Alex McDonald Pro Triathlete

First off let me start by saying that this was by far the most difficult race I have ever done…I found a depth of mental and physical pain that I had never encountered previously.  On the other hand, this course also consists of the most spectacular views and scenery that I have ever seen.   The race course took you past red rock cliffs, white stone canyons, high dessert plains and even black lava rock, not to mention expansive vistas.  It was amazingly beautiful!  St. George is also a great town, small enough to be a great Ironman venue, but large enough to have hotels, restaurants and shops to support 2,000 crazy triathletes.  Additionally, everywhere we went the whole town was a buzz about the Ironman and the community support really showed.   This was my first Ironman since Ironman Arizona in 2008 where I DNF’d, and in hindsight the beginning of my stress fracture, which sidelined me for most of 2009.  Ironman is my bread and butter distance and where I feel like I perform best as an athlete and I was really excited to get back to the distance I love after an 18 month break.

I arrived in St. George on Tuesday with my Timex Team mate, and fellow North Carolina resident Tim Surface.  We were hosted by Tim and Jamie who were the best homestay hosts I have ever had…incredible!  Not only did they volunteer at the race on Saturday, they also did everything in their power to make sure we had everything we needed to race to our potential.  So, thank you , thank you, thank you to them!!  It also gave me a chance to catch up with old friends and make a few new ones.  Edde Burgess from InsideOut Sports drove my bike and some equipment out along with his demo fleet for the expo, which was a huge help and a big stress off my mind.  Robert Kunz, from First Endurance took myself as well as a few other First Endurance athletes out to lunch as well as dinner on Thursday, which was great.  I have known Robert by phone and e-mail for almost 4 years, however, not until now did I have the chance to meet him in person and it was a real treat.

Getting to the race a few days early was fantastic, however, it also gave me plenty of time to read about all the talented athletes that were racing in the pro field, including numerous Ironman Champions as well as a number of very talented international athletes.  I tried not to worry about who else was racing and simply focus on my own race.  I previewed the course and knew it was going to be an epic race and I was right.

Swim: 0:56

The water was a crisp 58 degrees, and was a little chilly, but my new Aquasphere wetsuit fits better, and I felt pretty good once I got going.  I lined up right on the starting line next to the first buoy and took off!  I settled into an up tempo rhythm to start and found a pretty good group to swim with.  The sun did not actually rise until about 10-15 minutes into our swim which made sighting a little difficult at first, but I simply did my best and followed the bubbles in front of me.  As we made the first turn we were swimming directly into the sun and I couldn’t see much.  However, I noticed a gap open up a few swimmers in front of me.  I thought about trying to bridge the gap, but though my energy would be better saved for later in the day.  I swam second in a group for the rest of the swim and simply kept a relaxed effort making sure to stay in the draft to save energy and honestly it was one of the easiest Ironman swims I have ever done.  The swim did seem to be a little long to me, and based on everyone’s times it may have been a little slow, or long, but that is simply my opinion.

Bike: 5:13

The air temp at race time was around 46 degrees, so needless to say, getting out of 58 degree water and onto a bike with an air temperature in the high 40’s was…well…COLD!  In T1 I threw on arm warmers, a skull cap and, per advice of my coach and former pro cyclist, put a single section of newspaper under my jersey to cover my chest.  This ended up creating just enough of a barrier to kept me warm for almost the entire bike ride…in fact I was getting a little warm by the end of the bike as the temperatures reached into the 60’s.

I was cold the first 20min of the bike, so I took it out pretty hard, around half Ironman race pace just to get going and warm up.  Then I settled into my prescribed watts and rhythm.  There were a few people who passed me in the first hour or so, but I knew that it was going to be a long day and being patient and riding conservatively would pay off.   As I began the first loop the road winds through some hills and gradually climbs up with several thousand feet of climbing.  The scenery was beautiful, the road was a little rough and there was a head wind, which made finding a rhythm difficult.  I honestly didn’t feel comfortable on the bike most of the day, for some reason I was not able to really settle, but I stayed relaxed and kept my eye on my PowerTap.  A few miles before I reached the summit of the climb, a couple of other cyclists caught up to me and we rode together for several miles.  Then we began the screaming descent back into St. George, I hit 50+ mph at some points…it was awesome!! J   The second loop felt pretty similar to the first, I felt a little flat and had trouble finding a groove.  This time around it was not nearly as lonely or desolate as there were many age groupers on their first loop of the course.

Run: 3:09

I didn’t realize how much the bike course took out of me until I tried to pull my CEP compression socks on in T2…my hands were not working very well and I was tired.  I got my socks on, grabbed my FuelBelt and headed out the door onto what I knew was going to be a very difficult run course, and it was.  Although my marathon time was over 10 minutes slower than my PR, this was by far the best run I have ever had in an Ironman; yes, this course is that hilly and that challenging.  The only portion of this course that is flat is the first 150 meters heading out of T2 and then the terrain immediately turns up and there was a head wind the first few miles to make matters even more enjoyable.  The first 3 miles were really tough, my lower back was really tight and began to cramp a little.  I had flashbacks to my DNF at Ironman Arizona in 2008 and negative thoughts immediately crept into my head.  Additionally, the 3 athletes that passed me in those first 3 miles didn’t help matters much.  I have to admit the thought of quitting did enter my mind, however, I banished it just as quickly as it had arrived.  Again, I was patient and persistent, simply focusing on form, putting one foot in front of the other and said the word “easy” to myself with every footfall.  I immediately continued with my nutrition as well to help take my mind of the pain, more on that below.

