I am able to proudly say that I am now an Ironman. I fought and pushed through the day, battled adversity and enjoyed every minute of it.
140.6 miles can make you question a lot about yourself. Do you have what it takes to push through the pain of severe physical and mental fatigue?
How badly do you want to see those people at the finish line?
I woke up Sunday, August 26th 2012 like I do on most race mornings. 4 a.m. came quick but it was preceded by almost 7 hours of sleep. This was by far the best sleep I had gotten before any race. I found it to be a good sign for both my mental and physical state. Alli and I left the hotel at 4:20 and walked the 30 minutes to transition. I was taped my Gu Gels to my bike, placed my Gatorades in their bottle holders and topped off the tire pressure. The bike was in good shape and was ready for the day.
We then proceed 15 minutes down the river to the swim start. The race had a time trial start which meant all the athletes had to line up. Starting at 7 a.m. the athletes were allowed to jump in the Ohio river off of two boat docks, with each person's time starting as they leap into the water. I managed to find a spot in line 800-900 people back. I was glad to be this close considering there was about 3000 athletes in the race. There were a number of interesting people around me. One gentleman was trying to qualify for Kona in the 45-49 age group (he made it) and his friend was competing one month after wrecking on his bike, breaking four ribs and having a plate put in his shoulder. Wow...
The pros were started with a cannonball firing at 6:50 and the age group athletes starter pistol went off 10 minutes later. It took 17 minutes for me to get in the water and I was more than ready to get the race started!
The Swim
I jumped in the water and immediately started my watched. I was not sure how frantic this time trial start would be so I tried to gain a feel on the athletes around me before I started making my move. The majority of the athletes moved to the island side of the canal. This can lead to a large amount of jostling for position so I put myself to the main land side. I was able to keep a solid stroke heading upstream past the island and to the turnaround, which was roughly 1300 meters into the race. At this point my nerves had begun to calm down and I started to pickup up my stroke cadence. I swung wide on the turn to once again stay 5-10 meters outside of the traffic. This allowed for easy passing as I continued to gain speed. My heart rate and breathing stayed smooth for the duration of the swim and I was able to battle back to the inside line with 300 meters to go. At this point the current had pickup and I, along with the other athletes, really had to fight to get over to the exit stairs. Time: 1:18 Pace: 2:02/100m
Transition 1
The exit from the swim was a ramp that led from the river to the Great Lawn, where transition was laid out. I ran through the bag lay-down and into the changing tent to get my bike gear on. I took my pre-workout drink (AGC3) to give me a boost and chose to stay in my one piece trisuit. I headed out to my bike and onto the course. The only downfall to this layout of transition is that it forces the athlete to put bike shoes on before getting to the bike. I prefer getting on my bike with my cleats already clipped in. This allows me to run barefoot through transition, saving a minute or so in time. Time: 7:57
The Bike
It is common knowledge that one of the biggest mistakes a first time Ironman athlete can make is to push too hard early in the bike portion of the race. This will in turn cause many athletes to 'bonk' or hit the wall for the later portion of the bike and onto the run. I was determined not to do this and had laid out what I thought was a good plan to get me off the bike in under 6 hours. I started out the ride trying to average 17.5 mph for the first hour or so. As I became more comfortable I would slowly in crease my time until I reached the last 20 miles which contained a downhill section of road and a final section of flats.
Riding at 17.5 mph was painful for me. I hate getting passed on the bike and for someone who had trained in the 20-22 mph range, this was killing. I was getting passed by everyone it seemed but in the back of my head I knew the benefits of a slow start would pay off. Over the first 23 miles, my average speed was 17.83 mph. From mile 23- 40, my speed rose to 18.13 mph. This is where I noticed my slow start had already helped. I began passing people. Lots of people. I was able to power up the hills that had been thrown into the course with relative ease while others were already struggling. Now the next section of the race, mile 40-70.5, my speed slowed to 16.28 mph. I attribute this to two things: stopping to use the restroom and stopping to get sunscreen reapplied after 3 hours on the bike. I did not want to come off the bike being beat red and I just am not comfortable peeing myself on the bike. Maybe i'll work on the latter of the two one day.
The final section of the race is where things got interesting. After my two stops in 30 miles, I had begun to push my pace up into the 19-20 mph in order to be ready to go 21-22 mph over the final 20 miles. I hit mile 90 and was holding a speed of 21.6 mph. However at about mile 95 I started to develop a rather uncomfortable hot spot in my ride shoes. I began to slow down in order to readjust my sock on the fly when all of a sudden BAM!!!! I was sent crashing to the pavement by another rider who had not noticed me slowing down and failed to look up before it was too late. As we laid there on the road, he immediately began to apologize. He said that he had simply zoned out, failing to notice my unclipped foot and hand held out to signal I was slowing down. My arm throbbed from the impact but showed no skin abrasions. The bruises however began to form immediately. We separated our bikes and began to check them over. He had hit me on the right side of the bike but managed to avoid significant damage to the wheels and deraileurs. My brakes and handle bars also checked out fine. His bike however snapped an elbow pad off and may have had other damage.
