I FINISHED!!! That's right, all 70.3 miles, I made it to the end. It was by far the hardest thing I have done athletically to date. Marathons are quite the feat, but this was in it's own arena. Not only was it incredibly hard physically, but the mental toughness it took to get through those last few miles on the run was incredible. Not to mention that the weather was no help. It reached 93 degrees on race day, one of the hottest days on record for that part of the Pacific Northwest. Here is my recap of events that day:
The Swim
I basically made it out of the water. This was the farthest I had swam at once to date. it was actually quite daunting to look out at the turn around buoy and realize it was .6 miles away, and once I got there, I had to swim back. I was waiting in line for the porta-potty, when they called my wave to enter the water. I got zipped up thanks to Nick, who I trained with for this epic event, and dashed off to the start. I jumped in the water, and it was surprisingly warm. Water temperature hit 72 degrees on race day, like a bath. :-)
I started in the back of the pack, which is right where I wanted to be. I am a weak swimmer and knew that I wasn't going to be passing a lot of people, but I also didn't want to be passed. The buzzer rang, and we were off. I started to go and immediately passed 2-3 people. I started to head for the buoy line, which was a known fact about the swim in lake stevens. It is a rowing lake, so they have an underwater buoy line. This was an incredible tool. It was like swimming in a pool. I didn't have to sight every other breath, and I could just follow the buoy line. This helped immensely.
I was by myself for most of the first half. Once we hit the first buoy, I started to get passed by the fast guys in the wave behind me. I tried to move over as I knew they were using the buoy line, so they could pass. Well, the first guy got by fine, but the second guy not so much. He banged me in the head with what was probably a palm or an elbow. It knocked the goggles off my left eye, and I got water in it. I used this opportunity to do the back stroke, and fix the goggle. I spent an extra minute just focusing, keeping my heart rate down and doing a bit of recovery. On the way back, I started to get passed by the really fast guys, which were 2 waves behind me. A bit embarrassing, but hey, I'm not a swimmer.... yet. ;)
I finally saw my heaven at that point. The orange mat telling me the swim was over. 42 minutes in the water. I jumped out of that water and ripped off my goggles, cap, and ear plugs. I began to head towards my transition area. I had my top half of the wetsuit off by the time I got to my bike. I remember hearing my family screaming "Go David!" I never saw them at this point though, but I definitely heard them. As I was taking off my wetsuit, my left calf began to cramp. All I could think was "no no no, please don't do this." I began to massage it out and it went away. (It was a bit tender the rest of the day, but didn't affect my performance). I put my helmet on, got my race number on, sucked down a quick gel, grabbed my bike, and I was off. T1 was only 3 minutes, not too shabby, when my last race was almost 4 minutes.
The Bike
The bike started out great. I felt great, and the weather was amazing. It hadn't started to get hot yet and the sun was shining. Thankfully, there were quite a few shaded spots on the course thanks to all the trees out here in the Pacific Northwest.
