IRONMAN ARIZONA RACE REPORT

It was a perfect day for a race.  The weather in the morning was in the upper 50's, the water temperature was 63F and there wasn't a cloud in the sky as sun snuck up over the horizon.  We all stayed about 3 miles from the race start at the HGI to get a good nights rest.  We got up at about 4AM and left the hotel around 5:15AM.  

Dropping off Bike Bags

The bike area was a busy place at 5:30AM.  Both Timmy and I got our tires pumped with air and made the last adjustments to our bikes, nutrition and hydration needs for the day before making our way down to the water for the swim.

The swim took place in Tempe Town Lake, a stretch of brown water that is only about 200 yards wide which made for a crowded, body slapping 2.4 miles.   Timmy kicked ass on the swim finishing in 1:00 or 11th out of the water, a pretty damn good start to the day.  I came out in 1:26 which I considered a good performance, one upon which I will build.  I need to take about 10 minutes off of that time for Texas, Louisville and Placid in 2013. My T-1 transition time was 10 minutes, not great but not terrible.  I have 2 minutes that I need to shave off of that with a little more focus and preparation.  

The pre-race dinner the athletes gathered in the park to load up on carbs and listen to the IM host introduce a number of athletes and announce some statistics.  One of those statistics was the out of the 2,500 competitors approximately 950 were first time ironman athletes.  When they made this announcement and leaned over to Timmy and told him that this meant that we need to be careful on the bike, due to the number of rookies on the course, words that would come back to haunt me.

Out of the T1 transition I saw Carla who told me that I was 28 minutes behind Timmy, which I had projected to give up 30 minutes so I was pretty pleased.  I knew that I could make up time on the bike and cut this lead by at least 10-15 minutes.  Plans are good, but execution is what really matters.  As a result of coming out of the water in the bottom 40% of the pack and being a stronger cyclist I usually have a lot of fun passing people on the bike.  Conversely, Timmy being a strong swimmer and not as strong on the bike ends up getting passed.  For the first 14 miles I was sling shotting around a ton of cyclists that had beat me out of the water but couldn't match that performance on the bike.  At mile 15 as I was attempting to pass a string of competitors a newby in the passing lane reached back to grab his water bottle (why?  because he was a rookie) lost control and took out one bike that skidded into the passing lane while he laid his bike down and the racer in front of me attempting to pass as well hit the two downed bikes.  I was last to the pile up in aero position hitting the group at about 18-20MPH. 

Upon hitting the cluster of bikes and bodies I jack-knifed over the top and hit the pavement head and right shoulder first and then getting body slammed into the pavement knocking the wind out of me.  At initial impact I heard a crunching sound thinking, damn is that my head?  Fortunately it was my helmet that took the impact from the blow.  I need to write to the engineers that designed that helmet because it worked and did its job.  My right should didn't fair quite as well.  I had previously separated my right shoulder, fractured my right scapula and cracked 2 ribs on that side.  As a police officer sat me up to help me take inventory of my injuries a bike mechanic was looking over my bike.  On my left forearm I had a contusion sticking up at least an inch and a half, which looked bad.  The police officer told me it was broken, I told him it was just a "monkey bump" and It was fine.  My left wrist got jammed and sprained.  My right shoulder had a nice scrape on it where the initial impact was absorbed.  It was immediately swollen and a knot had formed where it bone lifted up from the shoulder socket.  It was most likely a class 2 separation.  My scapula and ribs posterior 2 through 5 hurt a lot.  

Bike Crash.......

After being helped up I made my way out of the middle of the rode to the guard rail on the side of the rode, where the bike mechanic was looking over my bike.  Unfortunately my bike was fine, eliminating my excuse for not being able to finish the race.  So with a 97 miles to go on the bike and a marathon to run I clipped into my bike and told the medics that had just arrived in the ambulance to cart off the 3rd cyclist (due to a gash in his quad) that I was fine and had a 26 year old nephew to catch.  As you can see from my splits below the adrenaline must've been pumping as i made up the 10 minutes lost from the crash and finished in 6:06, the same time as my nephew, so no time lost or gained on this segment.  In the back of my mind I knew that running was going to be an issue with my injuries but held out hope that Timmy was going to bonk on the run and if I just held a steady pace that I would catch him.  Neither of that happened.

