IRONMAN Boulder 2014
(click the links in this blog for extras)
Getting to hear Mike Reilly say "You did it JT... You are an IRONMAN!" for the second time was such a huge blessing and wild ride at the same time. It's always extra special to finish an Ironman that Mike is announcing. If you aren't exactly sure what I mean take 4 minutes and watch this video. It stirs my heart every time I see it! I hoped to do well in Boulder, but had some concerns since Ironman Texas was three years ago approximately 1 mile lower in elevation. I knew I would give my all towards making it to the finish line as quickly as possible and had three goals I will share with you shortly. For now I can say wholeheartedly I'm just as happy meeting goal C as I would have been with A. Since Ironman Texas I worked more on myself and my walk with Christ than anything else. This walk took me through three and a half years working at a Boy's Ranch in East Texas helping troubled teens, and through an amazing courtship that lead to me marrying my best friend, Becky! Her family reminds me so much of my own in how they love deeply, laugh often, and enjoy spending time together. I feel relationships are what a good life us built upon. Nothing is more valuable to me than a healthy relationship with God, others, and self.
Why Ironman Boulder? In 2013 Becky and I raced Boulder 70.3 and both PR'd by a nice chunk of time. We had a blast in the area before the race and couldn't wait to go back for a visit. We have also talked about how cool it would be to live there one day. Once they announced a "full" would take place in Boulder I knew this would be my second time to go for this distance. Becky's stepdad, Brandon, also jumped on board. He PR'd by seconds at Boulder 70.3 the year before us. Now all I had to do was ask off from work and prepare for this adventure. I knew it would be tough because I only had 2.5 months to get ready for my second Boston Marathon and then would have to turn around and race IM Boulder 4 months later. Not ideal time to prepare the body and mind. I had been dealing with hip pain off and on for 10 months when it was time to start putting in some mileage for Boston. The pain wasn't in the joint but was felt at the top of my Iliac Crest where the TFL (Tensor Fasciae Latae) connects. The weird thing is I'm not bothered by it while swimming, biking, or running. It's always after the workout is complete and I've started to rest. Then by the next morning it usually has calmed down. I'm sure the cause is me having a tight low back and inflexible hips. I've been working on it, but need to get more serious about getting back to 100%.
Boston 2014 went well considering it was 10 degrees warmer than 2013 and the average time went way up. In 2013 I finished in 3:00:05 and had a goal of going under 3; but will have to try that again next year. This time I finished in 3:02:47 and it took all I had. I became nauseous at mile 16 and had to race on feeling terrible to the end. I'm hoping to make it in next year since I qualified again. I have to be under 3:05 in my age category to have the chance to get in before it fills. Boston is such a tough course, even though it's elevation has a net loss over the 26.2 miles. I had a blast visiting with Seth and Becky before and after the race. I am still planning on uploading a vlog of our trip but haven't had luck uploading it. I spent hours preparing the video and keep getting errors during the final save. I may have to wait till I have a stronger computer to complete the project.
Right after Boston I took about a week to rest and begin healing. I then started swimming and biking more and didn't add running back into the mix for a couple more weeks. My weekly long rides were 20, 30, 62 and then was invited to ride 100 miles down the coast of California with my friend David Tatum. I wasn't sure how that was going to go making such a big jump but figured it would be fine. We had a friend drop us off at the Golden Gate Bridge and we rode south for 100 miles down Hwy 1 to a beach house his family rents every year. This was his 3rd time making the trip and I was glad to join him this time around. Here is the video from our trip if you haven't seen it yet. I rode a couple more 100 milers and was always surprised at how forgiving biking is on the body. The day after these long rides I wasn't near as sore as after long runs. The pounding is what takes it's toll. My runs were not happening as often as I wanted. With the feeling that I needed to be stronger on the bike and swim and just coming off marathon training I was skimping for sure. I would run once between 2-4 miles and then would run long on Sunday before church each week. I completed 8, 10, 12, 16, and 18 this way. I may have done a 5 or 6 miler mid week near the end of my training but know it wasn't enough. Overall I always felt pretty good; averaging under a 150 heart rate and running between 7:20-7:45 pace on these runs. As for as bike to run bricks, there were none other than the little half mile to mile runs I would do after most rides. This may not have been the best way to prepare for a marathon post bike, but I'm still living and learning. Taper time began and I packed and repacked everything I figured I needed for my trip. I flew out to Denver 8 days before the race to acclimate to the altitude. I had done this before my 70.3 and hoped the same plan would work again. I flew my bike using a new bike case and feel it did a great job.
