Ironman Branson Race Report Part 2

The morning of the race started bright and early. I had my alarm set for 3:20am. I didn't sleep, which was not much of a surprise. The night before any race day is a given for a night full of tossing and turning. I only hit the snooze button on my phone once. I rose out of bed as best as I possibly could at 3:30am. I needed to wake up a bit, so I hopped in the shower to get ready for the morning.

Awake and alert from the shower, I had breakfast. I was nervous, and my stomach wasn't feeling quite right, but breakfast seemed to help a lot. I had a breakfast of champions, consisting of a bagel, peanut butter,a banana, and some Accelerade Sports Drink.

The race didn't start until 7am, but I wanted to get out early since most of the surrounding roads were already closed for the bike course, there was only one way to get to the start line. There were shuttle buses bringing athletes and spectators to the start line, and there would be no way that I would be late for the race waiting for a shuttle bus. Here is a picture of transition 2 that Paula took while waiting for the bus.




We arrived at the start line with plenty of time to spare. I was able to get all of my belongings ready at my transition area. I triple checked my gear shifting on my bike knowing that I will be shifting all day long in the hills. I made sure my tire pressure was at 120 psi in both tires, and got my computer zeroed out, so it would automatically start when my bike began moving.

There was some down time before the start of the race, which was really nice because I was able to clear my head, watch the other athletes, and prepare myself for the day to come. Soon there after, it was time to start getting ready, and get suited up in my wetsuit. Here I am with my #1 Fan, my beautiful wife Paula!



The Swim Start was beginning to fill up with athletes getting ready to go.



The pro athlete shotgun start was 7am sharp, and this was the scene just prior to the start of the race.



The race start was broken up by age groups. My age group was the second to last group to go. Here I am ready to go, flashing the trademark thumbs up!




Here I am waiting for the shotgun to sound. I'm right where I want to be, towards the front of the pack!



And were off!



I knew I physically my endurance was there, but since this was my first Ironman, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from my swim. My only goal was to catch the group in front of me. I caught them by the final turn with about 900 yards left. I even managed to catch a couple groups. Each age group had their own color of swim cap, and soon I felt like I was surrounded in different colored caps. I felt great through the whole entire swim. I was the 16th person to come out of the water in my age group, and my swim time was 38.43! Here I am, coming out of the water.





While running into transition 1, the official Ironman Announcer called out my name, and hometown over the loud speaker, hence the smile, it was pretty awesome!



Getting ready for my 56 mile bike ride in the transition area, expecting a tough course, but I had no idea how tough it really was...




Stay tuned for part two of my race report, as I tell you all about my bike, run, and the wonderful feeling of crossing that finish line!

Race Weekend Part One!

Folks,

It is a joy to tell you about my weekend in Branson, and my journey of finishing the Ironman Branson 70.3!

Paula and I got into town Saturday early afternoon. Neither of us had ever been to Branson before, so we didn't know what to expect. To put it lightly, its a tourist's dream come true. Only in Branson you can find a Hollywood Wax Museum, across the street from a full fledged confederate store! Me personally, I really wanted to hit up the Titanic Museum, then run over to the Segway Track. Before I was able to grab my wallet and dash to the Segways, my lovely wife quickly reminded me of the reason why we were there in the first place, and unfortunately it wasn't for the segways... Needless to say, I got my head back in the right place.

We checked into our hotel and quickly found out that they put us into the wrong room. The nice lady at the front desk apologized for the mistake, and was kind enough to upgrade us to a suite! Gotta Love it!

after getting our things settled at our Hotel, we went over to the Ironman race headquarters, located at The Chateau on The Lake. Its a really nice place. It was buzzing with people. I got in line to check in, and was given everything I need. Paula and I sat through the athlete briefing meeting, where we met with the race director, as well as the head official to go over the course and rules of the race. There were rules for everything! The thing that makes Ironman so tough, is that athletes cannot have any assistance from anyone other than themselves. I'm really glad we went to the meeting because if I wouldn't have known some of the rules, I would have more than likely broken a rule, and been disqualified.

After the meeting, I checked my bike in at the transitions, and received my body markings.






Finished with my gear and markings, we met up with my dad and step mom who came from St Louis to watch the race. I wanted to drive the car along the bike course to see what I was getting myself into. At the Chateau, all the athletes were buzzing about the difficulty of the bike course, and I found out that it was no joke. The course was made up of strictly hills. You were either riding up, or coasting down. there was no flat land to be found.

Seeing the course made me hungry, and there is nothing like pasta for a pre race meal. We found this local joint called Rocky's, which was awesome. I was able to carbo load on some sort of garlic pasta.




