Ironman Race Report

I just want to start out saying that this was one of the toughest things that I have ever done, but was well worth the effort and it was for a great cause.

Race day started off ok.  I wasn’t expecting to get much sleep, but I actually slept pretty well the night before the race.  I woke up at 4 AM, fixed my pre-race breakfast and headed down to the race for body marking and to put air in my tires.  After that, I headed up to the room and watched TV for about an hour to get my mind off the race.  At 6:30, it was time to pack up and head back down there to start the race.

SWIM:

We said a quick prayer, watched the pros start off and then the National Anthem was sung.  At 7 AM sharp, the cannon went off and we were off for a 2.4 mile swim.  I had done a practice swim in the ocean the 3 days leading up to the race, so I was ready for what it had waiting for me.  Wednesday was very rough and would have been a rough day if it had been like that.  Thursday was still rough, but not as bad.  Friday was like swimming in a lake.  The forecast was for there to be less wind than Friday, which would make the waves even better, but it didn’t quite work out that way.  They were not horrible, but bad enough to make the swim challenging.

I took off from the far right and went out fast at the first to get out ahead of the crowd.  I may have started out too fast because I started feeling it after about 300 yards and had to slow down.  Because of the waves, it was hard to see the buoys that identified the course, but I swam along and followed everyone else.  It was very congested with a few thousand people all trying to swim in the same piece of water.  I had people going every which direction over the top of me, but I just stayed relaxed and kept moving forward.  Then, we approached the first turn buoy, which was a mess.  I had been warned not to get close to the buoy, so I stayed about 30 feet away from it and it was still congested with everyone trying to cut the corner.  I got good at pushing people out of the way so that I could get where I needed to get.  I was happy with myself though, I never panicked and kept moving forward.

Eventually, we turned back towards shore and some interesting things happened.  First, I was able to meet the fastest swimmer on the course, unfortunately, he swims like I hit a golf ball and was headed back and forth going right over the top of me in the process.  I say he was the fastest swimmer because to be able to keep up with me as much as he was going side to side, he had to have been.  When I finally shook him, I came up on a girl that had the strongest kick that I have ever seen a triathlete have.  Most triathletes don’t kick that hard because they are saving their legs for the rest of the day, but she did and she kicked her feet to the tune of the jaws music when the shark was getting ready to attack.  I was just wishing that it was just the kicking and that a shark was not getting ready to come at that point.  There was pushing and shoving the entire first lap, but I finally made it to shore and I was dumb enough to get back in the water and do it again.

The second lap was pretty uneventful.  It felt like the waves weren’t as bad and I had my own space most of the lap.  It took me 5 minutes longer to swim it, but it seemed shorter.  When the lap was over, I got out of the water and ran straight to the wetsuit stripper.  I had already pulled my arms out of my suit and just flopped on my back and let him pull it off.  After that, I ran past my mom, said hi to her and headed to the make shift shower.  This was my first lesson learned of the day.  I was in a hurry and pushed through the shower, but shortly into the bike I was regretting that decision.  My swim time was 1:15:46, which put me in 947th place out of around 2600.  When I ran past the bike racks, I was pleased to see that there were a lot of bikes still there, but I was hoping for a swim time less than 1:10.

BIKE: 

After a picking up my Bike Gear bag, putting on my helmet and bike shoes and grabbing my bike, it was time to head out on the bike.  The first mishap on the bike happened at the mount line.  I wanted to get out ahead of everyone trying to mount their bikes, but it was so congested that there was no way around them.  I mounted my bike and clipped in to my pedals when the guy in front of me crashed and took out two others.  I was able to slam on my breaks and unclip without going down, but that got my heart rate up for a second.  When I finally got out on the bike, it was a pretty smooth ride.  I had ridden the first 14 miles earlier in the week and knew what to expect.  I was focused on keeping my power down to save something for the run.  In the process, several guys flew past me going around 20 mph, but I stayed focused and thought they looked cool on the bike, but I kicked their butt on the swim.  

On the bike, there were aid stations about every 10 miles.  I need to figure out how to get those on my training rides.  They have water, sports drinks, bananas, and gels just holding them out so you can grab them on the go.  Some of the aid stations were harder than others because they got crowded.  I grabbed a bottle of water at every aid station and occasionally a banana.  I had my own gel in my back pocket, so I didn’t bother with any of that.  The ride was rather flat.  There were a few small inclines, but nothing I would call a hill.  The toughest part of the bike was on a road around the half way point that was extremely bumpy.  There were people losing all sorts of things off their bike on this road, to include one guy that lost a CO2 cartridge that bounced off the ground and came up and hit me in the chest.  I was so glad to get off the bike.

I also had an issue with my eyes burning for a good part of the bike.  There were times that I couldn't see anything and thought I was going to crash.  I stoped at a few aid stations and flushed them with water, but they never stopped burning.

My favorite part of the bike was all of the signs that people took the time out to put on the side of the road.  There were some signs that said things like “don’t poop on yourself” to “don’t you wish you would have taken up bowling.”  There were other motivational quotes to lift you up when you don’t want to quit.  There were some signs that really touched me with a picture of a kid wearing an Ironman costume that said “Daddy, lets both be an Ironman.”  One sign that struck home said, “this sounded like a good idea 364 days ago,” referring to everyone who signed up for the race the day after last year’s race.  There were also several people on the side of the road cheering for us, even two guys wearing nothing but a Speedo.  The volunteers were also great making sure that we kept our spirits up while we passed by.

By the end of the bike, I was ready to get off that saddle.  112 miles is a long way, regardless of how hilly the course is.  I finished the bike in 6:44:44, which was 16.6 mph.  It wasn’t as fast as I would have liked, but I was done and it was time to go for a run.  The big pick me up was seeing my dad and Brett on the side of the course cheering for me as I was headed in, and Annette was out there about a quarter mile from the finish.

