The "why" for doing this has been discussed ad nauseum. I've always said that it was a goal to do an IRONMAN before I turn 30. However, there is part of that story that's been left out. In December 2006 I was sitting on my couch, 40 lbs over weight and not very thrilled with the way things were going at the time. As I was flipping through the channels I stopped on NBC because the shot of the ocean in Hawaii looked really cool. Turns out it was the IRONMAN World Championships. I was intrigued so I put the channel changer down and watched. By the end I was a basket case; seeing all the stories about people who had overcome so much to be there and then to complete what seemed like like an impossible distance was incredible. For the first time I had that spark, that desire to want to change. A few days later I called my buddy Corey and said I wanted to run the Cherry Blossom 10-miler with him the following April (quite the ambitious undertaking). He had his work cut out for him since I'd never been a runner. Fast forward 5.5 years and here I am, writing this race report. I've spent years "just getting by," always wondering if I'd ever be able to work hard enough, care enough, or want something so bad that I would do whatever it takes to achieve it. I guess the answer to that is yes I can and in the process I have joined an elite group of remarkable people who have done the same thing. I am ... an IRONMAN.
Pre-race:
Pre-race starts on Wednesday night around 10 pm when my parents, Bret, and I finally start the drive to Lake Placid. It was a long drive and dad and I took turns driving and shifts kept getting shorter and shorter the later it got. We finally arrived in LP around 8:30 am, got the keys to the house, and hit the ground running.
Swim:
The swim had the potential to go really well or really bad. I had put in the swim volume but was concerned how I'd do in the mass swim start. I took my place towards the far right shore line and my plan to stay wide right and slowly make my way over to the first turn buoy. As time counted down I noticed no one was pushing up towards the line, but staying back on the shore. I decided to inch up a little farther than anticipated in hopes of finding some clean water. My thought going into the day was that the start would be a clobber fest and then I'd find space and be smooth sailing the rest of the way. That's not exactly how it went down. What ended up happening was I would spend a few minutes getting beat up then I'd have a few minutes of peace. Repeat for 2.4 miles. I finished the first lap feeling good and like I didn't use too much energy. I look down at my watch and I was at 35 minutes which is my fastest 1.2 mile split ever. Just had to do it one more time. The second lap was exactly like the first and even had to pull up twice to fix my goggles after legitimately getting punched in the face. It was coincidence as I turned to the side breathing while someone else's hand was heading back towards the water. But seriously, who "recovers" with a closed fist??? I felt a little slower on the second lap and was fine with. I know I pulled back a bit knowing there was still a lot of day left. I exit the water after lap two and looked down. The Garmin said 1:15:00. I was thrilled. I'm a terrible swimmer. When I registered I said I would love to get out of the water in 1:30:00. After some coaching and lots of swim volume I said I would be happy getting out of the water in 1:20:00. Huge victory for me and I even put 5 minutes in the bank. Total Swim time 1:15:56 and finished in 128th of 230 in my AG. Time to go see the strippers!
T1:
If there is one thing that Ironman does better than anything else, it is the amount of volunteer help provided throughout the day. One of the coolest jobs has to be that of "wetsuit stripper." Once out of the water all the athlete has to do is unzip the suit and pull it down to their waste, run to the next available stripper and lay down (yeah, you read that right). They rip off the suit, hand it to you and your on your way. One guy even tipped a lady $2 for the help. I guess that was easier than cuddling afterwards. Time for the 600 or so yard run to the oval and T1. Its always a good idea to locate landmarks or visual clues to help find your transition area. In this case it was where my transition bags were hanging. I got very lucky on both my bags and bike. Running into the sea of bags there was an IRONMAN Foundation flag at the end of my run. Perfect. There was also a break in the 2 sets of racks and I was about 8-10 bags from the beginning of the row. Found my bag pretty quickly and ran into the changing tent. As quickly as I could I put on my socks, shoes, race number, sunglasses and helmet. One volunteer grabbed my bag cleaned up my swim stuff and another applied sunscreen on my way out of the tent. Best service ever. next it was on to my bike. There are volunteers there who will grab your bike if they are available and bring it to the end of the row. I yelled my number ahead and off went a volunteer to get it. By the time I get to my row, there it was. Off I go for the better part of my day. T1 time was 5:40.
