It is hard to find a place to start really. Do you start at the beginning or do you walk it backwards? I think we will start with the first day of the expo. That's when the excitement really sets in.
Knowing what days this was on I took two days off of work. This was to give myself plenty of time to settle down and try to keep calm without the stress from the job. The morning of Dec 8th 2016 I woke up early and got on the horn with crew, Brandon and Anthony of course. We had already planned out the day and knew we were headed down the second they opened. In fact we were the first ones to collect our race packers. We were met by the IronMan crew that flew in to help support and basically run the event. It was a bit confusing but we made our way through the packet pick up and then it was onto seeing our friends at the TriLife booth and everyone that was as eager as we were. We stayed for several hours and took it all in!
One of the highlights for myself was finding my name on the famous M-dot sign. There it was, my name. Who would have ever thought.
They say it is unlucky to see the finish line, well no one told me until it was to late! None the less Brandon and myself took some photos and moved on.
Over the course of the next day it was tense and we still had house chores to take care of and get to the business of packing the transition bags that IronMan provides you. they are color coded so it is a bit easier to remember as you are moving around and to account for nervous mistakes. The packing of these bags took me quite some time and was not a pack once evolution, I packed, unpacked, packed, and repacked a few times. You know I skipped over a few things, we had some serious excitement during the last TriLife group ride, we got to ride with some of the Bahrain Endurance 13 Team Members to include Jan Fordeno and Javier Gomez!
Thats right this kid from Parkersburg, WV got to meet the Olympic Gold Medal, 2x IronMan world champ!
Javier Gomez was just coming back from an injury but was lighting fast on the bike!
...so back to the packing thing. CRAZY and intense. There is just a crazy amount of prep. Like I said you pack and repack.
The initial shock of dumping all this stuff out is overwhelming.
After a 30 minutes of focus I was able to make sense of it all. There was actually room for everything in there. Your wetsuit even fits into one of these bags. Keep in my mind my wetsuit has a bit more material then the normal triathlete.
Anthony was a bit more organized then I, Happy holidays was his theme!
Brandon was able to make short work of his bag inventory as well. I was the only one who seemed to be worried about all of this.
All said and done and this is what was left for me to put on in the morning before. I did forget one important thing, we will get to that in a bit.
The day before the IronMan 70.3 Bahrain my company had its holiday party, not exactly what I wanted to do with my time. It did help me get my mind off all the chatter in my mind. Well we had our bike drop off and then later that night I went down to get try for a Bahrain Endurance 13 Cap! I didnt make it in time to get the cap but I was able to have a nice chat and grab a pic with the fastest IM70.3 winner on the planet!
AWESOME!! At first I didnt recognize him but after a few minutes of talking i recognized him, Terenzo Bozzone! He actually won the 2016 IronMan 70.3 Bahrain. Well this is how I ended my night. it was time for the pre race brief and pasta dinner. Very glad I went as there was some things that they talked about that never crossed my mind. After a few hours of that I was headed home for my much needed rest.
Then it was time. 0430 Dec 10th 2016 was upon me.
Got the sticker put on with little effort and then the kit. A small energy packed breakfast and then out the door. The wife took good care to get me all sorted, don't forget that I told you I forgot something. So Brandon and I packed the car and headed to the event. Got a good parking spot and headed to the T1 and the bike racks to do the final prep and turn in the day clothes bag. While hanging out in the bike rack area we ran into all the Pros and our friends. We all suited up in our wetsuits and got ready to head to the start line.....wait wear are my swim goggles. That is absolutely right, I had forgotten my swim goggles. WHAT THE HECK!!!!! After a few seconds of intense panic I started asking if anyone had a spare set, I mean all the checklists tell you to pack two and I didnt even pack one. After about a solid minute of freaking out I ran over to Abdulmoshen (owner of TriLife) and asked him what I should do. He just smiled and gave a little laugh and said he brought some from the shop. Thank you Abdulmoshen!!!!!! Saved my first IronMan 70.3.
Well Brandon and I got all sorted and made our way to the start line. it was a rolling start so we picked our time. This is very deceptive, they tell you to pick the time you think you will finish in and be honest. well for the not so strong swimmer this sounds good. However they way they do the timing is a bit dodgey. If you might take over the 70 min you need to start as far front as possible as they start the 70 min timer when the last person goes across the start time. This proved to be an issue for Brandon and I. Anthony is a strong swimmer and was able to make the swim with ease. I cut is very close at 1h8m and Brandon got caught up and was pulled from the course at 1h13m. So if we would have started sooner we could have had more time for a grace period and everyone would have at least finished.
After the swim it was onto the bike! as you can see I was loaded down with Nutrition.
