This is the first race report I’ve written so I’m not entirely sure of what all to include. But from what I understand, these are useful for others looking to train for Ironman so hopefully this helps if that’s you:
Pre-race:
First of all, I’ll say that I was extremely confident during the days leading up the race. After nearly a full year of consistent training and a couple of races early in the season that allowed me to practice transitions, the idea of completing a 144 mile triathlon definitely seemed within my reach. But my main concern with Ironman were with the “4th and 5th sports” that would make or break my race no matter the physical condition I was in: pacing and nutrition. In order to set myself up for my very best race, my coach Eugene O’donnell put together an extremely thorough race plan. Rather than go into great detail, I’ll summarize our plan with a piece of wisdom that he emphasized to me over and over: “there’s no such thing as a great bike followed by a bad run”.
Race Morning:
After the usual early morning chaos of getting transition set-up, I arrived at the swim start about an hour before the 7:30 am start, which gave me plenty of time to relax. I definitely felt nervous as my body was ready to begin. As the start approached, I continued to sip on water and planned on taking an espresso flavored hammer gel and an endurolyte 5 minutes out (important not to take this too early). Once we began to move toward the start line, I went ahead and peeled off the top of the gel packet with the anticipation of eating it soon. But when I looked down a couple minutes later, I noticed that I had already squeezed about half the gel out all over my hand. I licked up what I could and didn't worry much knowing that these were the least vital calories of the day and that the mess would wash off quickly once I jumped in the water.
Swim:
The 2.4 mile downriver swim felt great. Truthfully, once I hopped in the water I was little concerned with the distance I was about to travel, and my mind quickly moved on to what would be a much greater obstacle: transitioning out of the water and onto the bike. I experienced some minor cramping in both my abdomen and right foot towards the latter half of the swim but this just reminded me to rest my legs and reduce my kick even more in preparation for the leg-heavy remainder of the day. I had planned to increase my kick 200m out to get them warmed up for the bike, but the distance between where I was and the finish line was fairly difficult to assess in the moment. In hindsight, I wish I had looked at a map of the swim course to gauge the distance from bridge landmarks to finish.
T1:
Out of the water and onto the bike. I had a volunteer help unzip my swim skin as I ran up to the gear bags. Once in the change tent, I quickly threw on my bike shoes and put my nutrition in the back of my jersey. I decided to run with my bike shoes since I haven't yet practiced the art of a flying start was happy to get on the road. In the future, I would try to putting nutrition in my jersey before the swim and start with shoes on bike for a faster transition.
Bike:
I felt great at the beginning of the bike with fresh legs. My main concern though was not the 116 mile distance I was about to bike. I knew I was prepared for the distance. But perhaps the only thing on the course I was not prepared for and the only thing that could have possibly kept me from becoming an ironman was bike mechanical issues. Truthfully, I had never ridden with the set of race wheels that were on my bike, which was a huge gamble but one I deemed worth taking since I trusted Atlanta Cycling (who put them on) and more practically because it had rained the couple of days prior to the race, making road condition potentially dangerous.
At about mile 10, I noticed that my stomach was feeling a little tight. Looking down to see if anything was wrong, I saw that my swim skin was still on. After a few minutes of freaking out and trying to think of any way I could possible take it off during the ride, I decided that my best option was to leave it alone and remain positive by reminding myself that the extra compression would be beneficial to my legs. Throughout the course of the ride, only 3 (of many) people who passed me mentioned it. 2 were nice about it, admitting they had made the same mistake before and reassured me that I was just fine. The third asked me if I knew I still had my swim skin on as if I was oblivious to it (less respect for that guy).
My nutrition remained fairly close to race plan throughout the bike. The goal was 90 calories from two bottles of heed (270 calories each, one of which was in special needs) and hammer gel (90 calories per packet) as well as one endurolyte extreme every 30 minutes and I held that up well thanks to my handy Garmin 910xt until maybe 4 hours in when I must have gotten distracted and lost track of where I was for a few minutes before regaining my cadence. Outside of that, there were two minor hiccups in my nutrition. The first came about 2.5 hours in when I threw up a little in my mouth after a swig of heed. The second was due to the fact that I drank so much water. I was shooting for about one bottle of 25 ounces per hour, but in hindsight that was probably too much for a cloudy day (although I’d much rather drink too much water than too little). This brought about the issue of having to pee while on the bike, something I had never done before. After some initial hesitation, I was finally able to relieve myself but realized that I had to stop pedaling in order to do so. This was perhaps the biggest obstacle I faced for the entirety bike course as there were 5 occasions when I had to stop pedaling for a moment to take care of business. Looking back, I wish I had drank a little less water on the bike.
