Thursday night: Out til 4AM in Gainesville. Good times.
Friday morning: Up at 8AM, drive 5 hours to Miami.
Friday afternoon: Awesome 10 mile run on South Beach. Felt great.
Friday night: Out til 4AM in Miami. Caught Michael Jordan, Scott Storch, Fat Joe, DJ Kahled at Mansion.
Saturday morning: Up at 11AM, next few hours spent packing things up driving to race site, dropping bike off, meeting up with Kollitz for lunch in Coral Gables...relatively smooth.
Saturday 5:00: Headache
Saturday 5:30: Awful Headache
Saturday 6:00: Sore Throat
Saturday 7:00: Ready to die
Saturday 7:00 - 3:45AM: Toss and turn, close eyes as much as possible, up every 45 minutes to drink some water and take a piss. Awful night.
Sunday 3:45AM: Up. Feeling like crap. Throbbing Headache.
Sunday 4:30AM: Leave Coral Gables, drive to race site, not feeling any better.
Sunday 5:00AM-6:00AM: Set up transition area trying to talk myself into racing despite physical condition. Look all over for tylenol but can't find any. Oh well. Hydrate well, eat well. Meet up with Tony, who tells me his friend has already backed out because of a headache, and I decide that I'm not going to puss out and I'm going to try and race.
Sunday 6:15AM: Board the ferry to "Escape Island" holding head in hands feeling like complete crap.
Sunday 6:45AM: Pop 2 energy pills, jump off of boat, short swim to shore. BOOM ADRENALINE KICKING IN. Feeling much better now.
Sunday 6:45-8:05AM: Wait on island for what seemed like forever so that they could ferry all the 750-850 racers out there. Lost adrenaline rush, but maintained hydration, stayed focused and was ready to go.
8:05AM: Race start.
Swim: As I was not feeling that great, I did not want to go tread water in order to get a prime spot in the mass swim start, so unfortunately I was in the middle of an insane logjam of swimmers and struggled to find any room. I had to stop 3 times to adjust my goggles as they filled with water. Finally, I turned around the first buoy, 1/3 of the way into the race and got some space. From there it was just a long hard swim back to shore, and I wasn't feeling that great. I basically threw out all technique, breathing every other short stroke. I knew that I was not going to improve at all on previous swim times and was just happy to finish.
Swim Time: 29:23 (98th overall)
T1: I took my sweet time here. Being sick, once my headache subsided, the biggest concern I had was cramping up on the bike. I made sure to get my endurolytes and an oatmeal bar, washing it down with gatorade before jumping on the bike. Also stashed an extra oatmeal bar and hammer gel in my back pocket for nutrition along the ride. I could have sped things up by putting this crap on my bike in the first place, but I didn't bring any tape, so I was forced to just knock it out in transition.T1 Time: 1:39 (408th overall...ha!)
Bike: Decided I was going to just ride balls out and hold nothing back. If I cramp up, I cramp up, and call it a day. Greatest decision ever. My good nutrition paid off and I absolutely flew on the bike, passing everyone in sight. I estimate I passed over 60 people and guarantee that I did not get passed by a single person. (2 "elite" guys who I passed, passed me back when I slowed down to eat my oatmeal bar, but I passed them again) It was a bit windy which slowed us down one way and sped us up the other. The 2 hills on the causeway were tough but I rocketed up them as best I could. I was sure that I averaged around 23-24 mph, which would have put my bike in at just over an hour, 12 minutes faster than my previous best. However, according to my bike computer, the actual course was about 25.5 miles long, so my time was longer, but still very good.
Bike Time: 1:07:11 (30th overall)
T2: As I entered transition, the clock read something like 1:38, it was then that I realized I had completely forgotten to start my watch when the swim started, oh well. Again, I took my time in nutrition, unscrewing a bottle of endurolytes and taking another 4, downing with gatorade.
T2 Time: 1:27 (343rd overall...ha!)
Run: Without my watch starting from the beginning, I didn't really care about trying to pace, just went out and ran comfortably at a solid pace. The first hill going over the 395 was a beast. Much harder than I remember it being during the Miami Marathon. However, I stayed steady, and when the leader passed me, I realized he was only 2 miles ahead of me, so I was only about 14-15 minutes back, 2 miles into the run. Not bad considering the circumstances. I kept the run strong, and felt pretty good during the second half. Turned it up a notch for the last mile and a half and passed about 7 people. Came down the homestretch, made the turn for the finish line, just as the clock read "2:29:58" Doh! I wasn't going to break 2:30. Only now did I kick myself for failing to start my watch. I could have picked it up even more over the last half mile to break 2:30 if I knew what my time was. Oh well. Ended up finishing in 2:30:05, and hopefully I get a sweet jumping pic when they post up the pics online in a few days. Be sure to check back for that.
Run time: 50:25 (54th overall)
Total time: 2:30:05 (40th overall out of ~800)
Given the circumstances, I couldn't have been happier. Had I been 100% I would have gotten a much better swim start and quicker transitions, easily cutting off about 4 minutes. I don't know if the bike or run would have been any better, but yea, top 25 would have been a real possibility. AND, most importantly, I would have only lost to 1 woman. As it were, 3 finished ahead of me :) Again, isn't that the only statistic that matters?
Shoutouts to Jeremy (Thanks for letting me use your couch as my sick-bed), Tony (Thanks for the haircut and the pre-race pep talk), Matt (good meeting up with you after the race, sorry about the crash), and Brian (3rd place was kick-ass, good luck in Kona)
Lesson learned: Don't stay up til 4:00AM 3 nights in a row before racing. Even if it involves Michael Jordan.
PS: The drive back to Gainesville SUCKED!
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