I had to get to bed early, as our alarm was set for 3.20am the following morning. In the following post, I will give you a full race report.

cheers!

one week and counting

For those of you who have been moderately interested in my progress towards my first Ironman Triathlon, it's coming right around the corner. By this time next Sunday, my hope is that I will be able to call myself an Ironman.

I'm am so ready for the race to be here. It has more than consumed my day to day thinking. With any spare moment I have, its the tri and what I need to do before the race that fills my head. My training is there, I have most of my equipment either in my possession, or on its way through the mail, and mentally I am at a point where I cannot get more ready.

The thing I am most excited for (besides the race itself) is the fact that I have promised myself a small hiatus from working out after this. I am starting to become more and more sore in the mornings, and after workouts. I am at a point tonight that after my small 5 mile run, I am going to treat myself to an ice bath. The more I stretch, the more I want not to run because it doesn't feel good anymore.

This whole process is all a part of becoming an Ironman. I knew this wasn't going to be an easy; that is what drove me to this in the first place. I really can't wait to get to Branson Saturday morning to soak up the atmosphere. The whole thing will really soak in as I walk through the expo, take a small practice swim in Table Rock Lake, and drive the car through the whole bike leg.

The thing I am most looking forward to is the moment before the race, where all I see ahead of me is 6 hours of racing. I cannot wait to start, I'm not really excited for that feeling I will get 4 and a half hours into the race, but I'm uber excited to cross that finish line, and give my wife a huge hug!

I can't wait to tell you how it goes!
Wish me Luck!

Lots has happened since my last post back in June, Here are a few of my thoughts/stories since then.

- My very lovely wife and I just finished watching the movie Julie and Julia we got from the Red Box tonight. Its a true story of a blogger, and made me realize that my commitment to this blog thus far has been... well... horrible. So here is my attempt to slowly and steadily, blog a bit more.

- If you are wondering, I am still training for my Ironman. It's now less than two weeks away, and I am very ready for race day. I'm ready to be engulfed in the Ironman environment, I'm ready to cross that finish line, and I'm ready to give my body a break from pounding the pavement and three hour bike rides.

- As I'm sitting here writing this post, I'm watching my wife prepare the necessary ingredients to make homemade caramel rolls to breakfast tomorrow after our morning bike ride. She loves to cook.

- I'm finally getting used to my new Palm Pre. Other than the crap ass battery it came with, I like it. My favorite thing about the phone is my Pandora Radio App. I listen to it all the time, and I have been exposed to some really great musicians. I'm listening to Adam Rafferty radio right now, he is an acoustic guitar player, and can really pick the 6 string.

- Last night, we went to a beautiful wedding at a winery in Nebraska. We came home to Paula's family farm, and found that our puppy had gotten out of his kennel, and went through every trash can in the house. He loves to eat, and will eat anything. Needless to say, he must of ate lots of paper, because its been coming out all day long! haha. Max's girlfriend Ellie came over to play today, and he's really tired tonight. Been cashed out since 8pm. Poor little guy!

- La Vuelta a Espana is currently midway through its race. Coverage can be seen on NBC Universel Sports (which I sell commercials to) but I cannot see any of my commercials because Direct TV doesn't carry the channel. Can anybody fill me in as to who is leading the race?

- I have a brand new pair of Easton EA90 SLX Wheels sitting in my house, begging me to put them onto my bike. If only I had the right hub...

- I have decided this weekend after my 56 mile bike ride, that my custom bike I would like to get this spring will be a road bike, not a TT bike. Being I have changed my mind on this over 100 times (no joke) I will see how long this decision sticks.

- I'm not ready for Fall, and even less ready for Winter. We walked our puppy tonight, and I had to put on a sweatshirt for the 2nd time already in September. This summer, I have really embraced the heat and humidity. I'm pretty certain that last winter killed any good vibe I once had with snow. I wanna move to Arizona for the winter!

- My Minnesota Twins are still in first, and the gosh damn Vikings are primed to have the most disappointing season in NFL history. I love it!

Its almost 1 am here, and i wanna get in bed. Here's to my first blog post in several months, CHEERS!

Overdue...

I find myself having to apologize every time I write a post due to the absurd amount of time in between each one of my posts. Even though 85% of the posts on my blog are crap, they still require a minimum of 45 minutes, to an hour for me to reword, analyze, and attempt to catch all of my grammatical errors, just for me to read it again after I post, and find a shitload of errors. If only I had the time and patience to do this every night, My blog would be much bigger and better than what it is currently.

I truly do enjoy writing. Its a way to correctly express the way I'm feeling, without fudging up the wording. It also gives me a feeling of accomplishment to see what my brain spits out on paper (or word processor). When I was still in school, I would always prefer to submit a lengthy paper to my prof for a final grade rather than have to study my ass off just to pick up that D- on my test. Writing and sharing my story of triathlon has been a very nice experience in which I have enjoyed thoroughly, and my hope is to continue to write, and maybe even do it more than once a month.

