What You Should Learn From Your First Triathlon

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in The Fit Life

What you should learn from your first triathlon will really help make your second triathlon a bigger success. Your first race should be more about completion than results. There’s a lot to learn during your first triathlon so make these mental notes during your race to help your second one.

The transition bag is a new concept most likely. This is the bag you keep at your bike station housing the supplies you’ll need between disciplines. Most of the time this is bike shoes, helmet, glasses, shirt, energy bar, water, towel for your feet. Put those things in your bag and as you go through the race identify what you didn’t need and what you wish you would have had. Make sure to write that down as soon as you can after the race.

Transition set-up is the logistics of your towel, shoes, shirt, helmet, glasses, water, etc. . Until you run out of the water in a panic to get on the bike and actually use your transition set-up, you just won’t know. You’ll obviously want the shoes on top of your pile, followed by your shirt, followed by your helmet, and then your glasses – but everybody finds different things useful. For instance, if you’re using a wetsuit and find yourself on the ground taking off your wetsuit, you may want your shoes to be reachable at the end of the towel, not near the bike. Take note.

Nutrition. In my article “Training For Your First Triathlon”, I told you not to worry about nutrition during the race for the two shorter distance tri’s. Well the fact is you’re going to need something – but until you do it you won’t know what and you won’t know when. So you really need to gauge your body’s status during the first race. Determine for yourself “are you out of breath” or “out of energy”?

If you’re out of breath, then you probably need more sprint and interval training. If your breathing isn’t bad but you’re just darn tired – then energy is probably an issue. If you’re tired during the swim or at the beginning of the bike, then eat a much larger breakfast next time. If it’s during the run then make sure you have a bar or Gatorade ready at your transition area once the bike leg is over.

The key is to figure out when you run out of energy and make sure you have plans to thwart that next race. And no matter what – sprint to the finish line so you can see what you have left in the tank. You’ll need to know that when you get a bit more competitive.

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My First Ironman – Part 6: The Finish

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in The Fit Life

There’s not a lot to say about the second bike loop. More hills – more painful hills. But it wasn’t until mile 91 that I allowed myself to walk up the hills again. But at 91 I had no choice and unfortunately my getting off the bike to walk was a turning point.

Up until now I was pretty sure that I could make up a lot of time on the marathon and still have a respectable time. But at mile 91 I gave up inside. I decided I just wanted to finish. I was beaten in terms of racing.

Having walked up the hills to save my knee, the clips on my bike shoes got gnarled and no longer fit into the clips on my pedals. For the remaining 31 miles I got to peddle without locking my shoes in and so I had to press with my midfoot, not my toe. The midfoot of my shoe was slippery so many times it slipped off.

But somehow I finished the last 31 miles to my family and friends waiting. Now, a long time beyond my goal finish – I was to start the marathon. But now without a trip to the medical tent to get my knee iced and bandaged. That took 23 minutes – but I left being able to run.

At mile 7 I caught up with Paul, who was on his second loop. I really wish I could have been there to see him finish his first Ironman, but my knees were holding him back and I had to tell him to move on. Then at mile 9 I discovered that my running had transitioned to run/walking and then finally to walk/jogging.

Fortunately, there were aid stations every .9 miles or so. Water, gatorade, oranges, potatoes, coke, chicken soup, vaseline for blisters – very nice indeed.

I made it to the turn around at mile 13 when my brother and his wife decided to head out on the course with me for support. It was 8 pm – or something like that. I was tired, achy and actually getting sleepy. My legs ached – but they kept me going. (My brother will tell you a different story that includes loopiness, hallucinations, and crazy thoughts.)

At 11:00 pm with only an hour left to finish the race we started looking at the clock and pick up the pace. Then with .6 miles to go I see my dad in the distance in the dark. I can sense his nervousness and know that time is looming.

Can I make it the remaining distance in 12 minutes? We pick up the pace a bit before we see the Marines that march in at midnight. They’re already in formation, doing their cadence and heading for the finish line.

I’m urged to run, by everyone and so I do (if you can call that running). With about 400 yards to go, I pass the Marines and head to the finish line. It’s 11:53 when I hit the stretch. The bandstands are filled with people just yelling and cheering for every competitor. IT was quite dramatic.

At 11:53:56, I cross the finish line, accomplish my goal and complete my first Ironman. It wasn’t the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen, but I finished.

At 11:00 a.m. I was pretty much done. At 1:30 PM finishing wasn’t going to be a problem, but it was going to be slow. At 8: PM, I was tired but heading to the finish line. Finally, at 11:50 PM, I was rushing to make it in time for the t-shirt. If it wasn’t for my brother and sister-in-law, my friends Clint, Paul and Paul’s family, my parents and Marcia, I’m not sure Saturday would have ended up so triumphantly. Thanks guys.

