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way to go, baldy! look here
Andy
Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
take a look at what our own baldy has done!
many pics right here
congratulations, baldy! you are awesome! :bow :clap :bow :clap
many pics right here
congratulations, baldy! you are awesome! :bow :clap :bow :clap
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What a fantastic achievement! Congratulations, Chris, you've accomplished something memorable. And after seeing "Super Size Me" tonight, I have even more respect for you.
Well done, sir.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."-Hunter S.Thompson
Ian
Congrats again on a fantastic race.
I'm awed.
Lynnma
Nice work Baldy... you put more miles on your bicycle in that race than I have in the past month. Thanks for the motivation to leave the motorized one at home, and pedal in to work tomorrow!
moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]
Get on yer bike Eric..:D
Three years ago at 228 pounds my doc was saying the blood tests didn't look so good anymore.... So I decided to do an IronMan when I turned 50 and get this butt in shape. Lost 35 pounds, got mentally tougher, but almost not tough enough...
For those who wouldn't get bored by my sulking and brooding out there, here's the story and I'm sticking to it: :dood
5 hours into the bike I made 2 big decisions: 1. The subject line of my race report would say NEVER AGAIN! in all caps with at least one exclamation point. :nono
2. On the finish line with video cameras rolling I would announce to my wife, NEVER!! Been there, done that. Don't need it again.
Half-IronMen would be enough.
How quickly things had changed since the dinner the night before, when I confidently wrote for all to see:
Swim: 1:15-1:20
Bike: 6:00-6:30
Run: 4:30-5:00
Total: 12:00-13:15, with transitions.
The mantra was "no glo sticks." 13:15 gets me in before dark.
I was pretty sure I had a shot at 11:45 and shocking everyone.
There were no excuses. I was rested, fit, the weather was perfect, and I was surrounded by the best cheering section in the business. :whip
I announced that I wasn't nervous and expected to sleep well.
But I slept maybe 8 minutes...two 4-minute naps. The excitement and adrenaline were too much.
For some reason, my mental processes were off in the morning. I drove the wrong way, forgot my bike helmet and shoes and had to scramble to get to the swim start on time.
1,400 swimmers in one mass start! 2/3rds of them half men with more energy than the real men had, so the Iron distance racers got pushed around. No worries, my toughness prevailed.
1:16 swim exit. Precision planning. No dramas.
But I inexplicably passed the changing tent and went up the hill to my bike, where I inexplicably couldn't find it. I placed it there, I memorized its location...where was it and why couldn't I remember?
I eventually found it and walked it back down the hill to the changing tent, unlike every other athlete and Don kept screaming I was going the wrong way. Lots of sunscreen later and I was on my way with an 8 minute transition. Oh well. I would soon be in my comfort zone, on my bike.
Odd. Kinda windy here by the lake, and so early in the morning... Let's hope this dies down on the other part of the course...
I set my heart rate cap at 120 on the bike, the best decision of my life to that point. We all understood the bike course to be flat and fast, a legitimate personal record course. No one understood that they were embarking on the ride from Hell, the ride everyone would say later gave them their slowest bike split by 30 minutes of any course.
Winds, rough pavement, and more hills than we bargained for begain to beat the crap out of us and after three hours everyone went silent. :bash
I was looking for a 3:00 midway time, reasonable considering I did a 2:42 bike last year at Big Kahuna half IronMan.
When 3:15 came and went, my mental toughness went too. At 3:30 the thought of a 7:00+ bike split horrified me but I wasn't halfway yet. A tire had formed a separation and was threatening to blow and I secretly hoped it would so I could go home.
But my cheering section somehow snuck out on the closed course and gave me a huge boost, so I decided to get over myself and my shockingly bad time and get back to the real reasons for doing IronMan. What were those reasons, anyway?
At 3:40 I hit halfway. No one said anything. Just grim stares. :twitch
I finally let my heart go to 124 on the many hills (flat my *butt*) and began to get tired. Tired from fighting the winds and rough pavement. Tired of the long hours of silence. Tired of IronMan.
