The Three Coconuts

The last 2 weeks have been busy and haven't had time to get this done sooooo, sorry for the delay. Race morning, Alan (brother-in-law) came to the hotel room about 4:30 for bfast. There was oatmeal, strawberries, blueberries, multi grain toast, almond butter, pnut butter, jelly, bananas, REAL (caffeinated) coffee, and (no surprise here!) ramen noodles. Sounds good doesn't it? Until you have been there, you don't know how hard it is to choke down 400-600 calories that time of morning. But we ate, loaded up, checked out of our home for the past 3 days and headed to the race site. I will skip right to the race since Julie has given you all the prerace stuff.

Alan and I are in the same Age Group (45-49) so the starting time of our wave was the same, I think it was 8:56 am. We stuck together as they herded us toward the start. Wave by wave (every 4 minutes) they sent off each AG until it was our time. Julie's wave was behind us so I knew I would not be seeing her again until the race was over so I was pretty sad about that. Seeing her lay everything out there on race day always inspires me more than she knows and as long as this race is, some inspiration later on would probably be welcome.

With about 1 minute before our start we jumped in the river and everyone was to position themselves behind an imaginary start line between two buoys. I positioned myself in front and when the gun went off I tried to get out fast and find some open water to swim in. I was surprised to see only 1 other guy in my AG out in front about 15 yards to my left. I was thinking if this guy works his way over towards me I will just get on his hip and draft. That never happened. It seemed as if that guy kept drifting over towards the center of the river and was not doing a very good job of sighting, so I'm thinking this is not someone I'd trust to draft with. Swimming down current was nice and the river water was not too bad except for the occasional mass of weeds that would cover your face, goggles, arms, and hands, attempting to drag you under.....that part wasn't too much fun. I elected to just go it alone and if anyone was drafting on my feet so be it, I didn't feel anyone. I exited the 1.2 mile swim in just over 22 minutes with the lead and wanted to make quick work in transition............any time gained here is free speed!

I got out on the bike and really felt good. We did have a little tailwind so that helped and as expected the bike course was really crowded. Over 3000 competitors scattered over a 56 mile bike course.......yep, crowded. I always try and speak to a lot of the competitors while racing, offering words of encouragement. My goal was to be a little conservative on the bike, get in all my nutrition, and set myself up for a good run. I kept an eye on my heart rate as well as my power (and, more often, weakness) meter. HR was were I wanted it and I felt comfortable however I was averaging about 10 to 12 watts less than what I was hoping for on the power meter. I did not worry too much about that because I still felt like my pace was pretty fast. I would stand in the pedals to climb or stretch every 10 minutes or so and I just kept thinking how good my legs were feeling and was looking forward to the run. For the most part the bike was uneventful. As expected, there was about 10 or 12 uberbikers went by me that were in my AG. I just stuck to my plan hoping that I would be seeing some of these guys again soon. The last part of the bike is always hard and this wasn't any different. We had a pretty stiff headwind and mentally things had gotten a bit harder. I had taken a gel with about 5 or 6 miles to go and it kicked in at just the right time. I felt much more alert as we entered T2.

I flew into T2, racked my bike, went to put my socks on and realized that ANTS were touring my socks and shoes...........didn't panic........dealt with it.....visor, #, and fuel belt and I'm out of there....more free speed. Once out of the transition area, I ran down a long drive and out of the rowing club entrance and into streets of Augusta getting bitten by ants the entire way. The crowds were amazing. Family and friends of competitors as well as locals out just to see was this triathlon thing was all about were lining the streets cheering for everyone. I was not a mile into the 13.1 mile run before I passed one of the fore mentioned uberbikers. I saw Tyler at about mile 3 and asked her if she knew how far back I was but she wasn't sure. That was ok, I just needed to keep running, concentrating on form and relaxing. My cadence felt quick and was unexpectedly passing lots of AGers that had started in earlier waves. Tyler, Leah, Chris, and Julie's mom and dad were scattered throughout the run and seeing all of them was awesome. We also had a large contingent of Hammerhead Tri Club members up from Jacksonville doing the race so seeing all the familiar faces and encouraging one another was nice. By the time I started the second and final loop I had passed 5 or 6 in my AG and one of my goals for the race was to negative split the run, so I tried to really push the pace the last 5-6 miles. I had to stay focused and stay on top of my nutrition or I would not be able to maintain this intensity. The aid stations came in handy for cold sponges, ice and water, and I obliged I think all but 1. With our late starting time, I knew the heat would be a factor on the run and it was. The last 3 miles were tough. My body was telling me it was ready to be done but I was able to mentally push through and finish strong. I just kept telling myself there was somebody else up ahead in my AG that I needed to go catch. I ran with one guy with compression socks on so I could not see his age on the back of his calf, but he looked about my age. After a few miles of pushing one another to a level neither of us would be able to sustain, I asked him how old he was.......he said 43.........I said, "Thank God!"....... I backed off a little and let him go.

A party was in full swing at the finish by the time I got there. The pros and most of the earlier waves had already finished and were enjoying the festivities. My goal for the race was to go under 5 hours.......I went 4:38:58. I found out later that I was 14th off the bike and ran myself all the way back to 4th. I never, ever expected to have that kind of day. Although only top 3 got awards, my placing was good enough to earn me a qualifying spot to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater in November.........REALLY didn't expect that. I took the spot and so for the next 7 weeks it's Longhorn 70.3 in Austin, Tx the end of Oct., and 3 weeks later....Clearwater.



I returned to the run course after grabbing some fluids........not to run but to find Alan and Julie and cheer them in. Alan looked GREAT!......man he is right on track to have great day at Ironman Florida, November 7th. Congrats brother-in-law, another PR after suffering with a broken pelvis most of the year. As Julie approached I felt unexpectedly like running with her. I thought she looked great as well and it was obvious she had pushed to her limits. I fell in stride with her with words of encouragement........she was not aware just how close she was to the finish, but there was a little work left to do. Triathlon has a way of exposing yourself to your biggest critic....yourself. You can find out things about yourself that would just rather not know, but being brave enough to go there is your biggest challenge. Julie is fearless and is willing to go deeper than anyone can physically or mentally. Having missed her the entire race and seeing how vulnerable she was at that moment was inspirational. She did not let up, she just kept pushing her limits all the way to the finish. What I did expect was that she would have a great race..........she did..........a BIG PR 5:23:35.

After collecting bikes out of transition, gassing up, a big plate of "trashy Mexican", and Krispy Kreme for desert, we left Augusta for the 5 1/2 hours home. What a day.

Aloha,
3 Coconuts