So HOW could I possibly sum up one of the craziest, funnest, hardest, painful, joyful, longest race in my life. It was plan madness and I loved every minute (well, almost every minute). I woke up around 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Same yummy breakfast and then it was over to the transition area. As you can see, it was still dark when we started. I want to give a MAJOR shout out to our biggest fan and supporter, Sharla. I know if you look up "cool chick" on wikipedia you'll find her there. Just remember "Boys, what is the MOST important decision you will ever make in your life?"
So, as we got closer to the Start/Finish line, you could hear the music and the buzz was buzzing. It was so cool! We found our bike rack location, unloaded the bikes and then went to body marking. Everything was going very smoothly. Lots of volunteers and everything well organized. Soon it was time to lather up on the Body Glide and move into position. I think we were in wave #7.
Sharla snapped this photo just before we went into the water. I really couldn't believe we were there about to compete in our first Ironman race. It was SO exciting. The music, the announcer, the crowd. Quite the experience. It was soon our turn to get into the water. With only 3 minutes between waves there really wasn't much time. It was cold but I was okay. Next thing I knew we were off and swimming. If you've never had the experience, believe me, it is an experience. There's a reason that they refer to this as the washing machine. People kicking and climbing all over each other. The water was cold and I had a HARD time keeping my face in the water and breathing. So you just adapt and do the best you can. It took me a few hundred yard before I settled down and got into my rhythm. I was just feeling good about everything when the swells started. As long as I didn't think about it I was okay but it did make me feel just a tad bit woozy. The next thing I knew it was time to turn around. The swim back went really well and the next thing I knew I was crawling out of the water. The wetsuit came off SO nicely and I was soon running out the shoot with my bike. Wow! This was awesome!
Did I say how awesome this was? So the bike... 56 miles of riding heaven. I was pretty sure that I was out of the water before Tri-Rich. I didn't know just how long I had but I figured that he'd catch me at around mile 40. I was pretty dang close. About mile 39 miles here comes Mr. Cervelo. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first 25 miles or so was completely awesome. I was cruising right along, passing most people. I wanted to make sure that I was getting plenty of fluids and nutrition. I was doing pretty good. But a couple of LARGE hills and a stiff wind in the face, the back 20 miles started kicking my butt. I said goodbye to Mr 518 and he rode off to keep up with all of the other rocket bikes. At some point I started realizing that my VW Bug cannot keep up with all of the Audis, TL, Beamers, and other speedy bikes. No problem, I was having fun and heading back. But then I was facing another small problem. The conscious effort to stay hydrated now presenting the need to pee. Hmmm. As long as I sat upright I was okay but in tuck position it got more and more uncomfortable. At mile 53 I couldn't take it any longer and I pulled off to the side of the road and watered the pretty spring flowers. The pros just simply pee down the side of the bike while riding. I'm not quite there yet. Urine on the legs and bike? I think not.
The bike was over. Coming back into the harbor area was so cool. Loud music, tons of people cheering me on (okay so they were probably cheering a few others on too). Next, get off the bike, park it, and put on the running shoes. It was now 2/3's over. I couldn't believe it. Now just a simple 13.1 mile run. No problem.
13.1 FREAKIN miles. No problem. Yeah, whatever. Had I EVER run 13.1 miles before? Nope. I certainly had good intentions to do that distance at least a couple of times before the race but it just never happened. Oh well, I knew I was going to be just fine. So check out those socks! Yes, those are the same GAY socks that I said I would never wear. I'm glad I did. I really like them. Probably not during training and certainly not for shorter distances but I could definitely tell that they were helping me mostly with the cramping.
I couldn't think of a more beautiful place to run. The day was absolutely gorgeous. With the beach and the waves, it was hard to keep running. My body was saying "hey, just go lay down on the warm sand" and "come play in the waves". I did pretty well for the first several miles but then I realized that 13 miles is a LONG freakin' way. Thank goodness I ran into Tri-Rich. He was coming back on one of the legs as I was going out. He told me that he'd wait. What a buddy! So with TR it made the last few miles much more enjoyable. We talked about all of the training that we had done. How, only 10 months before, Rich didn't even have a bike. Now we were about to be Ironmen. How cool was that. I wouldn't have been in Oceanside without my buddy. We were going to finish together.
Okay, #550 you can do it. "Left foot, left foot, right foot, right. feet in the morning, feet at night". At this point, my body from the waist down was more or less numb. I really couldn't feel anything. I just wanted this to be over. Could I have run 26.2 miles? At this point I seriously doubt it. I have much more training to do. Thank goodness for pretzels. When the finish line came into view, I couldn't believe it!
So maybe some of you are thinking, "What the #$@%?" This is a picture of Rich and I rolling across the finish line. If you don't know why, then you need to take a few minutes and watch the story about
Jon Blais. "It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for." Way to go, Tri-Rich and Tri-Jeff. You did it!
