Trevor Gribble, YOU are an IRONMAN!

I think it was back in 2003, when Ski and Zach announced that they were going to train for and run in the Los Angeles Marathon. My thoughts at the time, "Are you crazy? There's no way you will do that." Such an event was unfathomable in my mind. The seed was planted.

It was early April 2005, when I was stretching after a 5 mile run around Balboa Island - my longest run to date. I bumped into my neighbor Christina as she was taking her dog for a walk. She mentioned that she had finished the San Diego Marathon the previous year. Inspired, I immediately returned to my computer and signed up for the June race. Things were starting to materialize.

Later on in 2005, I was over at Joe and Shawn's apartment. We were flipping channels and stumbled onto coverage of the Ironman triathlon. The standard comments were uttered: "That's just insane" & "Just finishing one of those, you are the man" … An ultimate goal was now apparent.

A few months later, I ran my 2nd marathon in Honolulu. I improved 16 minutes since San Diego, and was feeling pretty good. I got a smoothie after the race and went to my hotel's hot tub to relax. I randomly met fellow UCLA alum Terrie in the hot tub. She had crushed me in the race and mentioned that once she got back home, she was starting up her training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I was in awe. Within a few minutes, my eyes opened up to the world of triathlon.

First week of March, 2006, I started swimming during lunch at the Janet Evans Swimming complex in Fullerton. I hadn't swum a lap in about 14 years. The complex was under construction and the changing tents and showering trailers were pretty weak, but the great coaches & lifeguards (Mitch, Ally, Kyle) made up for it. Multisport was underway.

LA Marathon 2006, I was stretching before the race when I noticed a guy wearing an Ironman 70.3 California hat. I asked him, "That was a few weeks ago, right? How did you do?" His response: "No, it was yesterday"…and he was running the LA marathon 15 hours later as a training run. I realize that Ironmen are insane.

November 5, 2006, I woke up in Corona at 8:00AM, got online, and "luckily" was able to sign up for the Florida Ironman to take place exactly 1 year later. I realize that I am now officially insane.

November 3, 2007, I woke up in Panama City Beach at 3:30AM, put some oatmeal in the microwave, and thus began an incredible adventure …..

November 3, 2007, 5:23PM…Trevor Gribble, You are an Ironman!
When I look back and connect the dots that led me to this accomplishment, the above moments are the ones that I remember the most. Along the way, there were countless friends and family, as well as random individuals who I met at pools, gyms, trails, races, in the office, on planes, etc., with whom I discussed endurance sports and everyone provided advice and encouragement.

Everyone who competes in an Ironman has a different set of stories and reasons that led them to sign up for their day of agony & rejoice. For me, it was simply a random set of chance encounters with the right people at the right time.

So, a HUGE Thank You goes out to everyone I mentioned above. Also, thanks to Ruttenberg, Teddy, Jared, Suraj, Victor, Kollitz, G, Luquin, Shane, Cristian, Eli, Isola & Gigi for giving up your couch/floor/bathroom for me the night before a race or training day. Thanks to Dzuy, Terry, Gilbert, Mckane, Kellogg, Romanof, Melissa, Kavita, Tarun, Matt G, Tommy, Teddy, Mom & Dad for coming out to races along the way, racing with me or cheering me on. Thanks to the BR-629 homies for not mentioning my 5:00AM Tours de Jerusalem & Tel Aviv to Shannie & Momo. And a HUGE Thanks to Eli, Gilbert, Sheryl, Kayla, Lloyd, Mom & Dad for making it out to PBC and spending 10 hours getting drunk and cheering me on. And of course as I mentioned in my earlier email, thanks to everyone who has been cool enough to simply listen to a word out of my mouth about this crazy endeavor.

Now, onto the race report:

In the days leading up to the race, it was pretty surreal. People were biking and running up and down the street non-stop. It was just a crazy sight to see as you couldn't walk across the street without dodging someone. Anytime you made it out to the beach you would see at least 15-20 people swimming in their wetsuits. There was no denying it… this was the REAL DEAL, time to put on the game face.
All my preparation went smoothly. Nothing too exciting to report here. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon with my parents. The weather was perfect, and aside from some gaudy decorations, our condo was perfect. The next 2 days, I got in 2 wetsuit practices, a couple quick bike workouts and short runs…my body was working properly. Nutritionally, everything was going good as well. On Friday night, everyone else arrived. I was pretty tired so I hit they hay around 9:30.

I got a decent nights sleep, woke up at 2am with a little cough, and started freaking out, but managed another 1.5 hours of sleep and woke up at 3:30am feeling fine. A quick bowl of oatmeal & strawberries, some stretching, changing into my clothes and I was on my way. Setting everything up in transition was smooth…I took my time, making sure I got all my bathroom business out of the way before making it to the beach. We were supposed to be at the beach by 6:30 but I didn't make it out until 6:45, whatever.

Saw my dad holding up a sign and went to say my final goodbyes, Eli, Kayla & Lloyd also found me at this point. I was pretty pumped up. The pros took off and then I went into the start corral. It's not every day that you go from the National Anthem to Ozzy's "Ironman". As soon as the first chord hit, all my nerves went down the drain. I wanted to hear that in the morning to pump me up but I forgot, so this just made my day. I slotted myself 2nd row on the inside of the buoys, and boom, we were off.

