Tag: IMAZ

Ironman Arizona Volunteering and Such

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My two friends and I decided to sign up for Ironman Arizona 2015. It’s a very popular race, so to guarantee a spot we volunteered for this year’s race.  My friend, Bill, decided we were volunteering for boat duty during the swim, it ended up being awesome!  While it was an early morning, we had a greatl vantage point, and it was really cool to be in a powered boat out on Tempe Town Lake!

I was able to get a great view of the race start and the washing machine of the first few hundreds meters. Cruising around the lake was really cool, it’s amazing how much that area has changed just in the 16 years I’ve been here.  I ended up watching over a guy who was struggling about halfway through the swim. There was a group of guys cheering him on whom I assumed were his buddies, traveling here to support him, because of how passionate they were in their cheering for him. It turns out that they were just some cool local tri peole cheering on a guy who was having a rough day, I think that is awesome! I ended up having to give him a ride in the boat back to the swim finish, because he missed the swim cut-off time. I felt bad for him, he had traveled from St. Louis, a long way to go for your day to end so soon!

After that we cleaned up the buoys, loaded up the boats, and headed out.

The next morning I got up to stand in line with the other volunteers to register for next year’s race. It set a record for the quickest sellout of a US Ironman! So now, I’m all registered for next year with a fun year of lots of swimming, biking, and running with two good friends!

Here’s a few pics from the morning, and I’m going to attempt to do many posts about his year’s training fun!

image1 image2 image3 IMG_2814 image4

Ironman Arizona Race Report

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This was a great overall experience,  I got to train for the race with two really good fiends, we had nice weather and the IM people put on another great race!  I headed down on Friday to get checked in and hang out at my friend’s booth at the expo.  It was fun to just be down there and soak up the scene.  We cruised around Tempe Beach Park, grabbed some food and hung out, a pretty good day.  On Saturday I made it down about 10:15 to check my bike in and jump in the lake for a bit.  When I got there the bike check in line was huge, I wrestled the wetsuit on and went for a 15 minute swim, it was nice to get a feel for the water.  When I got finished swimming there was almost no line to check in the bike!  After a getting the transition bags checked in I headed for home.  Amy and I went out for a quick bite to eat and made it to bed around 9:30. I slept pretty well and woke up about 4 am, had a bagel with peanut butter, got dressed, grabbed my gear and headed out.

Found a good parking spot pretty easily, I had to put some food in my T1 bag and filled up the water bottle on the bike. After getting body marked, I met up with my friends for a bit and we all went over our plans for the race. Had a little extra time so Amy and I laid down in the grass for a bit. She brought her sleeping bag and I had my big red WKU Diving parka, made for a nice little nap!

Swim  1:15:34

The start of an IM race is always a cool experience, the helicopter flying overhead, the national anthem playing, the excitement of what’s to come! The gun went off and the day began! I settled into a pretty good rhythm and tried to keep calm. It seemed like there was a lot of contact in the water, I bumped into some girl a couple times and she must have gotten mad because she kicked me in the side pretty hard. If you get mad about people running into while swimming in the murkiness of Tempe Town Lake you’re probably going to be mad most of the swim.  I set a good pace and felt solid the whole way. Got kicked in the goggle about 200 yards from the finish, fortunately it didn’t hurt too bad or knock my goggles off! Swam to the stairs and I was out of the water!  Good IM effort swim, about 1 minute faster than my previous races.

Swim to Bike Transition 8:08

The strippers did great, got me out of my wetsuit quickly and I ran off to get my T1 bag. I usually just change in the grass outside the tent, it’s too hot and crowded in there and since I wear the same thing the whole time it’s just easier and nicer this way. Grabbed my bike and away I went!

Bike 6:02:13

Felt great leaving transition and had a solid first lap, during the second lap the wind picked up a little. I tried to keep my heart rate down and spin my way up the hill and then roll down at a good clip.  On the third lap I backed it off a little to ensure my legs were ready for the run.  I could have pushed it a little more but I feel like I rode a smart ride.  I did a good job taking in calories and ate 3 bananas from the aid stations.  It’s a great feeling to get to Shea Blvd on your 3rd lap, all you have to do is roll on back into Tempe and you’re done with the bike ride!

Bike to Run Transition 5:54

Handed off the bike to the volunteers and headed into the changing tent to get a little break from the sun.  Ate some pretzels they were handing out in the tent, got the shoes on and got slathered up with sun screen!

