Deciding to do this race was a no brainer for the Atchison and Giuliano gang. Growing up both our families have always loved taking trips to WDW (Walt Disney World). My first time there happened when I was 3. I still remember going to see Mickey.
Five Years Pass: We finally drove down 18 hours straight drinking energy drink after energy drink just to stay awake to get there.
This will be a little longer story than usual because it just so happened that directly after the race we decided to drive straight up the coast to myrtle beach and spend the day at the beach.
We left directly after my last final from NIU. Drove through the night, and finally got into the state of Florida around 8:00 a.m. When we got into Florida we decided that instead of going straight to the hotel at Port Orleans Riverside in WDW, we would go straight to Datona Beach, because who could go down to Florida for a 1/2 Ironman and not go surfing 2 days before the race. Btw, surfing takes a tremendous amount of energy which probably was not the greatest idea right before a big race like ours.
Ryan got up his first time, and so did I. Though one specific time him and I took the same wave and were directly next to each other. All of the sudden he lost his balance and in the act of falling he kicked out his surfboard and it hit mine which put me off balance. However, in the act of falling for me, I landed directly on his surfboard and rode it in the rest of the way. Man I wish we got it on video.
After a long day of surfing it was time to head to our hotel. When we got to the gate the gate person asked for our reservation time and it turns out we got down there 2 days too early. Poor planning on our part but it turned out to be a very adventurous experience. When the guard told us to pull in so that we could turn around we didn't listen and continued to drive to a dark and secluded parking space because lets face it we had no where else to stay than the van.
It was a rough night and we did not plan on doing that again. Luckily I remembered that my dad was staying in our condo in St. Petersburg that same week and was planning on coming the day of the race to come watch us. We then drove to the condo. I'm not totally sure why we didn't just stay in the condo the night before, but at the time sleeping in the car just seemed more adventurous.
Here's a better idea of what the sleeping arrangements looked like. Notice the foam that was used to protect the bikes turned into the mattress.When in St. Petersburg we ate dinner at John's Pass with a good friend of mine from the University of Iowa. The next morning we were finally on our way to our hotel.
Being that Disney World is one of my fav places to travel to, I couldn't pass up walking around a little bit at the parks. One place that Ryan and I always go to is Pleasure Island. Sounds like a dumb plan to go out and have a couple drinks 2 nights before the big Half (of which for the last 3 months I had not had 1 drink of alcohol).. we figured it was good carbo loading so it was all good.
The day before the race I fell asleep at 2:30 a.m. Good thing we were waking up at 3:30 a.m. in order to get there with enough time to get ready. When we were there my dad showed up to show his support.And the race is off! Truth to be told, I haven't ever swam this
distance before in my life. 1.2 miles. The water was really warm, warmer than any pool that I trained in and 
therefore we were not allowed to wear wetsuits. I swam the fastest 1.2 miles I had ever swam ;)
When I got on the bike all was well. I actually averaged about 22 miles per hour on my bike which is actually the best average I have ever done for 56 miles on a bike.
When it came to the run, o man. My legs were shot, but this was the time when I could fly. Only 13.1 miles to go. The run was actually a fun course it was half on the roads and half in a
foresty area with grass everywhere. This plays a very convenient aspect later. As I ran along I occasionally saw my friend Ryan who was crushing the field in our division. I was not as skilled and was more in it to finish. You'll be happy to know that I did not stop once. Well that isn't exactly true. As I ran along I made the poor decision not to wear socks for the run portion of the half ironman and my feet were blistering to the point of making me want to stop. By the 6th mile I was about ready to stop, but because this course was 3 loops of 4 miles and I knew that about 2 of the 4 miles were on grass I decided to take my shoes off and run barefoot.
All during the second half of the 13.1 mile run I was known as barefoot guy. I ran even faster once I took my shoes off and I felt really proud of my will to keep pushing myself. When I finally neared the end of the course the last 100 meters was all on wood chips... those bastards! I finished my first 1/2 Ironman in 5 hours and 17 minutes, and took 15th place out of 76 in our division, Ryan took 3rd with a time of 4 hours and 33 minutes.
After the race I had to go to the medical tent for a while to get my torn up feet taken care of. Let me say the next day when we walked around the parks all day my feet hated me. Speaking of which the day after the race Jacqui 
met up with us and we went went to all the parks and then traveled up north to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a day at the beach and a night out before our long trip back home. It was a long trip, but a good learning experience for my first 70.3 Ironman. WEAR SOCKS!!!!Never give up!
| Jacqui inside of a giant ball on top of water.. Try it! it is fun!.. also hilarious! |
No comments:
Post a Comment