T2 transition was 6 minutes.  That's 4 minutes worse than my average T2 transition times.  I couldn't reach down to take off my bike shoes or sneakers.  I had a hard time pulling off my bike shorts and putting on my running shorts during T2.  This left me with about a 28 minute deficit as I left for the first lap of 3.  The afternoon sun was hot, but felt good.  After lap 1 I had cut 6 minutes from Timmy's lead which was now 22 minutes, still manageable.  I wasn't feeling good at all going into lap 2 and decided to slow it down a bit and load up on nutrition and hydration in preparing for a final lap, which I was still hoping for a bonk from Timmy.  As I approached Carla and Heather before the last lap they told me that I was now 24 minutes behind and more importantly that Timmy was looking strong.  With 8.5 miles to go I would have to run a 7 min/mile to catch Timmy which in a 1/2 IM I could muster up but not the full distance and a jacked up shoulder and ribs.  Timmy ran a great race and I was very proud of his performance.

I walked for 5 of the 8.5 miles of the last lap with a few other competitors.  I decided to run with about 3 miles to go when the oldest guy in the race, a 78 year old, shuffled past me.  That was simply too much for me to take so I picked up the pace and ran the last few miles in.  The finishing chute at IM AZ was pretty lame compared to the previous 5 that I've run down.  Normally the chute is about 1/4 mile long with people lining it.  This chute was probably 75-100 yards at best, but it did have a lot of people cheering us on.  I saw Carla in the crowd near the finish line snapping photos.  It was a long day for both of us.  There is no better feeling than coming down the finisher chute at the end of the race.  This was number six on my journey for twelve and an entry into Kona.  I must say, doing another IM was a thought that I couldn't even begin to entertain right then.  However, its been 6 days post race and I am signed up for IM Lake Placid, IM Louisville and thinking about IM Texas in May.  In addition, I signed up for the Leadman in Tempe on April 14, 2013.  A 1.5M swim, 68 mile bike, 7 mile run, good training fro IM Texas and a rematch.........

Cheers!

Rank: 132

Overall Rank: 1149

BIB:	422
Division:	M45-49
Age:	45
State:	Brentwood TN
Country:	USA
Profession:	Business Owner

Swim:	1:26:23
Bike:	6:06:33
Run:	5:01:24
Overall:	12:51:11

CONGRATULATIONS, PHILLIP, ON YOUR FINISH!

Swim Details Division Rank: 169

Split Name	Distance	Split Time	Race Time	Pace	Div. Rank	Overall Rank	Gender Rank
Total	2.4 mi	1:26:23	1:26:23	2:14/100m	169	1511	1195

Bike Details Division Rank: 146

Split Name	Distance	Split Time	Race Time	Pace	Div. Rank	Overall Rank	Gender Rank
9.4 mi	9.4 mi	31:53	2:08:32	17.76 mi/h
18.8 mi	9.3 mi	37:48	2:46:20	14.78 mi/h
28.1 mi	9.3 mi	21:58	3:08:18	25.43 mi/h
37.4 mi	9.3 mi	25:40	3:33:58	21.76 mi/h
46.7 mi	9.3 mi	29:40	4:03:38	18.85 mi/h
56 mi	9.3 mi	31:04	4:34:42	17.98 mi/h
65.3 mi	9.3 mi	32:09	5:06:51	17.37 mi/h
74.6 mi	9.3 mi	28:06	5:34:57	19.90 mi/h
83.9 mi	9.3 mi	30:55	6:05:52	18.07 mi/h
93.3 mi	9.3 mi	33:24	6:39:16	16.72 mi/h
102.6 mi	9.3 mi	32:23	7:11:39	17.25 mi/h
112 mi	9.4 mi	31:33	7:43:12	17.95 mi/h
Total	112 mi	6:06:33	7:43:12	18.33 mi/h	146	1282	1055