As mad as I was at him, I couldn't leave him on the side of the road as he got light headed when he tried to stand up. He finally got to his feet after what ended up being 15-20 minute ordeal. I hopped on my bike and took off again, passing a number of people who had ridden by the wreck, asking if we were okay. It was not until 5-6 miles down the road when I noticed just how much pain my left elbow, shoulder and knee were causing me. This discomfort really hurt my effort over the final 17 miles and I was only able to average a speed of 14.73 mph from mile 70.5-112. I was pretty discouraged at this point Time: 6:55:08 Pace: 16.19 mph
Transition 2
I managed to spot Alli in the crowd as I came in off the bike. I told her to alert my family that I had been in a wreck on the bike and not to worry about the split times anymore. My arm and knee hurt, but I was bound to finish the race. I went into the changing tent and sat down next to a gentleman from Tennessee named Jay. Turns out Jay had passed by after the wreck on the bike and was curious if I was alright. I assured him I was good but didn't know how this run was going to go. We struck up a quick friendship and decided to keep each other company on the marathon. Time: 11:00
The Run
Jay and I set out on the run course that weaved its way through the city. Landmarks that is went by included the University of Louisville and Chuchhill Downs. The first 3.4 miles we average a 10:52 min/mile pace, very slow by both our standards. I was far from comfortable on the run due to the wreck and it was Jay's first time having rode the full 112 mile distance. It was safe to say we were attempting to get our bearings. However, it did not get better over the next split. From mile 3.4-8.2 we went 12:48 min/mi. and then from mile 8.2-13.1 we averaged 12:48 min/mi. Following our initial run pace, we quickly realized that we were both severely dehydrated and low on salt. So over the course of the first half-marathon, we used a run 2 mins/ walk 1 minute in order to allow food, drink and salt tablets to settle into our systems. We know the pace was slow but we needed to finish on foot, not in the back of an ambulance. So at mile 13.1, a half-marathon, we had been running about 2 hours and 40 minutes. To compare, the last half-marathon I had run off the bike in training was a 2:03.
I just kept telling myself that the time wasn't important, only the finish was. The wreck had already derailed my plans of a 12 hour completion so there was no longer a need to crush myself on the run. Jay and I did mile 13.1-15.2 in a 14:42 min/mi pace, but this included stopping in order for Jay to put cream on his blisters that were forming on his feet. Let's just say he learned the hard way to not forget socks on race day. The next split, mile 15.2-20.1, paced at 13:38 min/mi. It was at this point that I realized we could still go sub-14 hours if we picked up the pace and did dabble at aid stations for too long. We started to pick up the pace and at mile 22, Jay told me to go on. It was hard to run off from him but I did. I wanted to go under 14 hours. It would have validated the pain in some manner that I can't explain in words. from mile 20.1- 25 the pace dropped to 12:36 min/mi, with two of those miles being sub-10 minutes. At mile 25 I could taste the finish and continued to push the pace. I experienced a hiccup of heat cramps in my stomach which cause me to pull up for just a few second but I pushed onward. I came around the final corner to see the finish line! The lights were shining down the road and thousands of people were lined up waiting for their athletes to come down final stretch. As I came up to the line, Alli, one of my best friends Tommy and his aunt and uncle, were on the left side of the chute cheering for me. I slowed down to soak in the atmosphere and then came the moment I had been waiting for...
"Drew Robinson...YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!"
I raised my arms in the air in both celebrations and relief. I had made it to the finish line. I had conquered one of my lifetime goals. I felt a year and half of training, 50 pounds of weight loss and a good chuck of money turn into the scene that was unfolding before me. I had done it. I went 140.6 miles in one day.
Even though I finished with a time of 14:05:57 and didn't reach my goal time, I still got across that finish line. I made it of the Ohio River, pushed through the pain of a bike crash, and overcame a nutritional battle to finish.
I can proudly stand here and say that I conquered my goal. It wasn't pretty, but it's done.
I want to thank everyone who helped me during this journey. There were many short nights, early weekend morning, cold swims, hot rides, and miserable runs. There were many days where I was tired and irritable and you all put up with me. Thank you.
My plans for the next couple of weeks are to rest my body. Hopefully my knee will be able to finally heal after being injured in March and my new injuries from Louisville will recover. In a few weeks time I will begin to ease my way back into swimming, cycling and running and go into an off-season plan that will help me to continue to get my weight down to my goal of 170, while maintaining my current level of fitness.
And for those of you wondering, I will be doing another Ironman next year!
Happy training!
Drew
