Friday, November 30, 2012

Ironman Florida Race Report

Pre Swim- I ate 2 banana nut muffins and sipped on some Gatorade consuming 800 calories.
Swim – Goal = 1:20, Actual = 1:27
As soon as I saw the water I knew it was going to be a long day. Not only were the 85 degree race day temps going to eat at me since I’ve been training in 50 degree temps, but the waves and swells in the water were huge. Some of the larger swells were easily 3-4 feet and from a guy who isn’t a good swimmer….. that’s nuts! The cannon went off and 2800 of my closest friends and I headed out to the 2.4 mile swim. People were timid to get into the water, as was I. The waves were crashing like an ocean not like the Gulf of Mexico. Once I got past the breakers I started swimming but every time I went to sight I couldn’t see the buoys or any boats or anything, just a bunch of swim caps all over the place. I was getting punched and kicked all over the place. It took me about 500 yards to get used to the swells. I was starting to be able to time my sights at the top of the swells so I could see the buoys. I finally made the first turn and felt like I really kicked somebody hard, not to mention I heard the grunt. I turned around and saw the guy treading water. I said “did I get you?” He said “yeah, you kicked me in my jewels.” I apologized and he said “it’s okay,” and we both went on our way. After the first lap we had to walk under a timing mat. There was a huge backup because volunteers were pouring water from gallon jugs into our mouths to rinse out the horrid salt water. On the second loop I started to feel some pain on my neck and on my sides. I had no clue what was going on. I was timing my sights decently and just taking it slow and steady knowing my good swim time was gone as soon as the waves started building up, but this weird burning on my sides….. what? My throat was burning because of the salt water as I finally made the turn for the homestretch. I couldn’t see the buoys so I sighted off of a large hotel that I knew was close to the swim exit. My sides were really hurting at this point. I get to the breakers and took 2 back strokes to figure out when the next wave was coming, I timed it perfect to body surf the wave in at an awesome speed, plowing me into the person in front of me. It was awesome!!! From what I heard they were pulling people out of the water in boat loads because of the large swells. I only had my goggles kicked off once, and other than all the people I had to help push out of my way it wasn’t a terrible swim for me giving the conditions. When I got my wet suit off I saw the cuts on the sides of my body. Everybody had them. I think the salt or sand from the stirred up water got caught in the cut offs of our wetsuits and slowly after lots of repetitions ripped the skin right off our bodies. (That first shower after the race burned like none other!!)
Transition 1 – this took forever, my Garmin registered that I ran .7 of a mile during transition. That’s a lot of running in bare feet or bike shoes. As soon as I finished the swim they had wetsuit strippers rip our wetsuits off. We simply sat on the ground, lifted our feet and they ripped them off. Then after I got in my cycling gear I ran to the volunteers that applied huge amounts of sun screen on us. My arms were covered in white.
Bike – Goal = 6:20 hrs, Actual = 6:30
I felt great at the start of the bike holding 18-21 mph with ease depending on the traffic thanks to a great tail wind. I got my nutrition down with ease as my stomach was cooperating today. Of course my I would have a good stomach day on a day that I basically threw my time goal out the window before the start. The first 50 miles went great then we hit a road that felt like cobble stones.  This really messed with my stomach but I survived and made it through. I knew if I didn’t have to pee by mile 70 I would be in trouble with dehydration so when I had to pee by mile 60 I was excited. I kept riding and kept taking in nutrition. The climbs on the course are really short. There is one category 4 climb, but other than that it’s pretty flat. Not EagleMan flat, but still pretty flat. When I hit mile 70 I felt the beginnings of a LONG day in the head winds. The headwinds ate me up, spit me out and ate me all over again. BRUTAL was the word. A good cyclist would do well in these winds, but my strength is the run.  Most of the pro’s were having the same issue so I didn’t feel too bad about it. I was struggling on some flats to even hold 15 mph. I fought my way through with a mile to go to T2 when I guy went to pass me and nailed me on the side of my bike. My foot unclipped and luckily we both stayed up right. Unfortunately, I saw other people on the course that didn’t have the same luck. There were plenty of bleeding bodies and ripped jerseys. I later found out that 3 spokes on my front tire snapped in half from the collision.
Bike nutrition- 3 water bottles to squirt over my body,
1 water bottle with Endurolytes Fizz
4 scoops of perpetuam in a bottle 400 calories
2 cliff bars 540 calories
1 honey stinger waffle 160 calories
4 bottles of ironman perform 1120 calories
5 gels 500 calories
1 Gu Chomp  90 calories
1 bottle with 2 scoops of HEED and 1 endurolytes fizz 200 calories
Endurolytes 2 per hour
Total calories = 463 calories per hour
T2- I wasn’t feeling that great off the bike. The sun and wind really beat me up but I still felt better than I did at ChesapeakeMan. I knew that after a couple miles I would have my running legs and I would be fine. I drank some chicken soup, put  my running gear on and went out for a short run.
Run- Goal= 4 hrs, Actual 4:27
The run course was populated by tons of people congregated along the road. Huge tents were set up with kegs and TV’s and people in costume.  It was like being at a concert. Since we had our names on our bibs everybody would root you on by name. One party area had a giant board with the college football scores on them. Another had a TV with the football game on it. Such a fun time. I took things mile by mile making sure I drank a ton and kept cool. I put sponges under my jersey to keep my body temp from rising and dumped water over my polka dot hat. My legs were tired but not too beaten up. Because I’m not a strong swimmer and haven’t really trained in heat I knew my time goals were gone so I concentrated on having a good time. I wanted to literally have the best time out there. I kept drinking the chicken broth for sodium and eating gels and bananas on a routine basis. Everything was going down well. No stomach issues!!! I got to the state park and realized my next lap through was going to be dark, but that would be fun. I got back to the start/turn around/13.1 miles in to see my family. I threw them my sun glasses, unfortunately nobody caught them. I got to my special needs bags and pulled out by defizzled Mountain Dew and cookies. I tossed the cookies to the curb but kept the Dew. Mountain Dew was huge for getting me through the JFK50. I kept eating and drinking and saying hi to all of the runners. I saw Danny Serpico from Rip It Events and said hello to him. He was wearing the same AFC tri top that I was. I saw Mirinda Carfrae, Suzy Serpico and a few of the other women pro’s finish up as well. After that, things started to get dark pretty fast. I kept motoring on with one foot in front of the other, legs beat up and screaming at me. I then saw a woman standing in the middle of the road whipping all the runners in the butt. It was catwoman! A few minutes later I finally made it to the finishers chute. I tried to not smile like a kid on Christmas but I couldn’t hold it in. This was awesome! I feel great and I had an absolute blast! I crossed the line to hear “From Baltimore, Maryland Brent Scheitlin…. YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!! Such a fantastic thing to hear. It made me realize all the time spent training was worth it. Just for those few words. The catcher grabbed me and handed me a water asking if I was okay. He got my finishers shirt and cap and held on to them until he realized I wouldn’t need medical attention (Unfortunately a lot of other athletes did) What a great race, I recommend it to anybody.

