The Race (Sorry for the rambling, and probably for the typos as well)

Okay. So here is how the race went.

Jessi Bryce and I headed on down to Florida on Thursday afternoon. Friday morning I got up and went for a short bike ride and we spent the rest of the morning hanging out at the pool and the beach. Jessi and I headed to PCB mid-afternoon to get me signed in and my bike checked-in. After signing in and stocking up on some essentials at the expo, I headed to the beach for a test swim. I had never swam in a wetsuit before and wanted to at least try it out before doing 1.2 in it. My practice swim went fine and it was probably the only time I could have blended in with the crowd on Panama City Beach while wearing a Speedo and a wetsuit.

We skipped the pre race meal and meeting and headed back to Destin for dinner. After which, I packed, re-packed, and double-checked all my supplies for the next morning. I'm slightly anal about that type of thing.

My dad was making fun of me about being so careful with my packing. He told me that he "allegedly" found me flipping through a notebook the night before I started second grade and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was checking to make sure all my pages were okay. Sometimes it is good to be prepared.

My mom and Jessi's sister went to the race with us, and we left the house on race day at 4:00 a.m. for the hour drive to the race. Body marking started at 4:30 and the first waves started shortly after 6:00.

I got my transition area set up (mainly by copying whatever everyone else was doing and trying not to stand out), and wandered around listening to music and drinking water until the race started.

Once the first wave started, I walked out to the beach with Jessi, Bryce, Laura, and my mom, and stood around waiting. Some people were running around and warming up, but I figured I would have plenty of time to warm up during the race started. Bryce was having a big time and we went down to the water for a little bit. Unfortunately, while we were hanging out, Bryce was riding on my shoulders while my neck was covered in Body Glide. It was discovered after I started my race that Bryce is very allergic to Body Glide and his face turned red and began to swell. He's much better now though, so don't worry. He's a trooper.

So there I was, feeling completely unprepared and standing in the starting corral with the most competitive age group in the race. Less than two minutes before the start, one of the guys standing front and center was jumping around and swinging his arms to get loosened up. Then he began screaming curse words and dropped to the ground. He had dislocated his shoulder while waiting for the start. Medics swarmed in, one guy pushed his knee into the down guy's chest while another was pulling his arm trying to reset it. It really looked like (and sounded like) it hurt. And then the starting gun went off, so we all ran around the injured guy and headed into the water.

The swim was, go out a little over a half mile, turn left for a couple hundred yards, and then swim back. The water was fairly rough, but not too bad. There was a pretty strong rip tide or something that made it much easier to swim out than to get back to shore though. I thought I was doing okay, but was by myself for most of the swim. The water was also cloudy so I couldn't see much. About .7 or .8 miles in, however, a guy in a yellow swim cap (meaning he started after me) passed me doing the backstroke. It didn't know if he was a really fast backstroker, or if I was going really slow. I just stuck it out and finished the swim feeling strong and in a respectible time. My swim goal was 40-45 minutes. I completed it in 42.05. Very happy with that.

I saw the family and then took off on my bike. I had a pretty specific nutrition plan I was hoping to keep up with (taking in 400-450 calories per hour), which I think helped keep my mind off the time and the distance. I had to eat every 15 minutes, so all I was concerned with was 15 minute segments. I never had to go 56 miles, I only had to go 15 minutes at a time. The bike was flat and windy. A good portion of the road was pretty rough too. This is actually the same bike course as Ironman Florida (you just do it twice there). My bike was going perfectly until mile 40 when I couldn't eat anymore. I still felt fine, but felt sick when I would try and eat anything. This really concerned me and I figured that if I was going into a caloric deficit, that I would sure as hell stay hydrated, so I kept drinking all the water and Gatorade I could. I also had the terrible idea that if I was going to feel bad, that I should hurry up and get the bike portion over with, so I pushed just a little harder for the last 15 miles. I felt strong and fine, but just couldn't eat and was really concerned with what that would do to my run.

My bike goal was 3:05-3:15, and I did 3:04:51. With the wind and the road conditions, I couldn't have gone any faster. I actually think that all my trainer workouts really helped me with this bike leg because it was flat constant spinning. There was one bridge we went over twice, other than that there were no hills at all. Almost the entire bike leg consisted of just getting comfortable and grinding it out, which is just my style on the bike. I did get to see a lot of nice bikes pass me though.