Run Details Division Rank: 132

Split Name	Distance	Split Time	Race Time	Pace	Div. Rank	Overall Rank	Gender Rank
1.5 mi	1.5 mi	12:05	8:01:52	8:09/mi
3.1 mi	1.6 mi	15:01	8:16:53	9:30/mi
4.6 mi	1.6 mi	15:47	8:32:40	10:07/mi
5.9 mi	1.3 mi	15:38	8:48:18	11:50/mi
7 mi	1.1 mi	10:36	8:58:54	9:43/mi
8.6 mi	1.6 mi	16:06	9:15:00	9:59/mi
10.1 mi	1.5 mi	13:08	9:28:08	8:52/mi
11.7 mi	1.6 mi	16:40	9:44:48	10:28/mi
13.3 mi	1.6 mi	18:02	10:02:50	11:38/mi
14.6 mi	1.3 mi	16:23	10:19:13	12:24/mi
15.7 mi	1.1 mi	9:50	10:29:03	9:01/mi
17.3 mi	1.6 mi	19:41	10:48:44	12:13/mi
18.8 mi	1.5 mi	22:15	11:10:59	15:02/mi
20.4 mi	1.6 mi	26:38	11:37:37	16:45/mi
21.9 mi	1.6 mi	23:33	12:01:10	15:11/mi
23.2 mi	1.3 mi	16:59	12:18:09	12:51/mi
24.3 mi	1.1 mi	11:43	12:29:52	10:39/mi
26.2 mi	1.9 mi	21:19	12:51:11	11:20/mi
Total	26.2 mi	5:01:24	12:51:11	11:30/mi	132	1149	927

Transition

T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE	10:16
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN	6:35

24.5 Hours...Countdown to IM AZ!!

I'm a packin up my bags and gonna head out west where real women come with scripts, equipped with fake breasts......I wanna be a Cowboy bay bay.

Arrived in PHX yesterday am. Carla and I met Timmy at the airport, flight was on time.  We headed over to the athlete village and got checked in grabbed my bib #422 along with the other race paraphernalia.  We shopped a little at the IM store and then hit the strip for a relaxing lunch.

After lunch we drove the bike course, which was very helpful.  It looks like a relatively flat course so the bike should be ok.  We then headed out to Timmy's place and began to get our race day gear organized before heading back to Tempe for the IM dinner.  The dinner was good, met some first timers as well as a 60 year old that's done this race every year in PHX (a total of 9 here).  Post dinner we made it back to the house where we found Carla and Heather drinking, watching some Male Strip Movie with Matthew Mcconaughey and giggling like two little high school girls.

I got up at 4:45AM today and figured I'd get in my last blog update before the race tomorrow.  This morning Timmy is taking me to his local lake for a morning swim and then a light run.  Later this am we'll be headed back to Tempe to check our bikes in and drop off our race bags. Planning on chilling to the rest of the day, before grabbing an early light dinner.

The weather forecast is looking great. Low 50's in the am and high 70's and sunny all day. The sun rise is at 7AmM which is when the gun goes off. We'll be swimming into the sun for about 25 minutes and then we'll have it tour our backs the remainder. Water temps are about 62F, which is a little chilly but we'll warm up fast in the wetsuits. I've got my neoprene cap that I'll be sporting as well.

I'm rather certain that my feet will be numb getting onto the bike, but should warm up after about 3 hours into the bike ride. They are predicting a ENE 4MPH wind tomorrow. This means the ride only on the bike loop will be slightly uphill and into a mild breeze and the return (18 miles) we'll have the wind to our backs on a slight downhill grade. This should make for about a 16MPH out and a 22MPH return for a 19MPH average speed - if I can hold it. My plan is to push the bike hard so that I don't lose much time to Timmy, given he'll have a 30 minute lead on me out of the water.

I think that I've got my nutrition dialed in for the race. I will be taking in 250 calories per hour on the bike and run via cookies, Gatorade, pretzels, PB sandwich, potato chips and Reese's PB cups. I'm saving my gels and shot blocks for the run. I plan on sucking down 25oz per hour on the bike and 30oz the last hour heading into the run. I'll need to be well hydrated and have my caloric intake under control coming off of the bike.

The run will be very interesting. My goal is simple, run a sub 4 hour marathon, which is anything but simple. This means I'll have to average a 9 minute mile.

