Stupid Family Pictures: 2006

OBSESSION

It's raining. It's 40 degress. The gate to the only usable high school track in town is locked, but you have a track workout planned. You have to do 5 X 1200 meters with a 400 meter jog in between. So what does a 58 year old man with reasonable intelligence do?

Of course you scoot under the locked gate so that you can complete your workout, so that you can be strong for the Louisville Ironman just 9 and 1/2 months away, so you have the experience to finish in the top two of you're age group at Ironman Wisconsin when you turn 60 in 2008, so you can go to Kona. That's reasonable...right. At least it's plan.

and SENILITY

Of course, if you had bothered to drive around to the far side of the track, you might have seen that the back gate was wide open.

Curtis and I went out for a slow ride in brisk weather.

After two months, it's now time to issue my IM Wisconsin race report. Here it is:

It’s been almost two months since I finished Ironman Wisconsin. My feelings upon finishing were quite different than what I had expected. Whether or not that had to do with the difference between the actual race and what I had anticipated is still not clear.

During the week leading up to the race, I became increasingly excited and optimistic. I was faithful to my training plan all year. Previous races at the California 70.3, Triple T, and Spirit of Racine had all gone well, and most importantly, the weather forecast was looked to be perfect, with a partly sunny sky and temperatures in the low 60’s. I arrived in Madison the Friday before Sunday’s race, and went through all the required check in procedures. I felt calm, unusually so after the week’s build up of excitement. Instead of my usual manic running around, I spent most of my time quietly reading or watching television in my room.

Polly and Lily arrived on Saturday afternoon, and we went out to an early dinner with the Schmitts who were there to see Bill do his second IM Moo. Tommy Geldermann also came with us. He was up from Louisville to do his first IM Wisconsin but his fifth or sixth overall.

I kept an eye on the weather as the forecast first deteriorated, and then came back to only a 20% chance of rain. By the time I left for transition with Bill on Sunday morning, there was a 20% -30% chance of rain, but a prediction of temperatures in the low 50’s, cold, but still good news for me.

As I was in line to enter the water, I saw Polly, and gave her a big hug and kiss. I was feeling great, a little nervous, but optimistic. I entered the water and swam out to a position very near the buoys. At the start, I began swimming easily, at least in terms of my effort level. I was kicked, grabbed, and pulled at for the entire swim. I stuck close to the buoys, so I didn’t add any extra distance to the swim, but I did notice that some swimmers swam well inside the buoys as though they were in a giant pool doing laps. I finished the swim in just under an hour and 19 minutes. My goal for the swim was 1:15, so I was not too disappointed. Polly told me that at the start, two guys swam directly to shore and got out. Over 40 of the 2400+ starters failed to finish the swim. The next day many athletes complained about the rough conditions. I thought the roughness was due to the swarm of swimmers. I never realized how rough the water itself was.

The run up the ramp to T1 was easier than I had thought it would be, but the time in transition was much longer. Next time, I will wear all my bike clothing under my wetsuit as I usually do. I was afraid that the regular bike shorts that I wanted to wear for the long ride would be too bulky, but it took me too long to put everything on. As I headed out to the bike racks, I heard Curtis Weinstein yell my name. I turned to wave and fell flat on my face, great form.

As I headed out the connector to begin the two loop course, I felt strong. The rain was more a mist than a downpour, at least it was then. By the time I finished the 16 mile ride out to the loops it was windy cold and raining steadily as it would for the rest of the day. After 30 miles, I stopped for the first of about 10 comfort stops, as they call them at the Tour de France. In order to get the 400 calories an hour that I had planned on, I was drinking a huge amount of fluid, and not sweating it out. I also put on my rain jacket, more for the cold than the rain. It soaked through almost immediately. Clearly, an Assos rain jacket is in my future. At the completion of the first loop, I was about 10 minutes off my goal pace. This was the most depressing part of the entire race for me. The bike is my strength, but it wasn’t happening. All my electronics went out within the first 15 miles. My HR monitor never worked after the swim. The Powertap watt meter stopped recording after four miles, and the speedometer quit at 15. I went by feel. Perhaps I was too conservative, but my poor run time would not indicate that I left too much out on the bike course.

When, I returned to transition, I knew that I was not going to have the race that I had hoped to have. I was almost 40 minutes slower than my goal of 5:50. T2 was another struggle with clothing. My fingers were numb, and it was very difficult to pull things off and put them on. Luckily, I had quick laces and didn’t have to try to tie anything. As I left for the run, I saw Polly, Oona, Lily, and several of Oona’s friends from camp and UW all in matching t-shirts with my license plate number printed on them. Polly had organized this cheering section, and used the license plate number so I wouldn’t be embarrassed by a public demonstration. I must be very difficult to live with.

It felt good to be running after all those miles of biking and wind chill. I planned on holding 10 minute miles. I came close for about the first seven. I ran the whole first loop with the exception of Observatory Hill. The course winds back and forth through the Madison campus. We even ran around the football field at Camp Randal, the Badgers’ home field. Much of the run goes along Lake Mendota. I was slowing down, but I still felt like running. When I reached the turn around at the capitol, I grabbed my special needs bag which contained a dry long sleeve jersey. One of the thousands of great volunteers helped me struggle into it. It was really getting cold. The shirt gave me a shot of energy and optimism, and I felt that I was picking up the pace going down upper State Street when I heard Polly, and looked up to see her running with me. Well, I guess I wasn’t actually picking it up that much.

One of the amazing things on the run was seeing Lynn and Jenny Schmitt on what seemed to be every corner. Somehow, they had analyzed the course, and were able to run from place to place to be there just before Bill arrived. They were kind enough to wait there till I passed, and then must have dashed for the next position. I also noticed Dan Schowalter as I was finishing both my first and second run laps of the race.

By the time I was in my second lap around the football field, the wheels began to come off. I decided that if I could detect a slope steep enough to drain water, I was walking up it. It was about this time that I began running with a woman in a yellow jacket similar to the one I was wearing. She was slower than I, but she kept running. I would catch her, then see something remotely resembling a hill, and start walking. Then I’d start running again would catch her on the flats and downhills. This continued for the rest of the run.

I was now stopping frequently for hot soup and pretzels. I was so sick of the concentrate I had on the bike and beginning of the run that I could no longer use it. The soup let me pretend that I was warming up. Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine that cold would have been an issue in this race. As cold and wet as it was, the conditions were still better than the 95° of the previous year.

As I reached the top of the finish ramp, I thought it would be interesting to cross the line with the woman that I had been trading places with for the last 10 miles. I was surprised to see her turn for a second lap just as I started down toward the finish. Wow, that was going to be a long day. When I watched Bill finish in 2005, I was filled with emotion when I heard his name called with Mike Reilly, the announcer blarring “Bill Schmitt, you are an Ironman.” I expected to feel that emotion for myself this time. I was surprised that as I crossed the line, that I failed to hear anything. Friends later told me that not only was I declared an Ironman, but that a brief biography noting where I was from, and that it was great that a first time, 58 year old had managed to finish. My time was a disappointing 13:11:50, about an hour and 20 minutes slower than my goal. Now that I remember that it was not so long ago that I could not imagine completing an Ironman, I feel pretty better about the experience.…so much better that I let Tommy talk me into doing the inaugral IM Louisville. Wait till next year.