The race was the easy part...part one.

I'm not going to keep anyone in suspense. I'm proud to say I did the Steelhead Ironman 70.3 in Michigan today and had the best race of my life. I finished in 4:41:16, which gave me 8th place in my age group and I qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater Florida on November 14th, 2009. I still can't believe it.

I had the race of my life. It exceeded anything I thought I was capable of doing. After my last race in Morden Manitoba, three weeks ago, I decided to change my entire outlook. I was no longer going to put any pressure on myself and I was just going to enjoy the triathlon experience. I was going to stop racing for position and race for fun and this was the first race I was going to race for fun.

Two days before the race I went out for dinner with the family and enjoyed a nice meal, like I would if I didn't have to do a triathlon. I had steak, ribs and 2 liters of beer (which is 6 regular glasses of beer). The night before the race I was having a nice pasta dish and had a couple of Stella's. I was the only triathlete drinking beer in the restaurant, a few were having some wine. The night before a race, I'm normally all nervous about race morning and dream about the race all night and not missing my wake up call. Last night I had dreams about everything but racing. When the alarm eventually did go off I felt unusually calm and relaxed. My biggest concern was having enough time to stop at Dunkin Donuts for a bagel and large coffee.

I was one of the last people at the transition site. I showed up about 20 minutes before they closed the transition area and was in a beautiful state. I was joking and talking to everyone around me. The only thing I forgot was a towel to dry my feet and one of my neighboring triathletes was trying to find me one. I told him not to worry I was just going to use my warm up shirt.

The first wave went off at 7 am and my wave wasn't going off until 8:07 am, which left a lot of time. I met a couple of interesting people. On the mile walk to the race start, I met a black guy from Chicago that was doing his first half Ironman. Nice Guy. His worst is the swimming and was just wanting to get out within 1 hour. He was telling me about the Chicago triathlon that has 8,000 athletes and the waves take up to 3 hours to complete. Unbelievable. Then, as I was sitting on a hill on the beach I met another guy from Chicago who sold furniture and was also doing his first half Ironman. He also told me about the Chicago race and we both agreed that getting to this race for 6 am and racing at 8 am, sucked.

For the past week I've been feeling fat and bloated. I've been eating poorly and drinking way to much beer. Last night I thought I was a boy from Cambodia. My belly was so fat and I told myself that after this race I'm going to start getting back to eating healthy. At the race site, I felt like I should be in the Clydesdale division.

Finally our wave was ready to go and Alice, surprisingly, was able to find me at the start and take some photo's and video. I hadn't swam in 9 days and wasn't sure how I was going to do. My strategy was to go for the middle of the pack. I've been thinking about it, and since I've started my comeback, I've been panicking in the water. I've almost drown, had goggles kicked off and taken in a lot of water. My typical strategy has been to swim to the outside and it has worked well. Today I decided to swim in the middle, to go for the combat. I figured that no one likes getting hit and slapped and that we all really just want to swim in harmony, so I decided that I'm going to swim my race, and others can move. And that's what I did.

It was the first race that I felt comfortable in the water. Sure, I had to stop a few times and let someone cross or do some sighting, but I was not going to not be in the action. I was also surprised that my arms felt so strong after 9 days of no swimming. I got out of the water, according to my watch, before running to the timing mat, in 32:58. My fastest swim ever. It was a long run to the bike and when I got to the bike, a girl who new the guy beside me, wanted to know if I still needed a towel. It was like she was a guardian angle. I still said no and used my shirt, but I still don't understand how she remembered me and where she came from.

The minute I got on the bike I hammered. I passed and passed so many people. On the bike I passed a couple of guys from my wave and knew I was up near the front. There was three guys in my wave that were passing me and I was passing them for the first 30 miles of the race. What bothered me about two of these guys is that they were drafting me, albeit, 3-4 bike lengths behind, but they were drafting. I made sure that I never drafted. It was almost like they thought I should work with them. I heard this race had a lot of drafting, and I told myself that I was not going to draft. Eventually I dropped them when we started going up the hills and into the head winds.

