5:55:29

Sitting here wondering where to start with this post. It’s been over a week since IM and I think I’ve gone over the run portion mentally a thousand times already. Playing the What If…Could’ve…Should’ve…game.

Q: When is a run not a run?
A: When it’s a walk.
That’s what’s gnawing at me the most – how much I actually walked instead of ran.

Let me back up a minute and make a disclaimer, if I may: I’m ecstatic with my overall finishing time of 13:32! It was my first IM, I had no idea what to expect doing that distance and from everything I’ve been told the only thing to concern yourself with the first time around is to just finish! When I look at it in the big picture like that, I still get goose bumps and a Cheshire cat grin. I am an Ironman, have the medal and t-shirt to prove it, and no one can take that away from me (well, I s’pose someone could steal the medal and t-shirt, but you know what I mean)!

Okay, now that that’s over with, time to get down to the analysis of The Walk.

The last 30 minutes or so that I spent on the bike I started to visualize the run and what it might entail. I mentally went over what I took in for nutrition while on the bike and realized it probably wasn’t enough. I was drinking enough, but I didn’t eat enough considering everything I had already put my body through and what was yet to come. I took enough food along with me, but just couldn’t choke it all down, nor did I have the urge to eat. I ate, just not enough. Something I’ll have to teach/force myself to do next time. I think part of this was due to the warmer than expected day as well. Remember back a couple of posts how I said it was going to be in the upper 70s and approaching warmer than ideal temps? Well, it turned out to be in the mid 80s which is definitely warmer than ideal. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the end of the world and I had definitely trained in warmer throughout the season, but I could feel the heat was taking its toll.
I wobbled off the bike, walked into the building to grab my T2 bag with my running clothes and headed to the changing room. I somewhat took my time, but not 48 minutes worth, got dressed and stretched my back before heading out. Stopped to get re-lathered with sunscreen and hit the biffy again. I didn’t have a strong urge/need to go, but thought it’d be better to get it out of the way so once I started running I wouldn’t have to stop. I was able to relieve some and take note. I mention this, not for your reading enjoyment, but to paint a picture. Even in a biffy, a guy can tell to what extent he’s hydrated by assessing the color of his tinkle. I could tell that, not only did I not eat enough, but I was edging towards dehydration based on the darker-than-I’d-like-it-to-be urine. Hmmm.
Wow, this post is going places I didn’t think it originally would!
I took a glance at my watch and noticed it was 2:33. Pleasantly surprised with how my performance had been up to that point I was quickly able to figure that if I could just pull out a 5 hr marathon I’d be right around 12.5 hrs total, smashing all my expectations. I had a shot! Excited about that, I exited the stall, said “Let’s get this over with!” and hit the ground running!

Here I am, 20 yds into the 26.2 mile run. Notice the nice tan lines from biking. Sexy, huh?!

It always takes me 1-2 miles to get my running legs under me and into a rhythm in a triathlon and today was no exception. I was able to somehow get a decent stride going right away as evidenced by this picture, but I think I owe most of that to the thick crowds along this section and the downhill slant after the first couple of blocks. I certainly didn’t feel as good as this looks.

When I got to the first mile marker I looked again at my watch for the first time since starting the run. 7:50 mile 1! WTF!?! How did I pull that out?! I questioned the accuracy with where they had the mile marker sign, but could only chuckle at running “that fast” that first mile. It’s not necessarily what I wanted to do, would’ve rather started out slower and gotten faster as the marathon went on. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold that pace and forced myself to slow down. By then I was starting to get some running feeling going in my legs and lungs, but I didn’t necessarily like what I felt. I knew I was in for a struggle.
I came upon the first water stop and made the decision that due to a number of factors – heat, nutrition, getting tired – I would walk through each one so I could get liquids, and “rest” while still moving. The one thing I was adamant about doing was making sure every movement was directed forward. There would be very minimal lateral movement and absolutely no backward movement, even minimize stopping altogether, just keep moving forward! At this early stage, food didn’t sound appealing so I just grabbed water, Pepsi and Gatorade. After a block or so I started running again, but it was a struggle. My stomach wasn’t my friend and when I ran I got nauseous and lightheaded.
After a very short distance the route came to a slight rise in the road and looking at that I knew it wasn’t going to be my day. I wouldn’t say I love running hills, but I typically don’t mind them and usually do a fair amount of gaining or passing others going up them. When this small, short rise looked more like Mt. Everest, I knew I might’ve won the swim and bike course battles, but IM was going to win the run battle. I would just have to hold out hope that I would eventually win the war. And we’re only at mile 2.
From here, it became a matter of walking a lot more than I was running. I picked my runs stints to be on flat or declining sections and then would have to walk 5-10x as long to recover from however long I was able to run. At mile 3.5ish we wound through Camp Randall, the UofWI football stadium, and I claimed a small victory when I was able to run that whole lap. Unfortunately though, my run stints became shorter and my walk stints became longer.
Observatory Hill – mile 6ish. A beast of a hill! A major climb, with a false flat section and then right into another climb. I’m walking up this 2nd climb section and I hear someone yell, “I seeee yooouuu McCarthy!” Yup, I know that voice and know it means she has my camera. $%!*&^#@)*$@! I don’t like getting caught like that and if someone calls you out, you better step up so I started hoofing it faster up the remainder of the hill.
The other triathletes around me at the time thought it was funny though, glad they could get a chuckle out my demise. Thanks, Kimmi, for entertaining the others!

