As a triathlon coach, it's always rewarding to see my clients succeed in their goals. When I sit down and think about what my client Dan Head accomplished at Beach2Battleship on November 7th, I am truly amazed.
Beach2Battleship in Wilmington, NC was Dan's first Ironman triathlon (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run), and he finished in an amazing time of 10:59.
What makes Dan's finish time so amazing is not that Beach2Battleship was his first Ironman race nor that he is 45 years old and works full-time as a consultant, but rather that Dan is a husband and father of four children. I should also mention that he had the flu two weeks before the race and he did all of his training by himself without training partners.
With a busy work schedule and family commitments, the amount of triathlon training Dan could do was constrained and the training could not always be the priority. Still, Dan was able to accomplish his Ironman goal of breaking 11 hours without ever exceeding 15 hours of training. Quality over quantity – and it worked!
Behaviors and traits that I observed Dan exhibit, which I believe made a huge difference towards his success were:
Like anyone racing their Ironman, Dan made some rookie mistakes, but kept his head, adapted and kept moving forward.
Here's Dan's race report and his perspective on his first Ironman experience:
Beach2Battleship Race Report – Dan Head 11/7/2009
Total Time 10:59
Overall Place: 56/490
Race Division: M45-49
Division Place: 6/57
Swim: 52:21
Bike (+T1): 5:42
Run: 4:20After 8 years of international distance triathlons (and a couple of ½ Ironman’s three years ago), I decided to step up to my first iron distance race at B2B. I knew this was a totally different race than I had done before and I was hoping that I put in enough training to last until the finish. As a result, I was both a bit nervous and excited when race day finally showed up. The only glitch I had in my pre-race prep was to forget to pack my sleeves in my T1 bag. I realized my mistake when I arrived for body marking at T1. Trying not to panic, my sister and I drove 20 minutes back to her house to pick up the sleeves. After stopping to drop off the sleeves at T1 we made it to the swim start with 15 minutes to spare – whew!
The swim was my best event, thanks to a favorable current and water temp that was not as cold as threatened (67 degrees). However, this was my first mass start so fighting for my swim patch in the channel among 500 athletes was much more chaotic than I was used to. After about the first mile it opened up and I got into my rhythm. I figure the following current gave me a 10 minute boost.
I took my time in T1 to change into dry clothes and put on all my layers for warmth. One memorable T1 incident was when the racer next to me ripped a large hole in his bike pants putting them on and he left to start the bike leg with with plenty of extra ventilation on his right back side – glad that wasn’t me!
I read the race reports from last year and athlete forums for weather predictions for this year and I came prepared for a cold day (38-40 degrees predicted at the start). My strategy was better to be overdressed than cold so I wore booties for the swim, wool socks & toe booties for the ride, full finger gloves, insulated sleeves, two shirts, newspaper between shirts (TdF trick), and an ear band. The weather on race day turned out to be ideal – sunny with high of 64 and no perceptible wind. As a result, my race outfit was overkill and I was hot before the first hour.
The bike course is pancake flat and I felt like I was cruising effortlessly for the first several hours. Feeling good and strong, I maintained a nice 21.3 mph for the first 75 miles keeping my HR below 135. So far so good – ahead of my plan, sticking to my food intake and feeling good.
In hindsight, I think I made a couple of rookie mistakes that I would pay for later. Since I was feeling strong, I decided to save time and I blew right through the special needs stop at mile 64 which had my trusty Accelerade bottles and food. I tried to switch over to the Heed they were giving out at the aid station but it was some unfamiliar fruit flavor which I thought was nasty tasting.
The bike course is one big loop and I was in for a surprise when I made the turn at mile 75 and had to battle the final 37 miles into an unrelenting headwind (seemed strong at the time but was probably about 6 mph in my face). Just to make matters worse my stomach was not cooperating so I decided to stick to just water and electrolyte pills for the rest of the ride. Oh well, no sense in further upsetting my stomach before the run. Heading into the wind, I think I was only holding a pace of about 18 mph, however, I finished the ride at an avg of 20.3 mph and was still ahead of my race plan.