I was hoping to break 1:10. The swim felt pretty good, I was able to have decent spacing and my goggles stayed on tight the whole time. When I exited the water after the first loop, I saw the clock and it read 39 minutes. I was pissed. Then I realized it was the pro clock, and I had actually swam the first lap in 29 minutes! Sweet! My half ironman swim was 36, so this was a huge improvement. Jumping back in for the 2 nd lap was probably the hardest part of the race for me. My heart rate was skyrocketing, but I eventually settled into a groove and did it all again. This time it took me 33 minutes and I exited the water at 1:02:48, 7 minutes faster than my goal time.

Made it through T1 pretty smoothly (Getting the wetsuit stripped off was great!), jumped on the bike and rode comfortably at the start yet still passed about 50-60 people in the first 6 miles before turning onto the 79.Through the first 20 miles I was flying, passing tons of people. I made the turn onto the 20, and then I dealt with packs for the next 50 miles, charging to the front 4 times only to be passed back within 5 minutes of breaking free. It has been beat to death, but with so many riders & a flat course, packs were inevitable, so I just dealt with it as legally as I could. I finally had some space from miles 73-90 before another pack came up behind me. When I hit the bridge at mile 98, I made my move and pushed it for the last 14 miles. I passed back a decent amount of people here and ended up arriving in T2 in 4:58:26, the 4th fastest split in my age group! I was hoping to ride sub 5:20, so again, I was 20 minutes faster than I had hoped. Sub 5 hours was HUGE. Plus I didn't spend a cent on Aero-wheels! 100% stock, baby.

T2 was great, the volunteers were amazing, grabbing my bike, handing me my bag, and helping me get my shoes on, comforting me along the way. I was through it in about 3 minutes, so now I had taken about 6.5 minutes total on my transitions, and I was expecting around 10, so I was another 3 minutes faster than expected.

I started the run at about 6:08 into the race, in 170th place at the time. Considering there were 94 pros who started the race, I was pretty stoked at this point. Although, as I had only run a max of 3 miles after a 5 hour ride, I really had no clue what I was getting myself into. Finally saw my cheering section about a half mile into the run…it must have been great for them to finally see me after sitting around all morning getting drunk. The next 6 miles were decent, I was sticking to a 9 minute/mile pace, and people were cheering loudly, although I was getting passed by lots of good runners. When I hit mile 7 and started the run back to the half way point, that's when I hit rock bottom. Miles 7-14 were filled with self-doubt: "What the hell are you thinking putting yourself through this"..."This is the stupidest thing you have ever done in your entire life." Even when I got to my cheering crew again at mile 12.5 I was hating life. My stomach was sloshing, my legs were hurting, and I just wanted to die. This picture perfectly captured the agony of that moment. I made the halfway turnaround and picked up my special needs bag just as the male overall winner was coming down the finishing line. That actually gave me inspiration as I did not get lapped out on the run course. By now I had run out of salt tablets and had already started to experiment with coke, which was actually working to settle my stomach. I popped a few Tylenol that I got in special needs, and managed to pick up the pace a little bit. I would do the famed Ironman shuffle at about a 9:30 pace from aid station to aid station, then walk each one picking up Gatorade and pretzels to increase my salt intake, as I could feel my muscles getting dehydrated. At mile 15, I found a guy who was going about my pace, and I ran and chatted with him until about mile 18, when he could no longer hang at my pace and told me to go on without him. I was now picking up speed, and made it to mile 20 before picking up another Ironfriend, Mark from Canada, for the next 5 miles. With less than 1 mile to go, we were coming through the awesome section of fanfare and one of the tents with a stereo started playing Soulja Boy. As stupid as it may sound, you have no idea how much that song hit the spot at the 140 mile mark. I got a huge smile on my face and I seriously started doing the dance as I was running past the music, it was awesome! The crowd was going nuts cheering me on. As soon as I had "youuuuuuu'd" twice, I just got a super adrenaline kick and started actually running again. My quads and hamstrings amazingly found some juice and I was flying for the last half mile, passing about 7 or 8 people as I came towards the finish line. I just kept screaming this whole time knowing that it was going to be over so soon. I saw the family up ahead on my right, and Gilbert came out with the flag & the beer. I was expecting some PBR, but I guess Steel Reserve Malt Liquor was going to have to do. From there, I just glided in for the finish, shaking up the tall boy and popping it open over my head as I approached the line.


I broke the tape as the clock read 10:23:28, meaning I had just ran a 4:15 marathon. That was slower than I had hoped for but still, my overall time was 22 minutes faster than my goal. Technically, this finish fell within my "ecstatic" zone. I placed 267th overall out of 2277 starters, and 8th out of 51 in my age group. I finished while the sun was still up and managed to head over to the beach to catch a killer sunset.

It was a great day, and now I can try to go back to living a normal life.

-Trevor

*The complete photoset can be found on Picasa.