Three Ironman Events in 2008

Well I finally accomplished my goal and completed the FULL Ironman Triathlon. Please see the Full Race Report entry below, but for a quick summary, my goal was to treat this event like a long workout, nothing more. I had way too much time and emotion invested in this endeavor to engage in a high-risk strategy of racing for the best possible time; essentially, the plan was to be disciplined and frankly, just "cruise" the 140.6 miles.

It's a very long day to cover 140.6 miles, and if one rejects their race plan, loses focus and discipline, it can spell disaster. I was now experienced enough from two prior Ironman events this year to know that I must stick to my race plan, and I am glad that I did, because disaster struck on the swim, the bike AND the run!

Despite the problems, I still had a terrific event (again, finishing was my goal, not racing!), and finished within 2 minutes of my projected time, breaking 14 hours with a total race time of 13 hours, 58 minutes.

It's just so interesting how this race works though. In the swim, I finished in the bottom 40% of my age group; in the bike I was WAY back, finishing in the bottom 10% of my age group, and in the run, I finished in the bottom 40%. Overall, I finished in the bottom 25%; essentially 75% of all participants finished in front of me. I crossed the line in front of 600 other entrants, but behind 1,585 Ironmen.

And for the entire year, I completed three Ironman events in 2008. Two of these events were the Half Ironman, which is known as the "Ironman 70.3"

While the 70.3 is exactly half the distance in each of the segments, it is still fully-sanctioned by the Ironman organization. However, there's lots of controversy as to whether or not one is a "REAL" Ironman if they complete an Ironman-sanctioned 70.3. Those of us who have finished the "half" would certainly like the Ironman distinction, but most athletes agree that you have to complete the real deal, the FULL Ironman, to earn that coveted distinction.

As I have written about in prior entries, I have always believed that one is really not worthy of the Ironman distinction until they have completed the full 140.6 mile event; I know that many people would disagree with me.

But my final word on all of this is that when you cross the finish line in the 70.3 event, they announce your name, but they do NOT say, "You are an Ironman." They only way you'll hear that is if you cross the finish line at the fully sanctioned 140.6 mile Ironman event.

So while my wife, my business partner Kevin, and many others have urged me to stop at the half Ironman, I would not have ever felt worthy of the title until I had completed the full event as it was originally run the very first time on the island of Oahu in 1978.

The FULL IRONMAN has always been a 2.4 mile swim (which is the exact length of the Honolulu rough water swim and how they arrived at that distance for the event), a 112 mile bike segment (which is the exact length of a full loop around the island of Oahu) and a full 26.2 mile marathon.

Anything less than that, and you are not an Ironman.

And no, if you complete a half-Ironman, I really don't think you qualify for half of an Ironman tattoo. Sound silly? Well this is a big issue with a lot of people who complete a 70.3!

Training for the full Ironman is exponentially more work than just training for the 70.3. It is 3 - 4 times more complicated and difficult and time consuming. Those who have trained for and completed the full Ironman know the difference. You cannot just read about it in a book to understand it; you really need to live it. You need to understand the discipline, the sacrifice, the struggle, the enormous number of training hours this endeavor takes.

Completing the 70.3 does not make one an Ironman. And as a finisher of two half-Ironman evetnt as well as a full Ironman, I now understand the difference.

I now understand why my completion of the Hono/Kona 70.3 in May and the Vineman/Sonoma 70.3 in July were great achievements, but certainly not Full Ironman efforts. To understand the difference, one needs to complete the full 140.6 event.

RACE REPORT: The Vineman Ironman 70.3 Triathlon

Well I did it.

My second Ironman 70.3 Triathlon is now complete and it was fantastic! But if you aren't interested in wine, vineyards and detailed race reports, you may want to skip this report.
First things first. I beat my Hawaii Ironman 70.3 time by 45 minutes and I am extremely happy with that result. Elated.

When I finished in Kona, I felt great, actually not that tired at all. That's because I played it safe. I was holding back not knowing what to expect on my first 70.3. Now that I knew what to expect and had completed the event, I was ready to push things a bit harder in the California Wine Country.

I arrived two days prior to the event to settle in and to review the course. That was a good idea, as it was a very technical bike course and I felt better knowing what to expect on the narrow, winding and rolling roads coursing through these beautiful vineyards.

Race day morning I rose at 3:45 am with three separate alarms (2 watches and my cell phone alarm). This was a wetsuit-legal race as the water was less than 78-degrees. An up and back route in the shallow river was much easier than the open-water melee of the Hawaii Ironman start. I had plenty of clean water (meaning, no one swimming in front of me or crawling on top of me).

Swimming up the current was no big deal at all compared to my Endless Pool workouts at home, but the return trip with the flow of the water seemed effortless. One really crazy thing is that I got hit with a giant catfish during the swim! The fish was so big, and hit me with such speed and force that it nearly knocked the wind out of me. It was pretty scary because the water was so dark green that I could not see the fish hit me and was not expecting it. The surprise of the hit, combined with the powerful "thud" when it collided with me, really shook me up!

Despite the run-in with the giant fish, I finished the swim about 5 minutes faster than the Hawaii event. The transition from the swim to the bike took four minutes and the bike leg went well. I pushed the bike harder than I had planned, and I broke somewhat from my race plan. I let my ego push me a bit as I tried to average 19.5 MPH. I finished the bike about 20 minutes faster than Hawaii.

The hard effort on the bike really took its toll on the run; I paid the price to be sure, but that was OK.

One interesting note was that my toes were nearly frozen on the bike. It was cold and I was not wearing socks. So when I transitioned in T2 and started running, the exact feeling was that of running with my feet frozen inside of two blocks of ice. I literally had no feeling at all and I really thought that someone could have hammered nails or spikes into my feet and I may not have felt them at all. It felt as if my feet were going to shatter. Literally.

On the 13.1 mile run, I seemed to average just under a 10 minute mile, but was surprised by how many hills there were. I walked many of them. I also made it a point to walk the aid stations. Since Gatorade really makes me cough, I stuck mostly to water. I picked up the pace toward the end of the run and literally passed dozens and dozens of people in the last mile. That tells me that I probably did not push hard enough during the middle of the run.

I was very, very happy with my race results. No shoulder pain, no trigger point pain in the aero position and no hip pain. I just ran out of wind on the run and my legs were pretty much shot from the harder than normal bike. But with all of that, I still recorded a very great time, shaving about 45 minutes from my first 70.3 Ironman which was only about 50 days before this race.

My confidence has skyrocketed based on these results.