Hello, this story is another lonnnnnnnng one. Don't feel obligated to read the whole story in one sitting. Take a nap, go out for a run, etc.. I've been wanting to tell this story for a long time, but am still trying to catch up on all my old races.
May 15ish, 2002: Mr. Larry Schroeder of James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates was an incredible teacher. I took his Leadership for Life class in the hopes to learn about new ways to be an outstanding leader. His assignment for us somewhere in the middle of May included, "What are your future goals?"
Being the out of the box thinker that I am, I took this question in a different route than most people in my class. Instead of thinking about where I wanted to be in the future including jobs, family, kids, etc.. I was thinking about what races I would like to accomplish and what adventures I would like to have including Skydiving and Surfing (which I have already done twice for both).
There were two big things that I wrote down on my list. One included running all of the major marathons in the US, including the following: Chicago, Boston, New York, Disney, San Fransisco (or any of the Cali marathons) etc. I have already done Chicago twice and qualified both times for Boston.. But due to injury like I wrote in my last post, I was unable to participate in (the whole race). ;)
The other major goal I wrote down in my assignment was to finish an Ironman by the age of 25. At the time, I never thought that I would actually accomplish the goal at age 25. Thank you Larry Schroeder for believing in me and RIP.
July 25, 2009: I just graduated from college not too long ago, that allows me to scratch one more thing off my future goals list. What is next? Ironman? I think so!
September 11, 2009: First off remembering forever and ever a sad day back in 2001. The race is off!, as a volunteer. Pretty much the only way to get into an Ironman race these days is to volunteer the full year before you participate. I was at an aid station halfway through the bike stage. I was in charge of handing out gatorade bottles to the quickly approaching cyclists as they wizzz by. And no I do not mean urinate. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)
If you ever wanted to volunteer for a race, this was the one to do it for because it was incredibly fun. The Pro's would specifically pick me because I would get into a track stance, start running right along next to the bike and hand off a bottle to the triathlete on the go. I felt like I was back in High School handing off the baton in the 4 x 800 meters race.
After I volunteered my time I went to the run course to cheer on my buddy Eric Christ who was having a rough day due to dehydration. As a spectator I walked 17 miles with him from a far so that I could help him get through. I wasn't walking directly next to him because I didn't want to get him disqualified, but I would walk to a checkpoint and then run to the next. It was really empowering to help him get through the race and eventually run the final 9 miles into the finish! Way to go Eric, "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!"
After he finished I stuck around the finish line with all other spectators and cheered in the final competitors. If you are ever looking to make a lifestyle change and need some motivation and strength, then go to the finish line between 16 and 17 hours of an Ironman. You would not believe how powerful the vibe is there. Congrats to all finishers who finish in that final hour. You are the real finishers of an Ironman. (If you did not know, the cutoff time for an Ironman race for it to be considered an official race is 17 hours. If you finish anytime after 17:00, for instance 17:01, it is like it never took place.)
September 12, 2009: Signing up for a Year long commitment! (I was cheap the night before, I slept in my car... Hey what do you expect for a post grad looking to get into teaching. Plus, the race in itself costs $575 for entry. Not including accommodations, training expenses, and mechanical expenses.) I am in!
October 11, 2009: Good News: Ran a PR 2 hour 57 min Marathon! Bad News: Ran the last 2 miles with a partial tear in peroneal's. Plus, Jacqui Aubert beat me by 24 seconds and to this stay has not let me live it down. Nice job Jacqui! Some day I'm coming for you!
October 12, 2009: First doctor visit: stress fracture in 5th metatarsal. This turned out to be false and will also be the last time I visit this doctor.
Some time in December 2009: Received MAT (Muscle Activation Treatment) which is a muscle palpation technique to stimulate the muscle and strengthen it. This worked for a little while then went south again.
Some time in February 2010: Received ART (Active Release Therapy) which is a deep tissue stretching technique to increase flexibility of muscles and improve joint range of movement. (Grastin is a pain).
Some time in March 2010: Found new running specific doctor that retaught me how to walk and run. His theory included strengthening the fine muscle movements that make up the foot strike. I really believe that this helped me. I can't say I am fully healed but it was a "step" in the right direction. Thanks Dr. Allen.
This last year was all about the Ironman for me. I did not participate in any summer races. I was constantly up in Madison riding the course. In fact, the first time I rode the course was with the One and Only Ryan Giuliano. This experience was an eye opener for me.
I had always heard that the Madison Ironman course was one of the hilliest courses, but never believed it would be quite that tough!
