This is my post race report. Sorry but, it is very lengthy and as detailed as I wanted to keep it. I left out a couple of details here and there simply because they are moments that I won't forget and I don't want everyone to know everything!! Hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I did living it.
Pre Race:
The past three days had gone by quicker than I expected. We had left home late Wednesday morning and drove the 8 hours up to Panama City with making only 2 stops. My two little guys were perfect in the car. Knikie was a little anxious and her Mom, Gloria, was as usual calm as can be. These long car rides to the races have become a very common thing over the past couple of years. My Mother in Law has been great and comes along to help with the kids so that Knikie can focus on the trip as a whole and on me. Everyone knows the drill by now and the drive up went without any problems. We checked into our condo and were pleasantly surprised by how nice and large it was. All we had to do was set up camp and wait for race day to happen. Thursday came and went quickly. I had to go to athlete check in, get in a quick swim and attend the athletes mandatory meeting. I headed down early to athlete check in and avoided a long line. It was cold and raining, we had brought our huge umbrella we bought during a down poor at Disney. I took it down with me to stand in line and it made me a very popular guy until we got under the cover of the registration tents. I got my race packet, bib and bracelet and headed back to the condo. Went for a swim with the guys shortly after lunch. The guys, consisted of 4 guys that were doing the race with me: Tommy Allore, a close friend, who is 23 years old and probably one of the more gifted guys coming to the race with us. Unfortunately, Tommy was coming to the race on an injured IT band/knee and didn't know what to expect from his injury on the run. Andres Tovar, another close friend, who I did a bunch of training with, because we live pretty close to each other. Andres, we knew would be the fastest out of all of us, but the Ironman distance was an unknown and nobody knows what will happen on race day. Mark Zimmerman a friend of Andres, was the oldest of our group at 49, but his age does not mean he is slow. Mark has the best work ethic I have ever seen and his biking and running show it. Wilmet Lanier, another friend of Andres. Wilmet and I had done a couple of long rides together during training and I have really come to admire his passion for the sport and for his family. The guy also has a very solid head on his shoulders. The only guy from my close group that would not be joining us was Mike Renfro. Mike and I had become pretty close towards the tail end of our training and I even helped him put together his nutrition plan for the race. I was a little disappointed that he couldn't make it to our pre-race swim. After a quick photo shoot we tore out and hit the water. It felt good to be in a small group of guys. I was able to practice my drafting and sighting and get a feel for the wet suit again. We finished up dried off and headed back to our respective temporary homes. Lots of verbal jabs were exchanged and everyone was in a great mood. The mandatory athlete meeting would go by rather quickly and suddenly Friday was there. Friday morning I went for a short bike ride to just mechanically check everything out. The bike was good but the cool temperatures were proving a little much for my hands so I made the final decision to wear gloves on race day during the bike and I would also be going to my full on winter mode plan for dressing on the ride as well. This included wearing a cycling jersey, arm and leg warmers and a beanie under my helmet. I got back, packed up my transition bags and checked my bike and gear in. The rest of Friday disappeared quickly and I found myself rushing a little to prepare all my nutrition for the next day. I made all my last minute checks and got my special needs bags together. Next thing I know its a little after 10pm and I had to be up at 4:15am to get my breakfast on!!! A quick shower and in the bed. Knikie said I was out almost instantly.
