Austin Ironman 70.3

  The official tag line of Ironman is "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE". After finishing my half Ironman feeling the way I did, I was sick.  I can tell you, it's true if you believe in yourself and never give up.
     A little background, Ironman is a brand name. Like Rollerblades, not all inline skates are Rollerblades just as not all triathlons are Ironmans. The Ironman has branded three different distances of triathlons each with a distance value: 5150, 70.3 and 140.6. A full Ironman distance is 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run equals 140.6 miles, a 70.3 is half of a full 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run equals 70.3 miles, 5150 is a quarter of a full .9 mile swim, 24.85 mile bike and 6.2 mile run. For some reason for 5150 they switched over to the metric system to make the nice sexy name 5150 probably because Ironman 31.95 sounds kind of weird.
     In July I started training in earnest for the race. I put in 17 hard weeks, mostly 7 days a week. I swam every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday with Masters Swimming. Running or biking on the other days. My daily routine got me up no later then 4:45 AM depending on the length of time for the day's training. It wasn't uncommon for me to be on my bike at 4:30 AM on a Saturday or Sunday trying to get in a 4+ hour ride and be back home to start my day with the family. I'd say 95% of my training happened in the dark or as the sun came up. Thank God I grew up in a military household as I think this helps with getting up early.
     My training log totals finished like this for the 17 training weeks

• Swimming 50 miles
• Biking 1020 miles
• Running 196 miles

     Having torn my tendon off my humorous arm bone, that's one of the muscles and tendons that keeps your arm in the shoulder joint. It forced me to take two weeks off from swimming completely. Then I endured 8 grueling physical therapy sessions but I still managed to get in a fair amount of swimming. Granted not pain free.  Despite the shoulder injury I did feel really prepared for the swim portion of the race.
     Unfortunately race week a stomach bug starting going around our neighborhood. I threatened Carrie I was going to check into a hotel to avoid getting sick, in hindsight I should have. The stomach bug caused people to spend time sitting on or throwing up into the toilet. Even caused one neighbor a trip to the ER for some IVs. Yeah, it was bad. I started taking Airborne hoping it would help but when Lilly got it I knew I was doomed, I may have even talked myself into it, that's what Carrie. So just days before the race it was my turn. Having a stomach bug is not a good way to stay hydrated, it's easy to lose a lot of water, you get the picture.

The finishing chute

     Saturday afternoon after coaching a flag football game I made my way over to the race venue to check in, get my race packet and attended the racers meeting. Pretty standard fair for a triathlon. I bought a couple of race souvenirs and checked out the local sponsor tents. I started to leave and my truck decided to experience it's own version of the stomach bug with back firing, sputtering and general forward motion problems. So I limped the truck over to the mechanics and dropped it off. Just what I needed, car problems. Since I had to be at the race at 5 AM for a complicated transition setup involving three bags of gears, 2 transition zones and a shuttle to the start Carrie and I were planning on taking two cars. Now I needed to borrow a car from someone. Not the kind of thing I planned for. With a neighbor's car secured for the next day it was time to get my game face on.
     Sunday morning I'm out the door at 4:30 AM. I felt like crap! I make it to race site and locate the row of porta potties. Set up Transition 2, the bike in-run out transition. I board a shuttle over to T1, swim in-bike out transition and locate that row porta potties. I visited quite a few of the porta potties before the swim. I ate less then a 1/4 of my bagel with peanut butter before the race. Not a good plan considering I had a long hard day ahead of me.

Out of the water

     At 8:10 my swim wave, males 40-44 entered the water for a 8:15 start, bam the gun goes off. I'm at the front of my group. I like to start at the front so I have some clear water ahead of me and make the faster swimmers go around me. I had a flawless swim, little contact with others, I spotted the buoys well, I rounded the buoys without getting kicked by people doing the breast stroke, which is a bonus. My stroke was good, I didn't push the pace and my shoulder wasn't hurting. As I head out of the water Reid was standing right there yelling "go, daddy, go! Daddy do you see me? Go daddy, go!" I wanted to run over and kiss and hug him, such a cool moment. As I made my way up the chute Carrie yelled my name, I turned smiling and wave. I laid down and the awesome wet suit strippers took my wet suit off in .5 seconds. Swim done!
     In the bike transition, I did my thing, bagging up my wet suit and putting on my biking gear. Out for a nice Texas country ride on miles of chip seal (it's so rough it will rattle teeth loose in your head), hills and wind. I got a good tip the night before the race to get some nutrition in me early in the bike as it will help later in the race namely on the run. So I started to eat and drink. About half way through the bike I started to get the familiar stomach cramps and knew my day was going to get ugly. I managed to maintain a good pace but it was taking to much effort. With 20 miles to go the road turned straight into a very strong head wind. My day just got a lot harder. Those last 20 miles were brutal with my legs starting to cramp, my stomach in knots, I thought I was going to vomit and the wind played tricks with my head. Twice in the last 20 miles I went off the road but managed to keep the bike up right. One of those times I remember closing my eyes as if I was going to take a nap. I remember thinking "I'll just close my eyes for a second". I felt so sleepy.  In the final 200 yards I spotted Carrie and the kids cheering for me. That lifted my spirits a bit.

