Thursday, December 8, 2011

The big day



Yesterday was a long day.  I arrived at Lake Cahuilla early enough to catch the finish of the sprint distance race and watch my friend and team mate from LB Tri go out on the run.  My plan had been to hang out at the park and check out the expo all day then head into the city to stay with a friend of a friend who offered to put me up for the night.

Unfortunately the expo consisted of three vendors.  It wasn’t enough to entertain me for the rest of the afternoon while I waited to check in my bike and pick up my race packet.  I watched some of the race and walked around a bit… possibly too much walking as later in the afternoon the back of my knees felt like they were tightening up on me.  Not to mention the winds were picking up bringing with it a chill in the air. 

By the time four thirty rolled around and I started setting up my transition area it was really getting cold.  I had also been walking around for the last six hours so I was feeling a bit tired as well.  The sun was beginning to set and being the cold was really starting to bite.
The race director was trying to get through the mandatory meeting as soon as possible so we could all get out of there and get some much needed rest.  The meeting was fairly quick with only a few questions being asked by my fellow participants. 

I was going to drive the course after the meeting but the sun was already setting and all I wanted to do was get some dinner and go to bed.  My plan was to find a little Italian place along Highway 111 to get something in my belly, failing that I knew there was an Olive Garden further down that I could get something quick that wouldn’t upset my stomach.

Well after driving a while down 111 and not finding anything that really stuck out, I ended up at the OG.  After I sat down and ordered, I texted my friend’s friend to find out if she was ready for me to arrive.  I received a reply that while she was ready, I ended up being bumped to the couch because of a family issue that had come up and she ended up having her entire family at the house for the next couple weeks.

This wasn’t going to work for me.  My anxiety was already somewhat high with my goal being just hours away.  Luckily I always have a back up plan.  I whipped out my trusty phone and dialed up the Shat (Priceline), and proceeded to find a hotel in the area.

It took a couple tries but I ended up at the Hyatt in Palm Springs, not too far out.  GPS says it should have been about thirty to forty minutes out.  Little did I know that Palm Springs was having its annual Christmas parade that shut down the exact area I needed to get to.  What was a half hour drive ended up being about 1 ½ hours due to traffic, detours and about eleventy billion people walking down the middle of the street.  Luckily I hit the tail end of the parade otherwise I may have been sitting in my truck forever.

By the time I pulled into the hotel parking lot my anxiety was through the roof and my patience had completely worn out.  The valet probably thought I was on some good drugs because I know I wasn’t making sense and the ability to form complete sentences had left me a stammering idiot.  I had planned on being in bed by eight o’clock-ish so I could wake up by three to get ready… it was already after nine and I really needed to get to bed.

After a quick run in a gaggle of drunken seniors in the hotel lobby I finally made it up to the room. Nice digs, cheap price tag.  Thanks Bill.  Anyways, I unload my gear and start laying everything out for tomorrow.  After a quick shower, I go through the race packet and start putting on my race tats (numbers). Volunteers armed with sharpies would normally mark you up the morning of the race, but this is something new.  I wish someone had told me that once they get put on, no matter how much you scrub its going to take a week for them to come off.

So with race tats on and my gear laid out for the morning I set my phone alarm and the hotel clock alarm to wake me up at three a.m. and go into the other room to roll out and wind down by watching a little HIMYM.  By the time I’m all settled down it’s already after ten.  I’m beat and sleep can’t come soon enough.

Three a.m.  It feels like I just went to bed.  I’d love to sleep a few more hours but it’s about that time.  Time to get up.  I’m in desperate need of coffee.  Unfortunately the only thing available and easily accessible is the crappy hotel room coffee.   I start it brewing and head to the bathroom to start getting ready.

I splash some water on my face and look at myself in the mirror.  I haven’t even had breakfast yet and the blender of emotions is starting to kick in.  I’m a little nervous, excited and scared but somewhere in the back of it all I feel calm.  I know how hard I’ve worked.  I’ve put in the grueling hours and buckets of sweat.  I can do this.

I have the usual breakfast of a banana sandwiched between two toaster waffles and some Justin’s Chocolate Almond Butter and wash it down with a couple glasses of water and two cups of coffee.  I proceed to get suited up in my superman gear and roll out one more time since my legs still feel a little tight from the day before and then grab my gear and head out the door.

Amazingly I make it over to the HITS horse park before the first shuttle leaves.  As those who have driven with me know, I’m completely dependant on my GPS and without it I’d get lost trying to back up out of my driveway.   I grab my transition bag out of my truck and climb into the shuttle.  There are only a couple seats left so I go for the last one on the right, accidentally stepping on someone’s foot on the way there and settle in for the quick trip to T1.

The rest of the morning leading up to the race flies by and before I know it, it’s almost time to go when I hear “Long Beach!”  I look up and my buddy Vinny from the LB Tri is there to pick up his trailer from the day before.  Vinny raced the Olympic distance and ended up leaving his trailer there because he didn’t feel like driving it back with the wind picking up the night before. 