It's made by Ruster Sports and is called the Armored Hen House. My bike flew to and from Denver and did so without a scratch. I also didn't get charged for checking these two bags. Usually the charges to fly a bike range between $200-$300 depending on weight and size. Watch this short video of it being loaded onto the plane. If you want to learn more about this bag watch this video of me practicing putting my bike back together before the trip. If you are local, go talk to Vinny at Velo Wrench Bike Shop as he has them in stock. 860 Alamo Drive Vacaville, CA 95688.
I was glad to be in Denver early so I could catch up with family and a few friends before the race. They were all very encouraging and believed I would do well. Becky had to work and wasn't able to join me until the Friday before the race. I enjoyed the shorter rides and workouts I was doing to stay fresh for the race. Then a bad situation came into my life 3 days before the race. I was riding and noticed my bike was making a creaking noise I hadn't heard before. My seat also felt lower than normal. I checked it and it had dropped roughly 2cm. I thought it was because I didn't use enough carbon paste on my seat post so I applied some more when I got back to my cousins house and tightened the seat collar back to factory specs. This is when I noticed one of the inserts was backing out of my frame causing the pressure on my seat post to weaken.
I called Specialized to ask what epoxy should I use to put it back in? They told me if I tried to fix it myself my warranty would be void. I told them about my race and they directed me to a Wheat Ridge Cyclery 20 miles from where I was staying. I drove there right away and arrived 1 hour before they closed. Man, this shop was the largest one I had ever seen! I talked to the service manager and explained the situation and he took care of me. I asked if I could wait and he said that would be fine. He said he had dealt with this situation before and would do his best to fix it. After 40 minutes he came back and told me he removed the insert, cleaned it up, drilled a couple shallow holes in it to help it stay in place after being epoxied back in place. He asked me to let it cure for 24 hours and then said, "When you tighten it up it will either hold or pull out again". This didn't leave me with a good feeling. If it came loose in the race my seat could drop 5 inches and would drastically effect my pedaling efficiency. He did tell me Specialized knows about the problem and is sending out new frames to people having this issue. He advised I get it replaced once I get home. In the mean time, I called Chuck Panaccional who told me to give him a call if I ran into any snags before the race. He lives in Boulder and is the main bike building guru and mechanic for Craig Alexander, Tom Danielson, Julie Dibens, Mirinda Carfrae, Tim O’Donnell, and other top professional cyclists and triathletes. I counted my blessings that we had met and was so thankful he knew what to do. He told me this same situation happened to Craig's bike before Kona a few years back. He advised me to buy a new seat post that had not been cut and then bring everything to him. He needed the bike over night and epoxied an extra bit of seat post to the bottom of my new seat post making it so if the bolt failed the seat would only drop 1-2mm before resting on a curve inside of my frame. The scary part about all this is the day I picked the bike up I had to take it on a short test ride and then check it in for the race. It would sit overnight in T1 (Transition 1) and hopefully hold together on race day. I was a nervous wreck which isn't good before a big race. I made it back to the hotel to prepare all my bags for the race since I didn't have time earlier. At this race T1 and T2 are in different locations. So on Saturday, Brandon and I went around putting our bags where they needed to go so we would have everything we needed in the right spots on race day. We had less than an hour to spare when we dropped our final bag. Once everything was in place we could relax because there was nothing more that needed to be done other than eat and get to bed early. Brandon, Dee, Becky, and I grabbed food from Whole Foods and decided to eat and visit poolside at our hotel before crashing. We stayed at a nice hotel not far from everything and had the opportunity to see many other triathletes prepare for the race. We met one guy who was doing his 174th Ironman. Yes.. he has the record!
I, surprisingly, slept well. Becky gave me the other queen bed in our room since she felt like she was getting a sore throat. She didn't want me fighting off crud and racing all day. We all woke around 3:20 so we could enjoy the 3:30 hot breakfast the hotel provided. They added these special hours because of how many racers stayed in the hotel. I opted for oatmeal, some eggs, and a bagel with peanut butter on it. I already had a protein shake around 2am when I woke to pee. Breakfast was good and a buzz was in the air. We all headed for Boulder High School where they had over 60 school buses to take the athletes and their families to Boulder Reservoir. No one was allowed to go to the swim start by any other method but these buses. It reminded me of Boston! After arriving I had a couple more things to drop off at my T1 bag and then needed to go set my tire pressure and top my bike off with fuel and water. The problem here is I'm usually torn between getting everything set up and needing a restroom. By this point the lines were long. I waited and then made my way to body marking before getting my bike gear in order. After my bike was set to go I only had 15 minutes before swim start. I made my way over to the corral and lined up near the front claiming to be able to go under an hour. I knew I wouldn't go that quickly but felt anything was possible. Ironman is starting to do a rolling swim start at their events because it's safer than a mass start. Each competitor's time doesn't start till they cross the timing mat leading into the water. This way folks aren't beating each other up in the water right when the gun goes off like at the start in Texas.