Encouragement

     I traded my biking shoes for running sneakers and headed out for a half marathon. I looked at my watch for the first time and noted I was on schedule to hit my goal time, that was a surprise considering how I felt. All I had to do was jog 10 minute miles and I was in there. At mile two my stomach said "it's time to walk and walk now!" At the next aid station they had flat warm coke, that sounded good and tasted great. I also took two cold sponges and stuffed those down my shirt. I started to jog again. I did the jog, walk thing for 4 miles completing loop 1 of 3. That's when I saw Carrie, Nancy and the kids. For the first time Carrie noted I wasn't smiling, I'm a happy triathlete and smile a lot during races. It's fun, I smile. I stopped and talked, gave her a quick health update and jogged on. At the beginning of loop two I was by stopped another a friend, Michael Ames another Triathlete, we talked for a second he gave me some words of encouragement and I was off again. This time a much slower jog, pretty much a fast walk.  On lap 2 I did the fast walk until around mile 7 then it turned in a a normal pace walk. I saw the family again. This time Carrie knew my days wasn't going as planned, she held my hand and walked with me. She give me some words of encouragement  and probed me for information about my health. I knew she was concerned because she just watched a woman yak her brains out which I was pretty close to doing myself. I lied about not being dizzy and for that matter didn't tell her I had tunnel vision and was on the verge of passing out, back out for loop 3. This time I got a hug and a hand shake from Michael and the words I need to hear "you got this, anything is possible". Lap 3 didn't contain any running, jogging or fast walking. It was a death march. Making it from one aid station to the next. It was pitiful. With 300 meters from the finish line which is inside the Expo Center I started to jog, my calf cramped. I walked again, "no, you will run across that finish line!" I told myself. Entering the build I started to run again. Over the loud speaker they called out "bib number 1374 from Austin Texas, Brad Askins". I crossed the finish line. Austin 70.3 was done!

Cold concrete and cramped calves

     I needed to lay down. So I did on the cold concret floor of the expo center. Then I  took off my shoes which housed big blisters on the balls of my feet. Then I need to puke. I walked over to a barrel trash can and before I puked I started to black out so I lowered myself to the ground. My back started to ache in the kidney area, I knew I was in trouble. Carrie went to get the medical staff, before they got to me I had made my way over to the medical tent. There I received two bags of IV, my blood pressure was 100/60 and my blood sugar was 108. The guy to my right was puking in a bag and the guy to the left had such low blood pressure they had trouble getting it. It was like a scene from a war movie, cots, nurses, puke and blood.
     After the IVs I was a different person, I managed to eat a banana and drink some water. I even drove myself home. When I got home I ate most of a pizza, took a shower, watched some baseball and then I think I passed out for the last time that day. What an epic day!
     Thanks to all my supporters Carrie, Reid, Lilly, Mom, Scott and Nancy. To all my close friends who support me on a daily basis or at least put up with all my Triathlon talk. My sponsor who supports me 100% of the time all the time, Gear and Training. To all my entire Triathlon family including Scott Jones, John LaFreniere and my swim coach Hollie Kenney. Vicky Bledsoe at Atlas PT who worked a minor miracle on my shoulder. All my entire Facebook family and of course my constant swim lane mate Louise.
     My favorite pictures from the Triathlon. Reid supporting me for 7 hours is a tough job!

Some photos from the day

     My time goal was 6 hours, I didn't make but here are my times

• 1.2 mile swim 36:53 (144/100 yd)
• Transition 1 swim to bike 5:38
• 56 mile bike 2:56:45 (19.1 MPH average)
• Transition 2 bike to run 5:02
• 13.1 mile run 3:19:39 (15 min/mile)
• Total for the day 7:03:57

   
     Ironman, anything is possible!
   


   
   

   
 http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/#axzz1bk94yyvk