IRONMAN ST. GEORGE OFFICIAL RACE REPORT

Warning: this is a long one. You may want to "pack a lunch".

What can I say, it was a great day and I had a great race. I finished in 11:26:07, which was good enough for 12/284 in my age group and 131/1850 males. I was only 16:17 and 4 spots away from qualifying for Kona.

Had I not had stomach issues or took so long in T1, I may have left with a Kona qualifying letter in my hand. Although, I'm not disappointed. I have so much to be grateful for. It was like having cake, ice cream and whipped cream. I just didn't get the cherry on the top. No big deal.

The night before the race I didn't get to bed as early as I would have liked. I was too busy putting together my video and updating my blog. I got up at 3:45 am and got just under 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say, that morning, my resting heart rate was higher than normal.

I was surprisingly calm for this race. I went to IMSG with a whole different attitude than Ironman China. In China my mantra was "Kona or Bust" and for St. George my mantra was "have fun and enjoy the experience".

Often, there was a "little" birdie in the back of my head that would say, "Kona or bust" and when I heard it I turned the volume down. I didn't mind hearing it, but on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the highest priority, it was a one.

Coming off of a disastrous race in China and having to DNF due to food poisoning, it shook my confidence. Even though it was a completely unreasonable response. I had never trained harder. I did over 4500 km's of training in 14 weeks. I was a bit of a basket case for the first few weeks after my IMChina disappointment.

The day after I got back from China, I had to redeem myself. I couldn't wait until IMLP in July. I had to get back on that horse. I noticed IMSG was only 6 weeks away, it still had community slots available and I signed up.

I knew it was a tough course. In fact, I looked at it before selecting China. IMSG looked too hard. I felt it was easier to go halfway around the world to try and qualify for Kona, rather than do the IMSG course. I envisioned all these tall, muscular, fit and tanned Californians that eat hills for breakfast doing IMSG. I didn't think I'd have any chance whatsoever to qualify for Kona at IMSG.

I had no nervousness race morning. In China, I just wanted to get it over with. For IMSG, my mantra was "have fun and enjoy the experience". Which I did. Before I made it to the buses to take us to the swim, I stopped at Denny's for a bagel. It seemed like everyone in Denny's at 4 am, except for some of the other Ironman, were drunk and had the munchies.

As I waited, one of the other athletes took his food to go. He had ordered two hamburgers for his special needs bags. I thought that was genius. I hate power bars and on my long training rides I much prefer eating sandwiches. The guy with the hamburgers inspired me. I stopped at McDonald's and picked up an egg McMuffin and two Bagel, egg and bacon sandwiches.

I put the bagel, egg and bacon sandwiches in my special needs bags and put the egg McMuffin in the bento box on my bike. Getting to the swim start, everything went off without a hitch and all morning, I met and had some great conversations with some other guys in my age group. It was a very relaxed morning.

Once they started to call for all the athletes to get into the water, it started feeling real. I was at the back of the pack and not until I got to the waters edge, did I realize its a water start and with only 3 minutes to gun time I had to move my butt and to try to get closer to the front of the start line.

The water was cold and I was 10 meters behind the start line. The last Ironman I did with a mass start was 19 years ago and there was only about 700 athletes. This one was a mass start with 2500 athletes. I was expecting a big washing machine with lots of full body contact.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. The first 500 meters were the worst and then it settled down. I've been in 300 person wave starts that were much worse. The water was colder than I expected. Immediately, as I started swimming, my head started to freeze and my goggles fogged up. I kept relaxed and knew it would only be a matter of time until my head adjusted. Which happened 1500 meters later.

The water was so cold that my calves felt like they were going to cramp. All I could think about was having a calve cramp and having another DNF. My focus from 1500 meters on, was injury prevention. I slowed down my pace and used my legs very little and every once in a while would flex my feet upward.

I loved the swim and for the most part did an awesome job of sighting. I had no panic whatsoever and had no problem swimming right in the thick of it. There was the normal pushing and bumping and I took a couple of kicks, but nothing major.

One side of my goggles started leaking and I had to stop and drain it. It also gave me a chance to rub off the condensation from the cold water. I could hardly see through them. After I cleaned them, my sighting was perfect for the balance of the swim.

I was so happy when I got to the end of the swim. I wanted to get my calves out of that cold water. The swim seemed to go by fast. If I wasn't timed, I would have thought it only took an hour. Before I exited the water, I visualized my next moves. I told myself to "walk, don't run, let your calves warm up, don't over stress them" and "strip the suit down to the waist and take advantage of the wet-suit strippers".