So here I was sitting alone eating my oatmeal and peanut butter bagel. Drinking a ton of OJ and water. I'm wondering what I should wear down to the start of the race. It was cold 40 deg f. I hadn't really brought super warm clothes, plus I didn't want to have to hand Knikie a huge pile of clothes once the race started. I opted to wear the warmest thing in my closet, my wet suit. It seemed like a perfectly logical selection at the time. Its black neoprene rubber, once you put it on your body heat stays inside and nothing gets in. I slapped on a black sock hat and my old pair of running shoes and grabbed my bags. I was out the door by 5:30am and went down to check in my special needs bags, put my water bottles on my bike, air up my tires and get body marked. As I was walking around taking care of business I noticed that I was pretty much the only guy already in my wet suit. I got a lot of strange looks, but I really didn't care, I was warm and happy. One guy looked at me a little funny, I told him that you have to take advantage of every chance to wear a neoprene suit that you get. After all its not everyday you get to walk down the middle of closed streets wearing sneakers, a beanie and a wet suit. I stumbled onto Andres and his wife Michele (my super awesome Coach). Andres smiled at me and shook his head. They said their good mornings and got away from me as quickly as they could. I called Knikie and met up with the rest of my support group. The support group consisted of: My Dad, my sister,sister-in-law, mother in law, my two sons, my close friend Brandon and his daughter Shea, my triathlon mentors Pete Weiler and Jeff Maher (complete polar opposites) and my awesome kick ass Wife. The support group and I were down on the beach when I discovered just how cold it was. I had to take my shoes off and the wet sand was about the same temperature as the air. My feet were so cold that they hurt. I went back to Knikie and grabbed my socks and put them back on hoping to ditch them right before the start. They helped, but not much. After a few minutes I noticed most of the racers were standing ankle deep in the water. Then it hit me. The water was warmer than the air. I told Knikie and the support group bye for the day and gave all the hugs and kisses. When my feet hit the water I felt sooo much better. The water was about 72 deg F which feels really warm compared to 40 deg F wet sand. After a few seconds I spotted Tommy and Andres. We huddled up talked briefly about positioning and got ourselves situated for the start of the swim. The National Anthem was sung and for the first time since I started training for this thing my nerves started to creep in. The ankle deep water I had been standing in was now above my knees as the anxious pack of soon to be swimmers was slowly inching into the water. Andres joked that if we kept it up we would be at the turn around before the canon went off. Thats right, they start Ironman with a canon and everyone goes at once, everyone. Everyone = 2400 people. It's pandemonium. Then suddenly the BOOM cut through the air and I high kneed it into the water and with a quick dive and I was on my way.
The Swim (2.4 miles):
I had been in some rough swims before, but never with this many people. It was really rough. We were passing the third buoy going out and there were still people all over me. Then the idiot next to me starts breast stroking. Its not that uncommon to see, but your not suppose to do it when there are a billion people right next to you with no where to go. That big frog kick is just not safe to do with others around. His foot pushed into my side and pushed me into the guy next to me. This made me, well, mad. The swim in a triathlon is self policing and at this point I had a responsibility to correct this idiots actions. I rolled to my left and extended, balled my right fist and on my next right hand stroke delivered a blow to his left kidney as hard as I could. I know it hurt him, because it hurt my knuckles a little. Suddenly he wasn't breast stroking anymore, in fact he quit swimming all together. I think he got the message. As we rounded the first turn buoy I was starting to get some more room to swim. By the time I hit the next turn buoy (the course is a rectangle and consists of two laps) I found myself hopping from one persons feet to the next drafting as best I could. I was also settling down into a nice rhythm. The current brought me in quickly and before I knew it, it was time to stand up and run down the beach to start my second loop. Knikie had mentioned that she really wanted to see me during this part of the race. In fact she had made a pretty big deal about it. Everyone was telling her how it wouldn't be possible to pick me out of the crowd because everyone was wearing the same thing. So in an effort to make sure she saw me I ran a little further up the beach which put me on a small incline, I raised my hands above my head and made our signature 20X sign. You make a 2 with your left hand, ball your right hand into an O and cross your forearms. When I did this it shifted my weight and made me very top heavy. Suddenly I lost my footing and I did a perfect summer salt down the incline of the beach. I landed square on my feet and threw my hands in the air which got a big cheer from the crowd. I thought that was way more attention than I had bargained for but surely Knikie got to see me. She however was at the other end of the beach and didn't see me at all. I headed back into the water looking like the sand monster and tried to get my heart rate back down and find a rhythm again. I searched out some more feet to draft off of and regained my composure. As I closed in on the first turn buoy I caught a heel in my left eye. It didn't hurt just knocked my head back and let some water into my goggles. I regained my focus let the water out of my goggles and got back to work. The second turn buoy came and I was home free. I still felt really good. I had not pushed and I felt my pacing was working out well. I was just hoping that my time would be decent when I came out of the water. I didn't seem like I was pushing and I was a little worried that I might have laid back too much. During my fall I wasn't able to get my time split off my watch. I felt my fingers hit the bottom and I put my feet to the ground. I high kneed it out of the water and stripped my wet suit to my waist. The cold air felt good as I was starting to get a little warm in the suit. I checked the watch, I was shooting for a time between 1 hour and 20 minutes and 1 hour and 30 minutes. The watch said 1 hour and 7 minutes. I smiled great big and headed into the mass of wet suit strippers. The