“Scott, you’re an Ironman!”
After 202 days, I can finally say that I am an Ironman!
While the whole point of setting the goal to become an Ironman was to motivate me to become a healthier person, I am glad in the end I was able to accomplish the finish at Ironman Florida as well.
Before I go on to covering the day’s events, I have to say thank you to all the friends and family that supported me along the way. There were certainly a lot of ups and downs and the encouragement that I received really kept me going. Dawn and both of my girls were there 100% of the way and I will be forever grateful.
Now on to covering all of the details of one of longest days of my life!
It’s race day and there’s no turning back now. My plan was to get into bed around 7pm to ensure that I got a lot of rest, even though I knew I would probably toss and turn for a good while. In the end, I was very happy that I went to bed pretty early since I woke up feeling very rested. After grabbing a quick breakfast, Dawn drove me over and dropped me off at the transition area. The
volunteers did a great job of getting everyone marked with their race numbers and through the gates, so I had quite a bit of time before the 7am start.
Around 6:30am, I put on my wetsuit and headed down to the beach to get in a quick warm-up swim. The water was a lot rougher than it had been the previous two days, but I wasn’t really too worried about it. I think the excitement didn’t really let me dwell on that too much.
About 10 mins before the start, just like I had visualized, I looked around at all of the atheletes and said to myself, “I can’t believe I
about about to do this.”
The gun went off at 7am and all 2,500 athletes went running into the water. As planned, I decided to hang back and start with a nice easy pace so I could stay on the inside track of the course. All of the sea life that I was saw during the swim was a nice distraction…jellyfish, a group of 6-8 stingrays and variety of fish. While it was only a mild inconvenience, I did get stung by a couple of jellyfish.
I finished the first lap and I was feeling really good. There were quite a few swimmers that were not having a great time because of the rough water though. One athlete looked over at me and I could tell something wasn’t right. When I asked if she was OK, she replied, “I don’t think I want to do this anymore.” I flagged over a kayaker to help her and went on my way. Apparently there were several swimmers that cut their day short from the rough water. All in all, the swim was pretty uneventful and I went on to T1 with a pretty nice smile on my face.
My good friends Marc & Paula Johnson and John Krause made their way down to support me and it was great seeing their faces as I made my way down the chute to the transition area. A couple of quick waves and a fist bump and I was in transition changing into my bike gear.
Coming out of transition and running down the chute to pick up my bike, I saw Marc, Paula, John and Dawn yelling at me to get my ass moving. It was nice to see them there offering their support once again.
I jetted out of the transition area and got off to a quick pace on the bike…but that didn’t last for long. After about 10 miles into the ride as I turned onto a long highway, I hit a big headwind which lasted for about 35 miles. I was really looking forward to the flat terrain of Florida, but the wind really made the flats worthless. Normally I can cruise at 21-23 mph comfortably, but the headwind had me riding at 14-15mph. It was very discouraging and the smile that I had after the swim was all but gone.
All I could do was look towards the halfway point and hope that the winds would help on the way back. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky. I did have the wind behind me, but we ended up going through a wooded area that didn’t offer the full advantages of the wind.
Honestly, I hit some pretty low points during the bike ride and came pretty close to quitting. I was warned that the race would bring some low points that would make me feel that way and indeed I did. For whatever reason, I managed to make it through and I was extremely glad to be done with the ride.
As I rode into transition, I saw my cheering crew and it brought a smile to my face and offered a little motivation. My body was feeling pretty sore all over, but oddly my feet were hurting the most…which is not good when you’re about to run a marathon.
The change into my running gear went without a hitch and before I knew it I was off for the final phase of this incredibly long day. It was a nice surprise that as badly as my feet were hurting I was able to start off with a nice pace. Compared to the half Ironman, I felt so much better and I attribute that to training outside instead of the treadmill.
The first 13.1 miles went pretty smoothly and I wasn’t walking too much…just here and there. However, the last 13.1 miles were not
quite as good. My body was finally getting to the point where it decided it had been doing this long enough. About mile 15, I ended up tweaking my knee pretty badly on a speed bump that wasn’t visible on the unlit road. I managed to run/walk the next 4 miles, but after that, both of my knees were shot.
I walked about 90% of the last 6 miles and the last 2 miles it hurt to even walk. I wanted to finish strongly, but I was just in too much pain to risk not finishing by hurting myself. At that point, I wanted to focus on being able to run across the finish at least.
The last tenth of a mile had finally come and I did my best to run. It wasn’t a fast run, but at least I wasn’t walking.
I entered the chute for the finish line and I think I felt more relief than a sense of accomplishment at that point. However, I did work up a pretty huge smile after hearing those amazing words, “Scott, you are an Ironman!”
I was shuttled off to the catchers (people that assist you after you’re done) and got my picture taken and my finisher hat/t-shirt. When you finish you also get a free massage, but the only thing I wanted was to see Dawn and share the experience with her.
It was no time at all before we ended up finding each other and I grabbed her and gave her a big hug…that’s when the tears came. It’s been such a long journey and it was great to be able to share it with her. All I could say to her was thank you. I truly was only able to achieve this goal with her support and encouragement.
With the commencement of this journey, I actually had 1 main goal and 2 smaller goals. The first and most important was to change my lifestyle and become healthier. Check. The second was to complete an Ironman as a way to force myself into training. Check. Lastly, I really wanted to complete the Ironman in under 15 hours and sadly, I did not achieve that goal. Out of the
three, that certainly was the least important and I am not disappointed with my finish time of 15 hours and 43 minutes at all. Like all of the other people that I was talking with that finished around me…we still get the same medal as everyone else!
While my Ironman Journey is over, my journey to stay fit and healthy continues. I still plan to participate in events like sprint
triathlons, 100 mile bike rides and possibly a half Ironman, but I doubt I will do another full Ironman (but of course, I am writing this as the pain from the current one is still in full effect).
It’s been an amazing 202 days and thank you again to Dawn, my girls and my friends that supported me along the way…I can never thank you enough.