So happy to see this point of the bike course. It means I was in the BIC and just a few kilometers left. Still feeling strong.
The run proved to be the most challenging to me. At this point I had to pee so bad I couldnt stand it. The issue was my kit, I was not able to get the suspenders off with out help getting them back on. So I suffered and just kept running and the road took my mind off the call to nature.
At this point Brandon and Anthony were running beside me and telling my that my time was running out!
Knowing what days this was on I took two days off of work. This was to give myself plenty of time to settle down and try to keep calm without the stress from the job. The morning of Dec 8th 2016 I woke up early and got on the horn with crew, Brandon and Anthony of course. We had already planned out the day and knew we were headed down the second they opened. In fact we were the first ones to collect our race packers. We were met by the IronMan crew that flew in to help support and basically run the event. It was a bit confusing but we made our way through the packet pick up and then it was onto seeing our friends at the TriLife booth and everyone that was as eager as we were. We stayed for several hours and took it all in!
Over the course of the next day it was tense and we still had house chores to take care of and get to the business of packing the transition bags that IronMan provides you. they are color coded so it is a bit easier to remember as you are moving around and to account for nervous mistakes. The packing of these bags took me quite some time and was not a pack once evolution, I packed, unpacked, packed, and repacked a few times. You know I skipped over a few things, we had some serious excitement during the last TriLife group ride, we got to ride with some of the Bahrain Endurance 13 Team Members to include Jan Fordeno and Javier Gomez!
Thats right this kid from Parkersburg, WV got to meet the Olympic Gold Medal, 2x IronMan world champ!
Javier Gomez was just coming back from an injury but was lighting fast on the bike!
...so back to the packing thing. CRAZY and intense. There is just a crazy amount of prep. Like I said you pack and repack.
After a 30 minutes of focus I was able to make sense of it all. There was actually room for everything in there. Your wetsuit even fits into one of these bags. Keep in my mind my wetsuit has a bit more material then the normal triathlete.
The day before the IronMan 70.3 Bahrain my company had its holiday party, not exactly what I wanted to do with my time. It did help me get my mind off all the chatter in my mind. Well we had our bike drop off and then later that night I went down to get try for a Bahrain Endurance 13 Cap! I didnt make it in time to get the cap but I was able to have a nice chat and grab a pic with the fastest IM70.3 winner on the planet!
Then it was time. 0430 Dec 10th 2016 was upon me.
Got the sticker put on with little effort and then the kit. A small energy packed breakfast and then out the door. The wife took good care to get me all sorted, don't forget that I told you I forgot something. So Brandon and I packed the car and headed to the event. Got a good parking spot and headed to the T1 and the bike racks to do the final prep and turn in the day clothes bag. While hanging out in the bike rack area we ran into all the Pros and our friends. We all suited up in our wetsuits and got ready to head to the start line.....wait wear are my swim goggles. That is absolutely right, I had forgotten my swim goggles. WHAT THE HECK!!!!! After a few seconds of intense panic I started asking if anyone had a spare set, I mean all the checklists tell you to pack two and I didnt even pack one. After about a solid minute of freaking out I ran over to Abdulmoshen (owner of TriLife) and asked him what I should do. He just smiled and gave a little laugh and said he brought some from the shop. Thank you Abdulmoshen!!!!!! Saved my first IronMan 70.3.
Well Brandon and I got all sorted and made our way to the start line. it was a rolling start so we picked our time. This is very deceptive, they tell you to pick the time you think you will finish in and be honest. well for the not so strong swimmer this sounds good. However they way they do the timing is a bit dodgey. If you might take over the 70 min you need to start as far front as possible as they start the 70 min timer when the last person goes across the start time. This proved to be an issue for Brandon and I. Anthony is a strong swimmer and was able to make the swim with ease. I cut is very close at 1h8m and Brandon got caught up and was pulled from the course at 1h13m. So if we would have started sooner we could have had more time for a grace period and everyone would have at least finished.
After the swim it was onto the bike! as you can see I was loaded down with Nutrition.
The run proved to be the most challenging to me. At this point I had to pee so bad I couldnt stand it. The issue was my kit, I was not able to get the suspenders off with out help getting them back on. So I suffered and just kept running and the road took my mind off the call to nature.
At this point Brandon and Anthony were running beside me and telling my that my time was running out!
And after 8 hours 15 minutes and 56 seconds I crossed the finish line for my first IronMan70.3!
There are so many things I learned. Nutrition was the biggest thing next to training. Cheat on either on and you are only cheating yourself. Gear is secondary, its all about heart and fortitude.
...until the next adventure!!!!