crowd was cheering loudly and there were a ton of people out there it felt awesome to have that kind of energy surrounding you. Within a few seconds my wet suit was ripped off my feet and I was running into transition. I ran passed a hotel and a volunteer called out my number that was written in permanent marker on my arm. By the time I got around the corner another volunteer handed me my bike gear bag. I followed the crowd down a fenced in shoot to the changing area of transition. This is where I made one of my only mistakes of the whole race. It was because I wasn't prepared for the scene when I arrived in the changing area. When I arrived it was literally wall to wall with half dressed guys. I had no were to change, there was no room. I walked forward hoping for a magical spot to open up, but nothing did. I started to panic and I just stopped looking around for anything. Then I heard "Cale Simmons!" said with a gusto that I was very familiar with. Tommy was sitting in a chair finishing up his changing. My first thought was, damn I had a good swim if Tommy is still here or he had a real crappy one. I got over to him as he was about to get up. There was a guy already there when I arrived and was obviously waiting for Tommy to get up so he could have his spot. Tommy gave me a quick glance (I'm still not sure if he did this on purpose or not), then stood up directly in front of the guy waiting for his seat. While he did this I took his chair. As Tommy ran out to his bike the guy stood there for a second and then realized Tommy and I had the same jerseys on. I should have seen that coming, he said. I smiled at him and the guy next to me got up and he sat down. It was difficult getting all my cold weather gear on while I was still wet, but I felt it would pay off in the long run so I stuck with my plan. As I was running out to get my bike I glanced at my watch, 12 minutes. Ouch. I had only planned on about 5 or 6 minutes in transition. By the time I actually got my bike and got out of there it was 13 minutes. Ironman Lesson number 1, be prepared to change in the hall if necessary!
The Bike (112 miles):
I started out on the bike making adjustments to my clothes and trying to get comfortable on the bike. I would start eating shortly after that. Ironman is often referred to as an eating contest where you swim, bike and run. In race nutrition can make or break you. I would be drinking a thick mixture of a sports drink call Perpetuem that is supposedly orange vanilla flavored. However its thick consistency and taste more emulate pancake batter. I would also be eating a sports bar called a Bonk Breaker, which is essentially a smashed up peanut butter and jelly sandwich with extra salt and potassium in a fancy wrapper. I would drink Perpetuem and water every 20 minutes and I would have a Bonk Breaker every 2 hours. Every hour I would take two salt pills. This would give me the calories, water and electrolytes I would need to get through the bike and carry me into my run. By mile 35 I had found a great rhythm and my heart rate was on the low end of my target range for the ride. My legs felt great. Michele had tapered my workouts off the last 2 weeks of training and I had sooo much power and energy it wasn't even funny. Suddenly, there was Wilmet in front of me. WILMET!! I shouted. He and I exchanged a few words, mainly checking up on each other and I went on by. I was glad to see he was sticking with his plan. He looked and sounded great!! By mile 40 nature was calling. I had to pee bad. I had promised Pete that I would not stop to pee at any point. However if I had to go #2 then I would stop. I came up to the 40 mile rest stop and saw the port o johns. There was a line of at least 5 guys. That equated to about a 15 minute time loss. That was not acceptable, besides I had promised. So I made sure the coast was clear behind me and let it rip. It was cold so I was not sweating as much as in training. All that liquid has to go somewhere. So sure enough I would go about 5 more times while on the bike. I know Pete was proud. I hit the halfway point still feeling great. I was starting to notice that several people were starting to get really cold. From miles 60-80 we headed west almost directly into a headwind. This is where I started passing people. I was now at the upper end of my heart rates acceptable range, but I felt sooo good I decided it would be ok to stay there. I quickly started passing people, not because I was going faster, but because they were going slower. They were frozen. Taking my time to bundle up a little had paid back big time! I started reviewing my run plan in my head and tried to focus on keeping my heart rate under control. Finally I turned south and had the wind at my back. I went from plodding along at 17 mph to moving at 23-25 mph with the same effort!! It felt great! One short jaunt of about 5 miles back west and then I turned around. The rest of the ride would be headed east or south, both of which I would have the wind at my back or at worst a slight cross wind. I saw the odometer roll over 100 miles and I started to get excited. I could tell my legs were still under me. They weren't burning and they felt good. I was going to finish this bike leg and finish it well. I checked my time and started calculating my arrival time. I had planned on the ride taking between 6 and 6.5 hours. Closer to the 6.5. Did I calculate that right? It look as if I might arrive just under 6 hours!! I smiled great big. This is going great!! Ok, calm down. Check your heart rate and get ready to transition to run. The sun was up now and starting to warm things up a little. The temp was in the 50's which would be perfect for running. Everything was going smooth I just had to get through transition and start running. Once that happened I knew I could make it. Hell, I can walk a marathon in under 10 hours if I have to! As I pulled into the bike chute I heard Knikie's voice yelling "Go CALE!!". I love hearing that. As usual it was followed by "Go DADDY!", Quinn is my biggest fan. I would say Cody is my biggest fan, but he is a much bigger fan of himself than of me right now. I quickly unclipped my shoes from the pedals and got off my bike. I ran around a large group of people and handed my bike off to a volunteer. Sure enough another volunteer crammed my run gear bag into my hands and into the changing area I went. This time there was not nearly as many people. The bike had spread the field out. I found a chair and a volunteer helped me get my stuff together. The volunteer I got was awesome, he even tied one of my shoes for me! I was out in 6 minutes, right on schedule. All that was left was the marathon!
