Its 9pm on 6/18 and I want to get to bed after completing my first half distance race; however, I feel it is important to at least get some of my thoughts down before I forget. I know I won’t complete this tonight, but here goes the start…
Before, I get into race day I need to give you all a little background – I’m sure we all have a similar story so here is mine.
Me and athletics never got along very well; this was due to my severe case of asthma which I was diagnosed with when I was very young. To give you a sense when I was a kid I spent at least 1 to 2 weeks in the hospital for severe asthma attacks, the hospital staff got to know me well. Because of this I wasn’t able to participate in many (if any) sports. I will tell you that in high school I ran track because it was the family thing to do (my 3 older brothers all participated so I felt the need to). High School track was the extent of my sporting back ground & this ended in 1992 when I graduated. In my teenage years I did begin to enjoy biking, I liked to go out on casual bike rides & I do mean casual – I’m talking 20 miles max, with an average speed of 13 or 14mph. Luckily at this speed / effort my breathing wasn’t bad at all.
Fast forward to 2007 & there was a new asthma drug on the market called Advair. It really isn’t new, but just a mix of two existing drugs that they found worked very well together, so my doctor at the Lahey Clinic gave it a shot for me & WOW did it work. I used to use my albuterol inhaler about 3-4 puffs every day to ‘survive’ and after starting Advair I didn’t need it & I still don’t unless I have a chest cold of some sorts. Advair worked so well that I went from being on about 6 or 7 asthma meds down to 2.
Enough with the back story, here is my story of recent years….
In August of 2009 – I finally decided I wanted to get a road bike, so I talked to a few folks I knew who rode at work and a buddy of mine hooked me up with Comp Edge. I went to ‘look at’ a new bike (that was the line I told my wife) & about 3 hours later and a few test rides I walked out with my shiny new Trek 2.1, clipless pedals, shoes and a helmet. I spent about a week mastering the clip in/out and decided hey I’m gonna go for one of these ‘Wednesday’ night rides I heard about (I think my neighbor Paul Mikuszewski was the one who told me about them). I hung off the back of the pack the entire 30 miles & I got to the turn at Silver street headed back to MP and got a pinch flat. Being the newbie I forgot my saddle bag so I got the bike back and that is where I met Lisa Totz & Bill Terry who helped me change my flat.
After some Wednesday rides – I heard about this cool ‘Biketoberfest’ ride coming up, from what I heard there was a 50 miler and a 100 miler – I said I will try the 50, why not. It was on that ride that I met some more great ‘Nauts. I remember climbing up this hill & next to me was Jackie Evans. Jackie started asking about my tri background (which was non-existent) & it was her who said I should take up running, she told me to pick up a good pair of running shoes. After the ride, I remember sitting on Jim’s patio and I met Fran, Jim G & I think Brian Person. I got intrigued in their discussion of upcoming triathlon events so that week I went to Fast Feet, plopped down some cash and got me a fancy pair of shoes. After that I started running around the block, then a 5k & then these crazy things in the middle of winter at Forest ParkJ. It was then that I did a rookie mistake and picked up my mileage too fast & much too soon. I got injured on January 16, 2010 and ended up at the ER cuz I couldn’t walk (at least without holding on to something/someone). Although, they diagnosed it as ‘knee sprain’ – I later found out (after a 2nd and 3rd opinion) that I had a tibial stress fracture about 2 inches below my left knee. I thought there goes my running ‘career’. It was then I decided to use swimming to help my leg get better & it was then I reached out to PCS and decided I was going to get some help.
In late January I decided to head out to the Monson Pool and join for some swimming on Monday, Wednesday & Fridays. If someone asks Kevin Moloney I think he’ll clearly remember me holding on for dear life at the opposite end of the pool after swimming 25 yards… I thought damn I have a LONG road ahead of me in this pool.