My weight is about 176-177lbs and I've been getting my rest. Really have no excuses. Looking forward to racing on a flat course. Timmy is well trained and has dropped a bunch of weight. He'll be a lot to handle but I like to chase the carrot. Much better than being chased.

It's been 363 days since I signed up for this race. I cannot wait to be in the water in Sunday. All is good......

Shhhh...did you hear that?  We all know what that was...........

One Week out from the "Duel in the Desert"!!

It's been a long long season.  Leading up to IM Arizona I have been diligent in my preparation.  In March 2012 I traveled up to Pittsfield, VT to compete in the Winter Death Race, after 30 hours I finished in 10th place overall.
 


In May, I ventured out to compete in an early season IM in St George UTAH.  It was a great day of training, forcing me to start my training and development of my base endurance levels early.  The weather was brutal.  A high desert where altitude, heat and wind punished the athletes, causing the highest DNF in the history of Ironman racing.

The first week of June, I raced in the "Dirty 30" trail run in the Canyons of Rocky Mts in Colorado.  It was a tough race with about 8,000 feet of elevation gain.  Violent thunderstorms hit us in the last 5 miles of the race at about 7,500 feet of altitude.  When we finished this race, we were done.  A great training course for the UTMB.

A few weeks after completing IM STG and 1 week post Dirty 30, I went back to Pittsfield, VT to compete in the Summer Death Race.  300 people entered the race and about 40 or so actually finished.  Once again, I was able to finish within the top 10.  It was a 60 hour race and a test of physical and mental endurance.  Fatigue was redefined for me during this race.  I learned about hallucinations and managing through extreme conditions.  Training for this race was much different than for an IM.  Strength played a role, mental and physical.

In July, I traveled back to Leadville, CO for the Leadville marathon and the Silver Rush 50 mile trail run.  These two events are very tough.  The 50 mile run is equivalent to doing an Ironman.  Running at an average altitude of 11,000 feet is tough.  Another good endurance base building event leading up to UTMB.

Five weeks later I was off to Chamonix, France to compete in the UTMB.  This was a race for the ages.  The weather was awful and my early season training paid dividends.  I was able to manage through this race with relative ease.

A month post UTMB, I ventured back to Europe, to Berlin for the Marathon, missing qualifying for Boston by 45 seconds.  Having not seriously trained to go sub 3:25 my performance was good.  I was beat up post race, with sore achilles.  Speed hurts.

For the past 11 weeks I have tailored my training for IM Phoenix.  I haven't spent a ton of time on the bike, but have been able to get in some long bike rides.  My swim has come along quite nicely and getting out of the water and through T-1 in 1:30 should not be a problem.  My run, well, is everything.  I expect to finish the run in under 4 hours, something I have yet to do in an Ironman.  The bike is the wild card....

The good news is that I am actually "racing" this event.  I have never really raced a full distance IM before.  I raced many 70.3's against buddies of mine, but never a full distance IM.  When I "race" my mindset is much different than just "finishing".  While "just finishing" should not be taken for granted in a 140.6 race, it is always the very goal of the day...to finish.

Fortunately I have completed 5-140.6's, 8-70.3's, 5-50 mile trail runs, attempted 4-100 mile trail runs and have successfully finished 2 of them (UTMB was actually only 70 Miles).  I have pushed myself to the hospital twice, because of poor nutrition and simple lack of experience in these events which resulted in 2 DNF's (Both on 100 mile trail runs).  I have learned the signs of dehydration, glycogen deficits and mental lapses.  I know what an extreme bonk feels like and i know how to fight to get to the other side of the bonk, which you can only learn by touching the stove.  I have wandered around in the darkest corners of my mind during a race, but I have found the light...that light is experience, experience that my young bull competitor lacks as he enters his very first Ironman.

So here's a tale of the tape:

1.  Knowledge of the course:  Timmy's home turf and he has trained on the race course. ADVANTAGE TIMMY.

2.  Training:  Timmy has been very disciplined and has trained specifically for this IM while I have been focused on multiple types of endurance events.  ADVANTAGE TIMMY.