There were no words to describe how good it felt to have someone there.  It was like a giant weight I didn’t know was even there had been lifted off my shoulders.  It really was amazing to have moral support on the course.  I couldn’t thank him enough for being there to watch the race. 

About fifteen minutes from the start I slip into my wetsuit and take in my pre-race gel.  I casually make my way down to the swim start, my feet already starting to ache from the cold.  Somehow Vinny beats me down to the lake and we chat it up for a bit.  I contemplate getting in the water to get the shock from the cold out of the way but it’s still a little early and I don’t want to have to get out and then stand around freezing before the start.

By the time I actually slip into the water the race director calls everyone over for a small pre-race talk.  Good timing.  After the talk I make my way over the starting area.  My plan is to stick to the outside, stay out of the blender and just get in a nice groove.  My plan works really well on the way out as I didn’t have to sight much, just swam directly into the sun.  By the time I round the buoy at the halfway point I end up in the middle of the pack.  There are elbows flying and bumping going on either side of me as I tried to swim a straight line back into shore.  I’m also sure the same person was on my feet the whole way back in as well because I kept feeling someone grabbing my feet.

I didn’t let it bother me though.  Just concentrated on having a nice even stroke, although sighting on the way back in was a little tougher as there weren’t really any distinguishable landmarks going back in.  It wasn’t until I actually exited the water that I realized that my hands and feet were numb.  I was having such kind of a rough time out of the water so I just ended up walking the short way up from the beach.



Into T1 it took me a while to get my wetsuit off as I couldn’t use my fingers to grip it.  Once I actually had it down around my waist it was easy enough to get off though.  Trying to put socks on wet, numb feet with numb hands was quite a task.  T1 took me just over six minutes, which in hindsight I was actually ok with.  While I would have like to be faster through this transition I’m glad I took my time as it helped get some feeling back into my hands and feet.

Once I got onto the bike course everything turned to gold.  The wind stayed down, my cadence was high and the course was fast.  At mile four the urge to pee hit me as it always does whenever I finish a swim.  In my mind though, I decided there was no way I was going to stop.  The night before I had decided that I would hit the turn around on the bike before the wind picked up, so that I would have a good tailwind on the longest stretch of the course possible.  Somewhere about the two hour mark I found myself singing, “Moves like Jagger.”  That was a rough hour.

There were a few tricky turns here and there with the sand that had blown onto the course over the night but all in all I had a great ride up until mile fifty.  That’s when I heard that familiar line from Top Gun reverberating in my skull.  “The defense department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid. 

Just a few weeks before the race I had been playing with the cleat position on my bike shoes.  I never really took the time to dial it in though so by race day it was still just a bit off.  Once I hit mile fifty though, I felt the twinge of my IT band creeping up on me and the familiar ache in my knee.

By the time I made it back into transition the urge to pee was so great I couldn’t think of anything else.  I racked my bike, threw off my riding gear, threw on my running shoes and headed straight for the porta-potty.  On the way there the RD was exiting one of them and stopped to shake my hand.  All I could say was, “Porta-Potty!”  I’m pretty sure I yelled this pretty loudly too as I quickly ran by him to relieve myself after spending just under 3 hours on the bike.

Starting out on the run I felt great.  The first two miles I was running under eight minute miles, which for me I knew would be too fast so I had to dial it back to about ten minute miles if I was going to survive the run without blowing up.  By the time I made it to mile five the ache in my knee came back.  Up to this point I was on pace to beat my goal time of six hours by at least fifteen minutes.  Once I had to start fighting the pain in my knee however it slowed my pace down considerably. 

My original plan on the run was to go ten minute miles on the first six and a half miles and then negative split it and run nine minute miles or so on the way back depending on how I felt.  Unfortunately the pain in my knee slowed me down to about eleven minute miles as I tried to switch up my gait to alleviate some of the pain that was building in my knee.

I knew at this point there was no way I would make my original goal of coming in under six hours.  In a way I felt defeated but after all the hard work I had put in, there was no way I would let this stop me.  I could only fight the pain for so long however as by mile nine the pain overtook me and I had to shuffle walk/jog the rest of the way in.

I still remember the hearing Vinny and Nidia shouting at me as I was running up to the finish.  I couldn’t believe they had stayed the entire six plus hours just to watch me cross.  Vinny would later say, “That’s what teammates do.”  I still can’t find the right words to thank him though.

The feeling of defeat I had earlier on the run vanished.  The only thing I could feel was happy.  I did it.  I crossed that line.  I had gone from pre-diabetic, to losing over sixty pounds and literally went from zero to half iron man in less than ten months.

If there is anything that I’ve learned from 2011, it’s that the only limits you have are those you place on yourself.  With dedication, hard work and drive you can accomplish anything.

To all my teammates from LB Tri and all of my friends, family and MFPeeps, I dedicate my story to you.  I couldn’t have done this if it weren’t for all of you who continued to inspire and drive me every single day.



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