At the 20 mile mark, my seat slipped. I guess I've been adjusting it so much, that I didn't tighten it enough and with the pressure I was putting on it, it came loose and started pointing downward. I decided to just keep riding and try to level it with my butt as I rode. At the 35 mile mark I was averaging close to 39 kph. I was having a great ride and then the winds started. The day started off with very little wind with warm sunshine and then the clouds and wind started rolling in. It really started to slow everyone down. I kept spinning and passing people, albeit at a slower speed. Around the 40 mile mark I could hardly sit on my seat. My rear end was so sore from the seat. It was hurting my bones. I kept cursing myself for not getting a new seat. From that point on, I had to get out of the aero position many times because my butt was so sore. I definitely don't have the seat I would need for an Ironman. Eventually, I saw some of the pro's running and I knew I couldn't be that far from the transition and I just needed to suck it up.

When I got to my rack there was only 2 bikes in and my was the third. I knew I had a great ride. I felt good and my back wasn't bothering me. For the first half a kilometer I was at a 6:50 pace. I was feeling good. The only problem was that the timing chip on my ankles was too tight and chaffing my already chaffed ankle. Eventually at the mile and a half mark I had to stop and loosen it. At 1.5 miles I was averaging a 7:22 pace. It was too slow. I knew if I was going to do well I needed to bring it below 7:18. On the run, they had three hills. The first one was a killer. Most people were walking up the hill and I decided that I was going to go for it. I closed my eyes and opened my mouth and went as hard as I could. It was hard. I noticed by the time I got over the hill my average pace was down to 7:18 per mile. The next 4 miles was flat and I tried to relax and keep my leg cadence at a high level. I was passing a lot of people. By the 5 mile mark I had gotten my average mile pace down to 7:14. Then came another hill and I went as hard as I could with my mouth open and my eyes closed. By that point I had only been passed by one guy in my age group, who was flying, and only 3 others from other age groups, who were fast.

As I was running I was thinking of Clearwater and qualifying for the World Championships. As I did, I kept telling myself that I had a great ride and that there are some great runners in my age group and that the only way I was going to beat them was that I'd have to run in the low 7 minute miles. I figured that if I had a 10 - 15 minute lead on them, they'd have to run 6 minute miles to catch me and that wouldn't happen. It was the strangest thing, my heart rate was through the roof for me, it was in the 160's during the run, but my legs felt fresh. A few times I started to feel like my legs were going to be fatigued, especially after running up those hills, and then I'd relax and my leg speed would take over. Most of the run was effortless. The hardest part was passing people, I had to weave in and out. There was so many runners that it was sometimes difficult to pass them without bumping into them.

I looked at my Garmin watch the entire time. I got my pace down to a 7:13 pace by mile 10. I told myself that I was not going to look at my Timex, with the final time, until mile 11. When I got to mile 11, it said 4:23. I couldn't believe it, at my current pace I'd be around 4:38. I felt so good and I was able to pick up the pace. I can't ever remember feeling this good in a race. Three weeks ago, around mile 7 in the Morden Half Ironman, I was hurting so much that I was asking myself why I did triathlons. Now, three weeks later, I'm feeling like I've got wings. I picked up the pace for the last two miles and was able to bring my average per mile pace down to 7:10 per mile, from the first 1.5 miles which was at a 7:22 pace.

When I crossed the finish line, my watch said 4:38:03. I couldn't believe it. I was in semi tears. This time was unbelievable. When I saw Alice I gave her a big shaking hug. I was on cloud nine. The most amazing thing is that I didn't even feel like I did a triathlon, let alone a half Ironman. My legs were fresher than a 10 km run. I had no soreness or stiffness whatsoever. It was surreal. I didn't even need water or food. Albeit, I ate and drank a lot on the bike and I drank Gatorade at virtually every run stop. I just felt great.

I went to the results and didn't see my name or time. A guy with a 4:38:07 was in 5th place and I was, according to my watch 4:38:03, which would put me in 5th place and guarantee me a qualifying spot for the World Championships. The timing chip company did not have me on the results pages and I was starting to worry that my time was not recorded. I kept going back to the place where the results were posted, but they had no new pages posted. I would eat, then come back, and still no results. This went on for at least an hour. I was freaking out. It was bad enough that I wasn't there and wouldn't qualify for Clearwater, but after a period of time I didn't care about not qualifying, all I cared about was that the time was recorded so that my friends would believe me. What if I did the race of my life and it wasn't recorded?

To be continued tomorrow. Reid wants the computer.

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