I wasn't the only person walking out of the water. It seemed like everyone was. I didn't see anyone running. I got my bag and the change tent was pandemonium. It was packed. It took a little bit to find a seat. When I did, I didn't rush, but I didn't go slow. It was a measured patient pace. I wanted to make sure I was dry. It took me a while to put on my arm coolers and extra jersey.

When I got to the bikes, the rack was full. It looked like my bike was one of the first to be taken out of the rack. I didn't know if the surrounding bikes were from my age group or not. It took me 8:20 to get out of T1. I couldn't believe it was that slow, it felt like 4 minutes. It really didn't bother me that much. I wanted to make sure I was warm, it was about 58 F / 14 C and I didn't want to be cold on the bike and my mental state was "to have fun".

I was 12th in my age group out of the water, but didn't know it. I normally have 15-20% of the field out of the water before me. Out of roughly 300 in my group, I though I was in about 60th place.

I had a strong bike ride from start to finish. In total, I passed 371 people. On the second loop, not one person passed me. The entire ride I was frustrated. I was passing so many people, but only three or four in my age group, and that wasn't until the second loop. I kept thinking, "I must be so far behind in my age group. Those damn big, fit and tanned Californians are kicking butt".

At the first hour mark I had my egg McMuffin. I was riding by people and taunting them. I was like, "hey, did you get your egg McMuffin at the last aid station". One guy thought I was joking until he saw it in my had. I could see their mouths were watering. I was thinking, "enjoy your powerbar, hehe".

I got to the 40 km mark with a 32.8 km average. I was happy with that, especially since I wasn't pushing it to hard. I was really focused on keeping my heart rate under 143 bpm. For the most part, I was stayed in the high 130's.

The day started off with very little wind, which I'm told was unusual. I was able to start off strong. I think at one point my average pace was 34 kph. The weather played perfectly for me. It was cooler and not too windy for the first 90 minutes.

About 2 hours into the ride, the wind started picking up and as we started the backside of the first loop it was in your face. Everyone slowed down considerably. I don't mind riding into the wind and tend to power through it. I kept my cadence at around 90 and started picking off more people. Again, none in my age group. I passed a lot of 35 - 44 year olds.

I was frustrated when I would pass someone with compression socks. I couldn't see their numbers. I kept wondering if they were in my age group. I thought it would be great for race organizers to start putting the age on the bib and the calve. I'm in the printing industry, I know it's easy to do. After all, it makes sense printing ages on bibs, those "dorky" looking compression socks aren't going away. (Sorry Carlos, "but they look good on you").

The upside to the wind was that on two of the major climbs, the wind was at our backs. It helped push you up the hill. I had a 27 sprocket on my back wheel and that definitely made it easier. I didn't get out of my seat and on the pedals once. I'd see so many guys standing and hammering on their pedals and pass me up the hill, only for me to catch them 2 minutes later when we got on the flats. I treated the entire ride as a training ride.

On the reverse side of the ride, we had the wind at our backs and it was a downhill stretch. The speeds were amazing. I think I got up to 72 kph. About 3 hours into the ride, I stopped and got my bagel, egg and bacon sandwich. I was flying, eating away and taunting others. On one hill it was a little dangerous. Trying to hold onto the bagel and handlebars at the same time was challenging.

The second loop the wind picked up even more. I continued to ride strong and ate every hour. I was dreading to eat my first power bar. Then remembered I had a Mars bar and Snickers bar taped to my frame. I thought of Johan and had my Mars bar first, then the following hour, I had my snickers bar. It's so much more civilized to eat normal food.

I drank a lot of liquids, more than enough. Most of what I drank was the PowerBar Endurance Refuel and it was pretty good. I picked it up at the expo. At one point I had to switch to Gatorade and it tasted terrible. I forced myself to drink it, I had no choice. It was sour tasting compared to the PowerBar stuff.

On the backside of the second loop, the wind picked up and it was stronger than the first loop. I started speed wobbling on one of the descents. It was bad. I speed wobble because once I get over 65 kph, I get scared and my arms shake. I'm not fearless when it comes to descending. I barely held it together. I was riding the brakes and the wobble didn't stop until I was almost stopped. I'm glad I've learnt not to panic and ride it out. I almost saw my race come to a crashing halt.

For the balance of the downhills I rode the brakes when it got over 60 kph. I did have to stop once on the bike. My chain fell off and I had to fix it. It was my own fault, I shifted too quickly and recklessly. The entire ride, I felt strong. I rode on the edge of effort, I didn't go to hard and not too little. It wasn't an easy ride, and near the end, my body felt challenged.