I have continued my investment and progress in the wonderful world of multi sport racing. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new gear from Blue Seventy. I have purchased their Helix wetsuit, which you can see HERE. Seriously, check it out, its one of the best suits on the market today, and honestly has the potential to shave not seconds, but minutes off of my swim time in M dot Branson! My wetsuit is traveling via UPS Ground with its friends, the Hydra-Vision Goggles and Race Belt. I will hopefully see these fun goodies arrive before my race next weekend!

The Dakota Man Triathlon is next weekend, and its being held in my own stomping grounds. This will be my very first race in open water. As of last night, there were only around 60 racers signed up, which makes me feel a sense of comfort as its not 1000 racers, trying to scratch and pull their way over me, damn near drowning my ass. With a smaller pool of racers, I will have no problem sitting in the front at the start of the race. I have a goal to be one of the first 10 racers out of the water next weekend. Yippee Skippee!

I do need to get at least one LONG bike ride in before the race, and if weather cooperates, I will be hittin' the highway tomorrow early morning. So if you would like, feel free to search the roads tomorrow to find me and give me a cup of coffee! That would be greatly appreciated.

I will try to get another post up before the race next weekend. The content will probably be coupled with a beeming ear to ear self portrait, holding up my new wetsuit! I know you can't wait to see that... me either!

Blessings,

Face Lift

Folks,

Please hang tight with me as I try out new templates to give my blog a nice updated look. If anyone knows how to truly customize templates on blogspot, please help a brotha out, as I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I am tired of trying to figure it out tonight!
God Bless

I'm a SIOUXper Man!

I have survived my first official triathlon. I have to say, it was a really great experience. Here is a breakdown of the day,with pictures to help the imagination.

We arrived in Sioux Center at about 9am, which gave me about a half hour to confirm my registration, set up my transition area, and get my body markings. I was able to get everything lined up with time to spare. Here is a picture of me and my bike in the transition area before the race.

The Triathlon started at 10am, but since we were swimming inside, in a 6 lane swimming pool, athletes were given a tee time of sort, and I didn't start my swim until 11:30am. I had about an hour of down time to sit and gather my thoughts, stretch, and watch the other competitors start their swim, as well as watch them during their first transition. Since I had never been a part of this type of event, it was nice to watch others and see their techniques. I have read up and watched countless youtube videos on transitions, but it was very beneficial to see this first hand.

Upon getting into the water, I had to wait in line about 25 minutes in the warm swimming area. The pool was heated almost to much, which made for quick dehydration. but here I am waiting before the swim.

This is the shot, right before I jumped into the water. This is the 2nd time I have ever worn a swim cap before, and I'm telling you, there super nice!


Its the start of the Siouxper Man Triathlon, and my swim went very good. The only hiccup of my swim was that my left goggle filled up with water on my second to last lap, and I had to finish the swim with one eye!









My first transition went good, always room for improvement of course, but was still happy with my transition times!
Onto the bike portion, where we battled steady 25mph winds, with gusts up to 40mph. This was a fun and challenging course, in which we toured Iowa's countryside. Biking past several hog farms, as well as a massive dairy farm. Needless to say, the wind did a fabulous job of pushing the pleasant smell of cow sh*t in our direction, taking over my lungs!

Here is a picture of me, just heading out on the bike!

Finally it was the run, where my legs began to scream, and the wind continued to kindly push a headwind in my direction. The run was the part I was least looking forward to coming into the event, but to my surpise, I felt really good for the most part!
It official, I past the finish line, and I am waiting for the volunteer to take my sport chip off my ankle, to record my official time!

My wife is always a GREAT supporter, and super fan! She was the one that caught all of these pictures. I'm so happy she enjoys chasing me around! Yay Paula! You're the best!

In the end, I am super excited about my first triathlon. The Siouxper Man offered a very friendly "first timer" experience, and I bet I ran into 15 people I talked to in that this was also there first triathlon. Here is a link to the results of yesterdays race! I finished 45th out of 243 finishers.

My original plan was not to enter this race, but wait to start racing until June. I was talked into racing by my co worker at Spoke N Sport, Kyle. He finished 5th overall.

This race gave me a great gauge as to my endurance level, and I know I have room for improvement. But it also gave me confidence in that I know I will be able to keep up with, and compete with the top tier athletes around the area. I just need to continue to pick up my training, and keep pushing myself.

The Siouxper man Triathlon ended with an all you can eat burger and brat buffet, catered by HyVee. They must have known that I love HyVee! Nothing like a happy finisher, reaping in the benefits of a lot of food!

I'm one step closer to my Ironman!