Again, just wanted to give one last shout out to our greatest fan. Thanks for all of the support! Now, when this picture was taken, I was more or less dead. I just wanted to lay down. Thinking about doing a full Ironman was the LAST thing on my mind. No Gatorade. No Gu. No Ensure. No protein bars. Ice cream! Yeah, a giant bowl of ice cream! Now, as I sit here remembering the event, I can't wait for the next one. Where will it be? We don't know yet, but I can't wait.
I don't know about your neighborhood but in my neighborhood the Boy Scouts put up flags on the front yard of every home for most of the major holidays. It is a pretty cool sight to see all of these flags. It also helps to put things in perspective. (picture to come)
The first Saturday of June the Davis family celebrates the birthday of Orvil Burdell Davis (my grandfather). It's a great time to get everyone together. So many of us where there today and some of my cousins game from Las Vegas and even Florida. It was good to see them all. Part of the tradition is that we have yummy dutch oven dinner. We usually all meet at grandma's house but because of the weather we met at the "Easter" church. So what does all of this have to do with this picture? Well, as part of getting together there are usually pictures and other memorabilia sitting out for us to look at. One of those things was this patchwork quilt that we (I'm using this in a very loose sense) put together 26 years ago. Yes, 26 years ago we each got to design our own "square". I'm sitting here next to mine. 26 years ago would put me at 16 years old. So what was on my mind then? Well, let's see: basketball, football, track, skiing, tennis, racquetball, baseball. Any and all sports. Of course back then, I knew NOTHING of hockey, nor the wonderful sport of the triathlete. I'll tell you, it was SO cool to see that quilt. Someone should break it out in another 25 years to show our grandchildren. That is what memories are all about. That is what traditions are all about. This is what family is all about. In addition to the quit there were some past family photos of Davis camp and then some journals of some past family home evenings we had as an entire Davis family. So cool. What a testimony of the importance of keeping a journal and writing things down for posterity. We did take a big family picture and if/when I get my hands on a copy, I'll be sure to post it here.
Here is the start of the marathon race where JJ and Tri-Rich were dropped off. Holy poop, Batman! Is this Woodstock? Nope, just 2000 nervous runners.
Here is where I started. 7 miles down from the start of the race. After Tri-Rich signed up I decided that if I couldn't run the entire marathon, I could at least run my leg and then the rest of the distance with TR. Now, I'm nowhere near as good of a runner as he is but I could at least try. So I had decided to become 0.729 marathon wanna-be.
As I expected, JJ came smoking down the canyon. He was the 4th relay runner to reach our transition. He did awesome keeping a sub 7 minute pace. I know that he could do even better if he hadn't been hurt most of track season this Spring. I quick hug and the transfer of the timing chip and I was off. I would see JJ later on in the race.
I ran my 6.1 mile segment feeling just great. I had no negative splits (don't really know what the big deal is with that anyhow). I started off at just over 7 minute/mile pace but ended up at just under 8 min/mile pace for the entire segment. I was very pleased. I reached the midpoint and handed off the timing chip to a guy I had never met, I cannot remember his name, and I would never see again. Pretty funny. I got a drink, used one of those cool green potties, and waited for TR to show up. Shortly thereafter the two of us headed down the canyon. This race is actually quite pretty. There were plenty of volunteers, food, and support. Here we are crossing the Pineview Reservoir dam. Yes, I'm wearing my gay socks!
I had never ran anything close to 19 miles. I knew I could but I also knew that it was going to be tough. I was fine until about mile 24 marker. It was getting hard. I wanted to stop. I couldn't stop. If I did, my right knee/hip would pretty much seize up. Keep moving, keep moving forward. No stopping at the aid stations, gulp some Gatorade, throw some cold water on the back. By the time we reached Grant Street (the last stretch), I was just about in tears. My calves were completely cramping. Was I going to crawl across the finish line? I looked to the side of me to see TR and I thought if he can do it so could I. After all, he ran the ENTIRE 26.2 distance. I searched until I found a song that could bring me home. My choice" "Fooling Yourself" by Styx. It worked for me and TR and I crossed the finish line in just under 4 hours. Wow! I filled up on Jamba smoothies and Creamies. Again, the race staff were great!
Here we are 4/5s of our relay team, JJ, me, Scot, and his wife Lisa. Scot ran the 4th leg and then ran with Lisa on the last leg. We had a great time and I cannot wait to run this next year but for the entire race. Although I was a little stiff, I really felt pretty good for running 19.1 miles.
Arriving at ESA. I still call it the Delta Center.