In the meantime – I continued to nurse my injured leg, working out on the arc trainer, the elliptical, biking and this new thing called swimming. In the pool, I slowly got better and better and finally could make a few laps in the pool, next thing you know I was doing the crazy numbers of 50 yard repeats with the Monson crew. During all this excitement I bought a wetsuit and come April (ish) I met Mary at Haviland for my first ever outdoor swim – it was a little nerve racking; however, I survived across and back and outdoor swims became a regular part of my routine.
Come June I was ready to do my first ever triathlon in Ludlow (we’ll at least as a relay because I had just gotten the clearance to start running again). Therefore, I got together with Steve Fachetti and I did the swim and bike and Steve threw down some crazy running for the team and we placed 1st all Male relay (2nd overall relay). A few weeks later I did the Westfield Wave (again as a relay) with a different runner this time and again we placed 2nd overall relay. By now, this was getting fun & I was now training to do my first solo event. I remember being on vacation at the Cape while training for my race on August 7th. I remember running into Steve Brault up at LakeWaramaug and it was nice to see a familiar face up there – I survived my first full tri by myself and at this point the addiction was growing.
In late 2010 I decided I wanted to do at least one 70.3 race in 2011. I continued to hammer away at the training plan, some weeks I couldn’t fit it all in – it was tough with my family, a full time job and part time job, but I did my best to fit in as much as I could. Well, as life often does a little curveball was thrown at me on April 27th. I had the day off of work & got a dreaded phone call with some VERY unexpected news…my position at MassMutual was eliminated and I was now unemployed. Luckily, my wife was still working, there was some severance benefits coming and I quickly began my search for a new position. I guess the one good thing coming out of it was the ability to now fit in all my workouts plus some. Thinking of the silver lining, I now think this wasn’t a bad deal leading up to my first half iron race.
Going into this race I had read a lot of articles about prepping for a race of this distance and one thing stuck out to me which was always have a saying to get you through the race… I was like ‘a saying to get me through’ but the thought grew on me and I knew mentally this would be tough. I thought for a bit and gave up on what my saying would be – FINALLY it hit me. BE GREAT – that was a note I would leave for my two daughters in the morning when I didn’t see them off to school. It had two meanings for them, be great as in behavior wise and be great in everything they do. Therefore, I used this as my saying & in order to continually remind me I put a piece of tape on my bike & run water bottle with my HR targets & the words “BE GR8”.
Since Patriot was a few hours away I decided to book a hotel room & head up on Friday. I left home around 11:30am on Friday & tried to keep off my feet as much as possible. I did want to scope out the bike and run course so I drove the course after meeting up with Mike Cousins & we picked up our registration packets early. After checking into the hotel, we enjoyed a low key pasta dinner. I got back to the hotel and double checked my bags, prepped my stuff for the morning and hit the sack at 8pm. I wasn’t used to getting to sleep this early, so I didn’t fall asleep until almost 9:30, I did get a good sleep and woke up prior to my alarms going off.
It was 4:05 am & it was RACE DAY – I was definitely pumped. I got a nice hot shower in, prepped my race nutrition, ate my pre-race breakfast, loaded up the car and headed out to the venue at 5am with Mike. Parking was great, it was right next to transition, this made it very easy & painless. I did have to wait about 7 minutes to get body marked but that was nothing because about 30 minutes later the line for body marking seemed to go on forever. Transition was great because it seems all those who put down Cyclonauts as their club got racked together. If I remember right, there was me, Mike, Tom, Stephanie, Sara & Kim all in a row. There were a few other ‘Nauts around as well and all made me feel very comfortable during my first half distance event. Registration was taking a bit longer for those who didn’t pick up their packets the night before & the long body marking line; therefore, the race was delayed by about 15 minutes. I had no problem fitting in a quick jog in and tested out the water. After downing my pre-race GU I headed over to watch the first of four Sprint Waves head out. After that it was go time for the half race. I was in the 3rd wave – ahead of me were the elites/paratriathletes (red caps), Males 34 & under (purple caps) and finally our group (silver caps).