The first weekend that I rode the course was about 3 and a half months before the race. This was the same weekend of the Dave Matthews Band Concert at Alpine and my friend Penny came along to see Madison, then the concert. (Which was amazing by the way). Ryan and I drove out to the start of the loop. We did one of the 41 mile loops. It might have been because I wasn't taking in the right nutrition, or because I wasn't training hard enough, but after one loop, I was feeling very light headed and dazed. Ryan on the other hand wanted to prove that he was a beast and race me back to Madison which was about a 15 mile drive back. (Also, containing a ton of large hills)
I think it took me about 20 minutes to put my stuff back in the car because I was moving slower than a mule with a 300 pound fat guy on it. The whole way back I was expecting to see Ryan cranking away at the hills, but I never saw him. When I got back to Madison where Penny was sitting on a bench, guess who was sitting right next to her. Ryan "Powerbar!" Giuliano. That man is an animal.
After many hours crying like a baby about how hard that 1 loop was, I finally succumbed to asking "The incredible Ryan Giuliano" to coach me. This was possible because Ryan is a certified USAT coach.
For the next three months my training went from doing a mile long swim and a 2 hour bike ride to doing 5 x 1000 meters in the pool with 2 min rest and a 5 hour bike ride. (This isn't a true example of his stuff, but it is a good idea of just how much of an increase in my training I did.)
He started me with a 5 week program to get used to the training plan, then gave me 5 more weeks to specify on certain distances including all of my longer workouts, followed by the final weeks before the big race. Being an injured runner, the longest run I did was a 6 mile run. I did the majority of my training on the bike and in the water. Who would of thought I would then be able to run the full marathon of the Ironman with a time of 3 hours 46 mins flat? By the Way, Ryan also did the Ironman and guess who beat his marathon time by 2 minutes... "THIS GUY!" Granted I did take about a 16 min rest in transition 2 with a full course meal :) of which I will tell you about later :). Sorry Ry, and thanks for letting me throw you under the bus.
If you are looking for someone who knows their stuff, I really would recommend Ryan as a coach. He will come up with a training plan specifically towards you. You can find him at www.rybread.com. Not only is he a certified coach, he has also just finished his first year as a Pro Triathlete and has been a Pro Duathlete for over 6 years now. He has a lot of experience and many helpful hints.
Once the real training began, I spent most of my weekends up in Madison riding the course. If you are ever planning on doing the Madison Ironman, they have Saturday morning open swims in which you can go out in the middle of Lake Monona by yourself or in a group and swim the course. Now I'm going to mention this in the hopes that I don't scare any of you future Madison Ironman wannabees.. but watch out for the Snakes!
Yes, it is true that there are snakes in the water. I have heard many stories about the snakes wrapping around people's arms and legs as they swim. I heard a story about how some guy went to take a breath and a snake went into his mouth. I've also seen a guy grab a snake by the middle of it's body and chuck it about 20 feet in the air away from him. Luckily, I did not hear about the snakes until after I completed my final open water swim on my own in Lake Monona. I did 2.4 miles of swimming that day and rode the whole 112 miles. The swim took me 1 hour and a half, then the bike took me 7 hours to complete. I felt really strong, but didn't know how I would feel about then completing a full marathon. Ryan also joined me for a little while on the road. There was a time when he jumped in the car and blared the music really loud screaming, "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!" over and over as I climbed an insane hill.
When I finally rode back into the area that I parked my car, we stopped by the edge of the lake for a dip into the water. It was a really hot day out on the roads. We went into the water about waist deep and noticed a fist size thing about 20 feet away from me drifting towards me. All of a sudden it dove down underwater and we saw a long slimy tail follow it under. It was at that exact moment that I did not want to go back into that water ever again... From then on, it was a constant joke between Ryan and myself. Instead of saying, "man I hope I don't drown in the mass start of the Ironman," it was, "I hope a snake doesn't swim into my mouth when I take a breath or wrap around my neck."
I think I was prepared enough for this race in the water. The bike on the other hand, took a lot more out of me. During one training ride I decided to count every hill on the loop. It turned out that there was almost exactly 50 total hills on one loop of the course. I'm not including the 15 mile ride out to the loop, I'm only talking about the 41 mile loop. I basically memorized every uphill so that during the race I could manage my effort and output to see how much I would have left in the tank. Luckily for every uphill, then came a nice downhill. I think the fastest I went was in the upper 40's down a hill. It was insane!
Finally after many months of training and many miles of road behind me. The race weekend is here. This is a picture of me and allllllll the transition bags the day before the race. Man it was insane in there. Notice how serious I was in this picture. Actually I think the serious face was fear for what lied ahead the following day.
