Great Race in St. Petersburg Florida

Just coming off a great race in St. Pete! The St. Anthony’s olympic distance triathlon is the second largest in the country behind Chicago. I have raced this twice now and have loved it each time and was much faster this year than last, which is a good indicator of my early season shape right now. (see me in the middle of the picture with hands in the air).

The reason I am even mentioning this, is that it was a great race for me to start thinking through the Hawaii Ironman. Although much shorter, this race had an ocean swim that was 1500 meters (almost a mile) and it was rough with large swells and the temperatures were very warm, much like Hawaii would be.

My swim went very well so it gave me a lot of confidence in rough ocean swimming and dealing with the heat was not too bad because I continued to pour water over my head at each aid station to keep my core temperature down. It works.

One problem I did encounter was that the water I continually poured over my head went right down to my shoes and they did not drain well. I usually wear racing flats (no socks) and recently I had put in new insoles. Well, these insoles did not drain or repel the water, this caused my feet to slide around a lot. In the end, I ended up with several painful blisters that will keep me out of training for a couple days. Lesson learned; I need to find shoes that will drain water because I will definitely be pouring water over my head in Kona on the run especially in the energy lab (Hawaii’s version of a desert, which is in part of the run).

Getting the Game Plan Together

Since my last entry I have talked to Sonni and he assures me that he will have me dialed in and there is no need for me to train above and beyond what I am doing now until the end of May at his triathlon camp that I have signed up for. At that point I should be biking about 55 miles on the weekend starting my build cycles (up from 35-40 miles once a week). One good thing we were talking about was that aside from infinit liquid formula (similar to gatorade but customized for me and more effective) and gu packs or two, Fritos were going to be part of the nutrition plan as well. Salt is critical. He also said that we would be experimenting with different nutrition during teh longer rides and run to see what worked best. I will also be hitting the electrolytes while training in the heat for sure.

I have also found others who have been to Kona either by qualifying or by winning a slot. I have more questions at this point than they have time to answer so I am just going to save a lot of the questions for a couple months down the road and see how many I can answer on my own and leave the tougher questions for the guys who have been there. There are a lot of people who I know who have run other ironman races as well and I will be hitting them up for much of the information I will have questions about too.

I am tapering right now for my race in St. Petersburg this weekend so my volume is going down. I got in 1.3 miles in the pool today and it was mainly an eaasy pace throughout with drills.

Thoughts about the game plan

Today I have a call schedule with my Coach Sonni Dyer. This will be the start of formulating a training schedule that will take me to the point where I can race the race in Kona. At this point my biggest concerns are mainly the heat in Kona and staying injury free up to race day.

The swim and the bike, I can see getting there ok, but the run is a little concerning at this point. I run 7-9 miles in regular training sessions but 26 miles after the swim and the bike in the heat, is another story. One thing I need to keep focused on is that I still need to race in Williamsburg at the Patriots Half Ironman to qualify. That’s not going to be a walk in the park either especially in the beginning of Sept in VA. It will be hot there in September.

Hurray! The First Hurdle is Cleared

I had spoke to my coach about my situation and he brought up a 70.3 race in Williamsburg, VA. It was 6 days after the deadline but he said give it a try and see if they will allow a 6 day grace period since this was a lottery ticket and most races are clsoed out.

So one last stab at this and out of frustration, I called Ironman directly and spoke to Jennette at Ironman USA who was the person who had e-mailed me and told me I had to race a qualifier before the Aug 31st deadline.

I explained to her that I could get into a race in Williamsburg, VA on Sept 6th (6 days past their deadline) that could act as my prequalification race. Through the conversation she continued to tell me no for 4 more times and finally after much pleading, begging and just thinking through this from a common sense approach she saw it my way. After all, I was just notified as a lottery winner and most all of these races are filled early in the year (Except in Lubbuck Texas and Rhode Island as I found out). April is just too late to get into the 1/2 ironman (or 70.3 races as they are now called) races as I found out quickly and I think she understood.


So now I had the head honcho backing me up (whom I will be forever grateful) with a promise that I call her from my cell phone when I cross the finish line in Williamburg, VA. that Saturday afternoon. You bet! I have her set up on speed dial already!!! All I have to do is race the 70.3 race in Virginia to now qualify.

Not Understanding, quite yet

Ironman USA did not understand!!! UG!! What a pain this is becoming. I received an e-mail from Sonni and he found a race in Williamsburg that was 6 days after the deadline, I figured I could get on the phone and plead my case…it was my last shot.

The Race May Not be My Biggest Challenge

I received an e-mail back from Bill Scott saying No. What support he has for his clients who pay hundreds of dollars a year to race in his venues! I offered to hand in all of my race slots for the remainder of the year in closed out races in order to get the one slot in teh White Lake 70.3 race, to no avail. He and I went back and forth several times on e-mail and he was really disinterested because he didn't have a relationship with Ironman USA. I will leave this one here and comment no further on Setup Events, Inc. Obviously, I am very frustrated.


So where to go now. I need to touch base with my coach, Sonni, and see what I can do here. Sonni has been training Ironamn athletes for years and several who have raced in Kona, he will have some great input I bet. The only option I am looking at right now is the Mountaineer 70.3 in WVa which looks very, very tough and it's coming up quick on the calender, if I have to I will race this one I will, but at first glance, no thanks!

I will send an e-mail to Ironman USA and plead my case, surely they will understand.

AHHH, There are Strings Attached!

Today I had a triathlon race in Valdese and talked to another triathlete who was a lotttery winner two years ago. He said that I had to qualify for the lottery slot! Qualify, how? Apparently he said I had to race a 70.3 race or an ironman in the previous 12 months leading up to the cutoff date of Aug 31st. WHAT NEWS THIS WAS!!!

I ran home after the race and searched through the ironman web site and there is was, he was not lying. I had to qualify for the race!, UG!

Immediately I looked at all the races in the Carolinas and VA and all of the 70.3 races were all booked and full. I then sent an e-mail to the race director, Bill Scott to see if I could turn in all of my other slots and buy a slot in one of the 70.3 races. So I have sent that e-mail off and we will see what happens.

Getting the News! Kona, Here I Come!!

I will use this as a starting point in my journey to Kona to race in the World Triathlon Championship. Unbelievable.

It really started when I got a phone call from a guy named Steve in NY (I should have known something was up) saying he was working with Fox News and that he had identified me as someone who they wanted to interview. I was immediately suspicious of this but I never put it together with a lottery entry to the Ironman that I had put in several months ago and had forgotten about. After a couple conversations, I was connected to Bruce Snyder, the sports director for our local television station (great guy and loves practical jokes), Fox 18 sports, here in Charlotte.

So in short, they had me come down to the studio under the premise of being interviewed on triathlons. Nothing was ever said or let on to about ironman races or the lottery tickets.

Once in the studio we started the interview. It was going quite well and as we got to the end of it, Bruce started asking me about Ironman races and if I would ever think about doing them and in passing I said yes but I was a little too busy to do it at this point in my life.

That’s when he pulled out the Lottery board and said well you better start training because you have won a slot in the 2008 World Championships in Kona Hawaii. WOW!! What a shock. The first thing I thought about was the training load that I was going to go through this summer. It’s going to be a busy summer!

Scheduling, that was going to be the real challenge with everything I have going on from work to my involvement at my college I graduated from, ASU to coaching football in the summer and fall. How do I stuff all of this in????? I figure this is a once in a life time opportunity and I need to grab onto it. I’m not getting any younger and training is going very well right now, so this is the year to do this.