My first half Iron Man

A few years ago, I did not even know what exactly was entailed in a triathlon, more so this thing crazy people did called Iron Man. My world was about decathlons (ten track and field events) and if you had asked me then if I would do something like this endurance sport called "Iron Man," I would have said you were insane.

What is a half Iron Man? Well, is' half of a really long swim (1.2 miles), half of a century ride (56 miles), and half of a marathon! All in all it is 70.3 miles of going as hard as you can! For me this took 5 hours and 55 minutes.

September 12, 2010 - the alarm clock went off at 4 AM, as if I really needed an alarm to wake up (I could not sleep due to being nervously excited). I had my usual breakfast - granola with milk, and packed the last few things in the car. The drive down to Santa Cruz was very uneventful, no cars (and no deer...LOL). When I arrived at the boardwalk, it was still pitch black. Athletes were already fighting for prime position in the transition area. I put my things down on my towel - it's amazing how the competitive spirit takes over when you see other like-minded people around you - I started to arange things as if I was planing on sprinting in and breaking some sort of transition record. After all was set for me in the transition area, I went for a mile jog as a warm up, and then off I head to the beach (where the first event, the open-water swim, would begin).

A thousand athletes all lined up on the beach is quite a sight! As usual - the Santa Cruz water was on the cooler side (56F). I jump in for a "warm-up", take a couple of strokes and try to breathe.

My age group is the 6th to get in the water. The gun went off, and then mayhem!!! My game plan was to walk down to the water and get in a groove as fast as possible. I pretty much executed that flawlessly. After 36 minutes of frantically waving the arms, I got out of the water with a smile on my face. I made it! For the first time I had crawled the whole way without stopping.

A short jog later I filled my mouth with Gu blocks and got on the bike. The water, Gu and salt pills were waiting for me on the bike. After 10 miles I hit a giant pot hole and I heard a loud noise. At first I thought I had blown a tire! I looked down and the tire was still intact, but the water bottle was hanging like a sack of potatoes. I had broken the bracket that holds the bottle in a drinking position. Oh well, a minor inconvenience. 2 miles later I hit yet another pot hole, and this time I lost my only food source, the Gu bottle. Onwards! The ride was pretty uneventful after that.

Because of the lack of food (lost Gu bottle) I started to cramp after about 30 miles. I had told myself before the race to take it easy just so that I wouldn't cramp but here we go again! After 2 hours and 53 minutes I was back in the transition area for the last part - the run. The cramping was a thought behind needing to find a porta-potty!

After what felt like the longest porta-potty visit ever, I set off for the half-marathon. Because the cramping started on the bike, I knew that the run was going to be tough. The cramping forced me to walk a big part of the race. As if the the cramping wasn't enough, I got a blister 4 miles into the 13.1 mile run. Armed with bananas and Gu, but no bandaid (race organizers, you should really have some first aid kits at the rest/aid stations!), I slowly made my way toward the finish line. As a cruel joke they had us run the last 200-300m on the beach dodging waves & kids playing, while trying not to have a cramp attack.

To the roar of the people (and Rowe & Christine's cheers) I sprinted (12 mi/hr pace...by this time, that's a sprint to me) over the finish line. I had done it!!! 5 hours and 55 minutes of swimming, biking and running 70.3 miles. I'm now half the Iron Man I want to be!!!!

Stay tuned for the next blog about the day(s) after....LOL.