Carlos Sanchez
Ok so IMLP was hard, but this will be even harder, based on the fact that I am just not a good writer. So here it goes.
The days before the race were just quiet and nothing happened that is worth discussing here. I do have to say the house Doug Johnson rented was absolutely fantastic in terms of location and it made things so much easier for me and my wife.
So now to the race;
I had a hard time going to bed the night before. On Sat I had french toast for breakfast and pasta for lunch, so dinner was just a piece of grilled chicken and some Fage. We went to bed around 9 pm and I essentially tossed and turned in bed until around 11:30 when I think I finally fell asleep.
The morning of the race I woke up feeling tired (nothing new there, I am just not a morning person), I had eggs and banana bread for breakfast and a bottle of my infinit ride mix. As I was heading to swim start I grabbed the bag of items that I needed to take to transition. Although I had packed it the night before, for next time I am also going to have a list to make sure I double check everything, I forgot my Tylenol and that bit me in the ass later in the race.
After transition I headed to swim start, my wife helped me take my special needs bags to their spots, it was then that I mentioned to her that my lower back was hurting. It would seem the very soft bed we had been using and all that tossing and turning put a little too much stress on my back. There was nothing I could do about it at that point.
The swim: I could not have asked for a better swim (ok maybe faster), I was the first into the water for the 1:10 group. I quickly found the line and my rhythm and I just started going. There were people piling on top of me for the whole first loop, but I kept my cool and kept my pace. At the end of the first loop I got kicked in the face, fortunately I recovered fast and kept going. The 2nd lap was great, I was actually able to get even splits (+/- a few seconds) and I go out of the water probably 10 min before they pulled everybody out. Here is the link to my file http://connect.garmin.com/modern/#activity/552716691
The bike: After what was a very wet but smooth transition I headed to my bike. That is when I heard someone scream, "they are taking them out of the water, we are going to get slammed!!!", and then the skies just opened. It was raining like crazy, fortunately I was able to control my nerves and I told myself it was actually going to be rough but fun to ride in the rain, and it would also make for an even better story. I think I did a good job of staying in my box the whole ride. I was very conscious of taking it easy on the first lap and save energy for the 2nd, I used my low gears every time I noticed I was pushing to hard on the pedals. Overall I felt great on the bike, my back bothered me and all I could do was pour cold water on it every aid station. I felt good about my nutrition, I was drinking 1/3 of a bottle every 20 min (infinit ride mix) and I ate a power bar at the end of the 3rd and 6th hr. However the bike is where I made my first mistake. As I was starting loop 2 I wanted to numb my back pain, problem was I had forgotten my tylenol. I asked a few riders and they "did not have any", finally one girl told me she had some Advil, I hesitated for a minute but then took 2 from her. I had forgotten it could cause my sodium levels to go down, as I said before, this came to bite me in the ass later in the day.
Here is my bike file http://connect.garmin.com/modern/#activity/552716696. Overall I feel good about my IF, considering this is my first race riding with power, however I need to get stronger and also work on my cadence. I also need to lose a few lbs to help me on those hills.
The Run: I finally made it into T2 and I was overall feeling great, until I got off the bike. My back was killing me, even though I stretched the last few miles, the minute I tried to stand straight it was just sore and hurting. I slowly walked into the tent sort of freaking out about potentially not finishing this. It took me a long time to get undressed and into run gear. Lower back was hurting taking my shoes off, taking my top off and the rest of my clothes made me feel I was going to pull something.
I finally made it out of T2 and it was just hard to jog in proper form, the first person I saw was my amazing wife, I went to her, hugged her and told her how I was feeling, told her I was in pain. She did her job, she looked at me in the eye and told me to go out there and finish it. She did not baby me, she did what I was expecting her to do.
My form was so screwed up in the first two miles, I was just in pain, however somehow I managed to run every mile around 11 min (my target was more like 9:45), when I reached mile 7 on my way back is when I made mistake #2. I saw a guy popping some pills and I asked him for a couple more advil (that was 4 in ~ 5 hrs), I then kept running until I reached the halfway point. When I started the last 13 miles is when it seems everything started falling apart, I started feeling nauseous and dizzy, my legs felt fine, my lower back was hurting less (thanks advil?) but I was just not where I had to be. Thinking back it seems I focused to much on my back pain and forgot a bit about nutrition and sodium intake. I had peed around 5 times on the bike so by the time I hit the 13 mile mark I am sure my sodium was not at the level it was supposed to.I remember looking at my fingers and they were very swollen and looking like sausages. I started drinking chicken broth and pretzels to put some salt into my body, eventually it helped but not as much as I had wished for.
I felt so crappy that I ended up walking a lot in the last miles of the marathon. It was a conscious decision, I knew I had plenty of time to finish so I did not want to run to the point where I could not go anymore. The last 2 miles my wife walked with me up that !$@$%%& hill into town. I knew I was close I just had to keep walking. http://connect.garmin.com/modern/#activity/552716713
I eventually crossed the line at 14:15 (in my watch), I had accomplished what I had failed to do at CDA the year before. And I had accomplished it under significantly harder conditions (Weather, pain, nutrition). Maybe I could have pushed myself more, for sure I could have been smarter, but to me this was more about finishing that setting a certain time. I am now an Ironman, there will be other races. There will be other challenges. But this, my first finish tastes all the better because it was hard and because I beat that little voice inside my head that told me it was not going to be possible to finish with my back the way it was (5 days later my back is still sore).
I learned a lot, I grew a lot, I will keep going until I can't do this anymore.
-C
Comments
"...I will keep going until I can't do this anymore" -- That will probably take you a very long way. Persistence and commitment has gotten you this far; following through on all those little lessons learned (like double checking the list to make sure the Tylenol is there) will get you there much faster next time. The longer the day is, the harder it gets. You CAN make it shorter.
Congratulations Ironman!! Way to push through and keep it up to the finish line my friend. It was great to see you out there! Hope to see you again!
Carlos....great report....you write just fine! Well done on a tough day with a bad back. You can't do much of anything well/fast when your back is hurting. Way to get it done anyway.
Carlos, After meeting you at the camp, I had no doubt you would complete this goal. I am sure you could have done this on attitude alone. I really enjoyed the time we had to train together and to Race. Seeing you on the run course was a big boost for me.
Thanks