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The Specifics:
When: September 8, 2013
Where: Madison, Wisconsin
What: 2.4 Mile Swim; 112 Mile Bike; 26.2 Mile Run
Why: ... The world may never know.
Pre-Race
After dropping Laurie off for a work meeting, I went to check-in for the race. Walking into the expo area was an amazing sight - a combination of cool to see, but also overwhelming. I realized this was the first time all week (or all year for that matter) that I was nervous about the race. The check-in was smooth and quick as I missed much of the crowd. I got my Ironman Wisconsin backpack out of the deal. This alone probably made the whole registration fee worth while. I then went to the gift shop to drop more money on Ironman related merchandise - yes, Laurie was thrilled, especially since I forgot to get her a t-shirt. My excuse was the narcissist in me wanted the t-shirt with my name on it. After walking around the expo center, I went to see the finish line where people were already posing for pictures. Although I only wanted a picture of myself there "for real," it felt like bad ju-ju to do it ahead of time. I way underestimated how long all this would take as I suddenly found myself with a good four hours or so before Laurie would be done. Read: The hotel room was in her name... This was the start of my Facebook overposting or #OVERPOSTER.
I highly recommend taking a trip to Downtown Madison. A very beautiful city with a sense of history exuding from their buildings, and the surrounding lakes (especially Lake Monona) was a beautiful, calming sight to see. Over the next couple days I tried to take it easy with a short swim on a windy day, which turned out to be beneficial the day of the race (more on that in a moment). Mentally, one of the hardest aspects of the whole process was the sudden drop-off from working out 15-18 hours per week to barely 15 minutes per day. The day before the race I got so stir crazy that I asked Laurie and her family to go miniature golfing with me as a needed diversion. Then, I won.
Day Of
Laurie and I are both heavy sleepers so between the two of us we set no less than six alarms hoping one of them would wake someone up. The nerves of the morning, however, woke me up two minutes before my alarm (which was set for 3:30 AM). Yes, I felt cheated, being that I had a long day ahead so I needed those two minutes! And so did Laurie... After a snafu with the hotel kitchen and breakfast, where a riot of angry Ironman athletes nearly ensued because the cook forgot to show up, I got dressed and ready for the day. I also probably woke up the rooms around me as I was jamming out to MGMT to get myself pumped up. Hey if I was awake, everyone should be up, right? I managed to eat a bagel with a light amount of cream cheese and two Slimfast drinks. The latter has been a morning staple for the last year, which is probably why there are still about 10 in the fridge right now that will probably never be consumed. After a short shuttle ride, that I almost did not know about because the hotel staff neglected to inform me required a sign up, my special needs bags (one per segment that for me only included coconut water) were dropped off in front of a Starbucks. I later found the store was actually open, but for the first time in my life I was without a wallet. Laurie wishes this would happen more often...
Fueled by coffee withdrawals I filled up my water bottles, and tried to mentally prepare for the race. When you have 3,000 nervous athletes and not a lot of places to sit you have to get creative on where you go. I found a spot just off the helix, (on a normal day this is the ramp for the cars to enter/exit the parking garage of the Convention Center), that was quiet, with only a couple other athletes around. One of which happened to be one of the professional athletes. He was friendly and offered valuable advice, which really had a calming affect on me in that moment. Not many sports afford you the opportunity to race side by side with a professional let alone allow one the chance to have a candid conversation 20 minutes before the start. One comment that especially stuck with me was not to think of it as a race, since the goal for many first-timers is to finish, but rather see it as just another training day with 3,000 of your closest friends.
Shortly thereafter we heard the announcement that we needed to start funneling down to the water. We both said good-bye and good luck, and he said see you out there to which I "encouragingly"replied, if you see me out there, something has gone terribly wrong for you!
The Swim
The swim at Ironman Wisconsin is an "in the water" mass start. It takes about 30 minutes to get all the athletes funneled through this eight foot wide timing mat. This works as a check-in and check-out of the water to be sure that everyone is accounted for at the end of the swim. Let's not have anyone drown or anything. I blew some air into my wet suit creating a buoyancy effect that allowed me to float on my back for about 20 minutes. No need to expend any unnecessary energy beforehand. The professionals (pros) go off about 10 minutes before the age-groupers, and after they left there is a countdown of 5 minutes, 4 minutes, etc. Just in case you're not nervous as it is... And before you know it the gun goes off and chaos ensues. Think of yourself as a fish in a commercial fishing net, constantly being bumped and knocked around with no where to go; thrashed, kicked, punched, and occasionally you see clear water just to again be kicked, punched, and thrashed. Never before in an open water swim have I ever experienced that feeling of knowing there is just NO WHERE TO GO! One of the traditions for Ironman Wisconsin is letting out a "moo" at the first left turn on the swim. Of course I had to keep with tradition again in fear of bad ju-ju. This was also the point where I realized that in the midst of getting thrashed and/or kicked and/or bumped, someone had turned off my stop watch. Let this be a lesson learned, turn the watch off the chrono setting (stop-watch setting). Or I could choose to think that I made REALLY good time on that part of the swim, as if no time had passed at all. As I worked around the never-ending back stretch, it was hard to sight the buoys because of the waves. Eventually I made it around, went across the timing mat, and got out of the water 15 minutes slower than I had expected. Not too bad considering the body shots I took throughout those 2.4 miles, especially during the start. While a mass start looks cool for the spectators it sucks to be in one.
The Bike
By normal triathlon standards, the transition time is crazy long due to the overall distance between the finish of the swim to the mounting of the bike. It was close to 6/10 of a mile, which only adds to the 140.6 total distance traveled. The start of the bike is winding back and forth with no straight-aways for nearly 10 miles taking you on 10 different roads.