Sharla snapped this photo just before we went into the water. I really couldn't believe we were there about to compete in our first Ironman race. It was SO exciting. The music, the announcer, the crowd. Quite the experience. It was soon our turn to get into the water. With only 3 minutes between waves there really wasn't much time. It was cold but I was okay. Next thing I knew we were off and swimming. If you've never had the experience, believe me, it is an experience. There's a reason that they refer to this as the washing machine. People kicking and climbing all over each other. The water was cold and I had a HARD time keeping my face in the water and breathing. So you just adapt and do the best you can. It took me a few hundred yard before I settled down and got into my rhythm. I was just feeling good about everything when the swells started. As long as I didn't think about it I was okay but it did make me feel just a tad bit woozy. The next thing I knew it was time to turn around. The swim back went really well and the next thing I knew I was crawling out of the water. The wetsuit came off SO nicely and I was soon running out the shoot with my bike. Wow! This was awesome!
Did I say how awesome this was? So the bike... 56 miles of riding heaven. I was pretty sure that I was out of the water before Tri-Rich. I didn't know just how long I had but I figured that he'd catch me at around mile 40. I was pretty dang close. About mile 39 miles here comes Mr. Cervelo. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first 25 miles or so was completely awesome. I was cruising right along, passing most people. I wanted to make sure that I was getting plenty of fluids and nutrition. I was doing pretty good. But a couple of LARGE hills and a stiff wind in the face, the back 20 miles started kicking my butt. I said goodbye to Mr 518 and he rode off to keep up with all of the other rocket bikes. At some point I started realizing that my VW Bug cannot keep up with all of the Audis, TL, Beamers, and other speedy bikes. No problem, I was having fun and heading back. But then I was facing another small problem. The conscious effort to stay hydrated now presenting the need to pee. Hmmm. As long as I sat upright I was okay but in tuck position it got more and more uncomfortable. At mile 53 I couldn't take it any longer and I pulled off to the side of the road and watered the pretty spring flowers. The pros just simply pee down the side of the bike while riding. I'm not quite there yet. Urine on the legs and bike? I think not.
The bike was over. Coming back into the harbor area was so cool. Loud music, tons of people cheering me on (okay so they were probably cheering a few others on too). Next, get off the bike, park it, and put on the running shoes. It was now 2/3's over. I couldn't believe it. Now just a simple 13.1 mile run. No problem.
13.1 FREAKIN miles. No problem. Yeah, whatever. Had I EVER run 13.1 miles before? Nope. I certainly had good intentions to do that distance at least a couple of times before the race but it just never happened. Oh well, I knew I was going to be just fine. So check out those socks! Yes, those are the same GAY socks that I said I would never wear. I'm glad I did. I really like them. Probably not during training and certainly not for shorter distances but I could definitely tell that they were helping me mostly with the cramping.
I couldn't think of a more beautiful place to run. The day was absolutely gorgeous. With the beach and the waves, it was hard to keep running. My body was saying "hey, just go lay down on the warm sand" and "come play in the waves". I did pretty well for the first several miles but then I realized that 13 miles is a LONG freakin' way. Thank goodness I ran into Tri-Rich. He was coming back on one of the legs as I was going out. He told me that he'd wait. What a buddy! So with TR it made the last few miles much more enjoyable. We talked about all of the training that we had done. How, only 10 months before, Rich didn't even have a bike. Now we were about to be Ironmen. How cool was that. I wouldn't have been in Oceanside without my buddy. We were going to finish together.
Okay, #550 you can do it. "Left foot, left foot, right foot, right. feet in the morning, feet at night". At this point, my body from the waist down was more or less numb. I really couldn't feel anything. I just wanted this to be over. Could I have run 26.2 miles? At this point I seriously doubt it. I have much more training to do. Thank goodness for pretzels. When the finish line came into view, I couldn't believe it!
So maybe some of you are thinking, "What the #$@%?" This is a picture of Rich and I rolling across the finish line. If you don't know why, then you need to take a few minutes and watch the story about Jon Blais. "It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for." Way to go, Tri-Rich and Tri-Jeff. You did it!
Again, just wanted to give one last shout out to our greatest fan. Thanks for all of the support! Now, when this picture was taken, I was more or less dead. I just wanted to lay down. Thinking about doing a full Ironman was the LAST thing on my mind. No Gatorade. No Gu. No Ensure. No protein bars. Ice cream! Yeah, a giant bowl of ice cream! Now, as I sit here remembering the event, I can't wait for the next one. Where will it be? We don't know yet, but I can't wait.
Final day of preparation. Same yummy breakfast. We put our numbers on helmets, bikes, and bags. The weather was just fabulous. It was time to relax and enjoy the beach. Of course that meant making sure the wetsuit was in proper working order. I highly recommend the De Soto First Wave. It is a 2 piece (bibjohn and pullover). Very comfortable. I could have played ALL freakin day long. The waves were decent and I was like a kid in a candy shop. I knew that I had a big race the next day so I tried taking it easy. We finished the day with another stop at the Ironman village and more pasta and a final check of all the gear and nutrition. All that was left was a good night sleep. SO EXCITED!!!
