My journey to become an Ironman

I have been thinking back to September 2009, in Jacksonville, FL.  My friend and co-worker Melissa and I are going for a run and talking about how she and Alan are getting ready to do their first Ironman.  I remember thinking; I would never be able to do that!  Thanks to many conversations with Melissa and Alan we can fast forward a few years and here I am writing this with my Ironman finisher’s medal hanging next to me.

I feel it is only right to start this race report thanking the people who helped and supported this journey.  First my wife Maggie, step-son Orlando and my granddaughter Addison; who all had to deal with me being away training or missing events because I had a race.  Especially Maggie, who puts up with tall grass, cooking for four when it is only us and a honey-do-list that was barely touched. 

There is the overwhelming support of my parents and family, when you don’t live nearby it sometimes hard to remember the little things, they do.

Steve Smith, my training buddy and good friend, I twisted Steve’s arm to sign up for this race.  We trained and raced side by side this year and I have to say that I am as proud of his success at this race as I am about my own.  Also, to Steve’s family for letting me have a corner of their campsites a few times this year and being so supportive at every race.

My coach Adam Otstot, his advice, guidance and training plans constantly put me over the top and help me crush dreams.  Adam is in his first year as a pro triathlete and is a huge inspiration to me. I also need to send a big Thank You, to Mindy Schulz who told me about Adam and how to connect with him at a Newton event at the Point2 Running store.  

Speaking of Dream Crushers, the Snapple tri team, thank you to Mindy, Bart and all of the amazing athletes I have had the pleasure to meet and race with this year.  Also a very big thank you to the Snapple teams amazing sponsors: Xterra wetsuits, Mizuno, HED, Cliff Bar, Rudy Project; to name a few. 

My Master swim coach Steve Hennessy, every time he’s on deck I get faster and stronger.  He really helps put a lot of this craziness in perspective, in the pool and out.

Mike Shipp at East Coast Bicycles as well as Rod and Chris at Bike Beat thank you for all your help keeping my bike in great shape.  As wells as everyone at Point2 RunningCompany for taking care of my feet.

Not to be forgotten, all my friends and fellow tri nuts, thank you for your support and making this one amazing sport to be a part of.

So, I guess now would be a good time to actually talk about the race in this race report. 

It all started on Thursday, with a 10 hour ride to Kentucky, Steve reached out to a friend of his in the area and we both had a great place to stay.  Thank you so much to Jen McFarland and her three sons for opening their home to us.  The following day Steve and I got in a run, checked-in and attend the athletes meeting.  Saturday arrived with Steve and I heading to the race site to participate in the practice swim.

 

Steve and I before the practice swim

As nothing can seem to go off without some drama. We are preparing the bikes to be dropped off at transition and during a test ride, my baby will not shift right.  Will not go into certain gears and is very jumpy.  We tried to make some changes but it just would not get better.  So, I head over to bike service that Ironman offers and I am told it will be ready after 5, there were 30 bikes ahead of mine.  Problem, bike drop off closes at 5.  Panic is now setting in!  The mechanic is telling me that as long as I have my receipt I will be ok but when I go to drop my gear bags off, no one in transition has a clue what I am talking about.  FREAKING OUT about now.  Long story short, I called the emergency number for Ironman and they take care of it.  Pick up the bike at 6:30 and shortly after it is dropped off at transition.  After a few hours of chaos things are now slowing down to pure calm and I am starting to settle into race mode.  I grabbed dinner with my parents and was in bed early.

Race morning

I woke up a little before 4 A.M., had a bagel and an Ensure followed by the never missed chocolate fudge pop tart 30 minutes later.  Got to make sure I get enough calories taken in.  By 5 A.M., we are heading to transition, there was a little bit of a walk that helped keep the nervous down.  Upon reaching transition, I got the bike set-up; water bottles in place and final checks to make sure everything is working. 

Here is where I think I made rookie mistake #1; I had access to my gear bags and never went to check them, more on this later.  Steve and I meet my parents to hand off some gear and started the walk to the swim start.  That was maybe just shy of a mile walk and as it would turn out this walk will also come into play a little later.  Body marking gets done then off for the ever important last porta john visit.  20 minutes later the line has not moved, we try another line with the same results.  Oh well, better go get on line for the start.

This race is a time trial start which basically means you get in line, it is first come, first swims.  As we start walking towards the end of the line it hits me that I can’t see the end.  We walked some more, a little farther, still no end in sight.  I would swear we walked another mile before we found the end.  Now is a good point to talk about rookie mistake #2 and why all that walking comes into play.  When we get in line (finally) I bend down to stretch my back and I find a nice big blister on my right little toe.  Haven’t even started the race, are you kidding me.  Turns out the sandals I had on were rubbing, they had never done this to me before. Great, good thing I put band aids in my gear bags.