The ground was wet as we moved forward towards the starting banner. I wondered if it was from people who warmed up earlier. Then I noticed everyone was dry like me because we were all short on time. Everyone was taking the opportunity to pee in there wetsuits before starting the race. It's a common occurrence but usually happens while treading water. I followed suit and was glad I did because I had to go bad. Mike Reilly was pumping us up and letting us know we were 1 minute from starting. My heart wasn't pounding like it has before other races. I had such peace knowing the Lord was with me. We all got closer to the starting line and tried to relax everything one more time before it was go time. The cannon sounded, I walked forward. It only took 20 seconds before I crossed the timing mat and hit the water. I shuffled down the boat ramp at an angle to the right to be in smoother water. No one was beating me up and I wasn't adding distance to the swim. I swam smooth for a while and was surprised at how long it took to get to the first turn. That's what I get for not swimming open water any before the race. Once to the turn I was sure it was close to the 1 mile mark. I took a left and swam the back side of the rectangle. It felt like the back side was just as far as the first part even though I knew it wasn't. My breathing was going ok - I just didn't feel like I was making progress as quickly as I wanted. I tried to draft off a few people but I have a hard time staying in the right spot behind and on the side of them. I usually just keep my own line and try to stay smooth and as straight as possible. I finally turned for home and was bummed I couldn't see the finish banner or shoreline. The water was choppy so I just had to keep going. In Texas we had an out and back section and then swam this canal.
I feel like this broke the swim up and made it feel shorter, if swimming 2.4 miles can feel short. The scariest part during my Boulder Swim is about 500 yards from the finish I felt a slight cramping in my left calf. I tried to kick less but it kept creeping up on me. I thought maybe I needed to get the blood moving so I kicked hard for a few seconds and this is when both legs almost went into a full cramp just below my knee on the back left and right side of each calf. I wondered if my compression sleeves were a bad idea. I tried my best to keep my legs still and just pulled for a bit to let them calm down. For 100 yards or so I had to be really careful to minimally kick then they started to let up. As I was making my way to the swim exit I caught up to a small blue inflatable raft and knew it was an athlete pulling person with special needs along the swim course. I am always amazed and impressed with the people who pull and push another person through an Ironman or any race for that matter. Watch this video to see Team Hoyt accepting the ESPY "Jimmy V" Award for all they have done to persevere. Grab a tissue... I finally hit dry land and pressed lap on my Garmin 910 to see I had finished in about 1:05. I was happy with this time being that I had a goal of 1:03 and my last Ironman swim was a 1:07. Here is the data from my swim with a map of the location. Try not to notice the zigzags aka. extra distance. I made out of the water and to my Swim to Bike bag. I jogged into the changing tent to dump out my bag. I was putting on my Tri top since I swam in Lava Pants with no shirt. As I was stepping into the Tri top I felt pretty dizzy and stumbled to the left about 3 feet and fell on a guy. He asked if I was alright and I said, "Yep, just really dizzy". He said, "You and me both.. Well, then you better sit down". I thought... "Ain't nobody got time for that"! I grabbed my shoes and ran towards my bike. They didn't allow anyone to have their shoes already clipped into their bikes for safety reasons. It was warm in the tent so I went and put my shoes on near my bike. Transition 1 was .33 miles which is pretty long compared to other races I've done and took me 5:55. Once on the bike I took the first part slow since it was mostly up hill. I also wanted to settle in to a good bike leg. Everything went well till I went over some railroad tracks near mile 54. It was really rough even with the rubber mat over the tracks. My tool kit in my rear water bottle holder came loose but didn't fall out just yet. It waited till I was going down hill and hit 32mph. At first I didn't know what the noise was. I reached back and felt that my water bottle shaped tool kit was gone. I had a couple seconds to think through what I wanted to do. I thought.. You are only half way through the bike. If you flat everything you need is in that kit. I checked that no one was close to me then hit the brakes to flip a u-turn. I climbed back up the hill probably 400 yards and started looking for the kit. A person watching the race said, "HEY, I think it's right there and pointed in a spot 15 yards back down the hill. I went there and sure enough it was about 10 yards off the road. I went and grabbed it, put it back in place, and got moving again. I'd say 10-15 people got past me. During the ride I felt pretty smooth and strong until mile 80. The day really started to heat up and I questioned how hard I had been pushing the bike leg. I felt as if the only thing I was there to do is