Well, despite a tough finish to the bike, it was still a beautiful day and I looked forward to the run. I never had a problem with any of my bricks in training and felt confident that I could put in a steady run. As I was told by my ironman veteran friends, you will experience a range of highs and lows in the race and they were right. Starting the run was definitely a low point as I was surprised to find out that my quads were so stiff and weak that I had some doubt that I could even finish the run. I’m still trying to figure out why my legs were so sore at the start of the run – pushed too hard on the bike?, too low a cadence?, poor nutrition?, not totally recovered from the flu two weeks before? Once again, I leaned on my advice of my veteran friends not to judge the run by how I feel in the first few miles but just to keep my legs turning over and moving forward. Similar to the bike, the run course was ultra flat except for those 2 bridges we had to climb in the first 2 miles of each ½ marathon loop – bad placement for my weary biking legs.
Fortunately, I adjusted to running on sore legs, however, given my overall level of fatigue, I never came close to running at my training pace. My stomach was not cooperating with my plan to eat a GU every 45-60 mins (a new experience for me), and my overall calorie intake almost zero. After nearly losing it trying to force down one GU, I began to carefully experiment with the buffet that was being served on the run course. Coke (not really flat), oranges, bananas, animal cookies – nothing worked for me but water and electrolyte pills – lots of them (maybe 50 on the day – another PR). I figured that as long as I stayed hydrated I could finish.
One of the high points in my run was seeing Kath, Jim, Colin and Megan (my sister and her family) there to cheer me on at the ½ marathon turnaround at mile 6.5. They said I looked good – what an actor – I was suffering underneath the surface. Thanks to the many supportive fans and my easy to read race number, I felt like I had a personal cheering squad throughout the run course – “nice run 110, keep it up” and many similar variations of this theme. Each time, I told them thank-you and meant it.
As I had heard, the last ten miles of the run was the toughest. I focused on just getting to the next water stop so I could walk for about 20 yards and enjoy sipping my water. I couldn’t walk too long because it was hard to convince myself to get moving again. Since I told my sister that I wasn’t going to walk, my pride motivated me to keep moving, even at a relatively slow pace – thanks Kath! At mile 23 I could see the Battleship across the river, and I couldn’t wait to get to the finish line and rest. When I saw the finish clock at the end of the race, I thought I had a couple minutes to spare as it read 10:58. Then I heard someone shout, “if you are finishing, keep going ahead and around the corner to the finish line.” As it turned out the clock was for the ½ marathon turnaround with racers still rounding the ½ way mark – major bummer. At this point it was dark and I had no idea how much further and if I would make it in under 11 hours. I decided to sprint with whatever I had left in the tank and somehow it was enough to let me slide in just ahead of my 11 hour goal.
Since it was dark and racers would be finishing for the next 5+ hours there did not seem to be the big crowd swell at the finish that I was used to from the shorter races. Honestly, rather than feeling a rush of triumph at the finish that I expected, I mostly felt fatigued and relived to stop moving and just sit down. Surprisingly I also felt hungry. Miraculously my stomach problems went away as I quickly put down two slices of pizza. The exhilaration of the finish didn’t actually set in for me until I called JJ and my family and heard them so excited for me on the other end.
After contemplating this personal goal for many years, I am grateful to have been able to complete a race of this magnitude and I want to thank several people that helped me get here. First, thank-you to JJ, my wife, for her unquestioning support (once she knew she couldn’t talk me out of it) and for putting up with my long and disciplined training regimen. I also could not have made it without the expert guidance of my coach to get me prepared mentally and physically – thank-you David Glover. Sticking to David’s training plan, including putting in several 4-5 hour bike rides followed by 30 min bricks, I feel had put me in top condition to finish the race despite my complete lack of nutrition in the second half of the day. Finally, I want to share a big thank-you for all the race weekend support I got from my neighbors John and Janice Ware (congrats to Janice who also completed her first Ironman) and my sister Kath and her family who live in Wilmington, put me up for the weekend and made me feel like I was at home.
B2B is a fast course and well supported event which makes it a great race for a first time ironman distance. The only real nuisance is the lack of parking at the finish line where they make athletes and spectators wait in line for either a trolley or water taxi. This limited spectators at the finish. Overall this was a memorable experience for me and I was very glad to be part of this race.
Congratulations, Dan!
Live life richly and boldly!
David
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David B. Glover
Triathlon Coach and Writer
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine: Fitting Iron Distance Training into Every Day Life
© 2009 David B. Glover
Whether you're training to win a triathlon, training to finish or just need inspiration from my life journey as a cancer survivor, Navy officer and sub-nine hour Ironman triathlete, my book will inspire you to chase your dreams and live life richly and boldly.
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