RUN:

After getting off the bike, I ran into the changing area to change shoes and get ready to head out for a marathon.  They had chairs set up in the changing area and sitting on that chair to change shoes felt so good that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get up.  Eventually, I had to and I was surprised that I actually felt good.  I took off running and looked down at my watch and noticed that I was running an 8 min/mile pace.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep that up for long, so I slowed down to a 9:30 pace and was able to keep that for about 3 miles, only slowing at aid stations, but then the blisters came.  I made a huge mistake of running in my race shoes the day before, right before the time that I had to throw them in the bag and turn them in for the race.  They were soaked when I put them in the bag and they never dried out, so I started the run with soaked feet.  That caused so much friction that my feet were hurting extremely bad and I still had 23 miles to run.

I made a decision to walk a mile and see if it got better, but it didn’t.  I tried running several times, but didn’t hold up for very long.  A few times, I made it half a mile, sometimes only a tenth, but I tried running several times.  I wound up walking the majority of the marathon, but I was walking at a pretty brisk pace on the sides of my feet, which were the only place that was not blistered.  It was rough, but I made it through.  The run course was a two loop course that gave me the opportunity to see several of my friends and some of the pro women that were finishing up.  The first loop was cool and mostly in the day light.  When I made the turn around, it had just turned dark, so I had to go at it one more time in complete darkness.  They handed out glow sticks so that cars could see us.  At the turn around, I grabbed my special needs bag, which had something that was a blessing for about a half a mile, a dry pair of socks.  They felt good, but didn’t stay dry for long since my shoes were soaked.  I was able to run for about a mile again at that point, but then it was back to my walking routine.  

Out on the run course, there were several aid stations that had everything that you could dream of.  I became very fond of hot chicken broth which had enough sodium to keep my legs going and was warm going down.  They also had water, sports drinks, cookies, grapes, oranges, bananas, gels and defizzed coke.  It was also nice to have someone cheering for you every mile.  There were places out there where it was pitch black and no street lights and the aid stations were a great pick me up.  There were parties at a few places where they had strobe lights going, music blasting and people standing on the streets cheering for us as we came by.  It was an exciting night and something that makes me want to do this race again someday.  Even though I walked most of the marathon, my average pace was 13:58/mile.

FINISH:

Now for the best part of the day, I was on the last quarter mile of the run where you turn towards the finish line.  There were a few people in front of me and I looked back and there was nobody in sight behind me, so I let the people in front of me get a good lead before I started running to the finish because I wanted the finish line to myself.  As soon as I could see the finish, I forgot about my feet and took off.  I ran to the line and heard the famous words that I was waiting to hear for a long time, “Eric Potter, You are an IRONMAN!!!”  It didn’t matter how tired I was, I had the energy to put a big smile on my face, get my finisher’s medal, t-shirt and hat and walk out to a huge hug from Brett.  Hannah started to give me one too, but she said I was too sweaty.  It was great to finish this and to have my family with me for this great day.  Annette walked with me and they were giving out pizza, so I took 4 pieces because I hadn’t eaten anything solid (other than fruit) all day long.  I had a goal to finish in less than 14 hours and I didn’t quite meet it, finishing in 14:23:45.

INSPIRATION:

There were many things that totally inspired me during this adventure.  People like John Hanna, who 6 weeks ago had a bike wreck that broke his shoulder and would have put most people out of completing a race like this, but John not only did the race, he had a smile on his face the whole time.  There were also two firefighters who did the race in a firefighter outfit with an oxygen tank on the back to represent fallen firefighters.  One of them passed me as I was headed towards the finish as she was starting her last lap and I had to stop and let her know that she was doing great.  I also met a girl in the Ironman store who broke her wrist in a bike crash during the race.  She had on a full cast that she had gotten after the race, but she said it wasn’t going to stop her from finishing and she finished the bike and an entire marathon with a broken wrist.  That made my blisters seem like nothing.

The other inspiration that I had is the whole reason that I got into this endeavor.  My son Brett and other Little People around the world have inspired me that just because you have a condition that makes some of the things that we take for granted more difficult, you can still accomplish your goals.  This is not my last Ironman, I love the challenge of something like this and the great friends that I have made along the way.  I am honored to have raised over $1000 for the Dwarf Athletic Association of America and for those who did not have the financial means to donate at this time, I feel that I have raised awareness for a cause that is special to my heart and the blisters on the bottom of my feet are worth it for the people that have become more aware of this great cause because of me completing one of the toughest single day endurance events.  

It is not too late to donate to the cause if you are interested.  You can read about the cause and make a donation at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html.

As I get pictures, I will upload some of them to the blog as well. 

Thank you guys for hanging with me on this journey.

I am an Ironman

I promised to upload my race report by this morning, but I have been a little sorer than planned.  I will make this a priority tonight and it will be posted by tomorrow morning.  Sorry for the delay, I know several of you were looking forward to my post.  I do have some very interesting and inspirational stories to tell about when this is posted tomorrow.

Eric

I would like to thank those of you who have shown appreciation for the work that I have put forward in preparing for my Ironman race in support of raising awareness of the Dwarf Athletic Association of America.  I would also like to thank those who have donated to the cause.  To date, I have raised $935 and I hope that number exceeds $1000 before it is all over.  All of those proceeds are going directly to support of the Dwarf World Games that will take place next August at Michigan State University.  I just heard that they are expecting over 500 children and adults from all over the world participate in this event.  If you would like more information on the cause I am supporting, you can visit my site at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html.

