2009 Ironman Florida: DNF

Despite my first DNF I'm actually quite pleased with the day. My goal for the season (and now next) was to finish in under 10 hours, six minutes faster than last year. I made some good progress on that path, even if it wasn't meant to be on this race day.

The end of the season presented many challenges and made it difficult for me to put together the perfect day. Flu 7 weeks ago knocked me out for 3 weeks. Last week I came down with another cold and went into the race with lots of congestion, lack of sleep, etc. Atlanta weather was abysmal on almost all key workout weekends.

I stayed fairly positive throughout. It is what it is. But deep down I knew a perfect day wasn't in the plan. I barely did any gear prep before check-in. On race morning I made it to transition area, pumped my tires, looked around and walked back to the hotel room to get some more sleep. My swim warmup consisted of a head dunk in 2 feet of water.

I knew from the gun that my body wasn't where it needed to be. The first lap of the swim had some swells. My body wasn't feeling very good, throat hurt. I took it fairly easy. On the second loop the swells really kicked up and I felt a lot more current. For the first time ever I felt a lactic acid buildup in my legs. And my core hurt. 1:10 out of the water. Not terrible, all things considered.

At this point I was still encouraged. Off onto the bike. Bike legs felt horrible. But they always do. I went with it. After an hour they loosened up.

Racing for a specific time goal changes your race strategy dramatically. Heart rate zones aren't the end game that they are when you're going for "the fastest I can do on this day." Running the numbers I knew that I wouldn't be able to go sub-10 if I didn't start the run at 6:45 or before. This meant a 5:25 or faster bike.

Let's say I held to a low heart rate on the bike to defend my run legs. This has been my strategy the last three Ironman Floridas. With the wind, increased temps compared to last year and my 2 min swim deficit I would have probably started the run around 6:55 or so. No chance, even with great run legs, that I'd turn a 3:05 marathon. Even though I might have achieved "the fastest I could do on the day" I would have failed to achieve my goal and that failure would have happened midway though the bike leg.

To keep a bike pace that put me onto the run around 6:45 I had to ride a heftier heart rate. Usually 145 - 152 bpm with some surges at 160. Sometimes I was able to sneak down to mid-130's. As reference, last year I sat at 135 - 142 bpm. I knew what I was doing was likely to cook my run legs but that was ok. I wanted to put myself into a position at the start of the run where a sub-10 was *possible*.

To do this I had to ride at a steady pace heart rate higher than I wanted to. And I had to make a lot of moves. While in the past I was willing to drop behind the stupid peletons, this year I had to make moves to pass them and stay away from them. I spent a lot of time bridging five or ten people up to the next group but it didn't bother me. By the 78 mile mark things had thinned out and I started to see a lot of separation between individuals on the road.

I departed for the run at 6:42-ish. Bike mission accomplished. I was in a position where sub-10 was *possible*.

I already knew that I had to average around 7:40's for the entire marathon. Last year I started out with 7:20-7:40's for 16 miles and then had a few miles at 8:30's which put my time at 10:06. So I knew that I should start a bit slower. I watched my pace and stuck to 8:00 miles.

But within a couple I knew. You just know. My legs were stiff. Both plantar's tight. My body not giving me the extra room for accelerations. By mile 4 I was starting to slide.

And then Luke McKenzie ran past me. I sat on his heels for a bit. It was motivating. He was the third place male. Then he slowed a bit and I passed him. For about 1/2 mile I ran with his 3rd Place Male bike pacer girl. Which was pretty cool, I must say. Complete douchebag move, yes. But fun. Eventually she caught on and dropped back to Luke. I slowed a bit and Luke caught me. I ran behind him again, then beside him, then ahead.

We ran together (well, I age grouper super douchebagged him and he generally ignored me) for 5+ miles. There was a camera guy getting a ton of coverage of him. He'd sit off to our right and just film. Then he'd zoom ahead and get a shot of Luke running past the camera. I have to admit that the thought of being the age grouper douchebag on some Luke McKenzie highlight reel was kind of like tri geek crack so I stayed around him.

I'm nearly certain Luke would have punched me in the balls if it wasn't for the cameras. I had half a notion that I could pace him up through a rough spot in his race to help him catch the guy ahead of him. But that was kind of delusional and self-important... mostly it was just fun running with the tri god for a little while.

Eventually triathlon reality prevailed and Luke disappeared into the sunset. And that's when the explosion that my body had been seeking all day took hold. I dropped to 9:30's.

I thought for a few miles about the whole abandoning thing. I didn't want to send the message to my daughters, blog readers and friends that I'm a quitter. I didn't want to disrespect the race. I could have still finished with a 10:30 or so and I didn't want to disrespect anybody who would love that time.

