Denise is an Ironman triathlete and multiple marathoner, including Boston. She has competed in triathlons of every distance from sprint to Iron. She brings her experience, knowledge and enthusiasm to you. With Denise you can finish that first triathlon or marathon, PR any event you want, or qualify for Boston.
Time for making resolutions, setting goals for the year ahead, and also time, unavoidably, to look back.
As you do reflect on 2011, I encourage all of you to focus on the positive events of the year rather than the negatives. I know sometimes those can be hard to find in this PR-focused arena! You just cannot PR every time out, not gonna happen! You might even have an entire season without a PR. Does that make it a failure? Of course not!
Maybe you didn't PR that half marathon, but you paced smarter and more evenly than you ever have.
You didn't PR the 10K, but the time wasn't that far off of your best and your training had not gone well because of work or family commitments. Hmmm, seems all those months, years, of solid, consistent training pay off in lots of ways!
Your swim split in your half-iron showed no improvement, but you felt a lot better getting out of the water than you usually do.
Maybe you had some speedy transition times. You handled bad weather or a poorly run event with grace and a smile!
Your A race started great, but things began to go awry. Instead of getting down, you controlled what you could and laughed the rest of it off and finished the day with a smile.
These are all positives to pull from your races and I bet if you think back to a race you felt was a total disaster, you can find at least one positive you hadn't considered before. And instead of viewing anything that did not go well as a failure, learn from it. Is there something you can do to improve it? Or handle it differently?
Also as you reflect, look at what else may have been going on in your life during the training period for your races. Were things unusually crazy at work? Did you change jobs? Did something major happen in the family? A death, an illness, a new baby? All of this affects you and your training.
So go ahead and glance back, but don't dwell. Look ahead, set some new goals and more importantly put together a realistic plan to get you there! Emphasis on realistic!
You know your life better than anyone, so be honest with yourself, and your coach, about what you can and will do every day. If you aren't, you are setting yourself for certain frustration. So what if your buddy claims he trains 3 hours every day. Does your job, family, motivation max you out at 1 hour? No problem. Just be honest about that and you'll be able train smarter and happier!
Happy New Year everyone!
Here are a couple of quick thoughts from me and a spectator’s perspective. It was a lot of fun. I loved the friendly, relaxed vibe of the weekend. If you like to get out on the course to observe from lots of vantage points, that’s a little tough on this course. But the transition area is laid out to provide multiple opportunities to see your athlete enter and leave and if your athlete is doing the full, they come all the way to the finish line and go back out on the run!
Plus there is plenty to do while waiting! You can hit the coasters in the park and/or relax on the beach!
The finish line itself is terrific and this was made extra special since it was 9-11 with the opportunity to run in carrying the Stars and Stripes.
I would certainly add this to your list and if you have friends considering taking the plunge to long-course, this is a great course for a first half or full!
Now here are Jolly’s thoughts!
The Venue: The race is set at Sandusky, Ohio’s Cedar Point Amusement Park, though calling it an “amusement” park is misleading. Cedar Point aims to thrill and the park delivers. Roller coasters are the park’s rush of choice. The description of almost every ‘coaster in the park reads “was the tallest coaster when it debuted” or “set the roller coaster speed record when it opened”. If higher, faster, and loopier is the objective, Cedar Point delivers.
The park opened early, at 4 PM, on Friday for athletes, volunteers, and their guests. Season pass holders got in at 5, and general admission folks at 6. This meant that there was no waiting in long lines. It was a bit disorienting to briskly stroll past long sections of ziz-zag holding areas that are necessary in the height of the summer season and walk directly onto the rides, but there was absolutely no waiting in line for the first hour or two on Friday evening. The park is also open Saturday and Sunday (race day), providing a welcome diversion for race-weary families, especially the kids (a height of 4’4” is sufficient for half of the “e-ticket” rides, 4’6” lets you ride everything in the park).
Race Hotel: The sprawling Breakers Hotel (more than 1000 rooms) is the host hotel. It’s a 10-minute walk down the beach to the transition area and the swim start is at the hotel. With the park only open on weekends, early arrivals may wonder if they have stumbled onto the set of a re-make of “The Shining”, as there isn’t much in the way of staff and none of the eateries or shops open until Friday afternoon when the main body of racers arrive. Rooms are spacious and comfortable. We stayed in the newer Breakers Tower section in a lake view suite with a small, screened balcony that overlooked the race start. The suite had a small dorm-room style refrigerator, a microwave, and a coffee maker. If you’re a java junkie, pack your own small machine filters and beans. Worth noting is that while Breakers does offer free Wi-Fi, it’s not available in the rooms. You’ll have to trek to the main lobby area to surf the web unless you have a cellular connection.
Sandusky: A typical, mid-sized Great Lakes town, the area around Cedar Point is devoted mainly to fast food and park-related attractions like miniature golf and arcades. A bit to the south is the Sandusky mall with many chain restaurants such as Panera, Chipotle, Steak and Shake, etc. If you’re willing to explore a bit, there are many mom & pop eateries in the area that are reasonably priced. Lake Erie perch, hand breaded and lightly fried, is a local delicacy that you shouldn’t pass up.