We hear the cannon go off for the start of the Pros.  Ten minutes later a second boom and shortly our line starts moving (slowly).  A few porta johns come into view, Steve and I looked at each other and both decided we better go use them.  Heck, we are already this far back, right!  That done and back on line, it was maybe a 20-30 minute march to the start.

Swim: 1:04:42

Finally reaching the swim start we still had to make our way down to the pier to jump in.  On the way, Steve noticed my parents were there.  What a boost to see them, my nervous really calmed down and my mind just went to game on mode.  

From the swim start (Courtesy of the Tri Lunatics FB page)

It was pretty cool to jog down and jump in, no running/dolphin diving in or treading water and having to fight for position or deal with big crowds.  Silly newbie that changed pretty soon. I found a good rhythm and kept the pace down until I ran (literally) into the first group. Two kicks to the head, one to the chest, made me decided that picking the pace up was not a bad idea.  This type of thing went on for most of the way to the first turn buoy.  After the turn I felt like I was flying.  A few times I would be slowed by small groups or literally swimming over someone but before I knew it there was at the first bridge.  Then the second and next thing I knew I was staring at the transition tent and the swim finish.  This swim was amazing, I was a little faster than expected and I felt awesome coming out of the water.

Transition 1: 6:34

After a short run from the swim finish, I hit the transition area, yelled out my number and was handed my gear bag.  Nice!  Running to the tent I saw a bunch of people outside the tent seated getting their gear changed but I wanted to get inside the tent and to a chair.  Finding a seat, I dumped my gear bag and started changing.  Every freaking time I bent over to grab something, someone running by would hit me in the head.  Bad choice of real estate I guess and very annoying. 

Shoes on, helmet on, race belt/bib on but something is not right.  The belt was twisted (mistake #3), I should of check it when I put the bib on the belt and also why I should have checked my gear bags after setting up my bike.  Lesson learned. 

I ran out of the tent and over to the sunblock tent (So freaking cool!), a nice young lady put a ton of sun block on my shoulders and arms.  Then I was on my way to the mount line.  As I got there I saw my family, hearing them cheering got me so pumped to get moving.

Bike: 5:34:24

My race plan was to start slow and keep the watts low, treat it like a warm-up.  That part of the plan, executed!  Next hydration and nutrition, use bonk breaker bars while I used my first bottle of EFS drink.  Next bottle I would use was an EFS drink/EFS Liquid shot mix, followed by using Ironman Perform and Liquid Shot, using water in between and salt pills every hour.  Executed with minor adjustments.

The first 15 miles were pretty good, other than having to stop to adjust my front brakes which were rubbing.  One thing that stood out to me was how crowded the course was from the start.  It was flat out impossible to keep 4 bike lengths between anyone, hope there are no race officials around!  Another point that stood out, was having a fellow Snapple teammate Eric Retinger, go riding past while saying, Go Snapple, Go Snapple, Go Snapple.

Within the first 20 miles came with it a big concern, an out and back that included a hairy descent and even longer climb.  This hill was mentioned in the athlete meeting to keep it slow and that NO ONE wins the race there.  Seems not too many people listened!  On the way out, there was a rider down from an unfortunate accident with another rider, the medical staff was already attending to him.  What got me, was how riders coming down the hill refused to slow down and also how many almost slammed into the medical crew attending to the downed rider.

Once I finished that spur, there were two loops to complete that would get me just past the 90 mile mark before heading back to transition.  There were some crazy rolling hills and as with the Rev3 race, I was climbing like a champ.  Timing things perfect, spinning up hills and passing people like crazy while climbing (Thank you Steve for the advice to spin up hills).  One highlight from the loops was in the town of La Grange, there was a section lined with gates and banners where spectators were gathered.  They were cheering like crazy as every rider came through, what an amazing cheering section and energy boost.  You could not help but speed up and feel amazing, what a great positive vibe.  The vibe was a little tarnished by two thing shortly after that area.  A jerk who decided today was a good day to tow his big ass boat down the road at 10 miles an hour and a nice police officer who looks directly at me coming down a hill and lets a car go directly in front of me, thanks @$$!  Other than that the ride was going as plan, nutrition and hydration still were spot on, watts in range and feeling good. 

Heading back to T2

About mile 80, I was pleasantly surprised to see Steve had caught up to me.  This was not surprising, he is an amazing climber and we were less than a minute apart out of the water from each other and had close transition times.  The next 25 miles we pretty much rode together, it was like a training day back home.  My plan allowed me to increase the watts and pace if I felt good at mile 80 but after mile 100, the afterburners kicked in.  This was not part of the plan and mistake #4!  I would not realize this mistake until transition 2.

Transition 2: 9:32

Ironman transitions have this awesome feature of volunteers taking your bike after you dismount.  It made running on numb toes a bit easier since I didn't have the bike to worry about tripping on or over.  I got my gear bag, made it to the tent and finally my toes were starting to regain feeling.  Upon grabbing a seat, a MUCH better spot than transition 1.  I quickly noticed two things; one Steve was right across from me and two my upper legs were burning, mistake #4!  Damn, I had pushed those last 15 miles way to hard.  Oh well! 

