitable places to stay, modernly designed, & due to
popularity, reservations need to be made about 11 months in advance.
Here's my abbreviated take on them... Courtyard Marriott: Pricier, nice
standard rooms, selling point is that it is within walking distance of
all weekend events & easy to drop by your room midday if necessary;
Hyatt Place Tempe: Well priced, farther distance (they do provide
shuttle service), large rooms - similar to a suite (conducive to
accommodating all of the crap that triathletes bring along with them for
their races ), free breakfast (this year they provided gatorade,
bananas, & granola bars for athletes).
After
sending Jason off with a kiss for good luck, I got ready for the long
day ahead. Pack up a backpack full of snacks and drinks for the day
& fill the wagon with chairs for sitting on. Our support team is
eclectic, ranging in age from 3 to 80, so it serves well to be prepared.
We definitely dressed in layers, because it is chilly in the morning,
but sunny & warm by the afternoon. I called The Captain's wife who
was staying warm in their truck in the parking garage. The Greats (my
grandparents) were waiting outside. Little One & I headed off down
the hallway to the Parents' room. After knocking on their door, we
discovered that they were still in their pajamas, because their alarm
clocks were off by AN HOUR! Oooops! No time to delay, we had to head to
the start.
Little One's Deluxe Transportation
Meet Our Crew: My mom & stepdad (the energetic ones who run from spot to spot to enthusiastically yell for their athletes, using bike, motorcycles, and cowbells as accessories), Great Grandma (loves to brag about J), Me (designated videographer), The Parents (photographer and child wrangler extraordinaire), Great Grandpa (Number cruncher - always keeping track of athletes splits & expected times), Little One (super trooper daddy fan), J's Sister In Law (the smart one: always there for race start &; key cheering times, takes a break in the afternoon to do homework & do Macayos Happy Hour before volunteering at the finish line)
Our
favorite place to view the swim start is from atop the East Mill Avenue
Bridge. For a 7AM race start, it is necessary to get up to the bridge
by 6AM at the latest. We set up our chairs in a little semi circle in
effort to save space for the members of our party who had not yet
arrived. I ran down under the bridge by the water & met up with
Jason. He spends so much time training leading up to this race that i
can't wait to watch him meet his goals. I communicated where we were
standing on the bridge, so the J & the Captain could wave to us
before the start. (BTW - The Parents made it to the bridge in time to
wave to Jason.)
Our prime viewing spot
Swim, Daddy, Swim!
After
the Pros take off, 3000 athletes jump into Temp Town Lake and make
their way towards the kayak line to tread water waiting for the start
gun. It is an amazing sight & it feels like the swimmers coming out
from under the lake are never ending. It is a miracle that I am able to
spot J nearly every time. One very smart athlete had a flashing light
attached to his swim cap - BRILLIANT for easy recognition! One of my
most favorite parts of the whole event is hearing the national anthem.
The first year we watched, the whole lake was full of people singing
along. Then they are off! An endless sea of athletes swimming towards
the sunrise.
Funny sign we saw while waiting
Now
comes the tricky part. You have to decide which side of the course you
want to be "trapped" on. You can either be by the lake, or outside the
bike course near Mill & Rio Salado. We opted to stay "inside" by
the lake side. While walking to our "spot", my sister and I passed a
woman and her children that we determined to be Eric Byrnes' family. We
got a good laugh out of that ; ) We waited and watched all of the
athletes run by with their wetsuits in hand to pick up their transition
bags. Thankfully J's bright orange and blue jersey is easy to spot. Then
we ran over to the bike chute to yell for him as he sped by on his
bike.
Good
thing there was approximately 2 hours until he would be back near Tempe
Beach Park on the bike loop... At this race course, they have
"crosswalks" to cross the race path. Well, considering that there are
about 3000 athletes & they are all speeding down a narrow race
chute, that leaves little time for even more spectators to safely cross
their paths during the virtually nonexistent breaks in the action! They
have security regulating this, but for safety, they have to wait a LONG
time to let people through. I think it was about 40 minutes before they
would let 3 people at a time run across. I would love to see them
construct temporary "bridges" to help with this problem in the next few
years.
We
waited near the lake to watch people come out of the water for the
swim. We wrote with chalk on the run path along the lake words of
encouragement for the 3rd portion of the race later in the day. Watching
the swim cutoff is exhilarating and heartbreaking at the same time. It
was amazing to watch
a guy encourage a girl the rest of the way to
narrowly make their way out of the water before the time ran out. It was
impossible though not to get choked up watching a woman struggle her
way the whole 2.4 miles in the murky water just to be told that she
missed it by a few seconds. As Mike Riley says, "You WILL come back and
do it next time."