I had a much faster 2nd transition and that included my first bathroom pit-stop. Other than the customary pee in my wetsuit, it was the first time I peed since the swim start. I got out of the porta-pottie and volunteers smothered me in suntan lotion and off I went. The rubbing of the lotion on the skin felt great. There's nothing like having 4 or 5 females rubbing your entire body all at the same time.

The run was magic. I felt strong and running while wearing my Captains hat was a treat. I couldn't even count how many people were cheering on the Captain. It was like I was a movie star. Crowds of people would yell and cheer the captain on.

Running with the Captain's hat has it's own challenges. It's a hotter than a normal hat, there's no vents. But that's not the worse part. When you run with the Captain's hat your noticeable. You don't want to walk with the Captains hat on, everyone notices you walking. However, on the other hand, if you run with the Captain hat on, there is no greater feeling.

This was the first Ironman I've completed with the Captains hat on and I didn't want to look like a "sour puss" who is doing the Ironman with a Captains hat on, while wearing a frown or look of pain on his face. I wanted to smile and play to the crowd. I wanted to make their standing there a little more fun. I wanted to give them something to talk about, like, "did you see that guy with the Captain's hat, wasn't that cool".

From the beginning to the end, no matter how bad I felt, I smiled. I'd wave when they cheered. During the run I came up with my new trade mark wave. As they cheered, I started saluting. I'd run by and give an informal two finger salute to anyone that cheered me one. I was getting cheering from both sides of the road and I looked like the Queen, saluting to anyone who yelled out to me.

I've done 70.3's with the Captains hat and have heard all the comments. Mostly they yell out, "Hey Skipper, or Hey it's Captain Stubbing, or where'd you park the love boat, or where's Gilligan or Mary Ann or Ginger, or hey Popeye". In St. George, most everyone asked me "where's Tennille". I started yelling back that, "I left her for Ginger".

Because it was an out and back, I passed the same people 4 times. There were parts of the route that I had my own cheering section. One group of retired people, who had the enthusiam I've only seen with drunk college kids, were going nuts when I ran by. They looked like they served in WWII. They were about 2.5 miles from the finish, near the timing mats. On my last run by, even though I was tired, I gave them a show.

I crouched down, bending my knees and pumping my arms like a train and was yelling something. They loved it and deserved it. They were out cheering away all day long. It felt good to bring them a little entertainment, even though it wasn't easy, it was the 24 mile mark and my legs didn't feel like dancing.

The course was TOUGH and I got the the half way point by 1:49. I was well on pace to break the 4 hour marathon mark and although I could feel myself slowing down, I still felt good. Then my stomach started "gurgling". Prior to that point, I knew I was taking in a lot of liquids because I could feel it "sloshing" in my stomach. It was a weird feeling, "running and sloshing". I was definitely well hydrated.

The first porta-pottie after the halfway point, I had to stop. I had a major download. It could have won awards. Sometimes Reid will take a big dump and is so proud of it, he has to show me. I sure wish Reid could have saw what was in that porta-pottie, it would have humbled him.

I felt good and was now running much much lighter. I kept taking in Gatorade and Coke and then my 3 mile bathroom break routine began. It started solid and by the end it was major "squirt bum". All in all, over four visits, I probably spent at least 20 minutes in "the hot box".

The frustrating part was that I kept passing the same people over and over again. Throughout the entire last half of the run, my mouth was dry. Just 200 meters after leaving an aid station it would be bone dry. Eventually, I came up with the idea of running with grapes in my hand and when I got thirsty, I'd eat a juicy grape. It worked. After a while, I'd wouldn't eat it, I'd just bite into it and spit it out. Anything I ate caused rumbling stomach issues.

The funniest thing happened at the 5 mile point of the run. A woman ran out of the crowd with a big sign and was yelling "Go Bryan Go" and she put her arm around my sweaty waist and was hugging me and running beside me for like 15 seconds before she realized I was the wrong Bryan. It was great, I couldn't stop laughing. I was thinking, "didn't the Captain's hat give it away that I probably wasn't her Bryan".

I ran by her three more times and every time she cheered me one and we now had that special bond. On the last run by, I think she told me she loved me. It was so cool. It was also fun hig-fiving a lot of the little kids along the route.

For the last three miles, all I took in was water. I figured the Gatorade and Coke was upsetting my stomach. I was tired and sore and just wanted to finish. Although I wanted to walk at points, I just kept running. Throughout the entire run, I didn't walk much. Only up very steep hills and even then it wasn't for more than 60 seconds.