The night before the race we spent walking around looking at the race site. We walked past the thousands of bikes in the transition area, and looked out over the Monona Terrace to put in our final prayers before the race. Or at least I did ;).
This race I was lucky enough to have a lot of close supporters show up and cheer me on. I suppose they also came to cheer Ryan on as well, but I'm pretty sure he didn't need quite as much help as I did. From Left to right: Jacqui, Ryan, Me, Mary, and Andres. A couple others that showed up include: Tracy Snow, Oscar Munoz, and John David. Thanks guys.
Ryan was all smiles before the race, I'm gonna be honest it took great difficulty to smile because I was more nervous than ever.
The night before the race, I think I only got 5 hours of sleep. I hope that is enough?
By the way, my race number was 232, I thought this was interesting because that is the same as my home address.
Race morning I was extremely pumped and nervous for the race so I decided to practice my finishing pose for the finish line. If I made it that far.. Notice I'm also representing the NIU Triathlon Team in that pic. I don't know if you read my other entries, but I did start up the NIU Triathlon Team and felt like I should support my team. I did gain a lot of experience from the Iowa team so that is why I wore my Iowa t-shirt the night before the big race. And I'm pretty sure Iowa played Iowa State and Crushed them!
Before the race began and before Ryan left to get to the Pro's start. He told me a couple words that really fueled me throughout the day. "Just Have Fun!"
What better words to say than that. How many people get to enjoy one long day of exercise and excitement like this? Those really were the perfect words to start my race. It took all the pressure off and reminded me that I was out here to prove to myself that I Can be an Ironman!
After having a case of pre-race nerves with a battle of the runs in the morning I finally got into the snake infested water and started in the mass of 2700 competitors. Man I was dumb. I was so afraid that I'd get left in the dust by all the better swimmers that I started right in the middle of the mass. I haven't ever gotten quite as beat up in my life. I've also never been quite as cold in my life. The water was freezing. My feet felt numb.
Have any of you other triathletes found that when you train by yourself you swim with one form, but then when you are racing next to thousands of others you change your form and loose efficiency. When I swim on my own I breath every three strokes, but for some reason, when it was crazy and I was in the battle zone, I breathed ever other stroke. It was like I was hyperventilating and it was really frustrating. But hey I finally exited the water with a split of 1 hour 16 minutes and 42 seconds. This was almost 14 minutes faster than my long training day battling the snakes! :)
I am somewhere in the middle like a fool thinking the draft will pull me around the 2.4 mile swim.
Finished lap one, onto lap two. I can't wait to be out of the snake infested water!
I finished the swim in 909th out of 2700.
Once I got out of the water I ran like a banshee up the curly cue and tried to get the blood flow back to my legs. Running up those curly cues was insane. It was lined with people going absolutely nuts! I can't wait till next year so I can go cheer on some more of my friends including Joe Trithardt and Dave Snow. Go get em guys!
Transition 1 took me about 12 minutes and 22 seconds. Partly because I was so numb from how cold the water was. And I had a bike malfunction right as I was trying to hop onto my bike. Luckily the Transition Mechanic was there to bail me out! Phew!
While out on the bike, I actually fell behind on my nutrition for about 20 miles and ended up having to stop twice to go to the bathroom. If you are squeamish you probably don't want to know that I had really bad diarrhea and was very afraid that if I passed gas while riding I would have made a trail of brown on the street. But after those two stops, I got my nutrition back on track. I started taking Powerbar Gels, Blasts, and Bites every 30 minutes. When my nutrition was back on track, I started taking in bites, blasts, and gels every 45 minutes. I took a sip of Powerbar Perform or water every 10 - 15 minutes. Thanks to Ryan for suggesting Powerbar Nutrition. Ryan was also the guy who told me to train with all Powerbar products because that is what the Ironman crew would be handing out. I can honestly say I love their products. When I reached the halfway part of the bike course I saw my family and also saw what my friends wrote on the street for me to see. Thanks guys for showing up once again.
My bike time was 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 19 seconds. I don't know if you remember my last time riding the whole course took me 7 hours. This was the most surprising to me. My average was 18 MPH. On a hilly course like this one, I'll take it! My Bike overall place was 887 out of about 2700.
When I finished the insane bike course that Madison has to offer it was off to my second transition. Remember how I mentioned before I spent 16 minutes and 33 seconds in second transition. Well, one I wanted to completely change uniforms. I figured I would feel fresh in something new. I needed to put on my dorky looking recovery socks. Most importantly I brought a full 7 course meal to eat in there. I didn't really know what I would need at this point other than a bed to sleep in for hours. All I know is that after every training ride that i did in Madison that summer I had Jimmy John's for a post ride dinner.
