2005 Ironman Arizona Race Report by Tim Battles

PRE-RACE

Went to the airport and checked in my bike. The attendant told me I required a voucher, but the USAT travel desk told me that a voucher would not be necessarily and that it was all electronic. The told me the dimensions would have to be 60 inches total L/W/H I pointed out to them that this was impossible and that I did not ride a toddlers tricycle. After some period of exchanges we go it all figured out.

Got in Wednesday morning and checked into the hotel. The hotel room had not been serviced so my wife kind of freaked out on the hair all over the bathroom floor. Got a new room which was acceptable, but the experience left a aftertaste with my wife concerning the Hotel. Tried to get my registration done, but forgot my USAT card at the hotel, even had it on my check listL. I went through registration and weigh in. The scales were way off. They weighed me in at 165 and the day before I weighed 152. I met up with a couple other people from St. Louis and we had a late lunch together enjoying the views of Tempe from a balcony UU. Later that night we went to Arizona Mills and tried to see a movie, but my daughter had a little accident. We did get to eat at the Rainforest Cafe which the girls loved.

Thursday I showed up at the swim at 8:00, met up with some St. Louis folks to swim half the course. The water was perfect, I really could not have asked for a better temperature. I have in the past overheated in my IM stealth wetsuit and I knew with the 65 degrees that wasn't going to be the case. I took the family to the zoo. What a great zoo they have, the girls (5 and 2) had a great time especially the monkey exhibit. We went to Buca's for the TNO dinner. Was good to put a face with a nick and get to meet some of you out there. After the TNO dinner my wife wanted a couple drinks so we went to a Sports Bar near the Hotel. The girls had root beer floats as did I. Best part was my daughter told us this joke she learned from her cousin. A rope walks into a bar and asked the bartender for a root beer. The bartender says we do not serve ropes in here. The rope walks out of the bars and rub himself against the wall then ties himself in a knot. The rope walks back into the bar and ask the bartender for a beer. The bartender goes hey aren't you that rope that was just in here? The rope replies, no I am (afraid not / a fraid knot). So there is a group of guys at the table next to us. She asks us if she can tell them her joke. She does and they laugh. Well it turns out that at 10:00 the bar has an open mic comedy. So they start off the comedy with my daughter telling her joke to about 30 people. Of course we had to leave before the jokes got too dirty J, but she thought it was fantastic. Spent the rest of Thursday night working on my bike and getting everything packed up in my T and SP bags.

Friday I rode the city loop to familiarize myself with the course. The turns didn't seem that bad which a relief. I checked my gear and bike in, tested my bike computer and it didn’t work. I moved the sensor up about 3 inches and that seemed to do the trick. The wife was dying for Mexican so we went to a place on Indian School Road and had a terrific lunch under a shaded patio. I made sure I stayed clear from the bean. I just got some rice and a spinach enchilada. We went to Arizona Mills later and saw Robots which the girls enjoyed. Went back to the Hotel and ate leftover pasta from Rainforest.

We woke up at 3:30 am on Saturday got the girls ready and packed the car. Got to the race site right before 5 and got some great parking right out of the bike transition on Rio Salado. Back the car in and decided we could pop the girls in the trunk and they could watch most of the race from there. I like the course for spectators. They would be able to see me 6 times on the bike and 4 times on the run just from that place; plus coming out of the water and the finish. That's 12 times!! What a great spectator course. I rechecked all my bags and bike. I forgot my pump and had to use someone else’s. You never realize how attached you get to your pump until you use someone else's, it was a big unsettling. My wife found a great spot to watch me exit the water. I walked the transition area to make sure I knew where I was going and started putting on lube, wetsuit and downed a cliff bar.

SWIM 8th AG 75th OA 57:26

I knew the swim was the leg I owned so I lined up in front and in the middle. The river has a curvature to it so I knew if I kept a straight line I would hit the buoy and hopefully would find someone along the way to draft off of. I used a fog free lotion on my goggle, but the damn things would not stop fogging up. I kept putting my face in the water too cool them down, but nothing was working. I could make out the edge of the river wall and swimmer next to me, but that was about it. I couldn’t see a buoy to save my life. Figured I would have to rely on other swimmers to sight even though I hated doing so. The canon sounds I hit my watches and start swimming. I swam for about a minute to get into a rhythm and then start sighting. I still could not see and there were no swimmers in front of me to site on. I sight to the left and see a pack swimming close to what must be the buoys and just started sighting off them. After about 10 minute I still don’t find anyone to draft off of so I considered moving on over to the pack but I was in such a good rhythm I didn’t want to disrupt it and from what I could tell by the rivers edge I was right on target for hitting the turn around. Earlier I had picked some spots on the bridges to aim for so as I passed the bridges I could tell how close I was. I hit the turn around and looked at my watch to get a time and rinse my goggles. I was at 27 something. Wow I thought and then quickly remembers that the turn around is less then half way L, but I figured it couldn’t be more then 3 or 4 minutes from the start. On the way back it certainly got choppy so I modified my stroke a bit to compensate keeping my head low at driving forward with more of a dolphin style. Best thing is I had visibility going back and I found someone to draft off of about half way through the second half . Other then an occasional bump I don't think I got hit once during the swim, it went very smooth.