race 112 miles. Others fell in this trap too since the roads were so smooth and it flowed nicely. When I rode mile 80-112 I knew I was in trouble as my legs were feeling zapped of energy. The growing crowd support helped me finish strong. Here is the data from my ride. I was pleased with the bike time and MPH Avg. When I came into T2 and swung my leg off my bike I began jogging and felt right away this was going to be a long marathon. I had a hard time jogging through transition not because my legs were tight, but because they felt like they didn't have much fuel left in them. Also my stomach was all sorts of twisted up. I had lots of air in my stomach which didn't feel good. Aero position will do that to you! I changed into my Newton Gravity running shoes, threw on a hat, and grabbed my gel flasks. As I started my run I was thankful some of the path was shaded, but still had to walk run because of my stomach. It was so painful I couldn't stand or run with an extended stride. I noticed many others were walk running so I joined them. It reminded me of how Ironman Texas looked around mile 16-18 when it warmed up to the hottest part of the day. The bad part is we were just on mile 3. I came upon a guy walk running and decided to join him on his walk break. We talked about how beat down we felt and decided to run the sun and walk the shade as we tried everything to make our guts feel better. He said he felt the bike course beckoned racers to push it hard because of how fast it felt. During the run I came across Brandon who was feeling about like me. It was good to encourage each other as we passed by! At one point in the run I stopped to kiss Becky, ask for my wedding ring she was holding for me, and drop off my gel flasks. She wanted me to take one of them with me but I wasn't in the mood for gels so they were left behind. Jason caught up to us and met Becky and Dee then we got moving again. We hung out until mile 18 where I started to feel better. I told him I was going to make a run for it. As I jogged I felt way better than earlier and could actually hold a better pace. Since the run was a 2 loop course lots of people noticed I had some pep in my step and cheered for me my final lap. This fueled my fire! Gaining crowd support and praying helped more than anything as I kept pushing forward. Little did I know I had dropped from 11th in my age group off the bike to 33rd out of 260 males 30-34 by mile 18 of the run. Once I got moving I passed 58 people in the final 8 miles. Of those 58 people 20 were in my age group. I kept pushing and made it to the last brutal climb of the day. It was the last out and back of the day and it was up hill to the turnaround. I didn't notice the 3 mile climb (scroll down to see elevation map) as much when I was walk running. I counted 9 walk breaks the first loop up this hill. The second time I only took 4 breaks and they were short. All of the sudden my buddy Mark Gerus says "Hey buddy" and was running next to me before the final bit. I was glad to see him and was happy he found me, but then realized he wasn't allowed to do that and had to tell him I'd catch him at the finish. I cranked out a 7:30 final mile which was the fastest of the day and enjoyed all the crowds cheering me on. I feel good about my overall effort out there and as always my Newton Gravity shoes preformed flawlessly. I never get blisters and my feet and legs have thanked me for picking such a good brand to run in. Here is a video of me finishing the 2014 Boulder Ironman. My official time was 10:54:34 and my other splits can be seen here. I ended up being 126th over all out of almost 3,000 people. I had an A goal of breaking 10 hours and was on track till the run. I've still got a long way to go when it comes to learning what my body can handle nutritionally as this is a major component in Ironman races. My B Goal was to break 10:40:41 which I did in Texas. I told you in the beginning I was just as happy with my finish here because I once again got to test myself physically, spiritually, and emotionally. This is the main reason I enjoy the sport so much! Brandon finished strong and we made our way to the hotel. Here are a some closing thoughts.
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| What an amazing day! |
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| Nice work Brandon! |
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| Thanks for the support! |
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| IronBrother! |
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| Best Support Crew Ever! |
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| Blessed! |
I'm racing my third Ironman!!! Click here to read about the course and be sure to watch the video of last years race on this page. I'm excited and have plans to ride easier so I can post a better run. Thank you in advance for sending me more energy on race day! I love you all more than you know.
July 2015 Update: IM Lake Tahoe was canceled because of the smoke from the King Fire. We were all on the starting line when they let us know of this decision. I feel it was for the best as the conditions were not safe for racers, volunteers, or spectators. I signed up for IM Boulder and Lake Tahoe and will race them over the next couple months. Updates to come!