I have received several requests for how I can be tracked during the event.  There are a few options available, depending on the amount of data that you are interested in.  My bib number will be 1791.  They include:

1.       I have purchased a GPS receiver that will give the ability to track me the entire time I am on the course (after the swim).  You can download a free iPad/iPhone App or track it online via this website.  http://www.myathletelive.com/events.  Just find my name under Ironman Florida.  It is not up yet, but should be by race day.

2.       You can also track me on http://www.ironman.com/coverage/live.aspx#axzz2AzDDw4zk .  This will allow you see where I stand as I cross timing mats at various places around the course.  Just find Ironman Florida and click on track and athlete.  You can find me by my bib (1791) or typing my last name.  The website can be a little frustrating to navigate and there is another option to get the same data by purchasing the IronTrac  iPhone app for around $1 at iTunes.  For more information on this app, you can go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/irontrac/id489168542?mt=8.

I will be updating my blog either Sunday night or early Monday morning to let you know how my day went.  You can access my blog at http://littleironmantraining.blogspot.com/.

Thanks to all of you for your support,

Eric

2 Weeks Left

It is hard to believe that 2 weeks from today, I will be in Panama City completing my first Ironman. There are days that go by where I think "what was I thinking," and there are days where I think "I can't wait."  I am starting to get nervous, this has been a long year of tough training, losing around 50 pounds and I feel better than I did in the days that I thought I was in great shape.

This week, I was fortunate to get an opportunity to spend a week at the Boeing Leadership Center in St. Louis.  I met some great people and established some releationships that I hope will last a lifetime in addition to the great training that I earned as a result.  But, it is not the best place to spend a few weeks before doing an ironman.  I was able to keep my fitness in reasonable shape, but most of the classes didn't end until right around dark with the exception for Tuesday and Wednesday, and if you watched the Cardinals game on Wednesday, you might recall that the weather was horrible and they even delayed for a few hours, so I only had to opportunity to get out on the trails 1 night.  I spent a good bit of time in the gym while I was there and somehow managed still lose a half pound.  For those of you who have never been to the leadership center, that is significant because they are known for having tons of great food everywhere you go.

I have a tough weekend of training ahead of me, but it is getting really close to taper time and I think my body is looking forward to it.

I hope to be able to update my blog next week to status everyone on how you can track me during the race if you are interested and give you my bib number. 

Also, don't forget to go to my fundraising site and support the charity that has touched me so much. 

http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html

Atomic Man

Only 1 month away from Ironman Florida.

Sunday was my final race in my journey towards my first Ironman.  I competed in the Atomic Man Half Ironman Distance Triathlon in Lenoir City, TN (just outside of Knoxville).  I felt like I was prepared for the race, having done swim, bike and run training that was much longer than this race.

The race started a little late because one of the buoys had drifted away and they had to reposition it.  When they were finally ready to start, I was in the first group to go and we took off.  I felt like the swim went pretty well, I didn't push too hard because I wanted to make sure that I finished, but when it was over, I felt like I should have pushed it a little harder.  I always have trouble getting into a good pace on the swim because I know I can swim faster, but in a long distance open water swim, there is no place to rest, so I try to preserve myself.  At the end, I had a respectable swim time, but I could have probably shaved a few minutes off.  I hope I can find somewhere to get a few open water swims in before the race.  My official 1.2 mile swim time was 38 minutes, I was hoping for around 1:05 for my 2.4 mile Ironman swim time, so I need to get out a little faster to get there.

Next came the bike and my day of adventures began.  The race course starts out with 7 miles out and up a hill that they call "cry baby hill."  It was tough, but more because it was cold than it was a tough hill.  It was not nearly as tough as some of the hills that I had done in training, so I was prepared for it.  The bad part about hills is that 100 lb girls fly past me getting up the hill, but my 200 lbs uses gravity to its advantage and returns the favor on the way down.  The bike was going pretty well until I reached the second turn around point around mile 20.  I started noticing that I was feeling every pebble in the road as I was going along, but I wasn't sure why.  I quickly found out as we got to a turnaround point and I about wiped out.  I looked down and saw that my tire was flat and thought, ok I have 2 tubes on my bike, so I can just fix it.  Well, it wasn't as easy as I thought.  I was using my race wheels, which have valve extenders and I could not figure out how to bleed the air out of the tires and I couldn't get the tire off to remove the tube because the tube was half full.  I tried to force it off, but in the process, I broke both of my tire levers.  I worked on it for about 15 minutes before the maintenance guy cam by and helped me get it off.  I finally got back on the road, but I think just about everyone passed me in the process of trying to change the tire. 

I made it about 10 miles on this tube before flat #2 hit me.  I had one more tube and an two broken tire levers and this one was completely flat, so I was able to change it.  I fixed it and got back on the road within a few minutes.  About 5 miles later, flat #3 came and this time I had no extra tube, so I went ahead and removed the tube and tried to figure out what my next option would be.  Honestly, quitting crossed my mind at this point, but I was 10 miles away from anything, so I was going to have to wait for a maintenance vehicle anyway to get a ride back in, so I was just hoping he had an extra tube that he could let me have to finish up and get to the run.  Luckily, he did, but I lost alot of time waiting for him to come by.  That wasn't the last time I saw him, I flatted one more time right before the turn to go back up the hills to the transition area.  We changed my tire and I was able to finish, but I was a little nervous about the down hill because I didn't want to have flat #5 while I was going 40 mph down the hill, so I rode the brakes a little.  At the end, we found a small piece of glass that was stuck in the tire that was protruding through and puncturing my tires.  I am still going to take my tire into the shop to verify that there is not something else.  In all, I lost 55 minutes on the bike waiting for help and changing tires.  That does not include the time that I was being cautious because I didn't want to flat again.

