Volunteering at Ironman Texas

Ironman  Texas is nearby, so I decided to volunteer. I got involved in recruiting employees at my company to volunteer, so I ended up getting asked to be volunteer captain for my shift which was the 6-10am timing shift.

One of the two main responsibilities of this shift is to replace people's timing chips if athletes forgot to bring it on race morning and replace them if they lost them during the race. The highly comptent WTC staff person took care of the programming. We would hand out the new chip and write down the person's race number. The race was wetsuit optional so athletes wearing a wetsuit went under a different arch to register the timing chips so that it knows who wore one. So our other job was to ensure athletes went under the correct arch.

The shift didn't start until 6, but I  got there at 5:15.  It was still dark and  the staff were still setting up. Due to an error in the system, I ended up having about 30 volunteers. So I spent the first half hour or more checking people in and handing out t shirts. The swim start area was big enough that I was getting "where are you?" phone calls from volunteers arriving.  Due to a lot of people who volunteered the day before, I also didn't have enough t-shirts. The shift really only needs 6 people and then another 4 people are good for no shows (we had 4) and to help out with miscellaneous tasks (see the next paragraph). Luckily I had a  few competent people and some useless teenagers volunteering for school credit. At the swim start, there was about 20 people who forgot their chip out of 2500 or so.

We also did potentially anything needed to help the athletes.  Being a volunteer means you will get asked lots off questions about anything and everything. It  also allows you to help in unexpected and rewarding ways. One guy forgot to put his bike computer on his bike. So I had a responsible volunteer take it over to transition. Another woman was looking for a specific table to drop off her asthma inhaler at. I helped her look and tried asking some of the WTC staff, but I wasn't getting anywhere. Then after talking with her a bit more, it finally dawned on her that the swim exit was not at the same spot. So she started crying, but I was able to assure her that we would get it to transition. Given the enorminity of the impeding race and criticality of the inhaler, I can't imagine how bad she felt in that instant. So I was really happy to be able to help out.

After the swim stated, we walked over to transition to replace people's chips if they lost it during the swim. We did about five. There was a lot of down time here, so I got to do a lot of watching. I ended up being near a rack so I also helped guide the athletes to their appropriate bike rack. It was amazing to watch the pros go in and out of transition, especially the flying dismounts they make look so easy.  After my shift was over, I ate then watched the bikes come in.

The swim start:

 The age group mass start:

 The swim exit:

 Transition after everyone left:

Best Motivational Videos & Quotes

Original April 8, 2013:
These are some favorite videos and quotes that I have come across that provide motivation and also keep things in perspective. I will continue to update this list as I find other good ones. Suggestions are welcome.

Update May 22, 2013: I watched a lot of brave athletes tackle 90 degree heat at Ironman Texas last Saturday. There was a 17% DNF rate. For those people, the quote from Teddy Roosevelt has been added.

Best Videos

Move (Nike, 2002 Olympics)

The Pursuit of Better (Newton Running)

The Script - Hall of Fame (remake video)

Best Quotes

"Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.” - Greg Henderson

"My philosophy is you have to give it your 100 percent and you're a winner. That was my 100 percent. Why have any bad feelings about your 100 percent?" - Mike Pigg

"When you are going through hell, keep going" - Winston Churchill

"I would just think of my dad (a former pro cyclist who has Parkinson's). I knew that if my dad could be in my shoes for one day—if all he had to do was struggle on a bike for six hours, but be healthy and fully functional—he would be me on that day in a heartbeat." - Taylor Phinney, talking about why he didn't quit a tough race when he was dead last.

"It doesn't get any easier. You just get faster" - Greg LeMond

"The only easy day was yesterday" - motto of the SEALs

 "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."  - Theodore Roosevelt "Citizenship in a Republic" speech, Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.

"Pain is weakness leaving the body" - Chesty Puller, USMC (attributed)

"No one falls to the top of a mountain, son" - Chris McCormack's father
"Sweat is fat crying"

Race Day Checklist - What to Do

There are many lists available about what to bring, but there are several things to do on race, that I must also remember.