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My First Ironman – Part 5 The 1st Bike Loop

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , ,
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It started immediately. The bad luck that is. Once I got on my bike I took my first chug of Gatorade and it burnt my throat. I must have scratched it when I choked up that water on the swim. I won’t be needing that water bottle.

Things were going just fine after that and then at mile 33 we hit The Hill. We climbed the hill at 4 – 9 mph. I say we because I passed maybe one person and only two or three passed me. For 1.2 miles we climbed and then upon reaching the top had an equally impressive descent. (35 mph was where I topped out. I kept the brakes on to maintain that speed).

We passed aid stations offering oranges, water, Gatorade, bananas,, powerbars and sponges about ever y 10 miles or so. I’m a little winded, but otherwise good. Then we hit the second hill.

Now, my knees have been OK so far. Remember, I didn’t do run training for the last few weeks because my knees had been hurting but then half way up the second hill a muscle in the back of my left knee started to burn life fire. I ended up walking up the rest of that hill thinking about the marathon.

The part that really sucked about walking was the cleats. It’s quite odd to walk in cleats for your calves and for your cleats. I ended up having to walk up most of the hills. I’d go as fast as I could go and then would get off once that muscle started burning. I’d get off and walk then hop back on at the top.

There was no good way for my family and friends to see me on the bike, so they waited at the turn around at mile 58. I was drained at the turn around. The walk/bike combination was not fun and I stopped to tell my wife I didn’t think I was going to make it.

I left a bit misty-eyed. 1 hour behind my goal time. With 58 miles to go on the bike. 58 miles of biking and walking. 58. Then a marathon.

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My First Ironman – Part 4 The Swim

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in The Fit Life

About 25 yards into the swim, I got pushed under and swam over, I swallowed a bunch of ocean water and had to cough it up, choke it up to keep going. That sucked, but I actually was glad to get that part over with because I’d been dreading that to some degree.

At about the 3/4 mile mark, the field narrows from 50 feet wide to 5 feet wide as everyone tries to swim around a corner buoy. You don’t want to swim too far out, it’s just too tiring. I got kicked and my googles fell off. Well it just so happens that I decided to wear contacts for this race instead of putting my glasses on after the swim was over.

At this point that was a bad idea because my contact had come out and was floating in my goggle. I was treading water in the ocean, with people swimming all around me, trying to hold a google up so the contact didn’t come out. I did the sidearm safety stroke out of traffic and stopped to put the contact back in. With 112 miles on the bike, and a marathon to run – going one-eyed sounded like a poor plan.

Amazingly at the 2.4 mile mark I got out of the water. The first leg of the 2001 Ironman California was over. Wetsuit pullers helped me get my wet suit off and I saw my brother and his wife, finally. Wow! That was great. People were cheering for me, and I for their dedication. I also saw my friends Clint and Irene for the first time.

Let me stop and say how cool it is that a friend would drive many, many hours to see you do something. I’m not sure he even understands how important that was to me. If you’re reading this – then be a Clint and do something special for a friend.

My time in the water wasn’t so good at this point. I had a couple issues, but I got out at 1 hour 24 minutes and spent 6 minutes in the transition area. (That’s misleading. 6 minutes from the time I stepped on the water exit mat to the bike entry mat. There was some distance between them.)

I got on my bike eager to make up time. Quite eager.

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My First Ironman Part 3 – Before The Gun

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , ,
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Life before the gun went off was so different than any race I’d done before, I was really unsure how I would do. Even little things like locking our bikes in the transition area Friday night vs Saturday morning gave the race a different feel. Plus I didn’t sleep that night. I actually turned off the alarm at 4:14 am just before it was going to ring. Being unable to sleep really frazzled me. To this day I’ve not had a sleepless night like that.

That morning there was a ton of traffic getting to the parking area, and then we had to wait in line for the bus. “Athlete’s Only” separated us from our “support crew” (our families). We were shuttled to the transition area with our special needs bags, our swim clothes and our dry clothes bag with barely any time to make it to the bathroom.

I didn’t like that I wasn’t able to see my wife-to-be. I didn’t like that at all. It frazzled me a little bit more. I’m not sure why the support of family and friends is important but I learned there that I definitely do these races with them – not for them, not despite them. They are part of my race. I really enjoy being cheered on by their waves and smiles. I could care less if anyone else was there.

