It's been way too long since my last post. Lots of swimming, biking and running have been taking place. Big event...FL70.3. What a fantastic day. Picture above shows Rajesh and I coming down the finish shoot. That's right...Rajesh is the first triple amputee to complete a half ironman. Swim...42:41; Bike...2:55:22; Run...2:30:01...Total Time...6:31:08. He was an inspiration to many athletes participating in the race that day. I can go on for hours regarding his efforts and amazing day...to make it short...Live Free...Live Amazingly...help us support our fundraising efforts for Rajesh's running and biking legs...go to www.itsgotimeevents.com to donate. Rajesh...we are waiting on your race report...post it! :-)
Cheers!
Sway
Florida Iron man Race report
ReplyDeleteIt started with not feeling well 3 days before the race. I could barely keep any food in my stomach without feeling nauseous. I kept on telling myself it’s all mental, just eat. But I still didn’t feel like too, and was very tired at the end of the day, with headaches and slight fever. I started taking a combination of meds to try and feel better but nothing really worked.
Saturday coming around I was still a little under the weather. But when I arrived at the race site I started to get pumped. The energy, seeing the other tri athletes, I willed myself back to health.
Checked in and got all my bearings straight, everything was okay after that. I felt ready and psyched to do this race. I know I have been training very hard, and felt strong mentally. It’s physically I was not. But non the less I remember what my coach say’s 80% mental 20% physical.
Race night, I’ve been going to bed early for the week, so going to be early tonight was nothing different. I ate my last meal 6pm it was siagon grill noddle soup. Nice comfort food, to ease my stomach
Later on that night I ate a smaller meal salmon and a little bit of rice before I went to sleep.
Hit the bed at 9pm. Slept well, only woke up once that night, but went right back to sleep.
I was envisioning the race 3 weeks out, thinking about the swim, bike, run, seeing myself strong and finishing each discipline.
Sunday morning, work up at 3am, stuffed down cream of wheat. Loaded up the car and then hit the road to stop at the 7-eleven for coffee. Driving to the race sight, I ate my bagel with cream cheese, and finish drinking my coffee. At 5:30am I started to hydrate, with e load and carbo pro. While setting up my transition.
I had everything I needed in my transition. I didn’t forget anything. Which was nice.
The swim I felt good throughout. I started off slow, and built into it. I started off with almost a catch-up, drill, until I warmed up. By the time I got to the buoy where you make a left, I was fully warmed up and started to build more. I was having fun with the swim, I felt really strong throughout. I was pretending I was doing drills in the pool breathing every stoke on the left, then on the right, then every 5, then combinations on sighting and breathing. When I was done, I wasn’t breathing hard or tired at all. I felt like I could of swam a whole lot more.
Into the bike, I threw on my legs, and since it was the first time really wearing them, I was a little cautious how much effort I really put on the bike. So I started out conservative, and built into it. Legs felt strong and I held a steady 20mph pace. I could of pushed harder, but I wasn’t sure what my legs would feel like going into the run. So I stayed conservative.
The run, I felt decent on the first loop. I ran that in 40 min. The heat was getting to me, but I was hydrating and sticking to my nutrition plan.
The second I started to hate the grass, it was hard to run on the un even surface, and terrain. My core was used allot more to stabilize myself, while trying to control my breathing. It was like talking while doing a plank for 20min straight.
By mile 8 I started to feel the heat fatigue and slight cramping. I think that is when you took over and started to decrease the intervals I was taking the salt sticks.
The last 4 miles I was totally zoning out. Just trying to put myself in a happy place, think about everything else other than how much pain I was feeling my quads and hamstrings.
The last 2 miles I left it all out there…pushing my body where it once never been before.
Overall I had a wonderful time racing my first IM event. I couldn't belive that I actually made it to the starting line...months of training hard to get to this level.
The athlete's on the course were very supportive. I enjoyed every moment of it, having to opportunity to live free and amazingly!
Catch you all at the next race!