8:30 into the race, the longest I'd ever exercised, I arrived in the changing tent believing I was too tired to run and had a 26-mile miserable walk ahead. And I knew what happened in every other triathlon I'd entered: I pass hundreds on the bike and they pass me back on the run.
I walked the first 300 yards and tested my legs. I could actually run!
After the first mile, 3 of my smiling cheering section jumped out from the bushes with running shoes on to join me! The lake was beautiful, the winds had turned to a cooling breeze under the trees, and the temperature was perfect. How could I have let negative thoughts nearly wreck my day?
And a strange thing happened. No one passed me. But I passed perhaps 50 sculpted specimens I would never have passed but for the HR cap I had set on the bike. I walked the hills in the beginning but got stronger as I went and started running everything. I felt like I was running a 4:15 pace, but I'm told it was slower.
At 14 miles a ref came up beside me and informed us that having a cheering section run with me was illegal and I would be assessed an 8-minute penalty on the marathon. I had no idea, but took the medicine without complaining. We separated.
At 22 miles I felt okay and did the math: I could sneak under 13 after all!!! Life was good and I only had to endure this once in my life so why not go for it?
At the 24-mile marker, I was confused because it said 23 miles. WHAT?! How could they typo like that there? :puke1 Or was it me? I finally decided it was me and breaking 13 was impossible, a major blow. So I walked the next hill feeling sorry for myself and thinking of minutes slipped by in transitions, etc., and wondering if I could have done it.
But I finally got over myself one more time and ran to the finish, strongly, big smile, lots of jumping around and flexing and shouting "NEVER AGAIN!! Been there. Done that."
My watch read 13:08. I was going to have to swallow my pride and come to grips with being slower than the 11:45 IronMan I thought I was.
In the car on the way home Ben helped me understand that I really do want a 12-something memory and I really want to be part of a big international triathlon like Ironman Germany with 100,000 spectators.
Hmmmm.... You can edit video, right?
Go see "Super Size Me" and put your tremendous accomplishment in perspective.
You done good. Very, very good.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
Amazing story and amazing accomplishment. You have inspired us all.
Congratulations.
TML Photography
tmlphoto.com
Your description of your race brought back a flood of memories of my first marathon in Maui in 2000. It was also a race from hell. The temperature was unseasonally high at 85F+. But the wind! It gusted to almost 60mph! (averaged 35-50).
People on the road sobbing, "train wrecks" everywhere and it was only mile 15. Almost a quarter of the runners didn't finish that day. I had a lot of self doubt and didn't think I could make it. There was no #$%!!#*! way I was ever going to do this again!
I did finish. I remember EXACTLY how I felt. I can hardly comprehend how you strung a 180K bike ride and a 4.5K swim in front of your run. It is truly an amazing feat.
Besides all the pain and suffering of the race, the ONE thing I remember like it was just yesterday was the overwhelming emotion of crossing the finish line on a day that I could never have imagined in my worst nightmare.
Which leads me to: There is only one first race. What a fantastic story of courage, strength, and perseverance. And you finished. That IS the kind of race to have as a first race. I guarantee that the memories of this race will stay with you forever ...
And as far as never again ... my bet is on again and not on never.
Best regards,
Brad
P.S. to the readers of this thread. There is as almost as much emotion in being a volunteer for a race like Baldy's as competing. Races like these need a TON of volunteers. If you want to see and eperience what the human spirit is really all about, go volunteer for an Ironman or marathon. Or just go out and cheer. The racers won't remember you face, but they will certainly remember your encouragement. End of plug:D
www.digismile.ca
Thanks for all the kind words. The fact that I cracked so badly mentally makes me, ahem, um, definitely want to try this again and see if I can get closer to 11-something.... Yikes.
addicted to pain and suffering, eh? there's a word for that ... hehehe
congrats on the great finish!
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Congrats! We're not worthy...
Lynne
endurance rider not runner, biker AND swimmer!
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