Final race day post....

I will post Matt's recap of the race... He can say it better than I can.... But I can say that the kids and I went down earlier than we thought he would be there ( according to what times he was pulling out) and we were very excited to see him come in earlier than we thought and looking really strong... Such a difference in his stride, the look on his face, and just the whole feelof it... My Matt was back.... I missed the finish line... The older two kids ran down to try to get him but got him right after... So we will have to wait for the professional ones.. Anyway, I thought he did great and again it was a wonderful day and so much fun to watch.... I love these race days.... Someday.. Maybe somedayI'll do one.... Just need to become a better swimmer...... :)

Matt's recap:
Pre Race: So race morning didn’t get off to a very good start. As some of you know I train with a power meter on my bike, using this I’m able to accurately monitor how many Watt’s I’m putting into the peddles. I did 100% of all my long training rides with this Power Tap (it measures the torque in the rear wheel bike hub). The wheels I use for training are not made for racing, a race set costs upwards of $4000, so I rent them. On Tuesday when I picked up the wheels the company noticed they had forgotten to pack the bike computer that interfaces with the wheel. No problem we can have them here on Thursday, so as things normally go the bike computer doesn’t show up until late Friday night, after the bike area is closed, you check your bike in Friday afternoon. So we are down to Sat morning to get it setup. The bike computer shows up in the transition area at 5:30AM (race starts at 7AM). I’m thinking, perfect, it should only take about 5min to setup. This is a wireless unit and I couldn’t get it to sync to the wheel, find a bike mechanic, they can’t get it to work either. Things are starting to get really busy on the peer and they are getting pulled onto other stuff, 30 MINUTES before the start I’m standing there with my bike and the mechanic says, “let’s take the wheel apart and do a clean reset”, I’m like dude “you’re kidding right”, nope, 30min before the race when I should be out doing warm up run and getting my speed suit on for the swim the guy has my wheel off and the hub taken apart, pieces everywhere… Still won’t sync, he says the batteries in the hub are dead, game over no bike computer for this race, he put the wheel back together and I move to plan B… I run off, trying to remain calm, re rack my bike, by this time it’s down to 20min and I’m racing to my “bike to run” transition bag to get my garmin 305 so I can at least have speed and HR (Edie, this is Brent’s old garmin, he/you saved me today THANK YOU). When I get there they are like, you’re kidding right, the race is about to start, I talk my way in and get the garmin moved over to my bike bag. Race to my pre swim bag throw on the suit and race over to the start, get in, do a 2min of easy swimming then I’m at the starting line.. just enough time to catch my breath and regroup but a far cry from my normal race warm up.
Swim (2.4miles): I’m about 5 rows back, typical chaos start, nothing out of the ordinary, about 2min in a elbow hits my goggle and I lose the seal, and they fill with water, get it reset, not too much time lost, fortunately goggle straps are under the cap, probably saved them from coming all the way off (thank you Lon). Then I’m rolling, passing people left and right trying to find some faster feet, to draft on, nice smooth long strokes, having a great time. Then my left arch cramps, uh oh, I try and work it out without stopping but it keeps on tweaking and I can’t kick any more, finally stop and grab my big toe to stretch it out, does it a few more times, then my left calf goes… At this point I tell myself, let’s back off a bit, find some feet right now and see how it goes.. Hit the turn at 36min.. on the way back I could tell we had a current against us on the way out, start flying back, arch cramps a few more times but I just deal with it, about a half mile from the finish I lose the seal on my goggle again, and they fill with water, reset it and notice my cap is almost off, then it falls off, 200meters from the finish the seal goes again, this time I just close my eyes and push to the finish. At this point I can tell I went way to easy, I’m super fresh ready to swim it again. This sucks because I know I was in 1 hour or less shape, I think the first mile of the swim my body was trying to warm up…. 1:06… Out of the water hungry for the bike.
Bike: The bike was good but I’d done 100% of all my long rides with power and cadence and was really missing that feedback. The Queen K on the way out was fine, the climb to Hawi, north end of the course, was very windy, back down the hill was fast, then the southerly nailed us for the next final 30miles.. Downhill speed went from 27-28MPH to less than 15MPH, the up hills were even worse, all you can do is just grind it out. The wind was shifty all day and with about 10miles left it went from a straight southerly, the direction of the course to almost a straight westerly, I was able to get back on track but too much time had been lost to get my 5hr bike split goal. In talking with a few people after the race they commented that the wind was not bad, they were about an hour behind me on the bike and the southerly wind had already shifted… that is Ironman Hawaii in a nut shell. .. At Mile 90 I could tell I had a ton left in the tank and dropped the hammer home, and started prepping for the run, nailed the nutrition and felt primed for a great run. 5:25
Run: Still haven’t quite figured out what happened here, except that the first 5miles of the race were unbelievably hot, melt your shoes hot, but I was ready for that, my issues started almost before I left T2 (bike to run transition), upon reflection I think I took in a little bit too much fluid the final 30min of the bike and my stomach wasn’t empty when I started and the shock of heat caused my stomach to shut down. Within the first mile I had that drained feeling, I felt like I was at mile 22 of a open marathon and had just bonked worse than ever imaginable, and I was in the first mile!!! I mistook the feeling as being low on calories even though my HR was nice and steady in the mid 150s, so I over reacted and started pounding the Gatorade, gels and cola…. Game over… by mile five my HR was down in the 120s and I couldn’t push past that w/o feeling like I was going to pass out or vomit, in hind sight I should have just vomited… I have to say though that was absolutely the hardest 21 miles of my life, my body was screaming at me to just stop, and at that pace the miles were just crawling by (that my friends is why they call it an ironman), at every aid station I would walk (a first for me) and I drank everything in sight, thinking that low calories was my problem. At mile 21 I took in one too many gels and my body gagged, I kid you not, I vomited for two minutes straight and I couldn’t believe what came up, it just kept coming and coming, sorry for the graphic detail, but what it showed me was that everything I took in from mile one on was still in my stomach, not a good thing when racing in 100 degree weather, and a sign that my body hadn’t gotten any nourishment for the past 3hrs.. BUT it was unbelievable the instant change that made in how I felt, I felt like the Matt I expect to be at the start of the run, for the same heart rate just 2min before I could hardly hold 9min a mile and all of a sudden I was clicking 7:10s, I was able to drive the Heart Rate back up into the 150s and before I knew it I was sub 7min pace and feeling like the runner I knew I was, freak, my last mile was 5:55 and it felt easy…. 3:45 (my goal was sub 3hrs)
Total time: 10:25 Over all I was a tad slower than two years ago which is frustrating because my fitness level was the best it had ever been since my race days at Colorado, so I feel like I wasn’t able to race to my potential but that is Ironman racing at its finest it humbles everyone once in a while, even the pros who do this for a living are reduced to walking a marathon on occasion, another reason I love this sport so much. Although I didn’t reach my time and place goals I still have a lot of satisfaction knowing I overcame some very rough times and that just getting to race here is a huge opportunity/privilege and one that I’m very grateful to have, and the best part was getting share it with Erin and the kids. Rebecca and Mike Kupay, thanks for traveling all the way to Hawaii to cheer me on, it was great having you guys here.
Now onto the best part of the trip, 10 glorious days to recover with the family in arguably the most beautiful place in the world!!

P.S. if you are wondering, I’m not done with Hawaii yet, I will be back in 2011…Erin Said I have to… :)