I finally got through that adventure and it was time to run a half marathon.  It was hard to stay motivated on the race at that point because I was still a little frustrated.  The course was extremely hilly and I don't like running hills.  I did have to walk alot up the hills, but I made a conscious effort to not walk when it was down hill or flat.  It was not my best run performance, but I still was able to complete the run in a decent time.  I was glad for it to be over and I can't wait for Ironman Florida, where there are no hills.

Ultimately, I did not reach my goal time of 6 hours, but I was not much over that time if you take away the 55 minutes that I lost because of flat tires.  And to make it worse, when I went back to pick up my bike, the same tire was flat again.

Don't forget to read about my purpose in all of this at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html and feel free to consider donating to this great cause.

I'm a Terrible Blogger - But Back

Don't forget to read about my purpose in all of this at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html and feel free to consider donating to this great cause.

When I started this effort to raise money and awareness for the Dwarf Athletic Association of America, I went at this with great plans to maintain a blog and update it weekly so that those interested could follow what I am doing.  As the training load has started to increase and other activities have gotten in the way, that hasn’t quite gone as well as I had planned.  It has been 2 months since I have posted an update and I apologize. Since my last post, there have been some really good things happen and some not so good things.  I will be very brief on each of these because it would be a book if I included all of the details.  Here is a highlight of the events and key accomplishments that I have accomplished over the past few months:

1.       Completed Music City Triathlon in Nashville.  I was a little disappointed because they shortened the swim.  They said because the current was too strong, but I didn’t understand.  I guess that was a make-up for the extended swim at Lake Guntersville.  I had a pretty good swim at this race, a really nice bike (for me) and a collapse on the run.  The run was extremely hot, and if you have ever been to downtown Nashville, you know what the hills are like through there.  After 2 laps of those hills, I was happy to finish.  I still wasn’t able to beat that coveted 3 hour mark for an Olympic Distance race.  The best part of this race was the day before in the kids duathlon.  Both of my kids competed.  Brett gave everything he had, even though he is not the most athletic person, it inspired me to see him cross the finish line still putting his heart into it.  Hannah, on the other hand, didn’t look like she was trying that hard, but she is just gifted.  We moved her up in age group to the 5-6 year olds, even though she is only 4.  She beat every 5 year old in the race and several 6 year olds.  I wish I had her ability.

2.       I had a good time at the Summer Sizzler Super Metric Century.  It had one tough climb up Nat Mountain, but was a very scenic ride of a little over 70 miles. 

3.       The next major event came at the Huntsville Sprint Triathlon.  I did not compete in this race, it was my turn to pay back the favor of watching the kids while I was spectating.  It was Annette’s first triathlon and we had the opportunity to cheer her on.  She did great, beating her expectation by almost 10 minutes.  Brandon, my brother-in-law, also competed in his first race that day and almost broke the 1 hour mark.  I was proud of both of them and I think they are hooked (more on that later).

4.       The next weekend was the Rocketman Triathlon.  I started this race saying that I am going to beat that 3 hour mark no matter what, and I shattered it, finishing in 2 hours and 43 minutes.  I had a great swim, my fastest bike split yet and a decent run, although it did still have some walking on it.  I did learn one valuable thing, don’t walk up a hill when you are passing John Hanna or you will get an earful.  It did motivate me to push a little harder than normal though, so I can’t complain.

5.       So, back to Annette getting hooked on triathlon, 3 weeks after her first race, we discovered that there is a race not far from my parent’s condo in Gulf Shores that has an Olympic distance and Sprint distance race at the same time.  I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to have an ocean swim before Ironman Florida and she could do her second, so I made the proposal.  I was shocked that she didn’t even have to think about it, she just said yes.  So, we packed up and headed down to the beach for the race.  The sprint race started first and I was able to cheer Annette on as she did her entire swim.  I walked up to transition to give her one last jolt of motivation before I walked back down to the beach to get started for my race.  She had an excellent race, finishing 3rd in her age group, I am so proud of her.  She said that we just made this a permanent weekend trip every year.  The Olympic distance race started after everyone from the sprint race finished their swim.  The swim was a 2 loop swim of 750 meters each.  I had a great first loop, but the second loop was a little congested because the slower swimmers were just getting started.  It was fun swimming in the ocean like that and I went on to have my best swim yet.  I got out on my bike and had a decent time, but didn’t feel like I was going very fast and my heart rate was really high.  I am not sure what was going on, but it must have been the wind.  It was still a fun ride though.  Then, it was time to start the 10K run.  The first mile felt great, but then it all fell apart.  The foot injury that I has bothered me all year got worse than ever and I wound up walking the last 5 miles.  I was disappointed because I wanted to beat my Rocketman time and fell short by more than 10 minutes, but I did beat the 3 hour mark.

6.       The next order of business was to visit Dr. Walter Olsen.  He pulled out his laser and went to work on my foot.  I have made it a week and some pretty tough runs with no pain.  This may seem like a minor event, but I think it was the most important.

7.       The last event to talk about on this post is the All-You-Can-Eat Century ride.  It was really 108.5 miles and it was tough.  This was a big confidence boost because if I can make it through this ride, I can make it through the flat ride at Ironman Florida.  I felt great on this ride, even at the end, and the all-you-can-eat noodles from Nothing but Noodles made it even better.  I will say that I did not make good friends with Skyline Mountain though, that climb to the top was tough.

I will do my best to update this weekly.  I don't have any races this week, but it will be a good training week. 

Another cool thing about my training up to this point, I have been keeping a little log of the number of miles that I have swam, biked and run.  After the century ride, my total distance was 3237 miles, which is more than the driving distance from Bangor, ME to San Diego, CA.