As you read above, in the beginning I was quite worried about my swimming; it just didn’t seem to be my thing. However, with more and more practice I’ve settled quite nicely into my swim. I did have a plan to hopefully get out of the chaos and settle in on somebody’s feet; however, that strategy didn’t work completely. I did avoid all chaos and got a good line quickly, but I couldn’t find anyone to settle onto for a nice draft. I really felt GREAT on the swim which was a good start to my day. There were 4 minutes between each swim wave & before hitting the first turn I started picking off the purple caps & I continued to pass them one by one. There were still some purple caps that I could see after the 2nd turn but during my sighting but I couldn’t spot any more silver caps which was a nice feeling. I guess my sighting was pretty good because looking at the swim times I was 4th in my age group out of the water. Swim was done in 32:03.
T1 went well – the run from the swim exit was rather short, but I still took a couple extra seconds to ensure I had everything in order before headed out for a 56 mile jaunt on the bike J. I had a heart rate plan going into the race, it was 155-157 on the bike. Also, I had an average mph I was going for, which was 19. The first hour seemed to fly by & I was trying to enjoy every minute of it, but still knew that I had 13.1 miles left to run after this. My first hour time check was looking good, the Garmin told me I was averaging 20mph. Lap one of the bike course was almost done, I grabbed a new water bottle at mile 26 and as I headed back to Cathedral camp the crowds were doing a great job refilling my adrenaline. I tell ya hearing the cowbells, the clapping and the good wishes really help your energy levels. Lap one of the bike was behind me, now I just thought to myself – this is just another MP Wednesday night right. So far, my nutrition / hydration felt great. Hour two was now coming up on me, the Garmin put me at 39 miles – just under the 20mph average I had in the first hour. Still not shabby I thought considering I was hoping to get off the bike originally in about 3 hours, now knowing I would hit that mark I felt energized. As I pulled into finish the bike I felt pretty good, but at this point it was getting pretty warm out there. I ended up off the bike in 2:49.
T2 again went well, since it was getting toasty I ensured to throw some sunscreen on after getting my shoes on & water bottle with my run nutrition ready. As I ran out of transition and headed down the stretch before hitting the main road Mike Cousins was headed in on his bike and gave me a big shout of encouragement – at that point in the race I needed it – thanks Mike.
Ok, here was the run – although the distance didn’t bother me at all it was the fact that I was running that distance after completing the swim & bike. I just kept remembering to smile, BE GR8 and not take it out too hard. I tried to keep the HR where my plan told me to (158 – 165) & if I had anything left to push the last half. This started me out around 9 minute miles which felt pretty comfortable; but it was about mile 3 where I started to slow down a bit, the course was getting pretty hot and someone forgot to plant some shade trees along the course to try to cool us down. What helped on the run course were the great volunteers at the aid stations & the much needed ice cubes and water. Soon I realized a roving motivator on the course, it was Bruce Hiorns he just kept appearing and shouted great words of encouragement to everyone, but especially to the ‘Nauts on the course.
Along with Bruce, ‘Nauts slowly passed me & each one said a word or gave a gesture of encouragement (thank you Mike, Tom, Martha, Dan, Martin, Sara). The miles kept clicking by and if I haven’t said it yet – the course was getting hotter. I held around a 10 minute pace until mile 10 at which point my legs were really burning, but I thought to myself – heck it’s only a 5k I can do this. I broke back below a 10 minute pace and actually kept bringing it down the last 3 miles (although if you asked me during the race I would have said those last three miles felt like forever). I finally hit mile 12 and thought to myself, this is IT. I’ve got about 10 more minutes and I’m gonna finish. At that point, all sense of pain is gone, because those cheers, cowbells and even the little kid giving me a high five as I ran into the finisher chute all took it away.
I went into the race with this number of 5 hours 30 minutes in my head…. Well for my first half distance race – I missed my goal by 4 minutes 32 seconds but I was VERY happy with the day overall. I will tell you that about 30 minutes after finishing I was thinking how I hopefully could get revenge on this distance at my next event, Pumpkinman. After letting everyone know I survived I even texted Mary telling her that my addiction for this sport just grew even more. Watch out Pumpkinman – here I come & I’ll be even GR8’r