In the end it was something Anna Elmore emailed pre-race. She said to just have fun with it. And I wasn't having fun on the death march any more.

At the halfway point of the marathon I abandoned. I asked a race volunteer how to do so. She pointed me to the finishing line chute and said "go through there." Uh, I don't think so. Lol. So I weaved around and found an information tent to surrender my chip. (Important to do this so that they don't spend hours trying to track you down when you don't arrive at the finish line.)

No regrets. I was seeking a specific goal. I put in specific moves throughout the day to make it possible. From the faster bike to the Luke thing... I worked hard to get there. But the illness, race conditions and lack of perfect prep meant that I didn't quite pull it off this year.

I can live with that. Much more so than if I had played it conservatively and knocked myself out of contention halfway through the bike. I still had a long shot at it well into the first loop of the run.

I knew it wasn't likely to happen. I knew 7 weeks ago when, after 14 weeks of mad consistency, I lost three weeks. I knew it when freezing wet Atlanta weather truncated key workout weekends. I knew last week when I got sick. I knew the race morning when I went back to sleep, skipping my normal pre-race sunrise viewing from the beach.

I kept fighting and for that I'm proud. I'm also proud that I lost a total of 13 lbs of body weight via nasal snot output. The shoulders on my jersey are crispy this morning (how you doin' ladies?!?)

Carriere, Shields, Caplan, Woodward, Spencer, Teszler and everybody else rocked it! Great to see everybody out there on the course! Carriere got sick a few days pre-race. Shields got sick the day before the race. And let's not even talk about uberfit Jack Hawkins who ripped his Achilles heal three weeks out and showed up to the event in a cast just to support everybody. Bob, Sue, Olga, Danielle and everybody else SuperFanning! Terp, Ava and Beep standing outside waiting for an already-abandoned me! All the Facebook, email and text well-wishers.

Love you all. Many thanks. Kept me going and I hope that you see that you helped me move towards my goal... not just that I DNF'd.

At some point I need to append some of the details of the season build, taper and race... nutrition, heart rates, etc. My computer broke on the way down to Florida so I'm somewhat hampered digitally.

Season
======
> Consistency of workouts achieved via 5am into the pool every weekday
> Better core strength via daily core weights regimen
> Better efforts on weekly 23 mile long run Wednesday
> Better efforts at front of century rides
> Worse long rides/tri specific rides in last 2 mos of season
> First time experiencing plantar fasciitis, suspect will be ongoing issue

Taper
=====
> Wasn't able to follow ideal taper due to cold/illness in first week
> Did mostly low intensity short stuff, not ideal
> No caffeine 2 weeks out
> Creatine + HMB loading 2 weeks out
> Sodium phosphate 4 days out, 4mg/day, 1mg doses
> Liquid diet 3 days out, Boost meal replacement drinks
> Body weight from 164 to 168 lbs

Race Morning
=======
> Bit of oatmeal
> Couple gels
> Only 25mg caffeine

Swim
====
> Did not pursue feet/drafts
> Swam mostly one breath, right side breathing (bad)
> Developed leg cramp sensation
> Developed left abdominal muscle fatigue
> Paced decently
> Overall not in good swim shape (as always)
> 25mg caffeine gel at halfway of swim (course has beach run@halfway)

Bike
====
> Leg stiffness/pain early on (normal)
> Rode much harder than should have
> 138-152 bpm, usually around 143 bpm
> 12 scoop perpeteum bottle on board
> 1 swig (1 scoop) perpeteum at 20, 40 mins each hour
> Gel on at 0 mins each hour
> Started with 25mg caffeine/gel, moved to 50mg caffeine/gel
> Two (and maybe a half) gatorade bottles
> At each aid station grabbed two waters, sprayed all over legs/body

Run
=====
> Started goal pace of 8:00/mi, 7:45's felt easy
> Legs generally stiff though
> Stomach didn't feel right, tried to dilute with h20
> Drank cola, bad plan, repeated at each stop
> Lots of ice water, evaporative cooling
> Effort too high for pace by 4 miles
> Running with Luke kept me going another 5 miles
> Right and left plantar's hurting/tight
> Abandon at mile 13

Next Year
======
> Keep 5am consistency... life works better that way
> Work on riding 145-150bpm for 5+ hours and then running well
> More megaworkouts
> Quadruple pool yardage... seriously
> Flexibility now a requirement with plantar fasciitis threat... officially tri-old
> Better bribes to mother nature
> Eradication of influenza virus globally