Don't forget to read about my purpose in all of this at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html and feel free to consider donating to this great cause. 

Its been a while

I apologize if this is lengthy, but its been a while since the last time that I posted on my blog and I have alot of things to cover.  They say that there are always road blocks when you go forward to becoming an ironman and this past month was definitely a speed bump.  Don't forget to go to my fundraising site at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html.

To start with, Annette got word that her mother's cancer had taken the turn for the worst and that she only had a week or two left, so with little discussion, we decided that she needed to be in Germany.  I am so thankful that she was able to spend the last week with her before she finally passed away.  It was a very sad time for the family, but we pulled through.  The kids are still too young to really understand what happened, but they occasionally start crying because they miss Oma.  We all miss her.

When Annette left, it wasn't the best thing for my training either, although I would give up a few weeks of training anytime under those circumstances.  I spent alot of time on my trainer while she was gone, doing some hard power intervals, but running and swimming was hard to find time to do since I couldn't leave the kids home alone.  My parents helped out a few times and kept them so that I could get a few long runs in, but I didn't get to swim the entire 2 weeks.  Oh well, my body probably needed a little rest time.

We have had a trip to Hawaii scheduled for over a year and we were playing it by ear the entire time.  Annette was pretty sure that we were going, but under the circumstances, you never know.  Her mother died 4 days before we were supposed to head out and we decided that this was an opportunity to get away and get her mind off of things, so we held out plans to spend 2 weeks in Hawaii.

On the first week, we went to Kauai and stayed at the Marriott Kauai Beach Club.  It was a beautiful property on Kalapaki Beach with the largest pool on the island.  I rented a bike from a place called Outfitters Kauai, which seemed like a good bike shop on the internet when I made my reservation.  In reality, it was a tour place and they were not in the road bike business.  Oh well, at least I had the opportunity to ride while I was out there.  On my first morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn, saddled up, and headed out for the ride.  It was sprinkling a little, but I went ahead and rode.  The sprinkles constantly increased until it was flat out pouring around 10 miles out and I decided that it probably wasn't the best place to be on a road bike, so I headed back.  The next day, I gave it another shot and it was beautiful.  I made it about 50 miles and I learned quickly that islands that are formed by volcanos are not flat.  I covered the entire south side of the island.  My legs were shot by the time I was finished.  Later in the week, I rode the entire east side of the island, so I circled half the island. 

I also found an awesome run trail that goes along the beach the entire way.  It was on the east side of the island and running that trail at sun rise is a sight that you can not put into words.  I was not able to swim much, except for playing with the kids in the pool, because the ocean surf was horrible.  This would have been ideal if I would have been training for the surfing championships, but I am training for an ironman, so that didn't work for me.

The highlight of the week was a kayak tour on the Wailua River to the sacred falls.  I definitely recommend this trip and we will do it again the next time we are there.

After a week on Kauai, we traveled to my favorite island, Maui.  My first stop after getting checked into the hotel was at West Maui Cycles, where they had excellent rentals.  I asked the guy at the shop for suggested bike routes and he told me that the West Maui loop was his favorite.  It was a loop that I could get on at my hotel and circle the western half of Maui.  It was the most beautiful ride that I have ever been on, but also the toughest.  It was about 60 miles, with only about 2 of them not having a view of the Pacific Ocean, but it also had about 4500 feet of climbing.  It went through back country where there are no resorts or even houses.  The roads went down to single lane and circled around cliffs that you couldn't see if there was an oncoming car.  Luckily, there were not many cars, so I was safe.  I enjoyed the ride so much that I had to do it again before we left.  I did get out a few times and get a few open water swims in and some really nice runs.

While on Maui, we spend a day on the Four Winds snorkel boat to Molokini.  If you are ever in Maui, that is the best boat to take for this trip.  We also went on a submarine trip, but I would suggest to save your money on that one.  We also snorkeled around Black Rock and Brett was excited that we had a sea turtle swim right next to us.

We have been home for a week and I am back full strength in my training plan.  The first swim was a little tough, but after that, it was like I haven't been away from the pool.

I am headed to Nashville this weekend to do the Music City Olympic distance triathlon.  This will be the first triathlon that I have ever done that is not wetsuit legal, so I am a little nervous, but I know that my swimming is doing great and that will translate to a good swim and a good race overall. 

Cotton Row

This week was a great training week for me, capped off with a 10K at the Cotton Row.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to spend time with John Hannah learning about swim stroke.  It is always a pleasure working with John and I try to soak everything up like a sponge when he is talking about swimming.  My swim times continue to get better, but it sounds like I still have a few flaws in my form that will make me more efficient and faster when I correst them.  John is coming back in a few weeks to spend more quality time with me, so look out Michael Phelps.

I did some killer bike intervals this week.  I feel like I am getting stronger everytime I do them.  I capped off the bike week with a 70 mile ride at an easy power zone.  It is actually hard to keep your power in a low zone, but a good skill to have if you want to be able to run a marathon after you complete a 112 mile bike ride.

On Sunday, it was prep day for the Cotton Row, so the only thing I did with my legs was an easy 30 minute run.  I also took advantage of the trip downtown to pick up my race packet to stop by the gym and get in a quick swim.  I did 25 X 100 yards on a 1:45 pace.  That means that I get 1:45 to complete 100 yards.  If I finish in 1:00, I get 45 seconds rest, but if it takes me 1:45, I get no rest.  I swam pretty hard during this workout and did all 25, never having less than 10 seconds rest.  It wasn't long ago that I could not swim a 100 yard set in less than 1:50 at full strength, now I can do 25 of them at a much faster pace and it doesn't hurt as much.

