It has been 16 days since I raced my first full ironman triathlon. I have spent these days reflecting upon the 12 month preparation period I had for this just under 14 hour day of racing. I have gone over and over in my mind the events of that day trying to determine if I gave it my all. If I pushed myself to the absolute max. I have searched my heart, and my mind, and even my spirit to understand what I felt all day and if I have any voids, or if it was everything I hoped, dreamed, and thought it would be.
When I did my first sprint distance triathlon in the spring of 2012, I knew it was only a matter of time before I would do a full Ironman. For me racing is more than swimming, biking, and running. It is a time where I connect with Jesus, where I discover how incredible my body is, and what it is actually capable of doing when I am willing to challenge those limits with the strength and grace of God fueling me. Every time I start a training season I can easily get overwhelmed by the dedication and work it will take to accomplish the goals set before me. Then in times like this I am able to look back and see how far I came, what I went through, and be amazed at the attaining the dream and goals! There are always days where I question what I'm doing, question if its worth it, if I can actually do what I'm trying to do. Racing is so much more than physical strength but mental and for me also spiritual.
In the days leading up to race day I can honestly say I have never been more calm to do a race. I was actually trying to get myself to be nervous about taking on the biggest challenge I have ever attempted! However I know there were plenty of people covering me in prayer leading up to it and all the way through it and His peace was so obvious in the moment. Don't get me wrong, I was super jacked up to do the race and I was so excited to experience every moment of the day. I just didn't feel the need to get anxious or nervous about doing a triathlon.
Everything about this race was so much bigger than I have ever experienced and it was incredible trying to soak it all in. Having a group of amazing veteran ironman athletes to help guide me was awesome. I would not have done this race without the coercion of my friend Stacey who was the one that convinced me to sign up for a full Ironman would be fun and I needed to do this race with her. THANK YOU STACEY FOR INVITING ME INTO ONE OF THE GREATEST RACE EXPERIENCES EVER!
THANK YOU TREVOR for walking with me and coaching me through this amazing journey. Continually keeping my focus on what really matters not allowing me to get wrapped up in myself or my performance but allowing God to be the center of training, and racing always.
THANK YOU for each person that prayed for me, encouraged me, swam with me, biked with me, ran with me, or simply just walked this journey with me over the last year.
Of course THANK YOU to John, Daniel, Jennifer, Jon, Edwin, Blake, and Lisa for being part of race weekend. For pre-race meal times, mid-race encouragement, and after race adventures!
Jonathon, you were the best sherpa in the entire world. I truly appreciate all you did in helping make race day smooth. From dropping us off at the start to taking the morning drop bags, to grabbing all the transition bags and my bike so I didn't have to do anything but go home after finishing the race! I am so thankful for your friendship!
I told people leading up to the race that my goal was to finish. When asked about a time I would like to get I didn't have a specific time in mind but I did say if everything is perfect and nothing goes wrong. according to my rough calculations I could finish between 12-13 hours.
Jonathon, you were the best sherpa in the entire world. I truly appreciate all you did in helping make race day smooth. From dropping us off at the start to taking the morning drop bags, to grabbing all the transition bags and my bike so I didn't have to do anything but go home after finishing the race! I am so thankful for your friendship!
I told people leading up to the race that my goal was to finish. When asked about a time I would like to get I didn't have a specific time in mind but I did say if everything is perfect and nothing goes wrong. according to my rough calculations I could finish between 12-13 hours.
SWIM: 2.4 miles
This is probably one of the easiest ironman swims and I am quite ok with that. It was a point to point swim where we went with the current flow of the river. So the entire time I am just swimming and being moved by the current of the river. I wasn't worried about the swim even though this is the weakest of the 3 sports. I knew I would be faster than I had been in training and I really just focused on little sections at a time. I wanted to swim to the marking bouy and then I wanted to swim to the next one, and the next, before I knew it I was tucked behind a swimmer and I was drafting off them and kept my head down and swam all the way into the swim exit. The main issue I had during the swim which wasn't even that big of an issue was foggy goggles. I would stop periodically rinse them out and then swim on. However once I got behind the other athlete there was probably about 1/2 mile left and I just kept swimming, not caring about not being able to see fully and didn't stop until I reached the exit. Though it wasn't a super fast time I did my fastest swim in a time of 1:26: 45.
