Ironman Middlebury CT 70.3 June 2, 2019

Life one buoy at a time.

Everyone at sometime should embark on an adventure that challenges every aspect of your being to complete. An adventure that pushes your capabilities to its boundaries, tests your resolve and face your fears. You could cross mountain peaks, sail oceans, visit foreign lands not speaking the language or just go for very long walk to benefit others.

I had a feeling that an epic journey like this can change how I approach life for the better. I knew that I needed to test myself and make my simple life even more challenging. I had to test my being by facing a fear, overcoming fear and preserver with a positive experience. This is my journey and how I did that.

How did I get here?

I have the great fortune to be amongst the company of athletes all my life. Athletes who take risks and work with others to accomplish a goal. Weather to finish a race, win the game or conquer a goal. I had been an avid mountaineer peaking 12 of the 40 Teeners in NH range. I was also a cycling enthusiast, incorporating exercise with efforts like cycle commuting 20 miles to work. I had an old trek hybrid that I converted to a road bike and would take journeys on, sometime ending in about 50 miles. When the “old trek” back wheel came off in the rain, on busy road and almost caused me to collide head on into a truck, I knew it was time to get serious and get a real road bike. I had always looked in envy of the road cyclist whizzing by me and now it was my time to be “one of them”. I went to local bike stores, and found “Steve the bike guy” A one-man shop with a heart bigger than any chain store. He sold me a Focus road bike for $1,300. At another local shop, a women from the Lions club then sold me this idea of a triathalon. Swim the Ashland state park (Hey I do for fun!) ride 25 miles around the lake (I do that for exercise anyway) and then run 6 miles. Can I walk that? Because I don’t run due to 4 knee surgeries. Sure. The event was a blast but I didn’t know what I was doing in the water because I didn’t train for it. Where was I supposed to go? Without direction on any adventure, we all fail.

 After that experience, I joined a fitness club and meet some nice people who did Ironman’s. We went out for rides on Saturday and eventually I competed a century and then a BTVT 156 mile ride from Boston to Okemo Vermont. Last summer, after completing another 70 mile MS charity ride in Maine, my friend Dayle and I went to Old Orchard beach to check out this Ironman 70.3 thing my friends had been talking about. The event was incredible. After seeing 20 people I knew cross the finish line asking me” how did you do?” I turned to my friend Dayle, and we both said at the same time ”Yeah, I am doing this”

The Adventure:

 My adventure was to swim 1.3 miles, ride 56 miles and support my coach for a 13 mile run in a 70.3 Ironman in Waterbury CT, June 2,2019 Relay.

I found my Ironman coach in my new circle of friends at the club. She graciously agreed to train me “Pro Bono” as we would do the Ironman as a relay. I was able to negotiate paying for Ironman race and off I went to training. Swimming every other morning in the pool, miles of laps until I was able to swim non stop 3000 yds at under a 2:00 pace with swimmer masters. I spent hours on my cycle trainer staring out the window into winter dreaming of what my day was going to be like. I had to change my work life to revolve around morning workouts. I had to change my diet, eating food for healthy fuel, I had to battle giving up alcohol and I had to go to bed by 9PM every night, including weekends. O well, just another part of the challenge for a single man.

Race Day:

 I had done the work and now lets see what I can do.

30 min Before the Start:

We arrived at 5AM to dark and foggy amusement park. I was following my coach in her car, the police were directing us to no where. We finally found a place to park. Let’s get ready, my thoughts are focused on where do I poop? My coach was better focused on check bike for low tires. Check T1 Set up, water ready for feet wash, taped nutrition is secure, then poop. Okay my new Parlee was racked and my suit was on. Time to head to water start. Get wet and warmed up in water. I looked with the other racers around me and we all pensively stared at dense fog and wondered will this burn off by 6:30 race start? 2000 swimmers stared at a fog for over hour and listened for any possible changes. Stay calm, focus, feel ready and focused, Visualize swim, T1 and Ride.

I am feeling excited and confident that I can do this! Proud and privileged to be amongst fellow competitive that I am honored to call peer. The music was getting Iron racers amped up. I saw a bunch of racers in the water getting warmed up. I headed in to get wet. There were so many people in the water. I was nervous. To calm my nerves I went into water and said hello to fellow racers. I was feeling bouncy and ready but kept the chit chat to minimum. Some of the racers looked so calm and serious. The fog was not going away.  I tried to focus on every aspect of my training and how I plan to execute my race.

Swim Start:

Or not start. The fog never lifted. The race was changed from a 1.3 mile swim to a 700 yds. The configuration of race was now a box. What does that look like? I don’t see anything beyond the first 100 yds. After waiting 1 ½ hour on shore the race was ready to start. At first there was a 30 group of fast swimmers who went out, the pairs. I waved to my coach and she took my picture. Then I saw one of my training colleagues in front of me and thought, hey we were going to swim together so I better jump in line. Bad move. I soon as I got in line the race started with paced start of pairs and then went to a mass start. This was like a heard of sharks running into water and swimming into grayness. It looked like mayhem. I was thinking swim out to outside, find a path to calm water if I can stay paced on feet of same or faster swimmer. Thanks Brian for advise! After the first buoy I will need to recover from the swimming mosh pit. Calm breath. Use breaths and buoys to pace and target sections of race. The swimming mosh pit got me. I was in a chum of water madness. My goggles filled with water. I swallowed water and lost breath. My legs cramped and stopped working. I couldn’t see where I was going. I was not in a good place. I looked around and people were yelling and shouting “help” where do we go? I tried to stay calm. Find a lifeguard on a kayak. Get out of this mess and fix your goggles. I called a lifeguard over and took the board. I was coughing up water. Heart rate was racing. Shit. This isn’t good. Okay stay calm, I can do this. I got my breath back, got a bearing to first red turn buoy. “Hey racers, lets swim around it and do the next one” The second buoy is go time and I can swim my pace and find open water. The last buoy is trim back ready to T1 and ride. I was feeling stressed and worried. I was expending to much energy on staying afloat and not on my plan.