• Walk from the swim exit to the bike rack
• Walk bike entrance to bike rack
• Look at swim course - Search for landmarks behind bouys.
• Check wind speed and direction (Helps me know how to pace myself)
• Make sure crank arm is in correct position
• Ensure water bottles are full
• Air up tires
• Crack open any gels or food for the bike
• Eat pre-race food
• Roll up socks (I put on my shoes in transition)

CB&I Triathlon

I finished the CB&I triathlon! I had done the super-sprint in March, but this was my first "big-boy" triathlon.  It was a 500m open water swim, 15 mile bike, and 5K run.

It was an unusually cold morning for May in Texas - air was 42 F and the water was about 68F. Standing around before the race started was the hardest part. I forgot to do several minor things, like tear off my gel packet tops, drink my "prime Gatorade", and check the wind forecast. I need a pre-race to-do list, not just a to-bring list. I did eat a Honey Stinger and filled my water bottle with Gatorade for the bike.

Overall
The race went pretty well: I finished near the top 3rd of my age group in the swim, then I got passed by everyone and their mother on the bike, but then made up on a little ground on the run and hit a new PR for a 5K on the run (26:34)! 

After the swim, I was 28th in my AG out of 80.  After the bike, I dropped to 55th, and then I passed a few people on the run to finish 49th. The guy who finished in 48th place was 1:58 faster than me, so even if I avoided the little errors (see T1), I still would have been in 49th place, so that prevents me from beating myself up.

Overall, I was in the 61st percentile of my age group and 46th percentile overall. My run time of 8:31/mile was only good enough for 62th percentile of my age group on the run, so that is an indication of the strength of the field. If you ran a 10 min/mile you were in the bottom 10%.  I basically hit all of my higher goals. I beat the top goal for the swim by a few seconds, I missed the top goal on the bike by about 30 seconds, and then I crushed the run goal!

As you crossed the finished, they call out your name, so that was pretty sweet. Most important, I had a great time! It was fun just getting out there and being in the mix. There is a lot of great people in the triathlon community. I am already looking forward to my next one!

Swim
My age group started in the 2nd wave, only one minute after the pros. So we had one minute to get in the water and get our body and face used to the water temperature in one minute. There was no countdown or warning, just a horn, which caught many people off guard. I at least had my goggles on, but I forgot to start my watch. It wasn't on the right said, but I didn't try to fiddle with it. Later waves supposedly got at least one warning and 3-4 minutes.

I think the lack of warning did help to avoid a buildup of nerves. The swim went rather well. I found it easy enough to sight, because I just looking for a mass of people. I was only significantly off course once. The lake was so dark and muddy that it was impossible to find feet to draft off. Battling other swimmers was okay, in a way, fun, except when I got whacked which caused me to stop and look up once.

Two recent pool swims of 500m were 10:46 and 10:52, so my overall time was right in line. The advantage of the wetsuit was negated by not swimming in a straight line and the one quick stop. Total Time: 10:53

T1
It was so cold, I was worried about the wind on my wet body when I started biking, so I took the time to put on a skull cap, bike jacket, and gloves. I then tried to start my watch, but it was on the wrong setting and then I was fiddling with it. I had also rolled up my socks so I could put them on easy, but I found myself unrolling one of them. wtf, Chris? Total time = 4:12

Bike
I literally passed only one person on a mountain bike. I probably got passed by at least 50 people from all of the slower swimmers in my wave, and the fast folk from the waves behind me.

Despite my slow speed, I was happy to see some improvement. At the super sprint I did in March, I did 6.5 miles at 16.4 mph, so in 5 weeks of training, I improved to do over twice the distance at higher speed. Total time = 53:35: 16.8 mph

T2
My poor T1 time bothered me during the bike, so T2 was as efficient as I could be. (1:59)

Run
I hit a PR on the run by about 45 seconds! I was faster than my standalone 5k from January. I was expecting to be slower.  I felt like I was running slow, but I knew from a previous bric that I was actually going faster. My watch was giving me some data that was in the 7-8 minute mile range, but I knew that wasn't true either. Total time = 26:34 8:31/mile