The Run
I
went into the race hoping for a 1 hour swim a 6 hour bike and a 4 hour
marathon. I had made the first 2
but I knew the run was the toughest part for me. And I was pretty beat down so this was
going too tough, but I had at least gotten myself on target this far. About a half mile into my run my left
hamstring locked up in a vicious cramp.
As I jolted back my other hamstring locked up too. Uh oh, this aint good. There I was standing there, bent over at
the waist….just standing there not sure what to do. A spectator was nice enough to help me
up. He told me to lay on the
ground, he then stretch me out….he gave me some words of wisdom and sent me on
my way. Had he not been there, I
might still be standing there in the middle of the run course in eyeshot of the
transition area, bent at the waist looking very confused. Over the next couple miles I battled
cramps in a run, walk, stand, sit and stretch progression. This was brutal. I never cramped….ever, but here I
was. This kind of race is not like
any other training day. This is
full throttle physically, mentally, and emotionally. You give it all, and when you really do
give it your all you are going get some unexpected bumps in the road. This was one of those bumps. Gradually the cramps came under control,
but I was still seeing stars and trying to get calories…all the eating and
drinking made it hard to run though and I was feeling full and pretty queasy
after all the sugary gels and sports drinks. By mile 4 I was getting a bit of a
running rhythm together and felt a little better than I did early on. The cramps subsided a bit and my energy
level was slightly above “absolutely wasted.” By this point a 4 hour marathon was
totally out of the question….this is where you do a little goal
reassessment. Now, it's about
finishing….there is heart, dedication desire etc, but right now and over the
next few hours, I am here to finish.
Whatever emotions I want to lean on to get it done, doesn’t matter, just
finish.
The Lake
I saw Jim on the run at a turn around point, he was about 2 miles or so ahead of me….he is a pretty strong runner so I figured that was as close as I would be to him. Found out later he had 3 flats on the bike course….at least I am not only guy with problems!! At mile 6, the course comes back to the lake were we swam and we go around the lake 3 times. As I headed around the lake, I felt crappy, but I was stable. About mile 11 I saw someone ahead of me…..it was none other than my buddy Maarten!! The guy who blew passed me on the bike. He knew going in his run was likely going to be a walk because of the some injuries he had before the race. His race was really the bike leg and he tore it up placing 30th overall. But just like me, that push had taken its toll on him and he was pretty beat. We walked together for a half-mile and then we started to run together.
We stayed together a few miles, but then I inched past him and he faded somewhere behind me. The next lap was pretty numbing. My biggest issue was being on the verge of puking the whole time. All day I just ate gels and sports drinks and I was pretty d$#@ tired of them by this point. I made lots of friends on the second lap and headed out for my last lap. 7 more miles and I was an ironman. I battled a few more cramps and got about a quarter of the way around who comes up from behind…..Maarten. He battled back. The two of us pumped each other up the rest of the way. “OK Guz, from this cone to that next light pole we run….” “All right Maarten, to the next mail box we run…” “the blue one?” “no the red one on the other side” “oh, ok…” we ran in 50 yards segments and started passing people. By this point it was dark. What a day. 3 miles to go. Let’s do this man!! 2 miles!! 1 mile!!! “Maarten we are going to do this!!” We talked about how we would finish….me first? Him first? Sprint it out?? In the end, we decided to finish arm in arm. We had trained together, drove the bike course together, and set expectations together. I picked him up when he was ready to walk the whole run course. He picked me up when I was ready to walk the last lap. As we came down the shoot, I was somehow not tired. Maarten had to tell me to slow down several times because I was running up on the guy coming down the finishing shoot in front of us. Not too cool to mess up some else’s finishing photo by jumping around the background like an idiot. So we ran the last 30 feet together crossing the line at 12:18:33!! My 4-hour marathon had become 5:18 and I was absolutely fine with that. I just became and ironman.