The Run (26.2 miles):
The run was the only thing I had not completed the entire distance on prior to the race. In fact my longest run prior was only 16 miles. Running is really rough on the body and with everything else you have going on during training its the last discipline that you want to over do on. I was a little nervous about what the run had in store for me, but I wasn't going to let it beat me mentally before I even got started. I charged out of the run out banner that hung above the exit of transition, set my watch and got to work. I was surprised at how good I felt. I thought to myself, Coach really knew what she was doing, this is great! At the one mile mark I was pacing a 7 min 30 second mile. Whoa!!! Slow down there big fella!!! That was way, way to fast!! My heart rate was up above 160 bpm. I backed down considerably and got my heart rate under control and my pace. I felt good, but I'm not stupid. I can't run that fast for a 6 mile race let alone a marathon. I found a good rhythm at just below a 9 min mile. By mile 3 I was warmed up and loose, everything was flowing. In the distance I saw Tommy. He was walk/running. I knew this was part of his plan. I slowed down when I got to him and asked how he was doing. "Just pacing myself." he said. I asked about the knee and he said it seemed ok. I continued on at my pace, when I heard "Cale!", I turned around. "What are you pacing?" Tommy asked. I told him I was running 9 min miles and drifting to 9:30's. It was a little slower than I was actually going, but I needed to slow myself down a little as I was still going way faster than I planned. Tommy decided to run with me. He said he would see how it went. We would run to about mile 7 or 8 together. We saw Andres already on his way back from the turn around on his first loop and we were only about 4 or 5 miles in to our run. We exchange pleasantries as we passed. Tommy would piss himself on purpose along the way and he let me know that Pete would be proud of him as we didn't miss a step during the process. We also got passed by a guy that had not stopped for #2. One of the grossest things I have ever seen!!! It was running down the back of both of his legs. I'm pretty sure it was a pro because of the speed at which he was running. That my friends is either relentless commitment or a big surprise, one of the two for sure!!! Tommy would eventually have to slow down to a walk because of his injury. As he told me to go ahead, I turned to him and gave him the meanest look I could muster and said "You better fucking finish this thing." He gave a wide eyed look, I think because I said it kinda loud and nodded. He would gut it out on the run course for over 7 hours with a hurt leg in really cold temperatures. I was so impressed by his perseverance.