I was a little surprised after the bike that they expected me to immediately go out and run a half marathon. I hadn't eaten in an hour, and my belly was sloshing from all the water and gatorade I put away towards the end of the bike. This wasn't looking good. But my legs felt fine and I thought I would just run the first mile and then make a plan from there. Unfortunately, my legs were accustomed to moving fast on the bike and I ran the first mile in about 8:30. Combined with my lack of food, sloshing belly, and other physical things I had going on at the time, this was a terrible mistake. I immediately started walking and loaded up with all the different food I could carry at the first aid station. I tried to eat a gel and it didn't work. I tried to eat a Clif bar and couldn't. I then found what would be my only food that would work, oranges and bananas.

I felt absolutely terrible, and had no idea how I would do another 10-11 miles. I developed a little shuffle step which couldn't have looked good, and probably wasn't any faster than my walk, but felt okay. It doesn't make much sense, but as windy as it had been on the bike leg, there was absolutely no breeze on the run, mid-high 80s temp, and almost 90% humidity. It was going to be a long day.

The run portion is where the soul-searching begins. It was incredible to see all the people out there doing this event. As bad as I was feeling, there were people feeling much worse, and they kept going. I saw so many people that I was sure were going to die, but apparently they didn't.

I stayed in my shuffle/walk for the first half of the run hoping to get my belly in order and get some nutrition in me. I decided to go as slow as I needed to get myself in order. After about 6 miles we entered a park for 2.5-3 miles, which was miserable. There was no shade, no people, no buildings, just sand dunes and road. I thought I would never make it out of there. After exiting the park, I had a couple cookies and began to feel better. I then had some pepsi, and began to feel even better. After the 9 mile mark I felt better than I had all day on the run, and decided I would pick up the pace a little. I was so happy to feel better and be able to pick up my pace, but as soon as I sped up my left calf locked up. I dialed my pace back down and drug my leg around until it loosened up a little. I sped back up and the same thing happened. From that point on, I maintained the best pace I could without the cramp setting in (which wasn't fast at all). I maintained my hobble/walk/no cramp pace almost until the end. There was a great aid station in the last mile with music and people cheering that really got me going. I figured the longer I was out there, the worse things would get. I turned it up, drug my leg with me, and ran strong through the finish. This was the longest 13.1 miles (and the longest 2 hours and 45 minutes) of my life.

I had wanted to finish the run portion in 2:30, but it took me 2:43:26 due to the stomach issues. I really don't think it was a lack of conditioning, but was more of a nutrition issue. I am already sitting around thinking about what I could do differently, and how much better I could do.

After the race, I found 1 square foot of shade under a bush and sat in it. I gathered my things, loaded up in the truck and stopped by the closest McDonald's for a large diet pepsi and cheeseburgers.

I finished the race in 6:40:23. My ultimate goal was 6:30, and my back-up goal was 6:45, so I am pleased with my time, but know I could go sub 6:30.

This race was much harder than I ever expected. The training was much more intense and time consuming than I ever expected. Jessi has helped me tremendously through the past 25 weeks while I have pretty much done nothing but work and work out. Hopefully I can pay her back a little now with all my free time.

This race was also much more incredible than I expected. The atmosphere, volunteers, and competitors were all awesome, and I am so glad I did it.

I'm still not quite sure what the moral of this entire thing is, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with "Life is as simple as you make it," "Life is what's happening right now," and "It is what it does." I don't think I'm a triathlete, but I was last Saturday. It's pretty easy, actually, to be whatever you want. You just have to do it, and there is no reason you can't start doing it right now. There were so many people out there that were on the first half of their run that absolutely looked like death, but they were going forward. There was no way that they could finish the run at the pace they were going, but I bet they did. And they were all triathletes that day.

Now the question -- What do I do with this blog? What do I do with myself? What will be Bad Idea # 6348?

I'm getting things narrowed down and I'm thinking about:
1) a long, multi-day hiking trip;
2) a long, multi-day cycling trip;
3) a marathon

I'll let you know of any decisions, but things seem pretty wide open at the moment.

See ya.

Danny.