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Me and my favorite pro woman triathlete Desirée Ficker
Becoming Ironman Part 3
Rain, rain, rain…
I ran through 3 inches of rain and mud into T2. The transition tent was pretty gross. It was impossible to find a semi dry spot to change. I just took off my bike jersey and used it as my temporary carpet. As I was changing into my running shorts, a volunteer told me that my lower back and my ass were chafing pretty badly. Without even asking, he handed me a giant tub of Vaseline, “Hey you go buddy, usually I would do anything for an Ironman, but you are going to have to put the Vaseline on yourself.” I laughed and said, “Thanks.”
114.4 miles down, 26.2 miles left to go. I ran by Paul on Main Street and told him about the gearing issue I had on the bike, he said “It’s okay, just keep on going man.”
My legs were pretty stiff from the bike, so I started to power walk. By the time that I got to the first aid station, they were handing out watermelon slices and hot chicken broth. The chicken broth was the best broth I ever had in my life. It was super nice to have something warm in my stomach, but then when I tried to wolf down a few slices of watermelon, I accidentally bit into the left side of my tongue. Oh boy, that hurt like hell, and for about 20 minutes I couldn’t taste anything but blood-flavored salvia.
For the next 3 hours I limped, walked, and jogged for the first loop of the run course. It was such a teaser when I had to run by the finishing oval, hearing the crowd cheering for all the finishers that were coming in. I took a deep breath and told myself, “You can do it man, only 13 more miles, it is only 4 and a half laps around the RIT campus, 52 times around the track, two 10Ks, four 5Ks…mumble, mumble and more mumble….”
I made a pit stop at my special needs bag. Thank God I packed an extra pair of shoes and socks in a Ziploc bag. For the first time since 7 am, I had dry footwear. : )
I ran by Paul again,. He told me that I had about 3 and a half hours left before the midnight cutoff, and that based on my snail’s speed for the first loop, I really needed to pick up my pace a little bit. I replied, “Yes sir!” and off I went into my final 13 miles.
Cold, tired and wet, but somehow I managed to jog all the way to the entrance of River Rd. A volunteer made me a glow stick ring for me to wear around my head. “Keep going #99, this road gets very dark, be careful, you will be an Ironman tonight!”
The volunteer wasn’t kidding; the road was pitch back. My own shadow became my running buddy, and with about 6 miles left my left knee started to hurt. I had to slow it down to a walk. It was very frustrating because I knew I was running out of time. One foot in front of the other, I made it back into town with about 3 miles left to go. Paul greeted me by the Marriot hotel, “Alex you are doing great, but we gotta start running, come on you can do it.” I ignored the pain in my left knee and ran all the way to the bottom of the hill by Main Street. I was hurting. With every step I took it felt like someone jabbed a knife into my left knee. As I was walking up that hill Paul was telling me all of these things to keep me going. “Alex you are very close, think about where you were a few years ago and what you have become today, just keep power walking up those hills and start running when you see the Lake Placid Brew Pub.” A few minutes later I saw my friend Beth. She was screaming at me, “Alex you are my biggest hero, you are going to make it, keep going!!!”
Things got very emotional when I was limping towards the turnaround point on Mirror Lake Dr. My left knee was in extreme pain. The crowd kept cheering me on to keep me going. I would run a few steps and then walk a few steps. I remembered a girl said “#99 why are you walking!!! 10 more minutes of pain and you can drink all the beers you want.” I cried a little, laughed a little, and kept on moving forward until I heard the nicest sound on earth BEEP! I crossed the final turnaround point. This was it, my final home stretch, I could almost taste the finish line. My left knee felt like it was going to shatter, but I didn’t care, I was determined to run all the way to the finish line and finish strong! Everyone was giving me high fives as I was running towards the oval. I entered the oval, and thought to myself, “This is it, I’m 200 meters away from becoming an Ironman. Treasure this moment because you have earned it.” I crossed the finish line feeling a bit dizzy. Paul and a volunteer quickly escorted me to the medical tent. The doctor said the pain in the left knee was from an over-stressed IT band. He told me to take some Tylenol, ice the knee, and I should be okay in a few days. Yes I did it, 140.6 miles in a single day. I’m an Ironman, and no one can ever strip that title away from me.
I just want give a big thank you to all of the volunteers on race day, without all of your endless help, support and encouragement I would of never make it to the finish line.
Cathy, thank you for putting up with me for the past 12 months. You are the greatest supporter.
Heidi, thank you for always believing in me.
Jenny, thank you for flying all the way from Hong Kong.
Mark Joslyn (Trek), thank you for helping me with my frame.
Bike Zone, thank you for all of the bike support.
Iron Beth, thank you for helping me with the open water swim, and for cooking my post-race dinner. We need to set a date to get the Ironman tattoo together.
Taylor Canby (New Balance), thank you for all the running shoes and socks.
Laura Barrows, thank you for cooking the pre-race dinner, and for being the race day photographer.
Paul Barrows, thank you for introducing me to the sport of triathlon, and thank you for teaching me how to swim, bike and run. Without you, I would never be able to become an Ironman.
Last, but not least, thank you mom for giving me my legs, lungs and heart. You are the ultimate Ironmom.A American Hauntingn on dvd
Becoming Ironman part 2
7:00am
Boom!!! The cannon went off. Arms and legs were flying around me. I tried to stay back and wide to avoid fighting for the buoy line, but after about 500 yards I found myself getting sucked into the line, and next thing I knew I got kicked about 3 times in the head, and twice in my rib cage because some guy next to me was swimming the breast stroke. I told myself not to panic, just to focus on breathing out and keep on crawling, and I finished the swim in 1 hour and 35 minutes.
T1 took me about 12 minutes.