The strangest and most unexpected thing happened to me during this race. I didn't once say to myself, "What the F*ck are you doing this for, this Ironman stuff is a stupid thing to do, I'm never going to do one of these things ever again". Physically I was sore, but mentally I felt great.

As I finished the run, the crowds were amazing. For the last half mile I was saluting everyone on each side of the road and high-fiving any hand that was poking out of the crowd. It was fun. I accomplished my goal of having "fun and enjoying the experience".

I felt great crossing the line and then 10 minutes later I went into a semi-bonk state. After one bite of pizza, my stomach started rumbling. I didn't even eat that piece of pizza, I had to spit it out. I barely had enough energy to get my bike and gear and get to my car. I'm glad the hotel was only about 10 minutes away.

When I got to the hotel, I dragged myself out of the car and bought some Imodium from the sundry shop at the hotel. I left my bike and gear in the car. I didn't have the energy to carry it up to the room.

First thing I did, was hit the throne and then I did a post race video race report. That report was probably 30 minutes after I finished the race. I ran the perfect race. I used up just the perfect amount of energy and had nothing left at the end. I ended up getting the "shivers" and jumped into bed and snuggled under the covers.

When I got enough energy, I called for room service. My voice was shaking. I could tell the person on the other end wasn't impressed. I ordered a hamburger, fries and ice cream. The ice cream was to put on the Veyo pie I picked up the day before. I left the door open and signed for the food from my bed. Then I had him put the food down beside me on the bed.

I had my food on one side of me, which I slowly nibbled on, and a beer on the other side of me. It took me about 2 hours to eat it all and voila, I was back from the dead. I must say that "mountain berry" pie was the BEST pie I've ever had. It didn't even fall apart when I heated it up in the microwave.

Three hours after the race, I was back to 80% and was twittering and overwhelmed with all the supportive comments I got. It was only then, that I started to realize there wasn't a bunch of "tall, muscular, fit and tanned Californians" in front of me. In fact, at the halfway point of the marathon I was in Kona qualifying contention.

Had I not had to make porta-pottie stops, I would have probably finished in 7th or 8th place and qualified for Kona. No wonder I didn't catch many people in my age group. Most were chasing me, an "average height, semi-muscular, fit looking Canadian, who drinks lots of beer, who had no tan and was eating McDonald's on the bike".

What I learnt

I'd like to say redemption served, but I knew I was going to have a good race. Trying to speak humbly, but truthfully, it would have been odd if I didn't have a good race. I've trained very hard over the last few years and have been able to get to the point where I consistently finish at the top 5-10% of my age group. That wasn't by accident and it wasn't going to go away because of one bad race in China.

Three weeks ago, I had a dream. In my dream, I got clarity. I realized I'm not a back of the packer. I'm a competitor and I need to start acting like one and beliving in myself again. I woke up feeling like my old self. I eluded to the dream in a previous post but didn't expand on it.

The final confidence builder was running a 10 km road race a week before IMSG and finishing 3/85 in my age group. It proved I had my mojo back. I don't want to sound egotistical, because I'm not and that's not my intent, but I train too hard to be average. Yet, that China race pulled my pysche so far down that I thought everything I did over the last few years was a fluke. It makes no sense and I've learnt first hand that emotions aren't logical.

I can say that I've learnt more about myself and have grown personally from my Ironman China experience. In hindsight, I wouldn't change a thing. Also, had life not thrown me a curve ball, I would never have gotten to experience IMSG and had such a fantastic time. Sometimes the best things in life are completely unexpected.

I also don't regret China on a personal level. I really enjoyed seeing the culture, experiencing the country and the best part was sharing it with John Barclay and hanging out with Simon. It was all good.

I will say, "you're only as good as your last job", and I'm proud of the job I did in St. George. I proved I have the ability to qualify for Kona at a tough race. I just need that special race that I can put it all together and maybe catch a lucky break, like the guy who finished 8th at IMSG did.

Link to my finishers video. Thanks for recording it Doru. http://tinyurl.com/28cmyyz

IMSG RESULTS

Swim - 1:12:25 (12/284 AG) & (59 / 1850 males)

Bike - 5:55:20 (10/284 AG) & (141 / 1850 males)

Run - 4:06:54 (21/284 AG) & (222 / 1850 males)

Total - 11:26:07 12/284 AG & 131 / 1850 males

T1 - 8:20

T2 - 3:08

8/50 Canadian.