Bike:
I was fairly certain that I knew how I was going to do on the bike. After riding the course 3 times at training camp the amount of climbing was just a little too much for my ability. Scott and I estimated 6 hours which he thought was slow and I thought was fast ... maybe it was spot on. I head out of town and hit the first of the few climbs and didn't push at all. So many people were screaming up the hills and the only thing I kept thinking was "dude, theres 109 miles left." Make it to the Keene descent and was a little nervous since I was riding it with the disc and 808. Overall it wasn't that bad but I did hit a bump and lost a water bottle. I knew I'd be fine with an aid station on the way to Jay, but I was definitely worried that someone behind me would hit it going 40+ MPH and wreck. My max speed was 48 so there is no way I'm turning my head to look back to see if it made it out of the way. I start the fun part of the course, the 25 miles or so out to Ausable Forks. There was a nice tail wind and I just cruised along in zone 2. Nothing exciting here except picking up another water bottle and sitting in aero for a while. The not fun part starts when you back to Jay and head up to Wilmington. Its a 1 mile climb to start a short break and then another climb. Just find the easiest gear you have and spin. There is a bit of relief as you approach Wilmington and hit the short out and back on Hasleton Rd. Through this point I was sticking to plan: rotating between water and Maltodextrin mix every 10 minutes while picking up a bottle at the aid stations and taking in as much as I could. I start the climb back to Lake Placid and made a rookie mistake on Papa Bear. Everyone said there would be tons of people lining the street and would be cheering you on Tour de France style. As motivational as it is, you are supposed to stay in your zone and keep spinning. NO SPIKING HEART RATE. What did I do, spiked my heart rate. Of course then another mile up the road you make the turn on Mirror Lake Dr. and the streets are once agained lined with people cheering you on. I come up to special needs, switch out my bottles and on my way again. Got cheers from the FeXY tent and pressed on. I noticed my HR was still high so I did my rest to ease up and get it back down. I was in high zn 2 at this point and it seemed to stay there for most of the second lap. The second lap was much of the same and I did my best to settle into the grind and eventually made it back to transition. Total bike time was 6:15:47 for 17.88 MPH. This was also good to move me up 29 spots in my age group to 99th going into the run.
T2:
Once again, the volunteers were awesome. I came into transition and handed off my bike and didn't look back. Found my run bag just as easily as my bike bag and back to the tent. Through on my shoes and visor and was just about on my way. I ripped my bib when I was spinning it around and the volunteer ran to the other side of the like the world would end if he didn't get back as fast as he could. Was all pinned up and got a quick reapplication of sunscreen and on my way again. T2 time was 3:01.
Run:
Finally, I made it to my strength. The one part of the day I knew I most confident I'd do well in. Well ladies and gentlemen, the IRONMAN giveth and the IRONMAN taketh away. The plan was to go out at 9 min miles for the first 6 miles and then bump up to 8:30s. After the 6 mile mark I decided that it wasn't time to push it yet and that I wanted to give myself a little more time to settle in. I was fine cruising along fine and was on my way back into town. There are two hills on the course that no matter how easy you take it, your heart rate is gonna spike. In another rookie mistake I ran, albeit very easily, both and at the top of the second I could tell it was going to be hard to hold on for the second lap. I partially blame KWed for my running up the second lap because she was there and ran up the hill with me ... and then slapped my butt because the guy on the bull horn told her too. I hit the half way point and was feeling a little dizzy so I started to walk. At this point my estimated time was out the window so i didn't think it was worth it to push myself with 13 miles to go. I passed special needs and went for a sock/shoe change. The current pair were pretty soaked and I could feel blisters forming on the soles of my feet which is an odd place and something I've never experienced. Quick change and on my way. I made it back to River Rd and had to walk again. At this point the plan was just to make to the next aid station but even that wasn't always possible. Turns out I got pretty dehydrated during the ride and it was finally catching up to me. I figured it was pretty bad when I noticed I wasn't sweating any longer and had goose bumps. No time to be a superhero, just keep moving. I pressed on and miles 16-21 were definitely the low point of my day. But as I looked around it wasn't just me. So many people were having an equally rough time if not worse. I saw at least 6 or 8 people get carted off the run