The Swim: Sandusky sits in the southwest basin of Lake Erie in a moderately protected cove. If the winds are southerly, you will be treated to a glassy-calm swim in cool 70-degree water. Northerly or north-easterly winds will roughen things up quite a bit and this was the case when we arrived, but Rev3 has an alternate swim venue on the bay south of the park that was very calm when Lake Erie was showing some fire. The lake bottom is a mix of mud and sand that drops away gradually. The beach start means that you may find yourself trudging through some deep and squishy mud, followed by walking and dolphin-diving for more distance than you might expect. There is quite a bit of sediment in the water close to shore, but this diminishes as water depth increases. Lake Winnipesauke (Timberman) it’s not, but neither is it the James (Rocketts Landing) or Ohio (IM Louisville) Rivers.
Transition Area: No bike racks in this transition area. Rev3 uses long slotted trays instead. Every athlete gets a designated slot, marked with name and race number. Put your rear wheel in the tray and go. Both half and iron-distance athletes had to put their bikes in transition the night prior to the race. Iron-distance folks put their gear in transition bags that were racked and delivered by volunteers. Half-iron racers stacked gear next to their bikes. Space was tight, but workable.
The Bike: Rev3 had to change the course from what was in the athlete guide and online due to road construction that was behind schedule (there are 2 seasons in the Great Lakes areas - winter and road construction). The new course looped back into Sandusky on a wide, 2-lane main street before heading south and onto sparsely travelled county roads. I suspect that this change wasn’t much of an issue for the iron-distance folks who started at 0705, but as a back-of-the-pack swimmer starting in the last wave (0845), it took some care to navigate through the Sunday brunch and church auto traffic and slower riders. Drivers were courteous and respectful and frequently allowed me room to pass while they waited behind slower riders.
Moving into the country, the roads were a mix of chip seal (think Muddy Creek Rd in Pungo) and pavement. Some of the chip seal roads produced spine-tingling vibrations, but on the half course, those sections were only a mile or two long. The iron course transited some rougher roads that were freshly milled (remember, two seasons here). Despite the road surface the bike course was fast. Only a Virginia Beach resident would call the course hilly, but there were gentle rollers with fast downhill sections that you could run out without slowing. The course reroute impacted aid station placement for the half, cutting the number of stations from 4 to 3, but cool temps allowed me to race the course with only a single bottle torpedo mount. On course nutrition was Gatorade in commercial packaging with a mouthpiece top that didn’t leak if you left it open. The hand-up water bottles, on the other hand, had a retained, cork-style top that required replacement by hand after drinking to keep all of the water from pouting out. Both of these bottles worked fine in a torpedo-style mount where you could hold them in by hand, but I am skeptical of the ability of a rear cage to hold them when riding over some of the bumps on course.
The Run: The run was dead flat, even to this Norfolker, with only one noticeable rise on the causeway between the park and mainland. The course was one lap for half, two for iron. The run went through Sandusky and was not particularly scenic, but there were scattered and enthusiastic fans on the course. Aid stations were well stocked and volunteers were great. Gatorade, pepsi, water, Gu gel, and occasionally pretzels were readily available at the aid stations. Rev3 prides itself on being family friendly and encouraged athletes to bring their family members across the line with them. Rev3 also displayed every athlete’s photo on a stadium-big screen TV as they crossed the finish line.
The SWAG: Race packets had a Zorrell long-sleeve white Rev3 T with a Cedar Point themed backdrop. Also in the packet were a couple sample size packets of Gu Chomps and a Headsweats Rev3 visor. The finishers’ shirt was a dark, long-sleeved tech-T, again with a Cedar Point there. The finisher’s medal was a weighty, large “R” with a small 3 and a Cedar Point roller coaster scene attached to a wide, thick, and soft velvety lanyard. Post race food was so-so: pulled chicken bbq sandwiches, potato salad, chips, cookies, soda, and all the muscle milk you could drink.
All in all, the race was an outstanding production and I’m already reconsidering my decision to stop swimming and focus on duathlons and time trials next year so I can go back.
It's not at all uncommon anymore for an athlete to make the ironman run his/her first marathon, but to make an ironman triathlon the first triathlon, ever...well, that's just crazy!
It didn’t seem so crazy to Donnie Baker. And somehow, when he said it to me, it just seemed to fit his personality.
He is softspoken, and has a manner about him when he speaks that is so low key, it totally belies the grit and determination within. Gives no indication of just what he has been through during the past few years.
Donnie Baker is a 38-year-old heart attack survivor.
It was December 2005 and Donnie noticed some pain in his shoulder and elbow that just didn’t seem to want to go away. Certain he just pulled something he treated himself with a hefty dose of ibuprofen and a 12-pack of beer.