Bike, Daddy, Bike!
The
next stop is along Rio Salado. The street is lined on both sides by
people waiting hours to spot a glimpse of their loved ones speed by at
20+ MPH & to give them a cheer to boost their confidence before they
head back out to the Beeline Highway. We pulled our wagon full of
chairs and set them up behind a group of fans sitting on the sidewalk.
This is not always easy... here is a video clip of one of our false
alarms.
Since
we have slightly less than 2 hours to kill again, we walk down Mill
Avenue to find a spot to get some lunch. There are tons of restaurants
conveniently located within a very short walking distance. We chose
Gordon Biersch. After my tummy was full from tapas and a pear gorgonzola
salad (thanks for treating us Great Gpa!) We also dropped off all of
our warm jackets at the hotel (an advantage of staying at the Marriott).
Little One with some Marathon Bar love!
The
Greats returned to the hotel for a nap & The Parents, Little One,
& I headed back to Rio Salado. We parked ourselves along the curb
and started watching everyone who passed. at this point, both J &
The Captain were making very good time & moving along faster than we
expected. They were within a few seconds of each other on this lap. We
took advantage of the early afternoon timing and returned to our hotel
room for a brief rest. I was able to sit down, and upload some of the
videos I had taken so far to the computer.
Before
we knew it, it was back to the transition area to watch the bike
finish. The Greats & The Parents went to the "Run Out" area. Little
One & I perched up on a planter on the southeast corner of Tempe
Beach Park to await J's bike finish. To our delight, we saw him &
The Captain cruise by together! We made a quick call to notify the
others & then hustled down to meet up with them. J looked happy to
be off the bike & on to what I normally consider his best event of
the Ironman.
Run, Daddy, Run!
The
next camp out location was under the Mill Avenue bridge. At this point,
Little One could play in the dirt - she was getting a little antsy by
this point in the day, but is quite a trooper. (Juice boxes, Grandma's
Banana Bread, almonds, and raisins are also great tools to get
preschoolers to hold still for a short amount of time.) We set up our
chairs along the sidewalk. At this point, we were able to view runners
on approximately the 3 mile and 9 mile point pf each of their 3 loops.
Snack Time
As
Jason came to our point at the end of his first loop, I was definitely
worried. He didn't have his head held high, or look like he could do
this all day long, in the casual way he normally appears during races.
He waved, but looked tired & worn down. I knew he really wanted to
finish in under 12 hours, and I was secretly hoping he could do 11:30,
and wasn't really sure his spirits fit in with this plan.
When
he came by again (which would be about 3 miles later) he suddenly
looked like he had much more energy.... and he was running next to a kid
who I thought was a little strange, because he was smiling right at me
and my camera. I would later learn that Murph, an Ironman virgin from
Texas saved my hubby on his race - Thanks for that buddy! Now Jason was
on his way for the second lap of the run.
We
packed up to cross over the "crosswalk" to be on the "other side" of
the race course. Tempe Beach Park has a great little playground, perfect
for expending preschoolers energy during the mid afternoon. I took the
opportunity to grab a little Jamba Juice & nachos (I'm a sucker for
the junk food at times to my husband's dismay).
Playtime with Grandpa (Professional Child Wrangler)
Then we stood on the
platform where 10 hours earlier athletes jumped in the lake to start
their adventure to wait for J to come by to start his last lap. Finally
we saw them - J & Murph! Whoo hoo! Kick it boys! Get moving on that
last lap... you're almost an Ironman!
We
went to watch Jason at mile 21 when my daughter informed me that she
had to go to the bathroom. I asked her if she could wait to see Daddy
run by, and she said, "No! I'm going to poop my pants! I have to go
NOW!". Ummmm. No. I did NOT bring a change of clothes for her. This is
an emergency & we needed to find a port a potty STAT. Luckily, I
knew that one of my co-workers from the hospital was about to start his
volunteer shift at the finish line medical tent at about this time.
I hustled my 3 year old over there & he snuck us in. (It is hard to
find a port a potty that isn't full or doesn't have a long line by this
point in the day....) We made it! Although, we got walked in on by some
poor athlete & Little One exclaimed, "He sneaked up on us!"
Whew!
Off to the finish line! J's Dad had taken our wagon back to the hotel
so we didn't have to deal with it & the bleachers at the finish. We
all made the climb up the bleachers to watch athletes arrive at the end
of their quest. In reality, if you are relatively young or old and not
super steady on your feet, the bleachers are a treacherous place to be!