During the run portion I finally realized why I do these long events. Yeah, I’d like to be faster at shorter races, but it’s the pain that those shorter races don’t give. The shorter races hurt my lungs more than my body. In 5K’s and such you basically run in an anaerobic state to where you are almost struggling to breath and wondering how long you can keep this up before you crash. In Ultra Marathon’s and Ironman event’s your legs are screaming at you. That pain feels awesome!! I’m addicted to it. There was a part of the run where I wanted to speed up to see how much I really could hurt myself but I backed off when I thought of how I wanted to go wine tasting and such with my family the next day. I didn’t want to be stuck laying down in my condo because I can’t walk. Another thought that crept in my mind was how lucky I am to be able to do these things. Not only to have the fitness to get through it, but to have the wife to deal with it with very little complaint and the family to help me through it. I literally can’t wait to hurt this bad again!!

Of course Ironman is known for its great signs that spectators hold up. Here are some of the funny ones that made me laugh as I ran or biked by them.
“Smile if you pee’d in your wetsuit today”
“Never trust a fart in an Ironman”
“Smile if you pee’d on your bike.”
“Honey Badger doesn’t give a sh!t”
“Alabama s@cks” (Their football team had a game that night)
“Honey, I’m pregnant”
“I don’t do triathlons, I do a triathlete”
“I do the cooking, my husband does the IRONing”
On the bike course at around mile 70 a sign said “Is your junk numb yet?”
“It’s supposed to hurt, It’s IRONMAN!!”
“How are those toe nails”
At the turnaround of the bike course there was a sign that said “I bet you had your bike back”