“It stopped hurting,” he quips. At that time in his life, he was never more than arms reach from a beer, no matter where he was. “I was basically a functioning alcoholic. I say functioning because I never missed work or anything like that because of it. But I always had a cooler in the truck, had a fridge stocked in the garage…”
When the ibuprofen and beer wore off he was still in pain. After three days of it with no change, his wife demanded he go to the doctor and get checked out. He walked in, told the docs that he had pulled something in his shoulder and needed a cortisone shot.
In a flash, it seemed, he was laid out on a hospital bed being admitted and told he was having a heart attack. For a few moments during all of this his heart stopped beating and the world started to go black. As his vision was being stripped away from him, he tried desperately to think of something positive that he had done in his life, something positive he would be leaving behind and “I couldn’t think of one single thing positive.”
“It was a horrible feeling,” Donnie said.
He stayed in the hospital for more than a week. Doctors ran all sorts of tests and did conclude he has an electrical abnormality in his heart that cannot be corrected, but exercise can help keep things functioning normally for longer and certainly improve the quality of his life.
Channel surfing one afternoon, and trying to take stock of his life and the changes that needed to be made he came across the Ironman World Championships from Kona. There was Sister Madonna Buder, then 76, completing her 15th Ironman. Donnie was awed and inspired.
It would be three more years before he would finally sign up for Louisville.
“I was a wreck. I really needed to get a lot of things straight. Basically anything in my life that I could not control, that had control of me, I gave up.”
When he did finally decide to take the plunge he sat down with his wife and explained that this was going to be a huge undertaking and he needed her support. He also had to tell her that the race he had chosen would fall on their 10-year anniversary. She wanted him to go for it.
Running was not an issue. He was a proven half-marathoner with a PR of 1:35. He had already started riding and really enjoyed it. But swimming was another story. Most triathletes have issues of some sort with swimming and you’re going to be hard pressed to find many age-groupers out there who says that is their favorite part. For Donnie it was more than just an issue. Donnie didn’t even know how to swim when he signed up for this event.
That’s right, not just a self-proclaimed poor swimmer, he actually had to learn, and fast!
So in February of THIS year, he found an instructor to work with him one on one. Honestly when Donnie shifted to my workouts he stepped right up and got the work done. He never really complained, he asked questions here and there, I could feel the lack of confidence early on, but every week that confidence grew. He made it very easy to forget that he was an infant to the sport.
When it came to training Donnie didn’t miss a beat, despite the fact that he has a job that has him on his feet and moving all day – he’s a mailman.
With about four weeks to go his heart started acting up again, some irregular beats and high heart rates started to show up. Understandably he was upset, concerned, freaked. We had come so far, we were so close. The doctors assured him some rest for a few days was all he needed.
We listened to the doctor and Donnie’s body and by the following weekend everything was back on track. More importantly it was then that Donnie began to realize he was ready to do this, he was ready to become an ironman.
As the race approached his biggest concern seemed to be all of the different gear bags and getting them squared away. As soon as that was done, bike and bags were turned it, all was good and he woke race morning really calm.
For those of you not familiar with the Louisville swim, it is a time-trial start, where swimmers jump into the water one right after the other and head up a little cove before making the turn into the main portion of the Ohio River and headed back toward town. The swim began without incident, he settled in made the turn, continued on when suddenly it all changed. Instantly his head began throbbing and he felt sick, physically sick, to his stomach. The dry heaves followed that. The smell of diesel fuel and taste of the water had just become too much. He paused at a kayak for a few minutes. The volunteer said he wasn't the first swimmer who had stopped. A lot of people had stopped and complaining of headaches and stomach pains, he said. That water is, uh, well, not the best...but Donnie was more than halfway done. Donnie kept telling himself all he had to do is get out of that water, he had plenty of time to finish.
Just get me to the bike ride, he kept saying to himself. "I just put my head down and swam," he said. He took some extra time in transition to gather himself up and then got on with his day.
Once on the bike, after about 30 minutes everything was fine.
"Bike ride felt great, I loved it," Donnie said. For Donnie, who dealt with riding the hills and mountains surrounding Lynchburg, Va on a daily basis, the rollers of Louisville's horse country were a welcome relief.
He paced the bike well, paying close attention to watts on constant display in front of him. He was a little too ready to run when he got off the bike and started just a bit too fast. He said it felt like he was dragging his feet, but when he looked down it was too fast. Soon he just relaxed into it, had a blast taking in the sights, Churchill Downs, the University of Louisville and then finally the finish chute in downtown.
His wife was right there at the finish waiting with a big kiss, all the endless training days and long weekends forgotten!
“It was so amazing coming through that chute,” he said. “I would have liked the swim to go better, but the whole ride, the whole run, it was so much fun!”
Donnie’s 13:27 (1:46, 6:42, 4:39) finish time was awesome – especially when you factor in the difficulties of the swim which could have set the tone for the entire day and he refused to let it. He’s already thinking about another one, not next year though. Next year his wife gets to pick the vacation and lest she think he had totally forgotten the anniversary, he was pulling into the parking lot of the jewelry store as we spoke!