course. Then my day was magically saved. At mile 22 a guy by the name of Mike Monaco from the Rye Tri Team in Westchester, NY comes barreling through and starts asking people who was on their second lap. I said I was and without missing a beat he says to me "well get on the caboose, we're outta here." That was just what I needed and I sprang back to life. We take off and head back for town at a pretty good clip. We wisely walked that last hill back to Main St. and then made the turn for the last out and back. He said he needed to walk a little bit more and for me to go on. I told him that he saved my day a few miles back, now it was my turn to return the favor. We start running again and make the last turn around. This was it, 1 more mile and then the Olympic Oval and my finish line. We picked up the pace and it passed special needs. Once again he told me to go ahead, this time he gave me his permission, so I did. The sunglasses had been moved to the visor and I kept looking to both sides at all of the people there cheering. I should have slowed down and given myself a few extra seconds to take it all in. But when you know there is only 2 minutes between you and the one thing you've wanted for 5.5 years, you try and make it there in a 1.5 minutes. As soon as I enter the Oval I see Kristin and Shelly screaming and I reach out to give them high fives. Then everyone along the fence starts reaching out so high fiving fun was had by all. One more bend around the Oval and I hear my parents and sister start yelling, I head dropped and I must have gotten something in my eyes just then because they teared up. As I approached the line the fists were clinched, the arms went up and I just screamed. That was it, at that moment I became an IRONMAN. The funny part is the thing I thought about most during training was hearing Mike Reilly say "Steve Vadnais, YOU are an IRONMAN" .... AND I DIDN'T EVEN HEAR HIM SAY IT .... DAMNIT! Although mom and dad later confirmed that he did so I'll take it. My run time with melt down was 4:29:59 so I ultimately lost 30 minutes to walking. Either way, my run time was enough for me to gain another 22 spotss in my age group and I finished the day in 12:10:23, good for 76th out of 230 men racing 30-34. I'll take it.
Post Race:
The volunteers did not disappoint. I had 2 catchers help me as I crossed the finish line. Once of them had me and was walking me to the Medical area, the other went over and got my finishers shirt and hat and brought back to me. To say I felt like hell is a bit of an understatement but I was able to get down to chocolate milks. As I headed out to try and find everyone I saw Mike walk by and gave him a hug. Seriously, this guy saved my day. After stumbling around the crowd for a minute I hear my dad yell out and run over to me. Him first, then mom, then Amy; BEST. HUGS. EVER. Then Bret, Jen, and Jesse got hugs too. Then I fell to the ground and just laid there. We headed back to the team house for a shower and then off to dinner with one last thing to do. IRONMAN tradition, if you will, is to go back to the finish line around 11 pm or so and cheer on the rest of the athletes who have been out there all day. This was quite possibly the best part of the day. The entire oval was full of people screaming as loud as they could each time someone else came down the final stretch. Then there was just one last athlete on the course; a gentleman of 76 years who was doing everything he could to get to the finish. Next thing you know a handful of volunteers and Andy Potts (mens winner) run out of the oval and disappear for a few minutes. I quick look at the official clock and its 16:58:00. Its not looking good. The clock hits 17 hours and no sign yet. Then the crowd erupts and here comes this man, one foot in front of the other with the help of the volunteers. He crosses the line in 17:02:50. I don't give a damn, he's still an IRONMAN. An awesome end to an awesome day.
Take-aways:
Once again, it was an amazing day. Did I expect more, of course I did. I always do. But based on the events of the day I did what I gave it everything I had and that's all I can ask of myself. I've gotten a few repeat questions so here are my answers. Was it worth it? Absolutely. the only thing I would try and do differently is spend a little less money. Some of this was akin to start up costs that won't be needed next time, but other than that I wouldn't change a thing. It was the most rewarding thing I've ever done. Will I do another one? See previous answer. Yes, I will absolutely do another one, just not in 2013. Will I get the MDOT tattoo. Absolutely. sketch is already in progress.
There it is. My first IRONMAN experience in the books. It was exactly the wild ride I thought it would be and now its time to kick back, relax, and catch up on all of those things that I put on hold for so long.
Thanks to Everyone who had a hand in making this happen.
Whooohoo!! Congrats IronStevie :-) Hehe. Enjoy relaxing (for a bit) 'til the next adventure!
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