I tried to get a band aid on the blister on that little toe (remember mistake 2), this did not go so well as the end of the band aid crimped and I could not get it right.  Screw it, I was hoping this decision would not come back to haunt me.  Getting everything else on, I grabbed my flask of Liquid shot, ran out to the sunblock tent then hit the porta john.  All this combined with having to stop to fix my left shoe and roll my compression sleeve up over my timing chip (just to make sure it didn't block the signal and as it turned out to be mistake #5), lead to this ridiculous long transition.

On my way out to the run course

Run: 4:51:00

Now it is time to just run a marathon.  That’s right JUST run, HA!  As I started to run out of transition I could not believe the condition my legs were in.  My coach Adam did mention this and most of our long run were on tired legs, but HOLY CRAP!  Just as I got towards the end of the chute, I heard my wife’s voice boom out “GO FRAGER”.  I looked over to see her, my parents as well as Steve’s family.  His son Gavin yelled, “Go catch my Dad!” I wish I could buddy.  All this gave me a boost and after a half mile I started to feel better and my pace became a little faster than planned.  Last long this will not, into the pain cave I must go. 

So by mile 3.4 exactly, enter that cave I did as my calves started to kill me. I am pretty sure Yoda would tell me; “that place is strong with the dark side of the force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.”  

In I went, to fight this evil Adam’s words came to mind. “Set goals and adjust as needed”.  Running to the next aid station, worked pretty well at first.  Then my left ankle started to bother me and the calves just go worse. Okay, walk to the next block and run to the next aid station.  Every run would be cut shorter and shorter, run to the next block then walk 2, run to the next light pole then walk to the aid station.  Every time I started to run, new pains would set in and when I started into the pain cave one little bit of info slipped my mind, nutrition.  By mile 7, I was getting dizzy and figured the heat got me.  This was the one time in the run, I was worried I would not finish and it hit me that I was holding a full flask of Liquid shot and it should have been hit twice by now.  Taking a swig and grabbing an orange slice at the next aid station, I started feeling better almost immediately.

The end of the first loop was a bit torturous, passing so close to the finishing line.  I did run the entire time, I didn't want my family to see me walking but I did stop for my special needs bag to re-fill my bottles of EFS drink and grab a new flask of Liquid shot.  The next few miles were a mixed bag of pain and aid stations.  By mile 18, I saw a young lady wearing a DC Tri singlet, a companion club to Snapple.  We walked together talking, she was on her first lap and was worried she would not finish.  I hoped I helped her as much as she helped me.  Shortly after I was able to run a little longer then before and those distances got longer and longer.  At mile 23, a guy stopped next to me saying “man, I am so close to the finish and I can’t physically run”.  Told him I was in the same boat and we agreed to try to go ahead together to the next aid station.  I made it a few hundred feet and had to stop, everything from the hips down hurt and I told him to go on.  Hitting the last aid station I decided it was time to bring this home, I didn't care anymore about pain, I wanted to run and run all the way to finish line.  I shuffled to the mile 25 marker and something clicked or maybe snapped inside me.  The pain went away, my form returned, I shortened my stride and I was back to my planned run pace.

After the turn onto 4^th street I caught the guy who stopped next to me.  We ran together but he encouraged me to go on.  Soon I was right in front of the homeland and tell you what, seeing the lights and the finishing chute, a tidal wave of emotions came over me.  As I crossed onto the rug with all those lovely Ironman logos, I threw my arms up and the crowd erupted.  I am getting chills thinking about it.  I pumped my fist, threw my arms up again, I was only feet from hearing the words I have waited so long to hear. 

Right as I crossed under the timing clock it happened, “Adam Frager, from Newport News, Virginia…. (he freaking paused, LOL)….YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” I let all that emotion go in one big fist pump, slapped the hand of the volunteer who gave me my medal and the next few minutes are nothing but a blur of joy.

Finished 11:46:12

My original goal for this race was to be under 12 hours. I meet that goal.  My swim goal was 1:07:00, I beat that goal. My bike goal was 5:35:00 - 5:45:00, I meet that goal. My run goal was 3:45:00 - 3:55:00 or under 4 hours, I was nowhere close to this goal and could care less.

Never underestimate the power of seeing friends on the course, it was inspiring to see Rachel, Brian and Shane during the run, congrats to all of you on a great race.  The thought of my granddaughter Addison brought light to some of the darkest parts of the cave.  Remembering my Grandfather Ernie, inspired me to never give up.  To say I could feel all the support from my family and friends sounds silly but I could and it lifted me up.   

From the day I registered until the moment I posted this, I could not have asked for a more memorable and amazing journey.  Now it is time to get my tattoo, enjoy some rest and start focusing and training on the next adventure. Sorry to tell you dear Maggie but this has made me hungrier to do more Ironman’s and go faster!