The only other issue I had on the bike was special needs, where I grabbed my second bottle of heed (although I was prepared with extra calories in case it was not there for me). The issue I ran into was trying to throw away an empty bag (weightless bags don’t travel too far). After working up enough strength to toss it far, I gave it a whirl and the bag’s string got caught on my brake handle, nearly causing me to lose my balance and crash. I was eventually able to hand it to the a volunteer, but this near-crash scared me enough to relax and take it easy for a minute.
The real win on the bike course for me was in the fact that I finished feeling good, with plenty of nutrition/hydration and no mechanical issues that required me to stop. Coming into transition, I couldn't wait to start passing all of the "uber cyclists". I rolled into transition with a smile knowing that I was about to start a relatively fresh marathon.
T2:
After dismounting the bike, I decided to take my shoes off right away before grabbing my run gear bag. As I headed into the change tent, I joked with a volunteer that I was finally ready to take my swim suit off. Before embarking on the run course, I did take a moment to use the porta jon (definitely did not want to think about having to pee while running).
Run:
At the start of the run I was smiling from ear to ear, not only because I saw my parents and triathlete friends but also because I knew that nothing would stop me from becoming an ironman that day, Pacing was still a concern in the back of my mind (my last marathon in April 2014 was a walk to the finish because of poor pacing) but with all the fans you see mile one, it's definitely hard to hold back. When I saw Dynamo coach Matthew Rose, he yelled at me to slow down going uphill, which knocked me back into reality for a little while as I did my best to follow his advice. Passing everyone who had passed me on the bike was true highlight of my day. At about mile 2, I finally found someone who was running my pace. It was actually pro triathlete Greg Close who was on his second lap of the course. We paced each other for about 6 miles until I let him go as he picked up his pace to the finish. I knew that it wouldn’t hurt to save up for the hills and the second lap that were still to come. Continuing along, I stuck with my nutrition plan of water at every aid station and gel/endurolyte every 30 minutes (or every 4 miles) until about mile 18 or so when I stopped taking gel and switched to Gatorade/cola at every aid station but continued endurolyte intake.
Running by the country club each time was particularly enjoyable for me despite the hilly terrain since I had the great support of the Sharber family who had hosted me for the weekend. It was also the spot where I reunited with my ATC teammate Daniel Thomas on the second lap at mile 22 or so, and we ran together toward the finish. After coming across the bridge the second time with less than a mile to go is when I saw my other fellow ATC members, Tim Myers, and we ran with each other down the final hill to the finish. The support of the crowd helped me maintain energy and confidence the entire day. Ted Morris and Jerome Feuiltault were two guys who I saw most frequently and provided me with a definite boost of energy from their contagious enthusiasm.
Finish:
Crossing the finish line was an incredible feeling of completion. It was great to reunite and share the moment with teammates, family and friends. I was not entirely hungry but did my best to down some pizza and fruit to replace some of the energy I had exhausted throughout the day. I walked over to the medical tent for a brief analysis of my vitals (memories from my last marathon where I camped out there with a 93 temp were still front of mind). Once they agreed I was good to go, I went for a much-needed foot massage (need wider racing shoes) and reminded myself that I had earned the right relax for a little while.
Crossing the finish line was an incredible feeling of completion. It was great to reunite and share the moment with teammates, family and friends. I was not entirely hungry but did my best to down some pizza and fruit to replace some of the energy I had exhausted throughout the day. I walked over to the medical tent for a brief analysis of my vitals (memories from my last marathon where I camped out there with a 93 temp were still front of mind). Once they agreed I was good to go, I went for a much-needed foot massage (need wider racing shoes) and reminded myself that I had earned the right relax for a little while.
Recap:
Hard work and preparation goes into completing triathlons of any distance, but Ironman is unlike anything I’ve experienced in my athletic career. Ironman has been a goal of mine since watching Kona on TV as a kid, but it was a goal that I did not think I was even near ready to achieve until everything fell into place for me last year when the tri-community in and around Atlanta propelled me to exceed my own expectations. There’s no way I could have competed in Ironman without a long list of people who helped me get there. Although I’m sure to have forgotten some folks, I have done my best to compile a list of friends, family, teammates, coaches whose tremendous advice and support helped get me to the finish line:
Eugene O’Donnell
Mary/Rick Gossett
The Sharber Family
Bethany/John Rutledge
Matthew Rose
Gary Lucero
Maria Thrash
Tim Myers
Ted Morris
George Darden
Tim Newberg
Rick Alvarez
Jerome Feuiltault
Kathryn Taylor
Stuart Makinson
Rob King
Allison Leppke
Trey Kitchens
Jim Boylan
Chandler Creel
Charlie Holder
Christopher Hunt
Susie Kelly
Laura Bender
Chris Nasser
Gordon Powell
Adam Heiser
Brent Pease
Matt Cole
Stephanie Ely-Stonich
Andrei Lozovik
Daniel Thomas
Heather/Dave Gill
Ron Teed
I’m grateful to share this achievement with you all!
Matt Gossett
Ironman ‘15
