After elbowing my way to the front of the crowd on the beach at 7am Ironman morning, I had one specific goal:
Win the race.
The swim started strong. My plan was to swim consistently, and leave myself fresh for a solid bike. Although it felt like a 56:00 swim pace, I glanced at my watch coming out of the water and it was closer to a 59:00. I thought maybe it was because I only drafted for about 20% of the swim, but later that day, I spoke with a couple pros who were convinced that every swim was slower that day due to a strong current heading out towards the Spokane River. And we all know that pro triathletes are freakin' all-knowing, all-seeing gods, so this must be the case.
After about a 4 minute transition, I hopped on my Specialized Transition Pro and took off. My legs were really popping. I didn't even feel like I had a chain. At the Higgins point turnaround, I counted myself at 19th place and 6 minutes down from the leader, and knew I would catch most of the cyclists ahead, as they looked like swimmers.
And I did.
By mile 85, I was 90 seconds down on the leader and in 3rd place.
Then my world started to go black. I've never bonked in Ironman before, and at 350 calories per hour, thought it would be impossible. But my body immediately started craving solid food, so I pulled over to the mile 90 aid station, completely stopped, and ate 2 bananas, although what I really wanted was a Chicken Crave form Pita Pit, which avocado, and hummus, but no falafel. Light on the tzatziki sauce, please.
Sorry, back to the race...I was wavering back and forth standing at the aid station. It took about 5 minutes for the banana sugar to hit me. On pace to bike a 4:55, I was a bit annoyed at this interruption, but figured I could still make it back in around 5:00.
The legs never really felt right after stopping, and I rolled into T2 at about 5:06. I must say that my legs were shaved and shiny, so at least they *looked* good at this point.
Still, all I had to do was run a 3:09 marathon to win. In all my training runs, I've easily held a 7 minute pace, so figured the race was mine for the taking.
But once again, that's why they call it Ironman. After clicking away 12 to 13 miles at my desired pace, my IT bands gave out and never returned. They died and went to IT Band Heaven, leaving me here on earth to run with my big toes and groin muscles. My pace slowed by nearly a minute every mile, and I managed to drag it into the finish line with a personal record 9:46, somewhere as 12th overall age grouper and 3rd in age group. Top 25! I qualified for Hawaii, but I will be annoyed for weeks that I could have taken the race if I hadn't flubbed up with a couple silly mistakes. Big kudos to the smarter athletes who beat me, including locals Brian Hadley and Troy Nelson. You guys rock.
You know what irks me? Having a race in my grasp and letting it slip away. You know what irks me even more? The fact that I can't sit down to take a crap today without flailing all over the bathroom trying to stabilize my IT-bandless body. Irk.
Hey - big thanks to all my sponsors. Check 'em out on the right side of the page. Next stop, Lake Stevens 1/2 Ironman in two weeks, after a few serious massage sessions and some icing. I'm also going to be trying to win Lake Stevens, so it should be good, and I promise some cool fireworks and fast splits.
Ben
P.S. My next blog post I will officially unveil my special announcement I keep talking about.
10 comments:
You are one amazing athlete! Rock on buddy!
Please visit me at my Humility Training Camp. I will bring the Oreos.
Glen Beenfield
Nice work! You were rocking out there. You probably didn't like the result, but Having a race that is disappointing will only make you train harder. and want a win that much more. Keep up the good work.
You da Man, Benny Boy! Like you, I'm disappointed you didn't win. Still, my money's on you until I come out of retirement.
Scary fast and top 25 with blown out IT bands...sorry but thats just impressive and speaks volumes about your fitness/training, your heart, and your desire to destroy the competition! Now you can focus on recovery and construct your new plan for world domination beginning with Lake Stevens!
GO TEAM GREENFIELD!
Jay and Michelle
congrats on qualifying for kona and pulling out a great finish all things considered. it was great to finally meet the little ones, they are adorable. cheers!
delanie and the team at nuun
ben - great race...it was neat to watch your splits on ironmanlive! you are one fast dude. good luck in KOA.
Ben,
The Ironman in CdA is a great racer /and/ spectator event! We thoroughly enjoyed watching you race, and it was a real breeze to make sure we were in the right spot at the right time to cheer you on! You beat your time from last year - woo hoooo!! And despite any bonks - your attitude about your experience display a true athletism, that makes us so proud of you!
...Mom
Nice work, Benny! It was great seein' you rock it out there. Now get some of those pics up that I sent you!!!
hey there, you passed my husband glenn(the big guy with tattoos) on the last mile or so on the run(doesn't matter cause i still ran faster than both of you, lol...) but he had some of the same bonking issues that you talked about. we were hypothesizing that maybe cause of the cold, you needed to take in more calories and your body was expending more energy in heating itself(or maybe not...). i know that i ate more than usual during the race. just a thought! anywho, great race - we'll see you in kona!
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