Into the water we went, it was really cold – not ice cold – but really cold. Having done 90% of my races in a lake – jumping in the Pacific Ocean was a bit different. After 20 minutes of strokes, treading water, shivering and meeting other athletes – we were ushered to the start line.

The start line in a triathlon is either the beach or a buoy. Here it was two buoys with a rope tied above us. Imagine, if you will, a foosball table. Now take all the foosball guys and stand them up at one end of the table – and then when the gun goes off, twist the handle so they’re all horizontal. That’s what the start is like.

One second we all take up 3 square feet of space and the next second we’re all trying to swim. Feet, hands, splashes, arms, bodies coming over you, trying to find a spot to stroke your arm through the water. It’s complete chaos – scary, fun, crazy. It’s the Official Start of the 2001 Ironman California.

And I’m in it.

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My First Ironman Part 2

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , ,
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I truly don’t remember how we decided on Ironman California, although it was closer to me (since I’d moved to Arizona), than it was to Paul in Illinois. I believe the race was the first week of May, 2001 – which is crazy because I was getting married in Omaha 4 weeks later.

I will say that training without a partner is not easy. Long bike rides by yourself, and laps in the pool by yourself are no joy. While you can’t really chat in the pool anyway, it’s nice to have someone motivating you to go each day. Running, on the other hand, I can do alone each and every time. I think that’s because I can never find someone to run with who’s as fast as I am. (I mean that both ways. Some guys aren’t as fast as I am – they’re faster).

I would say the training consisted mainly of weekend bike rides, running, and using the stairmaster at the gym. While I did swim, I didn’t get tons of swimming in – but I remember swimming for an hour without issue thinking I would certainly be able to finish that leg of it.

To some degree Phoenix is a good place to train. In Phoenix proper there are big hills, greenways and long, empty roads. But in another context – the long empty roads were likely very, very flat. And to get to the trailhead anywhere you wanted to go – you had to ride Phoenix’s mean streets.

By the time we got to race day, I felt pretty well prepared. I’d gotten shin splints and had hurt me knee in the two months prior, so my running was down to 3 and 5 miles – but I really wasn’t worried about the marathon. That, I thought, would be the easy part.

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My First Ironman Experience – Part 1

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in The Fit Life

I’ve got the entire race in my head ready to be ‘downloaded’ to paper, but I’m thinking Part 1 of this story should probably be the run-up to the race, not the race itself.
I guess it was 1999 when doing an Ironman became a goal.  My training buddy, Paul,  and I had already completed several sprint triathlons, and were about to do our third International Distance tri.

On the way up to the race in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Paul was mentioning that a buddy of his might be at the race.  His buddy, or rather a freind of a friend, had done an Ironman the year before.  I intended to ask the guy some questions – though I don’t remember which questions.

We arrived at the race, got our acts together, racked the bikes and were just hanging out when we came upon his, now nameless, buddy. The first thing I noticed was that he didn’t look like an uber-athlete, and he had the mdot tattoo on his ankle.

I don’t remember what else we talked about, but after he left we knew we were doing an Ironman. I’m not even sure we spoke about it much – but the fact that he didn’t look in much better shape than me sealed the deal.  I also wanted the reward of that tattoo, and the allure of the Ironman T-shirt was crazily electric.

The racing season was about over so the plan became train for Internationals next year, and conclude the year with a half-ironman and then in 2001 – the real deal.

The desire and planning wouldn’t come till later though, it was time to an International Distance Tri. We’d prepared quite well for this and were pretty excited about it.  In every race prior I finished 3 minutes behind Paul, both sprints and  internationals. Today was the day.

That thought came to an end 50 yards into the water. I’m not sure if I started too fast, or was too nervous or what – but 50 yards in I was pretty read to quit. Exhausted wasn’t the word, I didn’t think I could even finish the water portion.  For some reason I was so tired after 50 yards I even grabbed a kayak for a quick breather.

And it reminded me of Paul’s first tri.  His first was the Tri-Shark in Bloomington, IL. I’d cheated a done a race by myself just to see what is what like. I already knew what the bike to run transition was like. Paul hadn’t experienced this yet.  He later recalled to me, “Getting off the bike and starting to run was so painful and awkward I could barely walk. I said to myself ‘I’m a grown adult. I don’t have to do this. I could just quit’”. But he didn’t.

That made me laugh so much sitting there hanging on to the kayak -that I got back in the water and took off without any problems. But for 10 seconds, my Ironman goal was thwarted by a 50 yard swim – on a perfect day.

Who would know that between then and my first Ironman, I’d quit my job, move from Illinois to Arizona, get a new job, get engaged, and plan the wedding and the arrival of our first child just a month after the 2001 California Ironman?

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