Run 4:36:18

Pretty happy with my run.  In the past it has been my undoing in IM Races and this year I was determined not to let that happen.  I started out a little fast, but settled into a comfortable, sustainable pace.  The first lap was probably the toughest for me, the end seems so far away and it’s been a long day already.  About 1/2 way through that 1st lap my right foot was feeling numb, this worried me because I didn’t want to have to start walking.  I sat down and took off my calf compression sleeves and this totally fixed things, from here on out I just started feeling better and better!  I walked through the aid stations and ran to the next one, these little respites from running gave me just enough rest to keep cranking out some good miles.  I wanted to finish under 12 hours and knew it would be close, I picked up the pace about 4 miles out from the finish but just couldn’t make it happen.  I was bummed I wasn’t coming in under my goal but dug deep to get as close as possible, while I was hurting pretty good those last few miles it felt great to be pushing that hard. It’s awesome to make the last turn on to the lake path and run past all the cheering people, really helps you keep going!  I made the turn towards the finish and the feeling, like usual, makes all those hours of training worthwhile!

This is my best IM run by far, and I’m pretty happy with it!

Total Time – 12:08:07

Post race

Found Amy and my parents, grabbed a few sodas and sat down…
Had some time to kill while I waited for my friends to finish, actually had a post race cocktail (something I’ve always tried and failed to do post IM), it didn’t taste that good.  Met up with our cheering section and watched my friends finish!

Could have been a little stronger on the bike.

While I didn’t come in under 12 hours it was still a 31 minute PR, I’m happy with that.

They always put on a great show and this race was no different.  I think this will be my last IM for awhile, it just takes up so much of your life, but the whole thing was a great experience.  I was lucky to have some of my best friends to train with and my wife to support me during the long summer of endless bike rides and runs.  Like usual the AZ Tri Clubs folks were great out there, they had an awesome cheering section that kept me going! The support from the volunteers and fans really pushes this race over the top, the energy out on the run course is awesome!
Most importantly the 3 other people I signed up for the race with  all finished, so it was a successful day and 2 first time ironman finishers got to hear their name called by Mike Reilly!

…and another great race in my @XtenexUSA laces!

In with the new!

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2011 is gone and now it’s time to enjoy 2012! It was a relatively good year for us, we had a great wedding with close friends and family, got in a nice trip to Vegas, and I signed up for IMAZ 2012! We’re going to start 2012 off with a quick trip to San Antonio to see Amy’s parents. Among the highlights are: staying down on the riverwalk and seeing Les Misérables at the Majestic Theater. Hopefully the trip with produce some nice times worthy of a blog post.

Sweet 360 degree view of the theater just move your mouse around on the pic.

Amy has been in San Antonio for a week and I’m headed there for just a few days. As my job requires me to be here on New Year’s Eve, I had to celebrate the new year with out her. I’m not really a huge New Year’s Eve partier, too crowded out and cabs are almost impossible to get, so I just chilled out at home.

Here’s how I rang in the New Year:

Here’s to a year of fitness and fun!

IMAZ and the past week

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After a great trip to Vegas, things are settling back down for us!  Everything went very smoothly for our wedding and honeymoon trip but it’s nice things are finally getting back to normal.  We don’t have an event to plan or worry about contacting vendors, such a relief!

This past weekend was Ironman Arizona, always a fun weekend.  Myself and my friends Len and Bill volunteered at a run aid station to guarantee a spot for next year. We got a great shift, 10am-1pm.  Mainly we set up the aid station: unloaded the truck, set up tables, hauled ice and things like that. Then we hung out for about 2 hours before the first of the pros came through on the run. We handed out water to about 20 of the front runners and then we were done, pretty easy compared to the 1000’s of people coming through for the later shifts!

The pic to the left is our Aid Station almost ready to go! After our shift we biked over to the Draw 10 for a couple beers, then headed out for a little Ironman spectating.  Had a great spot to see the winner come in at a amazing 7:59! The guy ran a Boston Qualifying Marathon after a 112 mile bike ride, always impressive. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any of my friends finish, but was glad to hear that everyone I knew that was racing crossed the finish line.

The next morning I woke up and headed down to register for IMAZ 2012.  While I expected to stand in line for a while the over 3 hours I spent waiting to register was crazy!  But, after a long wait and kicking down $682 I had my spot for next year. I’m excited for the year for fitness I have ahead of myself. I’m also stoked that I have 2 good friends to train with for this race, it helps so much!

A few relatively easy days at  work and it was Thanksgiving time! We went over to our freinds, Brandy and Panos’s house and had a great time.  After some fine apps and a few mimosas it was time to fire up the turkey deep fryer.  A few rousing games of bags (or cornhole as it is called sometimes) later, we sat down to a great meal with good friends! After dinner we had a few more games of bags, and Amy had a little nap on the couch! All in all it was a great Thanksgiving, now looking forward to a nice weekend with a little bike riding and hanging out at home!