Well everyone,
about 14 hours before I hit the water!
Thank you all for your support and encouragement over the past year!
Especially my family!!
Love you all!
Link is below...when the page comes up go to the right of the page and click on ironmanlive...you should be able to track and watch the video...the coverage should be like tour de france coverage...
by the way laurent jalabert (king of mountains tour de france a few years back) is racing tomorrow..(great)
anyway see ya all!
http://www.ironmanlive.com/ironmanlive
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3 comments:
Big Dave, way to go! I know you are well prepared and have read many books on how to succeed with the big race. However, I do have a little known secret tip...when you are super tired -- swim faster, bike faster, and run faster!!!! (haha).
Go get some, enjoy, and let them know what a well-motivated Bowie Boy can do.
Greg
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 1:13 PM
Subject: Aloha everyone
Settled into Kona about 3 a.m. (est, 9 p.m. here) about 20 hours of traveling (bit much).
Room is pretty sweet. It is about 6:45 am now, I am sitting on the deck of the room. The water is about 40 feet in front of me. The water is beautiful....A blue we don't see on the east coast.
Tonight is the banquet. Will see all the big boys(and ladies...desiree ficker...yeah) of the sport!!
I will try not to intimidate them. I will just tell them It would suck for a 41 year old bean counter from Crofton(Bowie for all you Old schoolers) to beat you... I'm sure they are shaking in their boots.
Feel free to e-mail me. I will be sending out the tracking link later..I am still trying to nail down a few e-mail addresses of people who wanted to track the race.
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:29 PM
Subject: What, no clouds today...race update
What a beautiful morning for a swim! (with 1800 of your closest friends) The swim start was a self-seed (if you think your fast, go to the front) race, so I went about three swimmers pack from the front of the race. The cannon went off and we were had started, started to give each other a pounding. I eventually found an empty pocket and started to do my thing, felt great, got into a nice rhythm. I was kicked in the eye once and my goggles were just barely hanging on, I did not want to stop! The goggles and cap finally came off when the second guy kicked me in the eye. I had to pull off out of the mad rush, tuck my cap into my suit and put the goggles back on. I decided that I would not go crazy to catch the small group I was swimming with and continue MY RACE. I eventually caught back up with them about 200 yards from the finish. Still felt pretty good. In transition went ahead and hit the potty. Started on the bike, now was everyone’s chance to make time on me. The course was rolling hills with some severe cross winds and head winds right before the turn around at Hawi. There were times it was a struggle to keep my bike straight. At about mile 40…guess what…another penalty! I swear I am always in the wrong place at the right time. When I was passed the individual was supposed to get 4 bike length (7 meters…actually pretty far) in front of me within 20 seconds, I am supposed to drop back if he cannot (he couldn’t) and they penalized me 4 minutes and told me to serve my 4 minute penalty at mile 60. (You can’t argue with these folks) I served my time and kept trucking. I began to notice people beginning to slow down. I was still feeling pretty good so I kept on with my race plan. I finished the bike right about where I thought I would, around 6 hours (within 5 minutes of my Wisconsin time) considering the wind and the several miles we rolling into a stiff headwind at about 11 miles an hour I was happy! I was done the bike and I knew everyone who was tracking me would be happy that segment was done. Now the run. I felt great! Better than I did in Wisconsin. I ran out of transition looking for people to pass. I was watching my pace and saw I was going a little faster than 7 minute miles…probably not to smart…but I was excited because this was my part of the race! All week long at about 2 p.m. the clouds would roll in and the temperature would drop. Not today. The heat was beginning to take its toll on everyone. It looks like a death march at times. One guy stated “I didn’t think I could run this slowly” At mile 12 my wheels fell off. I began to walk ½ mile and then run ½ mile for the next 5 miles. Between mile 17 and 19 I ran the whole time (in the energy lab). At the top of the hill on my 19 I saw Dana Dobbs anothe r contestant from Maryland; he was just coming into mile 17. We both looked at each other, shouted some encouragement and I shook my head to him as if to say “what the hell are we doing?”
At the top of the hill a porta-potty door popped open and a guy with an Australian accent said “Hey, Mate, If you run I’ll run” at first I was not so sure then I said let’s go. For the next 7 miles my new friend for southwestern Australia were pulling each other to the finish line. Several onlookers were commenting how we were helping each other through this. Nathan (my Aussie buddy) would pull me through the miles between the aid stations. I would pull him out of the aid stations (I think he wanted to eat and drink everything they had) at mile 25 Nathan said go ahead mate I am going to take it easy and enjoy the finish. I reluctantly left him and finished the last mile pretty strong. Nothing looked finer than that finishing platform. I was done. Actually a few minutes faster than Wisconsin. Not bad considering how HOT it was. There were times I was actually putting sponges and ice inside my hat….IT was HOT….anyway....The race was complete I accomplished my goal of competing in the Ironman World Championship against the World’s greatest triathletes. Now I can retire. Unless Matt or Allie want to compete and need a training partner.
Thank you…love you all…wrote this at 6 in the morning on Sunday…so Ignore the grammer, spelling, etc..
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