BIKE: 116 miles
I ran from the water to the changing tent taking my time to change into dry clothes, and prepare for a long hot ride. I made sure to put arm cooler sleeves on knowing I would be in the sun for almost 7 hours and then still had to run after that in the heat so I wanted to cut down on exposed skin to the sun. I made sure I had all my stuff grabbed my bike and tried to run around all the people trying to mount their bikes and ride away. I felt SO GOOD on the bike. The entire time I was actually trying to slow my overall pace down to make sure I would have legs to run on when I got off the bike. I feel like I did exactly what I needed to on the bike. I had a target pace of 17 mph but I couldn't get that. I averaged 17.7 for the entire 116 miles. I know I definitely could have pushed the pace at 19 maybe even higher but I don't think I would have had anywhere close to the energy that I felt I had on the bike. I never felt like I was overheating, every aid station I was grabbing water trying to drink it and then dump as much on my body as possible. Every 12 miles this was my routine, grab a bottle put it in my cage, grab another on drink it, pour and if there was enough time to grab another one as I rode by i'd grab it. I couldn't get over the beauty of the course. Going through north Georgia passing fields, and going over rolling hills in and out of the shade was spectacular. I literally couldn't get enough of it. I never felt like I was over-exerting myself of pushing to hard. Which was a great feeling because I have a tendency to do that and then fall apart later. I was quite fortunate and blessed to not have any mechanical problems, no flats, no loss of my nutrition bottles or anything. It was as perfect of a bike ride that I could have had. By having my average be a little higher than anticipated I had about a 16 minute faster ride. A nice surprise as I was coming into transition. Official bike time 6:34:08
RUN: 26.2 miles
I felt AMAZING when I got off my bike ran into the changing tent to put on once again new clothes to just make the run a little bit more comfortable. I took my time but didn't really spend much time in the tent. One reason was it was stinking hot as heck in there, and another reason I was really excited to get out on the road and see what it was going to be like to run a marathon after swimming and biking before! I have ran 5 marathon but never after these crazy distances before. I came out of transition telling myself to keep it easy, not to go out to fast which is always so difficult when you have athletes running, people cheering and your just excited to be doing something else! I wanted to keep my miles at 10 to 10:30 minute pace. My first mile was a 9:45 and though it was what seemed to be an easy pace I knew I needed to slow it down. I tried and my next mile was a 9:25 but then I dialed it in and started keeping the pace pretty close to 10:30's in between the aid stations. They were placed pretty much a mile apart so I would run to each station and then walk through to have a bit of a break, grab some water and prepare for the next mile. I felt pretty good throughout the first 11 miles and then my stomach started to get upset. I kept a pretty good running pace but knew this was the beginning of the hard part of the race. I was able to run a few more miles and keep my pace right on target for what I thought I could do for the run. The more I ran the more upset my stomach began to feel. This was a totally new thing for me so I kept running trying to control the feeling of nausea. Finally at mile 17 I turned and asked a guy his opinion about throwing up and he said "do it, you'll feel better." So at the next aid station I walked into the porta potty and well I didn't even have to force it. I did feel better after I drank some water and sipped on coke for the caffeine and sugar. I walked for a little bit then tried to run some more and my stomach started to act up again. The entire time I kept passing people laying on the ground exhausted and dehydrated. I made the decision at about mile 18 that I would walk to the next aid station and see if I could run after that. I kept asking myself what I could do in that moment to get to the next aid station and time after time it was walk, if I run I may exert to much energy and my body may not be able to handle it so if you want to finish keep this walking pace. So I did, I walked along with many many others. It was a time of having to be smart and humble. In order to finish I needed to not worry about a finish time, I had plenty of time to reach the finish line before the official cutoff time so I wasn't worried at all. It was a great experience even though it was the first time I have ever thrown up from racing or exerting myself it was a good thing to have to work through and solve in the moment. Walking definitely gave me lots of time to pray for all of us that were racing, and to make friends to walk with, thank the volunteers and just take in every aspect of the race. Surprisingly my run time was only an hour off of my predicted time so for walking 8 miles i'm not complaining one bit! Official run/walk time 5:41:44
THE FINISH:
I honestly still don't have adequate words to describe the feeling of coming down the finishers chute. It is one of the most emotional, inspirational, encouraging, and exciting things I have ever done. People all around cheering, giving high fives, making you feel like you are the only person in the world doing that race at that time! It was fascinating and so awesome. As much as I wanted to run I just couldn't, I wanted to again soak up every moment I could. To come across that line and hear TJ Vandehey from Christiansted, Virgin Islands..... YOU ARE AN IRONMAN! It was the best thing I had heard all day. It was exactly what I had come to do. It was at that point where every mile, swam, biked, and ran in preparation all met reality. To cross the finish line of any race is an absolutely magical moment for me. Where I stand in amazement in the journey God took me on but this one, this was one of the sweetest. To desire to be at that finish line for so long and finally get the opportunity was spectacular. It was everything I thought it would be, and then it was beyond what I expected or could have imagined! Official finish time 13:58:46
I did go directly to the medical tent after finishing and got an IV and then had another one when I got back to the house later that night. I was definitely dehydrated but also wanted to get fluids in my system as quickly as possible so I was grateful that I was able to get into the med tent. I literally felt everything in me just shut off once I crossed the line. It is an amazing feeling, knowing your mind and body know exactly where it needs to get to and then BAM its finished! I wasn't able to eat anything for about 4 hours after I finished and I forced the food down right before going to sleep. Then I woke up and couldn't get enough food for the next week!
RACE DAY FUN FACTS:
~ It was the hottest temperature recorded on that day in like 70 years,
~ It was 97 degrees with a heat index of 102.
~ About 2,250 athletes started the race and over 600 athletes did not finish the race.
~ I am happy that I was lucky enough to finish well!
RACE DAY FUN FACTS:
~ It was the hottest temperature recorded on that day in like 70 years,
~ It was 97 degrees with a heat index of 102.
~ About 2,250 athletes started the race and over 600 athletes did not finish the race.
~ I am happy that I was lucky enough to finish well!
People continue to ask me whats next, and all I can say is RECOVERY! I have been recovering for 2 weeks and am in my final 3rd week. I am thinking only of that, nothing of what is to come, not seeking out the next race or the next challenge I am simply enjoying this time of still reflecting upon the fact that once again God took me to the place that I thought was impossible.
