Roughly One Quarter Iron

 
It was a few days before my big race when Chris Lieto gave a speech at my local Road Runner shoe store.  Mr. Lieto finished 2nd at Kona, one of the most competitive ironman races.  Before attending, I didn’t know what to expect (I mean seriously, what was he going to say, ‘use the freestyle stroke, pedal hard, and run fast’??), but I got a lot out of it.  He talked at length about having, ‘the best possible race’; for himself and his competitors.  In events where he knew he would not win, he continued to challenge himself to do his best.  This forced the winners to continue to push for their best for fear of being passed.  Mr. Lieto considers himself a part of a community and wants to bring out the strongest character and highest quality of everyone in the community.  I found that interesting in such a solitary sport.  By the end of my race day, it finally made sense.

Over the weekend of November 8th, I was down in Miami to participate in the MiamiMan Triathlon.  I had a great time in Miami!  I haven’t visited the city in several years. Coming from the northwest, Miami’s tropical climate and strong Latin cultural influence almost made me feel like I was in a different country.  Among the highlights of the vacation portion of the trip were an authentic Cuban sandwich, brunch on South Beach and VIP tickets to a Miami Heat game thanks to Alex!  But like I said, I was there to participate in the triathlon.  I competed in the international distance.  At 1km swimming, 22 miles biking, and 6.6 miles running, it is sort of a deformed Olympic distance.

The usual suspects were involved.  Rabiah, who encouraged me to do the ½ marathon last year was organizing a group of friends and family to for the event and competed in the ½ ironman distance herself.  When I committed to the event, out of the blue my world traveling, humanitarian personal trainer landed back at my gym.  Since he is no longer an employee at the gym, I traded him a contribution to his foundation Erace Poverty for a custom training plan.

  
There were some new players involved too.  Locally, I joined TN Multisports.  Most of the people in the club are a little more intense about triathlon than I am, but everyone is welcoming and friendly.  They made great company for some of my open water swims and outdoor runs during training.  For MiamiMan, we forged Team RNA.  An elite team of athletes from around the country dedicated to dominating (read: participating in) and cheering on the sport of triathlon.  Rabiah, the team captain, competed in the ½ ironman distance.  I did the international distance.  And Alex (swim), Rabiah’s father (bike), and Ade (run) combined to form a rally for the ½ ironman.

Race day began early.  We got up around 4am to pack the truck and make our way to the event site.  It was held at the Miami Zoo.  For the run, we actually ran around the park, passing elephants, monkeys, and other wildlife.  Kind of a surreal experience when at the end of a race when you are that tired.

All told, it took me over 4 hours to complete the event.  It was definitely harder than the ½ marathon.  No single event was worse, but having to break yourself into a new form of exercise three times, twice after what would qualify as a good workout, definitely is a unique challenge.  The swim was fairly pleasant.  The big concern was that it would be too warm to wear a wetsuit.  Coming from the northwest, I didn’t think that was possible.  The morning temperature stayed below the USA Triathlon’s cutoff temperature for wetsuits, but my arms were surprisingly warm in the suit.  The bike presented a new challenge.  I like to take it a little easy on this leg because I know how hard the run is going to be for me.  Unfortunately, there was a very strong wind blowing that day.  It sort of blew across us for the first half and then directly in our face for the second.  I never thought that wind would prove to be such a factor for bikes so thin, but it felt like I was going uphill the whole second half.  And the run was, well, the run.  By that, I mean hard.  Interestingly, I don’t think that the triathlon was a mentally tough as the half marathon.  Perhaps it is because there was always a new milestone around the corner when switching the legs of the event.

That all said, this was not a pretty event.  I don’t think anyone from team RNA did as well as they wanted.  Since I did most of my bike training on a stationary bike, I was not used to reaching for my water bottle.  Since I felt ok during the ride, I didn’t drink enough water.  It came back to haunt me during the run.  I got so dehydrated that I needed to walk a little bit of the leg.

  
After the event, I felt a little disappointed in myself.  But then I thought about Mr. Lieto’s presentation.  I thought about the people who surrounded me.  Who were pushing for the best in every aspect of their lives and were there to encourage and support me.  While I will never match Lieto’s performance in triathlon, I walked away proud of myself and my team and thankful for everyone who got me there.

Links
Chris Lieto: http://www.chrislieto.com/
MiamiMan: http://www.miamimantriathlon.com/
Triathlon distances: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triathlon#Standard_race_distances