1 last major climb and then a steep descent. Even that downhill hurt to run because of the steep grade so it just became another section I had to walk. You know it’s a bad run when even downhills aren’t your friend!
State St was next and a section I was looking forward to. This section is flat and a rowdy, loud spectator section so it re-energized the batteries somewhat. I was able to run this out and back section and saw some Team McIronites cheering so that helped. Upon exiting State St I saw Tim for the first time as he was just entering. I was wondering where he was at ‘cause I expected him to pass me on the bike. When he never did I was wondering if something had happened to him. It was good to see a familiar face and we gave each other a look that said all it needed to say, neither one of us was in our happy place. He was only about a mile behind, if that, so I figured he’d be catching and passing me soon enough. We’re through mile 8.
The next few miles were all pretty much the same – ran when my stomach and head allowed, but for very short segments; walked when I needed to. There was another out-and-back section so once I hit that turn-around I’d see who was behind me and how far back. I figured Tim would be right there. He was a little closer than the first time I saw him, but hadn’t closed the distance as much as I thought he would. “Hmmm, he really is struggling as much as I am” I thought.
The run course, like the swim and bike courses preceding it, was a 2 loop course. What this meant was that the turn-around for lap 2 was near the Finish line. As I approached the end of lap 1 I was able to muster some longer running stints, feeding off the crowds again. Team McIron was nearby and they certainly did their part! Heading out on lap 2 I actually felt like I might be improving, started feeling somewhat better as my stomach issues were dissipating. Miles 14-16 actually felt somewhat normal and my run stints nearly doubled in length.
And then came the jaunt through the stadium again. I vowed to run that entire section again, getting moral little victories when I could (okay, okay, this also happened to be a section where one of the official photographers was and I didn’t want any pictures taken of me walking! I'm vain that way.). When I got done with that lap and started walking up the exit ramp I didn’t think I was going to make it up! I got extremely lightheaded, vision became blurry and my steps got shorter. I thought I was going to pass out and it kind of freaked me out. At that point I promised myself I wasn’t going to run again until I got to the next water stop and tried to get some food in me. The full IM distance is 140.6 miles when you add up all 3 segments. I remember thinking “they don’t make 130.6 bumper stickers so don’t get a medical DQ at this point you schmuck! Just swallow your pride, do what you have to do to get to the next water stop and reassess there.” That was a long, lonely, depressing walk.
Eventually I did make it to that next stop, grabbed drinks and this time started grabbing potato chips and pretzels, something, anything to get more food and sodium back into my system. Walked another full mile plus to the next water stop and repeated the intake. By now, I’m back to the frickin’ hills and my leg muscles are all starting to hurt, fatiguing, tightening up and I fear cramping if I try to run. I figure my Sherpa is still up there at the top with the camera. Somehow I scaled the climb again, she was there, along with Kristen (Tim’s GF) and I told them to tell Tim to “hurry the F up and catch me” so we can get through this together. Fortunately, he had closed the gap and was only a couple of minutes behind and when they told him he did muster up a little more to get up to me.
He found me just before entering State St. again, mile 19ish, and it was a much needed lift in my spirits. We walked and talked and were able to distract each other enough to make the miles tick down. This picture captures perfectly the way I was feeling! Wow, I am really short when I stand next to tall people!

Together we helped each other get closer and closer to the finish. As we got within the last mile and a half or so and it became apparent we were going to finish and become Ironmen, it dawned on me the appropriateness of Tim and I together at that point – he and I stood in line together 52 weeks prior and signed up for this madness; although we didn’t train together every single workout, he was the closest thing I had to a regular training partner as we did many long weekend rides and made 2 weekend trips to Madison during the year together; we constantly bounced ideas and suggestions off each other via email. It felt fitting that what we started together way back when, we were now finishing together!
As we came up to the Capitol and only had 2 more turns before the final stretch into the finishing chute we were able to muster our last bits of energy and run those final few blocks, had to put on a good show for the thick crowds!
I crossed the Finish Line in 13:32:29, a 5:55:29 marathon split. Not quite the 5 hr marathon I was thinking after T2 in order to hit that 12.5 hour mark, but at that point I couldn’t care less. I finished and I was an Ironman!
After being on Cloud 9 for 30-45 minutes after finishing I started coming down. My body had had enough of me and was beginning to revolt. I figured I needed proper nutrition, but nothing sounded good and just the thought of food made my stomach more upset. I opted to rest. Don’t I look good?
When I was finally able to get up again, I went into the bathroom to jump on the scale. I weighed myself that morning before I left for the race so I wanted to see how much weight I lost during the race by weighing myself after. Taking into account everything I ate and drank throughout the day, I still dropped 7 lbs! In one day. I was beat up and battered, but I won the war and had a grin.

Coming soon: The Final Finale