Before I knew what had happened, my breathing settled, my lower back released, my stride lengthened, my Brooks Ravenna seemed to have a little more spring with each step and I began reeling in the runners in front of me.  As I re-passed the three runners in front of me, I knew I had a chance at finishing in the top ten.  I told myself to just “run easy” the first lap as I knew the second lap was going to be incredibly difficult, heck, the first lap was incredibly difficult, the second lap was insanely difficult.  I did not even bother with pacing as I normally take my mile splits, but on this course I knew there would be no point.  I ran by feel and focused on getting to mile 20 without pushing the pace too much, again that word “easy” was repeating over and over in my brain.  Besides, the race does not begin until mile 20 of the marathon.  My and my coach’s Ironman race day strategy is to get to mile 20 while expending as little energy as possible and then “emptying the tank” from mile 20 until the finish and believe me I emptied the tank more than I ever have before.

The last 4 miles of the marathon course are predominantly downhill with a few short kickers, to make life as miserable as possible.  I gave everything I had and the last mile felt like the longest mile I had ever run in my life.  My quads were burning, my feet were screaming and the downhill pounding was taking a toll on my body.  In the past, I have found myself wanting to slow down or give up when the going got tough, however, not at St. George.  Never before have I been able to dig myself into such a place of discomfort and pain.  As my coach refers to it, I was deep in “the pain cave.”  And as I found myself deep, deep in that “cave” I began to focus on many things, but thinking about my unborn daughter helped to bring me strength on this day.

After what seemed like forever, I crossed the finish line, but as I tried to stop running, my body simply rebelled, my quads seized up and I literally collapsed to the ground.  A few friends were making fun of me and said I was simply being dramatic, but I assure you I have never been so glad to cross a finish line in my life.  My legs were simply no longer willing to support me.  But for all the “drama” of my finish, it did get photos into the local St. George paper, The Salt Lake Tribune as well on the Triathlete Magazine website J.

I spent the next hour or so in the medical and massage tents trying to encourage my quads to stop cramping and encourage my legs to support my body weight once again.  Additionally, I began to get very, very cold and could not stop shivering, which didn’t help matters any.  Some fantastic volunteers, staff and friends helped coax me back to lucidity and I cannot thank them enough.

Nutrition:

The critical 4^th discipline of Ironman was even more important on such a demanding course.  With help from Jessie Kopelnicki at QT2System, I have a very methodical race nutrition plan, which actually begins 48 hours before the race.  On Thursday, I began to cut down the amount of fiber in my diet as well as increase the amount of carbohydrates I ate.  On Friday morning, the day before the race, I had a huge breakfast at IHOP, including pancakes, eggs, homefries, toast, however, no whole wheat, whole grain or high fiber foods.  This breakfast was a lot of fun because it was with some great friends from FuelBelt and other QT2 atheltes, include Jessie himself.  I then ate a few smaller snacks tapering off my eating throughout the day.  I do not have dinner the night before a race to avoid stomach distress and unnecessary bathroom breaks.

Race morning I woke up at 3am and ate my pre-race breakfast of applesauce, a banana, Ultragen and supplements (Multi-V, Opygen, PureOne Omega-3 and ARX).  I usually can’t get back to sleep after this, so I just laid in bed feeling uncomfortably full.  About 30min before the start of the race I ate about ¾ of a PowerBar.  Then 15min before I have a scoop of First Endurance EFS and a scoop of PreRace.

Once on the bike I drank water for the first 5-10min to let my stomach settle a little bit, however, I soon began to sip on my mixture of EFS and EFS Liquid Shot along with some added sodium.  I mix all this together in one 24oz bottle and sipped on it throughout the first half of the bike ride chasing it with water from my aero bottle.  This makes for a pretty easy system, one just one bottle of nutrition to deal with and simply filling up my aero bottle at each aid station.  I tried to front load my nutrition on each lap of the bike course, because you never know if you won’t want or be able to eat later on.  At the special needs station half way through the bike I grabbed another bottle of the same concoction, however, this one included a scoop of PreRace as well.  Also, in my special needs bag I grabbed a de-fizzed Dr. Pepper, I never drink regular soda, but I find it to be a great source of quick acting carbs and caffeine that in much needed around mile 80 on the bike.  I finished my nutrition about 15 minutes before T2 and this helped to allow everything to settle and makes the transition to running a little easier.  I did take a gel right before T2, to give my body some carbohydrates without a lot of volume of fluid to fuel my body until I was able to get into a run rhythm. 

On the run course I wore my 2 bottle Helium FuelBelt with a scoop of EFS each and sipped from these at every mile marker.  At each aid station I mostly drank water and a few sips of sports drink as I felt I needed it.  At the run special needs I reloaded with the same supplies, only this time the FuelBelt bottles had a half scoop of PreRace added.  By mile 20 I had trouble thinking about anything other than my aching legs and began simply taking in whatever water and sports drink I could at the aid stations and drained my fuelbelt bottles.  I felt pretty well fueled at this point in the race and did not feel like I was running out of gas, as I have in the past, I was simply beat up from almost 9 hours of racing.  Towards the end of an Ironman I usual feel very bloated and sick and/or running on fumes, none of which occurred at St. George.  I had been much more meticulous in my race fueling protocol as well as practicing it extensively in training which paid off on race day.

I am very satisfied with my return to Ironman racing and know that I left it all out there on race day.  However, this is what I love best about Ironman, pushing our minds and our bodies farther than we ever thought possible.  As always there are far to many people to thank, but on this particular trip, my wife, Ashley, my coach, my hosts Tim and Jamie, Timex, Edde Burgess, Robert Kunz and my unborn daughter top the list.  As I write this, I am not even 48hours post race, at least I can sit still without pain at this point, however, I find myself already beginning to think about the next race…I think I need a psychiatric consult.