I continued on I saw Wilmet on my way back to complete my first lap as he was headed out. He looked and sounded good as I passed. I started to calculate my first half time in my head. I realized that I was going to be coming by the half way point around the 2 hour mark. I have a friend in the tri club that I am in who recently set a personal record of 2 hours and 3 minutes for her half marathon time. I was determined to see if I could clip that time off when I hit the timing mat at half way. "GO CALE!!!" It was Knikie again. I was approaching the turnaround and the whole support group was there cheering me on! Beep, beep sounded as I ran over the timing mat, I checked my watch 2 hours 4 minutes. Arrgghhh! Laura's time was safe. Oh well, maybe next time. It was fun racing virtual Laura, even if I lost. Only a half marathon to go. I did a quick system check. Everything was good. I held my pace which was now around a 9 min 30 sec mile and then at mile 15 I hit what they call "The Wall". Suddenly, I was finding it hard to run. My legs were starting to burn a little on the outsides and I was feeling tired. I had grabbed my long sleeve shirt out of my special needs bag at the turnaround and tied it around my waist. I was starting to get cold so I stopped for a second to pull it over my head and put it on. After that I had a hard time running. I ran and walked till about mile 18. At that point my hands were starting to tingle on the outsides a little. My running form wasn't looking so good. Thats when a 55 year old guy named Ken pulled up and asked me if I was alright. I told him my hands were tingling and I couldn't tell if I was in trouble or if I was just cold. He asked if anything else was tingling and I replied no. He said "Ahh your fine then." I tried to match his pace and he talked to me as we ran together. He said this was the first time he was leaving the state park in the day light. I asked how many times he had done this race. He replied "I have done this one 5 times." inferring that he had done others as well. When we got to the 18 mile aid station Ken called out for Coca Cola. I hadn't had a Coke since January 1st. I was a little leery, but I followed his lead. I swallowed down the semi flat coke and chased it with some warm chicken broth. About 3 min later I was shot out of a canon! The sugar and caffeine hit me and I felt great! The one thing I knew about drinking Coke during an endurance event is that you don't stop once you have started. Just like at home once you stop, you crash and you crash hard. I kept my Coke, water, chicken broth combo rolling at every aid station till the end. It worked great. I ran along side a girl from Canada named Allison after I left Ken. She and I talked for a couple of miles and then she caught me off guard. "Are you gonna go for it?" she said. "Go for what?" I said. "Sub 12" she said. I didn't reply, I immediately started poking around on my gps watch. I hadn't planned to be anywhere near a 12 hour finishing time. My perfect race time was a 11 hour 56 min and 50 sec and that was everything went perfect and I did the absolute best I could do. I was realistically shooting for around 13 hours. Sure enough if I ran this last 3 miles in roughly 30 min I would come in right around the 12 hour mark. I never answered Allison, I just picked up my pace and dropped her into the distance. She said, "Go for it!" as I left her. With about a mile left I stopped and took off the long sleeve shirt so that I could proudly sport my Treasure Coast Triathletes jersey across the finish line. It had the charity for which we had worked so hard to raise what will be over $12,000 for on the front! Coming down the last mile the street was lined with people the whole way cheering, clapping, dancing, playing loud music, you name it its going on. I gradually felt my feet get light again as the finish chute came into view. The first person of the support group I saw was my friend Brandon and his daughter Shea. They were standing at the very beginning of the chute and Brandon was hollering "You did it man! You did it! You did awesome!!" Then he really impressed me, he started running down the outside of the chute keeping up with me, cheering me the whole way. Brandon once told me that the only time he runs is if it involves saving his life or the police. So I figured this must have been a pretty big deal if he was running. Shea was running too!! This I thought was awesome!! Then I heard the announcers voice "Cale Simmons from Port St Lucie, Florida! And some other guy that I can't remember his name! You are an Ironman!!!" I crossed the finish line 11 hr 55 min 56 sec. I came in under 12 hours. Pete had done a classic Pete move and was somehow illegally in the catchers area for volunteers at the finish line. He caught me and said "You motherfucker sub 12!! You went under 12!" I couldn't tell who was happier me or him. He gave me a big hug and then Lisa Miller from our tri club appeared out of no where and said something to me, but I'm sorry Lisa, I was a little foggy at that point and I have no idea what you said. My emotions were getting the best of me. I had worked my ass off (literally) for a year to get here. I had so many people that had donated money on my behalf to our fundraiser and I was sooo happy and proud to have not let anyone down, including myself. Pete picked Knikie out in the crowd and again, very Pete like, made several hundred people move so that she could get over and give me a hug and kiss. When she let me go, my legs didn't want to work and Pete had to grab me. Then I saw my Coach Michelle. Again I got a congrats and a hug. How fitting that the two women who worked the hardest to get me there were right there at the finish line.
I wasn't super steady standing still. I could walk okay, but standing was hard to do. I got my shirt, my hat, my medal and my picture taken. I walked out the back of the finishing area and into my support group. I cried like a little girl as I hugged my Dad and talked with my close family and friends. I was on cloud nine, but my body was not. It started to hurt, everywhere. I told Knikie I wanted to go back to our room and we started walking back. Everyone was soo excited, talking and having fun. I was just hurting. The closer we got to the room the more it hurt. Finally we got there and after a hot bath and some orange juice I felt a ton better.
I sat there in a chair talking to everyone about the race and all that transpired, when it hit me. It was over. I had done it. I was holding an Ironman finishers medal in my hand and it was mine.
I am an Ironman.......
