The finish at the Ford Ironman World Championships is truly indescribable. Hundreds and hundreds of people are in the crowd cheering, the lights are so bright that it looks like daylight and the music is pounding to up tempo rock. I enjoyed every second of it. I slapped hands with people coming in, raised up my hands to have them make even more noise and experienced a major rush of adrenaline as I heard Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman, say to the effect “ And now, Mark Fischer-Colbrie, 53, from Cupertino California. YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!”
(The finish clip is at:
http://liveupdate.ironmanlive.com/ppv/wmf.php?rid=261&bib=455 )
The day started out at 4 AM with breakfast and last minute preparation. I wore a tee shirt from a JDRF fundraiser from the premiere for the Pixar movie ‘The Incredibles.” The shirt never ceases to get a reaction and shout-outs from kids to adults saying “ Hey look…It’s Mr. Incredible!” Off to body marking by 5:30 and then on to pumping up the bike tires. (All the bikes and gear had to be turned in the day before so they were all ready to go.) At 6:30, I went into the water to warm up, to enjoy the sun rising up over the mountains and to watch the thousands of people lining the pier, sea wall and main road through Kona. I watched the Navy Seals parachute into the event prior to the Star Spangled Banner and the cannon going off for the start of 200 pros at 6:45. A few minutes later, the start area was full of 1600 other participants getting ready for the next cannon at 7 AM. I enjoyed the moments and let it all soak in. Not too many times can one be a part of a World Championship event.
At the start, it was pretty hectic with a lot of bodies crashing into each other. Generally, people would try to avoid contact as they knew it would slow them down, but hard contact was inevitable; I was just hoping I wouldn’t get my swim goggles knocked off or get some other injury. After a few hundred yards, the contact subsided and I was able to get into a good rhythm. Every five hundred yards or so, clumps of swimmers would cause freeway pile-ups by having slowed down after starting out too fast. The hard contact would start all over again until things got sorted out. Never knew swimming was a contact sport! By the halfway mark at 1.2 miles, everything opened up. At that point, my speed suit started chaffing my torso as I hadn’t put enough of a lubricant called Glide in that spot. Each stroke on that side was an irritant, but I ignored it as I was happy with my swim time. Pulling in for shore, I swam over a diver lying on his back filming the event and gave him a thumbs up sign. Reaching the steps up to the pier, I felt strong and came in at the top end of a hoped for range of times.
Ran to showers, rinsed off, grabbed my bike gear, ran to the changing tent, dried off, threw on my bike clothes…including my JDRF jersey from my first 100 mile bike ride in 2006…., ran to the bike, got going and somehow it still took 13 minutes. The pros do it in two minutes. Headed out for the bike start to enjoy the crowds, the cheers and the shouts from my wife, Lisa. The first two hours of the bike, we were taught in camp to take very easy and to consume more calories. I wisely took the advice as I usually like to really push hard on the bike leg of the half-Ironman. But by 10:30 AM, it was already 96 degrees, high humidity and slated to get much hotter. I nonetheless enjoyed the journey. Along the way, I thanked the volunteers, tried to toss my empty water bottles into trash containers as people loved it if you made a basket while going by on the bike, grabbed new water bottles on the fly…like a relay race baton hand-off…. and interacted with the crowds or volunteers. At one point, people at an aid station cracked up as I was going by saying in a kid-like voice, “ Are we there yet? I am thirsty. I have to go to the bathroom…” In the meantime, I diligently stuck to the nutrition plan of powerbars, gels, a peanut butter sandwich, salt tablets and water consumption that I had put together before the race. (400 calories per hour and 500 to 750 mgs of sodium for every liter of water.) More than half of completing an Ironman relies on getting that formula right and my focus was on getting to the finish line. On the ride, I got to see the pros hammering their way back on the bike and to enjoy a participant’s view of the race.
The winds started to pick up as I approached the turnaround in Hawi. Had a few side gusts after the turn-around that were scary and really not fun, but the tips from the camp helped as I tried to put a lot of weight on the front tire to keep the bike stable. Through mile 65, I continued to hold back, trying to save my legs to deal with more headwinds on the return and to be able to run the marathon. The aid stations at mile 70 and 75 had run out of water, which definitely set me back. The winds picked up and were apparently around 15 miles per hour for the last 40 miles. The last 6 miles were tough, especially as I was watching the runners headed out on the other side of the road for the marathon, but I easily made it to before the cut-off time. (I use a road bike, even though that costs me a lot of time, as I have not yet been able to get comfortable with the extreme aero position, a lot like a downhill racer position, that a regular triathlon bike is set up for. ) I got some more laughs at the end of the bike leg when I insisted, “But nobody told me I was going to have to run a marathon after the ride!”
Into the changing tent to put on run clothes and headed back out on the run, with no idea what to expect with a marathon to go. I started the run and actually felt decent. The first 5 miles went by fairly well. Somewhere around mile 6, however, I started getting progressively worse knife-like stomach cramps. In between cramps, I watched a beautiful sunset while overlooking the ocean during that part of the run. By mile 10, where Lisa saw me again, the situation was not good at all. I had to fight the cramps the entire rest of the marathon.
It is pitch dark along Queen Kamehameha Parkway after sunset. Runners are required to wear Glo-Sticks and reflective clothing, but even with that it took a conscious effort to avoid not running into other people who were on the return. There was nearly a full moon, but the cloud cover blocked it(and provided more humidity!) As I moved along, counting the miles down, I thought about and was inspired by all lot of different things, mostly around the theme of determination. Images of my kids came to mind. Matt, who walked / ran the distance of a marathon in a school walkathon over the course of a day while in the 4th grade. Tyler’s determination of being a CCS-honored, All-Star water polo player and All-American swimmer while managing his diabetes. And Lisa and Megan’s determination in reaching the Olympic Swimming Trials. I thought about the heart transplant patient who missed the swim cut-off time by eight seconds and the double-leg amputee who missed the bike cut-off by 8 minutes and their determination needed just to get here. I saw a person who had muscle spasms so severe that she was nearly bent in half. While she and a gentleman who was recently on the “Biggest Loser” program missed the final cut-off time by minutes, I admired the effort I saw with still 8 miles to go. Another person I saw gamely trying to finish the marathon at mile 15 who had no hope of getting to the end in time, but kept going until pulled off the course at mile 23. Finally, I thought about people in the type 1 diabetes family to whom I had dedicated this race to and it all made the things I was dealing with seem inconsequential. The conditions, the cramping and the fatigue were all forgotten as those images helped drive me forward….and on to the finish line.
I actually felt better after the Ironman than after the San Diego Marathon, my first, last May, other than the cramps. By the next morning, just a few hours later, I was fine with no after-effects other than two blisters. I was fortunate to have no problems post the event as a number of people were dragged off to the medical tent and / or collapsed at the finish.
At the awards banquet the next night, in front of thousands of participants and their families, I received the recognition of Janus Investments as being the number two fundraiser and receiving an extra $8,000 from Janus Investments. And I am even more determined than ever that we will find a cure for type 1 diabetes. So thanks again for your help and support; I could not have achieved my goal to finish an Ironman and to have raised $25,000 for that cause. Mahalo!