So, Memorial Day was a beautiful day.  We started off getting the kids up at 5 AM so that we could go to the race.  I toed the line with about 2000 others at 7 AM sharp.  I saw a bunch of people I knew and quickly realized that the Cotton Row is the place to be on Memorial Day.  I can't believe I have never done this race before, but I will definitely be back next year.

My goal for the race was to complete it in under 9 minutes per mile pace, which would have been around 55:45.  I didn't want to focus too much on pace, as form was the most important and finishing a pretty tough 10K (although, this does not compare to how hard the 10K was last week in Guntersville).  The first mile was a huge gaggle of people, everyone getting settled into their pace, several passing me and me passing several.  I just held my pace and took it easy.  When I made it to mile 1, they showed a split time of 8:30, which was 30 seconds less than my goal.  Thoughts started going through my head, was I going too fast and going to slack off and not make my goal?  I decided that I still felt ok, so I stuck with it.  I went to mile 2 and it said 17:00, which meant that I was still on the same pace.  I still didn't feel too bad and this was mostly up hill, so I kept going since it was going to get easier in a little while.  I kept the same pace until around mile 3 when the huge hill came and everyone started walking.  I probably shouldn't have, but I joined in on the walking and it felt good.  When I made it to the top of the hill, there was only one short up hill portion and the next few miles was making up for the big climb that we had made to get back to the bottom.  About a mile into the down hill portion, Natalie Westbrook caught me from behind.  It is probably a good thing because I was dead and was still way faster than my goal, even with the walk up hill, but she said stay with me and lets go.  I hung with her for a few miles, but just couldn't keep up towards the end, but running with her got me to a point that I would not have been, so I was thankful, even though that is not what I was thinking at the time.  I finally made it to the point where I could see the finish line, and I just took off.  It was great to cross the finish line in 54:10, which was 1:25 faster than my goal, or a pace of 8:40 per mile.  I felt strong when I finished and look forward to doing this race next year.  I came in 581 place out of 2013 finishers, which I can live with.

Next, week, we are headed to the beach for a long weekend.  Hopefully, I will get an opportunity for some more great trainig.  I will keep you posted.

Late Update - Cotton Row and Beach Trip

I am a little delinquent on updating this blog, but alot of exciting things have happened over the past few weeks.  I will hit the highlights and hope to provide better update this weekend.

Biggest highlight, the students of Mill Creek Elementary (Brett's School) held a penny drop, where the kids each put in spare change that they could find in their couches at home.  We raised almost $40 for my charity in almost all pennies.  That was awesome that even young kids were able to get involved and make a difference.

The Saturday before last, I did my longest bike ride of the year, which was almost 70 miles.  That is way short of 112 miles, but I am confident that I will be there by November.

On the following day (Sunday), I had a hard swim, followed by an easy run preparing for the Cotton Row 10K.

On Memorial Day, I ran the Cotton Row 10K for the first time.  This is said to be a pretty tough course with the first half being up hill.  My goal was to complete it in 56 minutes and I almost did it in 54 minutes.  That was a great accomplishment, but my real highlight was running the 1 mile fun run with Hannah (my 4 year old) in 12:15.  I think I have an athlete brewing up.

Last week, I had some really tough swims and my times keep coming down.  I am already way below where I thought my goal would be, so I have no idea where I will be on race day, but I look forward to finding out.

Over the weekend, we decided to go to the beach.  That was a great opportunity to get in a few ocean swims, but I was a little nervous about swimming alone, so I stayed close to the shore and only went about 200 yards before I turned around.  I also got stung by a jelly fish, which wasn't pleasant.

Annette's mom isn't doing very well with cancer and Annette and I have decided that she needs to go spend a few weeks with her, so she is headed to Germany this weekend, leaving me with the two kids.  I look forward to spending daddy time with them, but I am a little nervous about getting my training in.  We will see how it works out.  Keep her mom in your prayers.

Talk to you next week,
Eric

Lake Guntersville Olympic Distance Race Report

I made it through my second race of the season yesterday and I had no stomach issues.  That was a big step up considering the big mess up last week.

Yesterday morning, I showed up in Guntersville around 6:15 to make sure everything was ready for the race.  I racked my bike and got my transition area set up for a fast transition and then stood around and talked to some friends for a while while I waited for the race to start.

At about 10 minutes until 8 AM, we all headed out on the dock towards the swim start and jumped in.  We went out in waves of 50, so it wasn't overly crowded and easy for me to get open water to swim in without bumping into other swimmers.  I went out swimming smooth and made sure I kept moving forward.  I didn't want to push too hard because I knew I had a long day ahead, but I wanted to put up a good swim split.  I had a little issue with water in my right goggle, so I did the swim with my right eye closed the whole time.  It was annoying, but I didn't let it keep me from having a good swim.  I did stop a few times to try to adjust the goggles, but as soon as I put my head back in the water, it filled right back up.  It also made it hard to see the buoys so I had to stop to take my goggles off to see where I was going.  Because there were not very many swimmers in my wave and there were only about 10 ahead of me, it was hard to just follow someone else. 

The swim seemed like it was taking longer than it should have.  I planned to swim the entire course in about 25 minutes and I looked at my watch as I passed one of the buoys and it said I had been swimming 27 minutes, and I still had a good ways to go.  I thought that I was doing something wrong because I didn't feel bad and my time is not where I wanted it to be.  I finally got out of the water in 32 minutes.  I was so disappointed at the time because in Knoxville my time was 35 minutes and I was sick the whole time.  This was the same distance and I felt good.  It wasn't until after the race that I found out that one of the buoys had drifted and caused the course to be 500-600 meters longer than it was supposed to be.  The 1500 meter swim course was over 2000 meters and my time was the 27th fastest swim of the day out of around 200 extremely fit athletes.  The course wound up being longer than a half Ironman swim course.