About 10 miles into the bike leg, I was going up a hill. I shifted down my front gear to the lower gear, and I heard 'cling, cling, cling'. I looked down to see my chain had fallen off. I pulled over, popped my chain on pretty quickly and my hands were covered in grease. :-) After getting back and situated on the side of the road, I was trying to get back to riding. Although, no one would let me in. At that point Nick passed by and asked if I was ok, I said "chain fell off, all good now!" About a minute later, a couple guys passed, who were, to be politically correct, overweight. The guy says to his friend as I'm on the side of the ride "I hope only the skinny guys get the flats." Finally, some guy coming up the hill moves over and waves me in as to let me get started. Finally, I thanked him, hopped on my bike and started to take off. Oh yeah, and I passed that guy who made that ridiculous comment and gave him a big thumbs up. That felt good. :-)
Nutrition and everything came together. I got in all the gels and bars I had planned to eat and hydrated enough to only have to pee once on the bike leg. Coming into T2, I saw Rufus on the side of the road. I was flying, trying to get off the bike so I could go run. And to be honest, after 56 miles and 3 hours and 8 minutes, my butt was a bit numb
Coming into T2, I was feeling good. I shifted down the gears a couple miles before hand to get the legs spun out a bit. I hopped off the bike and began to run to my rack where I saw my crazy family. Screaming and yelling. That was exhilarating. I racked the bike, took off my helmet, and my shoes. Put on my hat, and sucked down a quick GU. I grabbed my running shoes and walked over to where my family was at. I put them on and tied them while chatting it up with them. I think I said "that was a long bike ride." :-)
And now exiting transition in 1 minute, 50 seconds. Not bad considering I stopped to chat with the fam:
And I'm off to run 13.1 miles:
The run felt good for the first 3-4 miles. Then it really started to set in. I was exhausted. It was starting to get physically and mentally difficult to keep running. I would tell myself "one foot in front of the other." or "let's get to the next aid station." It was nice to see the family every lap, which helped with the mental side of things.
It was seriously the hottest race I have ever ran too. Luckily they had an aid station almost every mile. I would take 4 cups of water... drink 2 and dump one on my back and one on my chest. By the time I got to the next aid station I was practically dry. Most of the run was through a residential neighborhood alongside the lake. There were kids and adults outside with hoses, spraying people down as they ran by. That had never felt so good. A shot of cold water was like an instant energy boost. It was incredible. Needless to say, there was some walking involved, but mostly running. I was about a mile away from the finish line and I could hear the announcer and the music. That pumped me up. I took off, running like I stole it (thanks Dan Hayes).
Seeing that finishing shoot was an incredible feeling. I turned the corner to see my family all lined up. I gave high fives to everyone and saw my beautiful wife and daughter. WOW! That was powerful. All the time I sacrificed to see them or watch Danielle grow up to achieve this goal of mine. It hit me there, more than ever. I saw her as a new person. A baby girl that I will watch grow and achieve her own goals. I will help her with those goals and help her become whomever she wishes to be.
I hit the finish line and just shouted, "YES!"
DONE! FINISHED! I am a Half Ironman finisher! The first thing I did when I finished, was head straight for where my family was. Stephanie hates the ending of a race because it is chaos, and it's hard to find family and others. Lake Stevens was not bad at all. Most races, everything is fenced off and there is only one way in or out. But this was just the finish and it was open, easy to find family. It only took 1 minute to find them and Stephanie was relieved that it happened so quickly. :-)
We stood around for a bit and talked, took a few photos, and I grabbed a piece of pizza. I couldn't wait to get that pizza. I was hungry for some real food. no more gels or liquid carbs. I NEEDED FOOD! After walking around for a bit, we headed back to transition so I could pack up and we could head out. When you register prerace, you get a wrist band with your number on it so they know you take the right stuff. As you exit transition after the race they check that number with your bike number and gear number, to make sure you take your stuff only. I felt like a dork, but asked "Could I keep the band" and she was like "of course, I'll cut it over here so it looks better."
After exiting transition, I learned that the car was parked quite a ways away. No problem I thought in my head, I need to walk to get the blood flowing and help the legs recover. Although, I didn't know it was up a huge hill. :-)
With all said and done, I finished. Thank you to my family for being there on that day to cheer me on. You have no idea how much that truly helps. And to my wife and daughter for seeing me finish and enduring my schedule for the last 8 months, thank you. I will make it up to you one day, I promise you that.
With all that said, and what many of you are probably thinking, "when is the full Ironman?" I will tell you, in a few years. I hope to do it before I'm 30, but who knows what life will be like. I want to be there for my kids to grow up and help them grow. In the next years I will do sprint and Olympic distance races, which will only require at most 10 hours a week of training, compared to my 16 this year. So more time with the family and I still get to race.
To end it all off, this was an incredible experience, one that I will never forget and one I hope to share with others who want to participate in something like this.