In general the bike course is quite hilly, you're either going up or going down, no real flat terrain. The route was laid out like a lollipop - you go out and do the top of the lollipop twice and back down the stick. The first lap felt good, I was keeping my heart rate low while also maintaining the pace I wanted. Yet the hills really do take it out of you. A lot of spectators were present for the first lap, my favorite of which were the handful of 20-year old guys wearing nothing but pink bikini bottoms. One with the comment, "if you're not enjoying this you need to ride faster!" I later found out Laurie and her family were there too, but somehow did not stand out, probably because they had all their clothes on.
One of my favorite aspects of the bike course was along each of the three major hills, were "Tour de France style spectators" running along side you, ringing their (now annoying!) cow bells, and cheering you on!
Unfortunately, on the bike, I saw several crashes take place. Most were caused by mental errors, and poor judgement. One guy blew out his knee, another broke his collarbone, and one woman simply declared that she hated this and was DONE! I would not have wanted to be on the receiving end of that phone call.
Most of the bike course, I was pretty zoned out as that took a majority of my day (nearly 7 hours in total). There is no greater feeling than seeing the capital building, which meant I only had a couple miles left on the bike before it was on to the run. In an evil twist of planning in order to transition from the bike to run I had to ride back up the damn helix, which may not sound like much. Still after 112 miles on an already hilly course, it was a cruel little incline!
The Run
Here comes major mental error #1! While most people would claim that was signing up for this torture (aka an Ironman) in the first place I, the masochist, would disagree. No my first mistake was not putting Vaseline on my feet before starting out on the run. I did this for every training leading up to the Ironman, but in the cluster(bleep) of transition, I forgot. While this may not sound like a big deal, I can assure you (and Laurie will back me up) the huge blisters that formed on my feet would say otherwise.
The run course started uphill, which caused the first problem of the marathon portion - shin splints. If you have never had the pleasure (read: pain) - it feels like your shin bone is going to pop out of your leg at any moment. This was a new experience for me, and one I could do without for future training/running. The shin splints continued for the first four miles or so, and eventually after some stretching they subsided. Soon to be replaced by the wonderful blisters (plural), which soon took over the entire balls of my feet.
From time to time I would get a bit of relief both from the blisters and also a downhill portion of the course thus allowing me to pick up the pace from time to time. Sadly the run course was annoyingly similar to the bike course in that it was either up or down although I did get to run on the University of Wisconsin football field. This was a neat experience both because it was a unique opportunity but also because the ground was really, really soft (and the only flat part on the entire course)!
I also had plenty of time to perfect the Ironman shuffle (part run, part walk). Laurie's sister Stephanie had a lot of fun picking out the best Ironman shuffles. This was also about the time when I confessed what I had done to a fellow athlete - the one that Laurie wanted to hug because she understood that signing up for an Ironman the week of our wedding and then training our entire first year of marriage was pure lunacy. She also advised me to hold on to Laurie for as long as possible. Shortly thereafter we said our goodbyes and I found a burst of speed. At that point I had about 3.5 miles left to go, which just may have well been a thousand since my feet were absolutely screaming. It is kind of a weird sensation, barely able to walk let alone run, but knowing I still had to go that distance in order to finish the race. So I shifted my mindset to smaller goals, making it to the next turn, covering a hundred yards, and eventually and surprisingly I did not notice that the finish was much closer than I realized. The capital building, a key landmark throughout the day, suddenly came into sight meaning I only had to go around that next curve. The crowd roaring and hearing the announcer saying "so and so, you are an Ironman!" provided the necessary motivation to finish. There are really no words to describe coming down the chute after a very, very long day knowing that everything that I had put myself through was finally coming to an end.
It had been about 20 miles or so since I had seen Laurie and her family, then I caught a glimpse of Laurie and Stephanie just before I finished. While I had plenty of time to think what I would do when I actually crossed the line, all I could think to do two steps before was put my hands up, my head down, and think, "man that kicked my ass!"
Once you cross the line you receive your finisher hat, t-shirt, and most importantly the medal. Multiple people asked if I knew where I was, what had I done, and did I need to go to the hospital. Fortunately, I did not. Eventually after getting my picture taken (again), they dump you out to find your loved ones. It was a wonderful experience to get the hug from a teary-eyed Laurie. It had been a long day/year for her too. I also gave her parents and sister a hug just before they made their own journey back home, props Killmer family!
The After
140.6 miles, or the distance from Ohio through Indiana into Illinois. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in a 140.6 miles when you have to physically propel yourself that distance through by swimming, biking, and finally running. To cross the finish line at all was a huge accomplishment, and for those who did not finish a real disappointment to see a whole year of training thwarted by mechanical difficulty, medical conditions, or some other external circumstance. I consider myself very fortunate that the worst problems I had were shin splints and blisters. I am also grateful for the well-wishes, positive thoughts, and those who supported me through this entire process. It meant the world to me to know I had so much encouragement the day of the race, as well as the days leading up to it.
To answer the question you are probably thinking:
- Yes, I will do another one.
- And YES, Laurie is okay with it, although I am not sure how she feels about more than one additional race.
- I learned a lot, and I want to put that knowledge to use in future Ironman race(s).
I need to finish with a special thank you to Laurie. I want to be sure I thank her for everything that she put up with for the past year, whether it be signing up the week before our wedding to all the little damn things I had to buy to do the race to the 4:30 alarms, which sometimes required additional encouragement to wake up. While the people who do the race make personal sacrifices, their families often sacrifice much more. I am happy we made it through this stressful time. She deserves the world for being my Ironmate. I even bought her the t-shirt to prove it. I love my wife.
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