When I got out of the water, Eric Doehrman yelled at me to sit down.  I thought I was in trouble because all I knew at the time was that it took me 32 minutes to do the course, but he just wanted to help me get my wet suit off.  He pulled it off, I headed to my bike put on my helmet and was off on the bike course.

The bike course was uneventful.  Eric and I had agreed that I should keep my power between 170-180 Watts to save my legs for the run course.  I was passed by several folks, but I didn't care, I just stuck to my game plan.  I wound up averaging 177 Watts, which was only about 17.6 mph, but the course was pretty hilly too.  I could have done it better, but I stuck to the plan and was happy with myself.  I did have a little mishap at the end when I tried to get off the bike and I didn't quite get my leg over, which caused me to drop the bike.  I was able to stay on my feet, but I left a little bruise on my thigh.

I had a pretty good transition to the run, putting on my socks, shoes and hat and taking off.  I felt much better this week on the run than I did in Knoxville.  I took off and watched my GPS, waiting to get a little water in at the first aid station.  I kept pushing to keep running through the rolling hills until I made it the 1 mile to the aid station.  I made it to the 1 mile mark and there was no aid station in sight and a mental disappointment hit me, so I walked for a few seconds.  I started back up running until the aid station, but something had hit me that I need to work on in preparation for Ironman because I walked way more on the run course than I should have.

The run course was tough.  It was hot and very hilly.  About 2 miles was on a gravel road that was up and down pretty steep hills where it was difficult to get my footing.  I wasn't the only person walking, especially up and down those hills.  To add insult to injury, on the way back, we passed by the same aid stations that were there when we went out and they were out of water.  They only had power aid, which isn't very good for pouring on your head when you are hot.  I was hoping to run this 10K at an average pace of 9 min/mile, but the walking caused me to have a page of 10:54 min/mile.  There were allot of run times that were slower than mine, but I see that I really need to work on running off the bike.

Overall, I came in 87th place, which is the first time that I have finished a race in the top half.  I have never thought of myself as fast, just someone who goes out to do triathlons, but I am starting to see speed coming every day.  I still have 6 months until Ironman Florida and I have some great lessons learned from this race that I will carry over.  My goal was to do this in under 3 hours, but I did it in 3:07:51.  If it weren't for the extra 8 minutes I spent on the swim, I would have barely made it.

I don't have any races planned for the next few months, just hard training until late July.  I am going to run the 10K at the Cotton Row next weekend and then I am going to do the 1 mile kids run with Hannah. 

Major Milestone

This week marks a major milestone for me.  One year ago, I stepped on my scale and it said 240 lbs.  I had let life take over me and somehow gained enormous amounts of weight without even realizing what had happened.  I knew that something had to change and I said that this is the starting point.

I worked with a few guys (Buford Shipley and Joe Robertson) that were in pretty decent shape and we started running and lifting weights every morning at 6:30 at the office.  After a few months, I had a wild idea that I would buy P90X and we would do it together.  By that time, I was dedicated and we all agreed that we would do it. 

While in the middle of the P90X training, Buford completed Ironman Cour'd Alene and memories of how much I loved triathlon started putting a bug in my head that I could do an Ironman race myself.  I started adding runs and swims in the evenings and off days from P90X, and when we finished, I was in full fledge swim, bike and run training.  I was so excited with my progress that I decided that I wanted to see what Ironman was about, so I went down to Panama City in November and volunteered for Ironman Florida.  I wasn't sure if I was going to register, but it was something that I thought would be a great thing to do.  After watching those competitors cross the finish line, some with extravagent stories, I decided that now is my time.

The next day, I waited in a long line and registered for the race that this blog is talking about.  My training has continued to ramp up and I know I am going to be successful in my very first Ironman race.  I have met some great people that I never would have without this goal and I have gained a fitness that I never thought would be achievable.

When I graduated high school, I weighed 195 lbs.  Today, I stepped on the scale and it said 194.  I now weigh less than my high school weight and continue to move in the right direction.  I still will lose more weight before my Ironman race, but in 1 year, I have lost 46 lbs.  I have done it with hard work, dedication and keeping an eye on my nutrition. 

This journey has not been easy and there are many temptations out there that prevent you from being successful in a journey like this.  It is easier to drink beer and eat pizza while watching the big game, which I still do from time to time, but you can't let that take control of your everyday life.  Everyone can accomplish what I have done thus far and the best reward from this is that I have set an example for my children that I hope will stay with them forever.

I have yet to finish my first Ironman Race, but I have decided that I am not going to make it my last.  Anyone can do something like this, it just takes the right motivation.  Don't blame it on the job, because I have a pretty time consuming job.  Don't blame it on the family because I have 2 small children and a wife that I still find time for.  I could go on and on, but the only person you can blame it on is you.  You need to just go out and do it and not let the small stuff get in your way.

Next weekend I am racing the Innagural Lake Guntersville Olympic Distance Triathlon.  I look forward to a better race than I had last week and I will post my results.

First Race Done, Only Up From Here

I completed the Rev3 Knoxville race this week, but to summarize, I was very dissapointed in my performance.  I ate a bad bar-b-q sandwich the day before at the expo and was not feeling good when I woke up.  I thought it was just nerves and would pass over, but it never did.

About 2 minutes into the swim, I cramped up severely and wound up side stroking the majority of the way.  I couldn't put my head in the water because I felt sick every time I did.  I had a goal of finishing the swim in 25 minutes, but wound up doing it in 34.  It wasn't a horrible time considering that I side stroked almost an entire mile, but I had other expectations and the swim is my strength.  There were times I felt like quitting, but I kept telling myself that it will get better when I get out of the water and on the bike, which turned out to be a lie.