So here is a list of what I had in my second transition bag: Jimmy John's salt and vinegar chips, Powerbar gel blasts, bites, gels, Pedialyte, Redbull, Pain medicine, pretzels, PB&J Uncrustibles, Coca Cola, Powerbar Perform, and most importantly body glide.
Onto the last major test. Was the 6 miles distance enough run training for me before I went off to do a Marathon? We will soon find out. Right when I left the transition changing room I headed straight to the bathroom for my final bathroom stop before running 26.2 miles straight.
Right as I left transition I saw Oscar Munoz who was one of the co-founders of the NIU Triathlon Team. He really gave me a boost of energy, but I held back from sprinting as I had 26 more miles to go :). I figured at any point within the next mile, my body would shut down and I would be walking. I made it past mile 1 and things were good. I made it to mile 2 and 3, things were still good. I found a pace partner to run with. We started cruising at around 8:30 minutes per mile.
I have been to Camp Randall before to watch a football game where thousands of screaming fans "JUMP AROUND", but I've never been in a more peaceful stadium in my entire life during the Ironman. We made it to State Street where I pumped up my arms the whole way. I am fueled by people cheering. I use all of their cheers as if it was all for me.
We made it to the turnaround point near mile 8, 9, and 10. I couldn't believe that I was still running. When I reached about mile 12 I saw Ryan. He wasn't looking too good. I reminded him of the important words of advise that he gave me right before I wished him good luck at the line. "Just Have Fun!" He smiled and said, "Keep it up Atch!" I finally made it back into town towards starting my second loop and saw my parents again. It was so good to see them. They cheered me on and I had a great burst of adrenaline that fueled me all the way up towards the finish area where you get a glimpse of the finish line right before you head back out for your second loop. What a TEASE!
Onto loop 2. The second time that I was heading out of Camp Randall, I finally saw my buddy Ryan again, who wasn't grimacing anymore. He had a large smile on his face. He was almost finished! Just a few more miles to go. Me on the other hand still had about 8 more miles to go. But the good news is I still hadn't stopped running.
I made it through State Street again and saw my close friends again who really gave me a mental push. But then as I started making my way out to the turn-around point I started feeling weaker. My pace slowed to about 9:30 for a couple miles. It was at this very moment that I saw one of the most inspiring quotes I have ever seen. And to most of you it means nothing, but for what I was feeling at the time, I believe that this was the turning point of my race. The sign read, "It feels like death, but this is living."
Once again, I had to think about this a second or two. How many people are given the ability to take on this challenge? How many have overcome injuries that would make most people give up? How many times did I hear people call me nuts to even want to take this challenge on? For the next couple miles I repeated this saying over and over until my legs came back alive.
I was on mile 22 when I saw Tracy Snow, she told me I was looking stronger than ever and that I only had a few more miles to go. My pace increased! I was running an 8 min mile now. I passed Camp Randall, only 2 miles to go. I could hear the noise of the finish line in the distance. All I had to do was run to the beat of the people cheering on their friends and family. I had about 5 turns left and my pace increased. My last mile was a 7:15 minute mile. The streets were completely lined with cheering fans. I had only a half mile to the finish line. I ran with vigor now! I was on pace to finish with a 6:30 mile. I wanted that incredible rush of adrenaline that always brings me home! I was next to the Capital building with one turn to go. My heart was pounding. Tears of joy started leaking out of my eyelids.
Fifty yards to go. Get on the toes! Fourty yards, thirty, twenty, ten, five, "JOHN ATCHISON, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!"
I did it! I am an Ironman! Same with Ryan! Thank goodness there were catchers at the finish line, because just after I finished with a kick-ass pose, I nearly collapsed!
In this picture you can tell that Ryan has had some time to recuperate, whereas for me, I just finished about 2 minutes ago. Was that race tough? You better believe it was!
My overall run time was 3 hours 46 minutes flat. This was like I stated before about 2 minutes faster than Ryan, haha. Sorry Ryan, it is not too often I beat you anymore. I gotta take what I can. My overall run place was 148 out of about 2400. I was very happy with my run. My Average pace was 8:37 for the full marathon.
My overall time was 11 hours, 44 minutes, and 55 seconds! My age group place was 46 out of 189, My overall place was 472 out of 2,398 finishers.
Something that I will certainly take from this race is first off. "JUST HAVE FUN"
Secondly, "IT FEELS LIKE DEATH, BUT THIS IS LIVING"
But most importantly, "NEVER GIVE UP!"
By the way, check out my new TATTOO! ;)
Where's Waldo? I mean the Green Guy. 