I started the bike course at around 8:50. I kept my bike in a pretty easy gear for the first few miles just so that I could get the blood flowing in my legs before the first climb by the ski jump. During the first climb, I had to constantly tell myself not to hammer too hard because I needed to conserve energy for the second loop.
The descent to Keene was pretty nerve-wracking. Usually I could get up to 38 mph flying down that hill, but due to the monsoon conditions, I had to slow it down to about 30 mph.
I finished the first loop of the bike without having too much trouble.
During the second loop, it rained even harder. All the cracks and potholes on the road were filled with water, and it was impossible to spot them. Going down the descent to Keene felt like I was riding through a minefield.
After the descent, I was on my way to Jay for the second time. Usually this is the part where I could hammer a bit and stay on the aero bar pretty much the entire way, but somehow I just couldn’t feel my legs, 18-19 mph was all I had in me. The lack of energy was indeed frustrating but I told myself, “hey at least I’m still moving forward, and that is better than having to change a flat.”
Coming back from the out and back section (around mile 85-90) was when my bike started to act funny. Whenever I tried to shift into the smallest chain ring in the front derailleur, it would have a 10-30 seconds delay before the chain actually shifted. Since I didn’t really have the time to diagnose the problem, I just had to keep going in a higher gear and hope my knees would not give out on me.
I took a left turn onto 86 for the final home stretch. In my opinion that is the hardest part of the entire bike course, and when you throw in a malfunction front derailleur, man, every pedal stroke felt like I was on my way to hell. I knew I was in big trouble when my computer showed a cadence of 65-70. My lactic acid was building up fast and I couldn’t get into the small ring to spin my pain away.
Moving at the pace of a senior citizen, I made it all the way to the Big Cherry climb. Halfway up the climb my legs were fried…I had nothing left. I wanted to get off the bike to stretch, but I was going so slowly that I pretty much stalled on the bike and fell over with my shoes still clipped in.
It took me a few minutes to get myself out of the mess. I stretched a little, drank some water, and regrouped. When I picked my bike back up, I noticed my chain finally made its way into the smallest ring up front. Perfect!! I finished the last 4 rollers without too much problem. Back onto Mirror Lake Drive, I could hear the crowd cheering for me and the sound of cow bells, and it gave me an immediate boost of energy. I shifted into a higher gear, I got out of the saddle, and sprinted the final mile like I was going to win a stage at the Tour De France. I did it!!! I made the bike cut off with 25 mins to spare.
Becoming Ironman Part 1
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One year ago, I was here in the village of Lake Placid waiting in line at 6am in the morning, trying to get myself a spot in the 2008 Ironman Lake Placid triathlon.
Tonight I’m sitting here at the Lake Placid brew pub wearing my Ironman finisher jacket with a pint of hefeweizen, trying to write this blog post.
The thought of me completing the 140.6-mile race last night is still a bit surreal. Things were extremely fuzzy when I crossed the finish line. All I can remember was I had trouble telling the volunteer what size finisher t-shirt I wanted, and next thing I knew another volunteer grabbed my left arm, holding my body up, and escorted me to the medical tent.
7-16
My bike shop called me around 2:00 and told me the new frame had arrived, and the bike should be ready in about an hour. After picking up my bike and getting everything packed into my car, I left Rochester at 5:00 and arrived at Lake Placid around 10:30.
7-17
I woke up at 8:00, had a banana and a Kashi bar for breakfast, and then headed down to Mirror Lake for a morning swim. Just as Paul predicted, I swam 1 loop of the race course in around 45 minutes. (Not too shabby for a guy who didn’t learn how to swim freestyle until 2 years ago.)
The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. I went to the market to buy some groceries and grilled myself a steak and some asparagus for dinner.
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I was planning on going down to the expo to test out some of the Cervelo time trail bikes, but the weather was so bad in the morning, I just stayed in and watched TV.
The sun came out around 2:00, and I took my bike out for a test ride to make sure everything was working properly. When I was about 3 miles away from the cottage, the sky turned dark again, and rain started to pour and then it turned into a hailstorm. Thank God I was near the expo so I was able to camp out at the merchandise tent until the storm stopped.
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Paul and Beth helped me pack my transition bags and special needs bags. We went down to the transition area around 2:00 to check in all my gear. After that, they ordered me to go back to the cottage to stay off my feet and stay out of the sun.
7-20 Race Day
I woke up at 3:45am feeling surprisingly calm. I took a shower, had some breakfast, and left the cottage around 4:45. As Beth was driving us to the transition zone, I was constantly thinking about what Paul had told me yesterday: “Alex, think about this, at this very moment right now there are only 2500 people in the world that are doing this. Think about all the people who wish they can be in your spot, think about all the people who wish they had the ability to do this. It is going to be a great day. Go out and enjoy the race.”
Road to Ironman
I cannot believe Ironman is only 4 days away. I’m surprisingly calm given all the bike issues that I have had to deal with.
A lot of people had been asking me, “Alex, out of the 3 disciplines, which is your strength?” Usually I would say running, but when you put a marathon after a 112-mile bike ride, I’m not sure I can claim running is my strength. And since I didn’t learn how to swim freestyle and road cycling until 2006, I cannot claim those two either. But I can claim that I’m an expert when comes to withstanding physical pain and suffering.
Training for the Ironman the past 10 months has been everything but straightforward. It not only taught me how to become a better swimmer, cyclist and runner, but it also taught me how to stay focused, maintain a positive attitude, and keep moving forward no matter what life throws at you.
I just want to say thank you so much for all of your generous donations and support.
I promise I will do everything I can to complete my 140.6 mile journey this coming Sunday.
BTW I believe ironman.com will board cast the event on Sunday, I’m race number 99.
P.S
I have been cigarette free for 3 years!!!
See you all next week