Ironman Arizona Race Report

IMAZ 2006 - Run (1st Lap)

Ironman Arizona Race Report - Sunday April 9, 2006.

Location: Tempe, Arizona

Description: 3.86 km Swim, 180.2 km Bike, 42.2 km Run

Website: www.ironmanarizona.com

The flight down to Arizona was fairly uneventful and that is always a good thing. All my belongings got there on time and damage free, nothing more you can ask for. Catching a cab that could accommodate a bike box took a bit of time but 45 min later I was able to get one just before she went off duty.

I was all set to stay at the Country Inn and Suites. But got there to find out that they had no record of my booking. I showed them my documents and they said that they could put me up starting on Thursday but for Wednesday night I was out of luck. Since they screwed up they drove me to the Quality Inn and covered my accommodation there for the night. This is a nice location, which would be a value option if I were to do this race again. They rooms are clean, the free breakfast is good, and it is about 2 miles from the race site.

Upon checking in to the Country Inn and Suites (about 1 mile from the race site), I walked over to the race site to get my first swim in and to register. It was a nice set up. The new Ironman TV Studio, the many booths with product giveaways, a huge Ford set-up (cool thing: they had a computer spectators could type messages into that will flash those messages to athletes as they ran by a huge electronic billboard on race day) and of course the merchandise tent.

Race Day

Woke up at 3:30 am and drank 2 cans of Boost and a bit of water. Then went back to bed to catch some more shut-eye. Woke again at 5 am, drank another can of Boost and sipped Gatorade and water while I prepared my stuff to get down to the race site. Walked the mile to the race site and the conditions were cool and calm. Too bad this would not last for the rest of the day.

Got to the race site, pumped my tires, put my nutrition on my bike, did a final check of my transition bags, got body marked, made my final “pit stops”, put on my wetsuit (found out I had quite a few holes/tears in both of the arm areas—time to get a new wetsuit but not right now), and chilled with the wife until race start.

I jumped in the water at 6:55 am and swam over to the start line (a deep water start about 100 m away). The water was much warmer and clearer this year. The water temperature was around 70 degrees (it was in the high 50’s last year) and I could actually see my hands in front of me. Much better than the chocolate milk we were swimming in last year. The race started promptly at 7 am and we were on our way. Unlike the swim at Lake Placid, the swim at Tempe is much more wide open. The space is there if you need it. Since I walked the swim course everyday to go back and forth from the race site to my hotel, I realized that the canal has a bit of a curve and therefore so does the swim buoys. I scouted out and picked a nice line and swam a much more direct line this time around. Only on the way back did I run into any kind of problems running into people. I finished the swim in 1:24:24 with an average heart rate of 140 bpm. This is not breakneck speed for most but it is a good time for me considering that I was not pushing hard, my swim training consisted of the 9 minutes on Wednesday I got to Arizona, 12 minutes on Thursday, and 30 minutes on March 10. Plus it was big improvement over my 1:32 last year. This is a training plan I don’t recommend for everyone but I’m not trying to get to Kona.

The transition was crowded. Had to change outside the change tent, and spent extra time getting a bunch of dry grass off my feet. This is unavoidable since the transition area is all grass. T1 time – 9:20

Sporting my Rudy Project Syton helmet and Maskeryna sunglasses. Hopped on the bike with the mission of keeping aerobic the whole bike segment. If that got me a 6 hr bike split then that would be great but I was expecting 6:15-6:30 (By the way, I went to Ian MacLean at http://www.imfit.ca/ to get tested and received all my training and racing zones. I strongly recommend this to everyone who: is serious about their training, uses with a heart rate monitor, who wants to drop some a few pounds – I lost 20 lbs from November to race day). The bike course was a simple 3 laps. Not the crazy mega turn fest that occurred last year. There was actually a slight bit of incline near the turnaround. The first lap was windy on the way out (not as breezy as last year but still enough to slow you down) but I was flying on the way back. If these conditions remained the same throughout the bike leg then I was going to go sub 6 hrs. This did not happen. By the second and third lap the conditions changed. It was more of a crosswind that affected you in both directions. It also began getting hotter as the day went on. During the bike segment I took in 6 bottles of Gatorade Endurance, 3 bottles of water, 14 GU Gels, and 21 Hammer Endurolytes. I finished the bike ride in a comfortable 6:14 with an average heart rate of 146 (I did 6:44 last year), feeling fully fuelled, and confident in pulling off a decent run and PB.

In T2, I took my time in order to set myself up nicely for the run. A quick glance at my bike shirt and shorts told me that I lost a lot of salt. There were white stains everywhere. I don’t know where the time went but I spent 8:52 in T2.

Headed out on the run and got in my nutrition early. Everything felt good and I was on pace to pull off a 4:20-4:30 marathon. This all fell apart by mile 6. The temperature had now reached its peak for the day and we were out there in 90 degree heat. Every time I would try to maintain my goal pace I would experience nausea, dizziness, and would feel like passing out if I continued running. I decided that I better go into survival mode and just get to the finish in whichever way possible. Therefore it was the “zombie march” to finish line. I did manage to meet and chat with a lot of people all experiencing the same thing so it was a fun but frustrating time. Finished the run/walk in 5:47 and an average heart rate of 132 (not a true indication of the effort due to the walking). Finished the day in 13:44:18. Fairly satisfied since I thought that my finishing time might be 15+ hours after I started my “zombie march”. A few bouts rejuvenated running when it got dark helped reduce that time expectation. I even more pleased with the effort once I realized that the race conditions had eliminated 217 athletes from the race (about 12% of the field). My only regret on the day was not having my Running Free Team gear to wear during the event.

Some other great memories/highlights: 1. Meeting and chatting with Tim DeBoom and Michellie Jones (After the race Michellie went through my race pictures and commented on each one of them. I won’t forget their class and graciousness). 2. Pigging out at PF Changs. 3. Picking up Peets Coffee (Lance Armstrong’s favourite brand) at Cincinnati airport. It is the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.

Posing with Tim Deboom