Whose Idea was This?

Well my friends, the day has come and gone, and the dust has settled... and me and my brother are still alive. This past weekend, we took on a big challenge and both ended victoriously. On Sunday, we raced and completed a 70.3 Ironman* in Austin, TX.

I saw this race back late February, before I even had a bike. I thought it just seemed like the perfect race and a great challenge to push myself to achieve. I emailed my brother, Carlos, about the race and he seemed excited about it too... so it was a perfect fit.

Training took off, and it was a long road ahead. Early mornings to bike, run or swim, followed by an evening of the same medicine (but different flavor). I did a couple olympic-distance races (read: shorter), and tried to get educated by reading, and watching some videos on what to prepare for. Unfortunately training isn't without its risks... I had a few injuries right before the race. I ended up taking a spill on my bike and hurting my wrist pretty badly and scraping my knee like it was cheese on a cheese grater. A bit worried, but ended up recovering just in time.

Now the real fun began.

Checking In

Gear for race day. Gels= breakfast, lunch, and dinner... mmmm!

Having already been to Austin and the race site (since Kate already had a tri there earlier in the year), I knew where to go, which made it a bit easier, but still not ready for the volume of people that were competing. We got ourselves checked in, and I got lucky number 86! Why is my number so low in a crowd of about 2000? Who knows, maybe because they thought I was a pro?

We mosied on over to T1 to rack our bikes, and the title picture shows the sea of bikes! Honestly, the worth of that entire T1 section must've been around a million dollars, at least (there were some FANCY bikes there). We then decided to go on a little tour of the bike section of the race (not the whole thing). I started getting a little worried because Austin has quite a bit of hills... and, well, Houston doesn't really have hills.. at all. But we finished up, grabbed some dinner at Carraba's with my parents and got all packed up and ready for the big day.

Carlos got  a levatating bed

Race Day

Pre-Race

As you can expect, we were both pretty nervous/excited about the race. Things went pretty smoothly despite arriving to the race site near Transition closing time. I got my gels and helmet ready to nab after swimming, and tires pumped, and body pumped! I should say that Kate and Emily had perfect timing of showing up before the race. They held our bike pump through the entire race (~6 hours), gave me and Carlos the perfect mental boost, and Emily even held a spot in the bathroom line for me (pre-race bathroom stop... basically mandatory before a big race).

Swim

I got to the start of the swim just in time to put on my cap and make sure my goggles were on tight enough. Probably good timing because I didn't have to think about what I had gotten myself into.

The swim actually went a lot better than I expected. Despite massive amounts of people swimming over me, kicking me,  and just disturbing the peaceful water, it was very nice. Oh yeah, there was also the fact that I took in a bit of water at one point, and also decided to swim away from the buoys/off course and add an extra 100 meters or so (I just love making things harder). Mentally though, it was a piece of cake. The swim came and went almost as quickly as the day had started... and I was off to T1!

Bike

Now the long road ahead really began; 56 miles to be exact. The first 15-20 miles didn't seem so bad though. I kinda had a friend throughout the bike part. Within the first 2 miles, I was going slow (~15 mph) to eat my first meal (gel/gu), when I was passed by racer # 609- Crystal. She only passed me right as I was finishing my gu, so I quickly picked up speed and passed her. Well as it turns out, she passed me, and I passed her again within the first 10 miles. I never saw her again until around mile 40, when she passed me again. I tried passing her again, but I think I just pissed her off, and she was off never to be seen again. I looked up her scores, turns out she's pretty good... she got first in her age group, which is no easy task, so kudos to Crystal.

Well aside from that, the 56 miles was pretty tough. I started forgetting where I was because I was focusing on the road so much. When I did take a look around, though, it was beautiful. The rolling hills, open fields, and the sun just getting to its peak... gorgeous. I tried not to think about what lie ahead, but just to keep going and think of family and friends cheering me on giving me my support and prayers.

There were some high head winds on open roads towards the end, and I was running out of gas (I had actually lost 2 of my gu packs which were supposed to fuel me to the end). I think the idea of quitting passed through my head a couple different times. Somehow though, I was able to find that courage from within. Thinking about getting to the run and finishing, and all the hard work... then about my brother somewhere behind me... I couldn't quit, I had to go faster. I did, in fact; I beat my goal time and was now ready to run.

Run

I think I was in a different state of mind at this point. I was gonna run, but I was gonna take it easy if needed and enjoy where I was. That made a big difference. I just started looking around and taking in all the people doing the race and noticing how everyone there has their purpose driving them to the finish. 13.1 miles (3 laps).... that's a long run, especially after 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike ride. It was hot, and I walked a little, but there were people along the way to encourage and motivate me to keep moving (including one with a sign, "Whose idea was this?"). It was nice to give high-fives to Kate and Emily, and wave at my parents too... however, I was searching for my brother.

Finally on my last lap, I was pumped and making my way towards the finish and spotted Carlos. I gave him a little cheer as we passed each other, he was almost done. I was almost done too. The finish took us inside a little arena where they had a big blowup finish arch and stands and everything. Let me tell you.. coming from outside to inside with all those people cheering and seeing the finish.. it seemed magical.

Post-Race

And just like that I was done. 5 hours, 32 minutes, and 59 seconds. It was an amazing feeling. My body was pretty tired, and muscles were exhausted, and I was ready for some food.

A bit later, Carlos came through the finish arch too, victoriously. We both were pretty proud and happy to finish. It was a nice touch to have my family there, and great blessing to have Kate there with Emily too... studs, all of them.

It turns out, Carlos didn't like the heat as much as I did (not that I liked it), but got the proper care and was back on his feet in no time. Our bodies both took a beating and we didn't recover right away... so we both took the next day off of work to recover... we really needed it. Talk about muscle-soreness. Well we finished our goal, and are looking towards are next one now!

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*otherwise known as a Half-Ironman, but because it's not cool to only be half of an ironman, they are now called 70.3 Ironman's