Second Turn Bouy: I did my best to get to a rhythm, focus on stroke, catch, pull, breathe glide, repeat over and over, stay calm and confident that I am doing fine. I kept telling myself, just keep stroking, keep breathing and stay straight. Pace pace pace. Coach Kendra ‘s calming voice crept back in my head. I kept myself calm by saying stay straight, don’t panic if then I won’t breath in water, or my goggles wont fill with water. Just trust my coaches training and swim at pace. I couldn’t tell if I was off course or not, I was swimming way out from the mass and there still was a lot of swimmers around me. Shit, does this mosh pit ever end? Apparently not. I found another kayak with an incredible guard. I spat out all my fear, all my excuses and said “I am not DQing” I didn’t train for 5 months to fail. I can do this!  She calmed me down and said “Yes you can do this, you only have 400 yds to the shore. I still couldn’t see the shore just a scrum of swimmers.

Okay, calmed heart rate, can’t stay here any longer, my arms will burn out. Time to finish this. Swim!

Swim Finish:

I finally saw the shore. I was thinking I am not going to die! Just get me out of the water, use suit helpers, get to bike. My fellow Iron swimmers “you go this” don’t quit, you can do this! “I finally hit the beach and was able to stand. Okay. That sucked. Now get me to my comfort zone. My bike.

Transition Time!  Tag, shoes, helmet, shades, grab bike, eat gel, trot to bike start, mount, ride.

I was relieved the Swim is over can change time, focus on ride. I swam what I swam and place now is irrelevant. No cheers from coach, she was probably thinking I drowned because my time was so long. Doesn’t matter, stay focused, stay happy and enjoy the out of water to ride. I went to my suit stripper. Whoosh that suit was gone! Oh my god that felt great to out of the suit. I waited 1 ½ hrs to swim 24 minutes and peed in my suit twice. What an adventure so far!

Bike Start (first 25 miles)

Okay I was running to start and ready to mount bike. Where was my relay partner and coach? No go Erik! Oh well just keep going. I mounted my bike and started my ride. My coaches training plan came back to my head, Start in low gear, check. Stay in a high RPM, check. Settle HR, my heart was in about zone 3 or 158 beats per minute. Okay lets calm down and don’t try and pass everyone in front of me, yet. I was feeling relieved and excited, This is where I crush you! A menacingly calmness came over me. I focused on stay in HR zone 3 eat my nutrition and have some water. I drove this course yesterday, the hills are long and the decent are tricky with sharp turns at end. I checked my wahoo, on course and I was pacing at 22 mph. Okay stay focused on plan, paced and HR. RPMs 90 HR Zone 3. Dayle’s words found my head, save those Matches there are hills! At around the 4th or 5th hill I started to chat with riders. I meet a nice girl who said hello to a farmer. I liked that spirit. Hey, I am Erik who are you! Julia from St. Louis! Did the Bruins win last night? You guys crushed us! Lets crush these hills together, I have the route on my Wahoo. Cool, lets go.

Bike Finish (last 25 miles):

Those hills were alive with sounds of potholes! Wow, I was passing as many people as I could to make up for the crappy swim. There were still so many riders in front of me. These hills were tough but I knew how to take them. Down the hill at 40 mph up the hill to 8 mph, weee its like a roller coaster at the Quassy! The water stations came up. I was doing fine with eating nutrition  and water. I will just fly by and grab a Gatorade from one of the volunteers. At 20 mph I pointed to a person and snag! Got my gator. Quickly emptied 2 hugh squeezes then tossed into trash line. No stopping for this bike guy.

Mile 35, time to pee. I remember talking about how do it while on bike. I saw some off the road peeing. I wanted to stop but felt like I was behind pace because of swim.

I focused on pace. Where is good place to stop. Next water stop? Nope. Water stop had one porta john, keep going. Cresting a 1000 ft hill I saw for miles. I came up from drops and took in the view. I was soaring with champions in the mansions. This was awesome. Okay time to get down to business of getting fast and getting back to T 2. Time to Jam I was feeling good. I did the work, I can do this faster. I passed and got passed by some fellow riders. Hi ho, you look great! I was feeling fast confident and strong. I was eating nutrition and finishing water.

Whoa! Was that fellow racer girl was in the road with her crank in one hand. What the hell? There was sunglasses and water bottles all over the place. A crash! I passed a dozen of flats. These pot holes where really chewing up riders. I stayed close to center line, letting passers by as they came. Focused on passing without drafting, look up and enjoy the cheers. Stay on target with z3 and maybe a little more.

Mile 50, last hill. Okay fine I will not be able to beat my target 2:40 time. So what. I did my best at what I felt safe doing. I really enjoyed racing the cycle down hills and then climbing. I met so many positive encouraging riders. Now it was time to fly in. Pacing at 25 mph I came into cycle finish. Tight turn in. Cheers from the crowd. I looked at took a second to take it in. Wow, these people are so cool. T2 Time, hope off bike, trot to rack. There is coach Kendra! She is ready to run! “what happened on the swim?” I will tell you later. No go run your ass off! Timing band off. Woosh there goes my coach and friend Kendra. I remember feeling, she has put in so much time to me. I hope she enjoys this part.

Relay done. Finish line after Kendra’s run. Wait for her to cross line She ran it good in heat and harder run course with hills.  We got our medals, a hug and then pictures. She and I were done. We did it!