Hello world! Welcome to my blog…a few caveats before I begin:
- This blog is primarily intended to document my training for the ironman on November 28th, 2010 in Cozumel, Mexico. However, I may blog about non-tri related activites as well.
- Any useful training material/guides I find will be posted in this blog to help other prospective triathletes.
- This blog is me unfiltered…I will not edit over anything I write.
Race Weekend
This memorial weekend was packed with activities. I moved out of my parents’ house on Friday to the new bachelor pad in the Galleria area. I spent my Sat and Sun with the Ramirez family. We floated the river, went out on 6th street, swam in Barton Springs and had dinner at Oasis which rested on the hills overlooking beautiful Lake Travis. Boy…sure glad I came back to Austin to visit. Had one of the best weekends in a very long time!
The alarm clock went off at 4:45am. It was Monday aka race day. Unlike most mornings, I did not hit the snooze button and instead, jumped out of bed rather promptly. I packed everything together, double-checked all my gear and headed out for breakfast. As I was driving around town, trying to find something quick to eat before my race, I thought about what Valerie, a co-worker who also did the same tri, had said a day earlier about eating right, “Make sure you eat a good meal for breakfast before the race.” I’m not sure what she considered “good” but I headed for Mickey D’s for my pre-race meal. Considering being dubbed ”family garbage disposal” by my family, I wasn’t too worried about what my body was capable of processing during race time.
The sun was breaking the horizon as I headed towards the transition area, lighting up the Austin skyline. Music gradually got louder as I headed towards the transition area by Lady Bird Lake…slowly but surely, I was getting pumped. Took a pre-game dump (like I said, this is me unfiltered, be prepared for any type of visuals) and I was ready to go.
My wave was scheduled to go at 7:20am. So far everything was running according to schedule. As I waited amongst a crowd of people also wearing yellow swim caps, I heard someone call out my name. I turned around and it was Chris Howard, an old high school friend. How did he recognize me with a yellow swim cap on in the middle of a huge crowd? I don’t know, but I was glad to know someone. I also met Simon Sattler, one of his friends. A few hilarious moments happened at this point and occurred in the following sequence:
- Chris informed me he planned on doing an full ironman end of November.
- I asked what he had done to prepare for it.
- He responds, “I did a sprint triathlon last weekend”. I looked at Simon in a semi-shocking manner (a full ironman in November seemed very ambitious or what some consider “crazy” especially since they had just completed one sprint tri) and he just smiled.
- Next shocker, Chris planned on swimming the swim leg of the race by breast-stroking! LOL
- They ask me to join them in training for the full ironman. Whether they were joking or not, I could not tell at that moment. It wasn’t until after the race did I realize they being serious.
7:20 rolls around and we started the race. Here were some of my thoughts during the 3 hours I spent swimming, biking, and running.
- Why didn’t I train in open waters before the race? The lake had poor visibility and you couldn’t see past a few feet in front of you. It made swimming harder because I had to sight up every few strokes to make sure 1) I was going in a straight line and 2) wasn’t going to get kicked by the swimmer in front of me. This threw off breathing cadence in the process.
- How many laps were we supposed to go? Yes, as embarrassing as it was, I had to ask a fellow runner how many more laps were left. Note to self: Analyze the race map before actual race.
- I really could have used those gel packs. As I transitioned from swim to bike, I was in a hurry and forgot my gel packs (energy boost supplement many athletes use during their race) in the transition area. I was halfway out of the transition area when I realized this…I could have turned around but kept going. I really regretted this.
- Why are my legs cramping? I started to cramp around mile 4 out of 7 of the run. For some reason, I tend to cramp when running. Note to self: Grab salt tablets.
- Are we there yet? No, I’m not promoting Ice Cube’s new show on TBS, but that was a thought that went through my mind towards the end of the race. It wasn’t that I was becoming mentally weak, because everything was actually longer! HA! The organizers of the race accidentally charted the race longer (both swim and run by a couple hundred meters each).
Having just met Simon and Chris, it was ironic all three of us crossed the finish line one after another. We did not plan this, it just sorta happened. Weird.
Race results:
Total time: 3 hrs 10 min
- Swim: 43min
- T1: 5 min
- Bike: 1 hr 13 min
- T2: 2 min
- Run: 1 hr 6 min
How I would sum up the race…one word comes to mind: Badass!
Met Chris and Simon somewhere in this picture.
Feeling disoriented coming out of the water...reason why so many volunteers are stationed by the swim exit. You feel really drunk coming out of the water!
Positive I got passed up by the guy behind me...cool pic though
Wanted to make sure the camera man could capture my race number on my arm so they could trace the picture to me. Looking like a fool in the process...
Next post: How I convinced myself to sign up for the ironman.