I never started feeling better on the bike.  I did take in some water, carbs and electrolytes on the bike, but they didn't seem to help.  This bike course is not a good one to not feel well on and have little energy.  Knoxville is built in the mountains and they found some pretty big climbs to put on the bike course. I averaged 16.1 mph, which is faster than I would have done last year, but it was nowhere the 22 mph that I pulled on a flat course of similar distance last week.

When I got off the bike, I was completely spent and my stomach was still killing me.  All I had left was a 10K run and I said tough it up and get through it.  I wound up walking about half, which gave me an average pace of 12 min/mile, which is not even close to the 9 min/mile that I would have expected on this short run.

If you can't tell, I am a little dissapointed in this race.  My goal was to do this in less than 2:45, but wound up taking 3:24.  That is almost 40 minutes off my goal.  Overall, I came in 332 out of 412 finishers, so I still beat 80 people, but I should have been in the top half. 

There are 2 good things about this day:

1. I learned alot about myself and pre-race nutrition

2. I get a second chance in 2 weeks at the Guntersville Olympic Distance Race.

Tri Camp

Last weekend was probably the best training weekend that I have ever had.  I attended the E3 Tri X camp at Oak Mountain State Park.  I had the opportunity to swim bike and run with one of the top female professional Ironman triathletes, Jessica Jacobs, who happened to win the race that I have my sights set on.  I also learned from one of the top nutritionalists in athletics, Bob Seebohar.  I thought I was in pretty good shape, but I left the camp extremely sore. 

We went through every aspect of competing in a triathlon.  In addition to the normal swim, bike and run, we also learned about nutrition, transitions, strength training, balancing training and family life, yoga, technique, and mental aspects of triathlon.  I feel like I left there armed with the knowledge that I will need to have a successful race season.  I received great coaching from Eric and Karen Doehrman and John Hannah.  Amy Hannah also did an excellent job directing the camp and ensuring that we were able to get everything done in a 3 day weekend.

Tomorrow, I get to ride with Dennis Muilenburg as he comes to town to celebrate Boeing's 50th aniversary in Huntsville.  I also will be competing in the Rev3 Knoxville Olympic Distance triathlon this weekend.  I hope to have pictures from the Tri Camp and from the race to post next week.

I'm back

I have not done a good job of keeping up with these postings, but I have not slacked off on training.  As a matter in fact, the only day that I have not done something significant towards my goal of being an ironman was Easter Sunday.  These last few weeks have been tough on the body, but I am constantly improving.  Yesterday, I did approximately 1 mile open water swim in the Tennessee River followed by a 32 mile bike ride with a 19 mph average.  Today, I ran 9.65 miles of intervals, but my average pace was at 9 min/mile.  For a seasoned triathlete, those are pretty bad numbers, but considering that at the start of the year I was nowhere close to that, I am confident that I will be much better by race day.

This coming week will be even tougher.  I am taking off work on Friday and heading down to Birmingham to participate in a 3 day Triathlon camp with several well known experts in the triathlon world.  The following week will be my first race at the Rev3 Knoxville.  That week will also include a 22 mile ride with Denniss Muilenburg, which I am looking forward to.

I also reached a milestone.  I purchased my new bike in January and my ride yesterday put me over the 1,000 mile mark on it.  That is around 300 miles per month and I haven't started my hard rides yet.

I will post next weekend to let you know how things go at the tri camp.

Back at it

The last few weeks have not been very good for training.  I hurt my right ankle and have struggled to get back in action. 

My swim times have drastically gone down.  When I decided to do an Ironman, I wrote down goals on what pace I wanted to do the Ironman events.  My plan was to be able to run a 2:00 pace/hundred yards.  This week, I did a swim where I was around 1:35 average.  I guess I need to rethink that plan.

My ankle was causing me trouble on the bike.  I haven't been able to get a long ride in a few weeks.  I did the 24 mile loop that we will ride in May with Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security.  It was a great ride with Buford Shipley, but we only averaged about 18mph.  I need to get it up to 20 mph before the ride, but I think I will get there.  I did a few trainer rides, but not have not completed a full training session on the bike because my ankle was causing my form to sacrifice and I started having pain in my leg.

I took 2 weeks away from running.  On Thursday, I finally decided to go to a chiropractor and get him to check my ankle out and he did something that made a huge difference.  I ran 1 mile that evening and felt great.  Today, I was finally able to go for a run and did a 10K time trial.  I didn't know what to expect since I have been out with the ankle, but I completed it with no pain at a 9:00/mile pace.  I haven't run at that pace since I was in the military.  I set my Garmin to not tell me how fast I was going, just how far I have gone.  I didn't want the fact that I was going faster than planned convince me to slow down, so I just listened to my body and ran.  I was proud of my time, but still have work to do to get to a marathon.

I look forward to a good training week. 

Blog Start

This is the first time that I have ever had a blog, but I wanted to start something so that everyone who is interested in following my progress towards my ironman can have the opportunity to see what I have been doing.

This weekend marked the 4th straight weeknd with a ride greater than 40 miles.  The ride this week was from my house in Madison to the house in Hazel Green that I grew up in.  It had pretty good rolling hills and my legs were killing me after I was done, but that had a little to do with my run on Friday.  I did 6 miles up and down the hills of Eastview.  As a warm up and cool down for the run, I did swims of 2700 yards and 1500 yards.

The training is going great so far and I look forward to sharing my training with everyone who is interested.  Please go check out my website where I am talking about what I am doing at

http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html. 

I will focus on keeping this up to date on a weekly basis.

Eric