3.  I am 45 and Timmy is 26:  ADVANTAGE TIMMY.

4.  Timmy is an excellent swimmer, I am not:  ADVANTAGE TIMMY

5.  Timmy has many more hours logged on the bike:  ADVANTAGE TIMMY

6.  Timmy's best and only EVER marathon run time was 3:58.  ADVANTAGE PT

7.  Course management:  Timmy has NEVER completed a full distance IM.  I have completed 5 and at least 20 other triathlons.  ADVANTAGE PT

8.  Mental discipline and toughness:  Not even close.....ADVANTAGE PT

9.  Ability to endure:  ADVANTAGE PT

10. Overall Experience:  HANDS DOWN....ADVANTAGE PT

My race day predictions as follows:

                   Young Bull        Old Bull
Swim             1:00                    1:25
T-1                  :07                      :07
Bike lap 1      1:55                    2:00
Bike lap 2      1:55                    2:05
Bike lap 3      1:55                    2:10
Total Bike      5:45                    6:15
T-2                   :03                      :03
Run lap 1       1:30                    1:20
Run lap 2       1:45                    1:15
Run lap 3       2:00                    1:20
Total Run      5:15                     3:55

Total Time  12:10                 11:45

UTMB Post Race Report

Team Honey Badger Pre Race Photo

Well it's only taken me 2 1/2 months to get around to posting to my blog on the race in Chamonix.  The word of the race was "WEATHER".  The weather turned sour the day before the race making certain of the mountain passes...unpassable.  As a result the course was modified and instead of racing 104 miles the course was shortened and we only ran about 70 miles.

The race start was delayed and we began the race in the congested streets of Chamonix at about 6:30PM.  Ray, Tim, Scott, Francisco, Patrick and I attempted to stay together as a group which was nice in theory but hard to execute to.  After the first 7 miles or so, I stayed back with Francisco, while the rest of the group pushed on.

Francisco attempting to look tough at 5 foot 2 inches

The weather went from bad to worse.  After night fall it began to sleet and snow on us which turned back to rain and dense, dense fog.  The climbs and descents were all they were made out to be and more.  Because the course was essentially a mud pit, it created a lot more stress on the quads as you tried to maintain your balance.

Chamonix Checking In

Making cutoffs became uncertain at about 25 miles in and it became more apparent that getting Francisco to the mile 38 cutoff looked bleak.  I made the decision at this point to go on without Francisco as he told me to go on without him.  In hind sight this was a mistake and I should've waited for him at the cutoff aid station.  He actually made the cutoff, but feet were wet and cold and caused him to DNF.  At this point I decided to begin to push it hard to try to catch the rest of the group that was about 2.5-3 hours in front of me.  I really thought that I could catch the guys as I had been holding back with Francisco for the first half of the race.

Oh no INS!!!!

By 10:30AM the next morning I made my way through the streets of the village where we were staying where I met up with my awesome crew.  They had a dry pair of shoes, socks and food.  The weather had broke and the sun came out.  It was a beautiful morning after a night from hell.  The remainder of the day was just as nice and the trails cleared up and it was a nice last 25 miles.  As I worked hard to catch the group I passed a lot of other runners and was feeling pretty good.

The 3 Amigos post race

I ended up making it through the course in a little of 24 hours and there is no question that I could've done the entire course.  It was interesting that my forced early course management with francisco had allowed me to be very strong late in the race.  Other 100's that I've run I've raced too hard too early leaving the late stages of the race at risk.  This was a great lesson.



The rest of the guys finished 3 hours or so in front of me, except for Patrick who was forced to drop from the race due to an injury.   It was a great finish running through the fan filled streets of Chamonix.  My crew (Daley & Laura) did a great job and look forward to more races with them.  I definitely want to go back to complete the entire course next year.

Post race in Italy

Overall assessment:  No injuries.  Quads were cooked due to the downhills and unstable trails.  Need to train more on downhills and building of quads.  Nutrition was good, never really had a bonk as i was able to rest quite a bit during the first 38 miles which really set me up for the next 32 miles.  Crew was very very important, not so much for nutrition but for gear due to the challenging weather conditions.  The house that we rented was great, just outside of town.  Got to chill out pre race.  It would be nice to take the family back there for the race.


Next race in the queue was the Berlin marathon......

Cheers!