As people saw their loved ones come down the chute, they would clear out
& we were able to slowly make our way down towards the ground
level. Thank goodness we did, because about 40 minutes before Jason
finished, Little One became a limp sack of potatoes in my arms, passed
out asleep, and never regained consciousness for the end of the night ; )
My arms were DYING trying to cradle her. I am not the ironman athlete
my better half is. The only thing keeping me in that spot was knowing
I would get a
glimpse of Jason soon.
[Side
note of annoyance: There was this photographer with a GIANT camera
leaning over the siderail completely blocking my view. That is just
plain rude. If you are just spectating for the general fun of it and not
watching anyone specifically, please stand a few rows back. Most of us
have been up since 5am vigilantly keeping watch out for our loved ones
and cheering them on all day long. We REALLY want to see them cross that
finish line! Okay... I am done]
The
clock passed 11:30 and I was bummed that he didn't finish by my secret
goal, but was very anxious to see him round that corner! Then @ 11:39,
Murph & Jason ran past us, throwing their hands in the air to
finish. The cool thing was, my mom, step dad, stepbrother, stepsister,
and sister were all volunteering at the finish line at this point, so
they got to see him up close and personal right when he crossed the
line, and gave him his medal.
Laughing with the Step dad about talking to Eric Byrnes
Murph, J, & my Mom
After
that... The Greats & The Parents walked back to the hotel with
Grandpa slinging our dead weight Little One over his shoulder... because
we had already returned the wagon to the hotel... epic fail. I set out
to find Jason in the massive sea of athletes... and he obviously
doesn't have a cell phone with him. (What did we do before those
things?) We missed each other a little bit, because I went to the
recovery area & he walked into the stands (and saw The Captain
finish!). Note to self: Talk about your post race meet-up plan BEFORE
race day.
Spectating with the athlete
To
register for IMAZ, you basically have to either race or volunteer to be
able to sign up for the next subsequent year's race. Last year, Jason
& I both worked in the Finish Line Medical Tent towards the end of
the race. We were blessed with the chance to see Chrissy Wellington party
with the crowd at the midnight finish. We had so much fun that we
decided to make a point to try and see it every year!
After walking his
gear back to the hotel, we got a meal at Fatburger. (We were very
disappointed that they were out of skinny fries & milkshakes) Then we looked at the clock & we still had THREE hours left before midnight!
I
am ashamed to admit it, but I complained kicking and screaming about
staying for the finish. I was so tired, my feet hurt, I was cold, and I
just wanted to go to sleep. Oh wait.... my husband just swam 2.4 miles
(I would have drowned), biked 112 miles ( I would have quit), and ran a
marathon (I would have died). But as he says, "I train for this and you
don't". I think he's just trying to make me feel better... and I'll take
it!
Wouldn't
you know it, I made it to midnight. We chatted with a young kid who
actually got a Kona spot that rolled down to his 3rd in age group finish
the next day. We also talked with a man who came out every year to
spectate and was considering attempting it himself.
During
this last hour or so, all of the Pros are hanging out in the finish
chute, encouraging the athletes on their last stretch. Mike Riley (the "Voice" of Ironman who announces everyone's name all day long) is out there swinging around his towel, pumping up the crowd. All the people down in the front bang on the boards to the beat of the loud music creating a frenzied environment.
We watched a woman
who once placed first in her age group in Kona, lost her leg in a car
accident, attempted post amputation to complete 2 Ironman's
unsuccessfully, but was able to finish under regulation time in AZ. I
saw a 74 year old man cross the finish line.... AMAZING! An older gentleman who had obviously suffered some sort of injury came around the corner being supported my 2 fellow athletes all the way to the end - what a show of sportsmanship. When they were almost at the finish, Mike Riley stopped them and cued the entire crowd to roar, "YOU are an IRONMAN!!!!" The most nail-biting highlight was watching a woman give every last ounce of her self to make it across the finish line at the VERY last second. Check out her photo finish.
If you have never had the chance to experience spectating an Ironman, do it! Especially if you think you might like to attempt it yourself one day. It promises to always be an emotion filled, awe inspiring experience. I always look forward to them & LOVE to hear those words.... "Jason Wright... YOU are an Ironman!"
I am so proud of you and I love you very much Jason.
), free breakfast (this year they provided gatorade,
bananas, & granola bars for athletes).
) Then we looked at the clock & we still had THREE hours left before midnight!