T1 4:02

Everything went smooth. The volunteers were absolutely fabulous. I could have had a faster T1 if I had only just let them do their jobs.

BIKE 271st AG 1221st OA 6:50:34

I hop on and take off and immediately notice that my bike computer isn’t registering, which is probably the best thing that happened to me out on the bike course cause I really didn't need to know how slow I was going into that awful headwind. Didn’t concern me too much though I had spent many hour in aero and switch too my small ring and started to spin, I wasn’t going to kill my legs and would take advantage when I got the wind at my back and on the run. I was about 10 minutes from the turn around when I started hitting a bunch of small rocks. I could feel them and hear them popping off my front wheel. I decided to get more to the left for better pavement and just hope I don’t get a blocking penalty. No sooner then I started putting myself to the left my front blows. I get off my bike hit my lap timer and start changing. Apparently I used some pretty good glue cause it was extremely difficult getting the tire off. I actually broke a lever trying to get it off. I get the new one on hit my split timer and take off (8:02). I am thinking I am back in business when I start feeling a little sluggish. I look back at my rear and the darn thing is almost flat. I rode on it as much as I could without sacrificing my Bontrager carbons, got off and started walking. 40 minutes later I finally hit an aid station and asked for a tubular. The tek starts taking off my rear and I am like woah!! I will do it!! I changed my rear and am back on the road (46:30). I never really got pissed. I knew my goals were out the window so I just decided to enjoy the day and finish the race. I finished the first loop and headed out for the second. Picked up my spare tubular at special needs and finished the 2nd loop. On the 3rd loop right at Mill and Rio Salado headed towards 3rd street my front blew again. Fortunately I had my tube from SP and replaced it (6:00). The finishing loop went quite nicely...

T2 3:13

Nothing special.. in and out. Was still feeling good and my nutrition plan was going accordingly even though I had to spread out my feeding due to the extra hour I did not plan on being on the bike.

RUN 95th AG 410th OA 4:21:07

I headed out and got to run right pass the car. I stepped off onto the sidewalk cause I could see the girls and wife sitting in the car trying to doze J I couldn’t resist and banged on the trunk. They all rattled and I smiled and waved. I headed out along Rio Salado doing my race pace, but once I turned around and starting running toward the canal I decided to slow it down, take in the scenario so I wouldn't have to suffer as much the next day. I am really glad I did that cause it made the disastrous flats worthwhile. I walked every aid station and talked to the volunteers, made sure I let them know I recognized their efforts. About half way through the second loop I asked someone what time sunset was. They said 7:15. I looked down at my watch. I would have to run below 8:30's to make it, so I stopped walking the aide stations in order to reach the finish right at sunset. I was certainly passing a lot of people, which kept me going and the crowd as you hit Mill was going wild which made that short little loop much easier. I start down the finishing loop when I hear "Tim!!" I look over and see my wife passing the kids through the barrier. I cross with both kids in tow. 12:16:20. 1 minute and 20 seconds after sunset J. Made for a nice picture.

POST RACE

Stayed around cheering people on for another 2 hours, but the kids had had enough and we were starving. Picked up my gear and bike and went to an nice little Italian place on Scottsdale. There were a couple other Triathletes there. We exchanged some stories and went about eating. I think I ate about 3000 calories of whatever wasn't nailed down. Woke up the next morning at was a bit sore, but not too bad. We went to Denny’s for breakfast where we talked to a couple locals who were nice enough to give me the sports section of their paper as a souvenir and talk about football. As some of you might not know the Arizona Cardinals use to be in St. Louis and now Kurt Warner is going to be their starting QB. They were both originally from Boston as well so we had some discussions concerning the RAMs and the Patriots in Super bowls as well as the Cards and Red Sox in World Series. To top it off I am a hard core Oakland Raiders fans as well, so I have far too many reasons to dislike Boston sports wise, but I love the town and people. There were a lot of people walking funny for some reason. We then went to the race site and picked up my SP bags and attended the ceremony. The one complaint I do have about the race is baking in the sun for 4 hours during that ceremony. Not so much me, but was tough on the family. After the ceremony we went back to the hotel and hung around the pool. There were more Triathletes sharing experiences. Most of them from Cali and associated with Crucible and all were extremely friendly. Best part of the day was when my 5 year old wanted to go into the big pool. I told her "no" cause I couldn’t keep a good eye on both her and her sister with them split up knowing the condition I was in (Mom was napping). I told her if she could swim a lap of the pool then I would let her play in it. I placed my 2 year old in the chair expecting to have to jump in after her, but low and behold she did it. Everyone poolside started cheering her on. She will be doing 2.4 in no time J Sunday night we found a Steak House on Scottsdale that had a St. Louis menu purely by coincidence. The owner was from St. Louis and actually lived about 5 miles from us. He was awesome and gave us a free round of deserts. Monday we played tourist and walked around Old Scottsdale and Tempe, bought some souvenirs and ate a lot of ice cream from Cold Stone. I went to the airport to check my bike in early cause it doesn't all fit in the car all that well with 4 people and I didn’t want to leave it roped up in the trunk. I get back and my wife had put M-DOT tattoos on the girls calves and tried to convince me that I should get one while we are here in Tempe. I will leave the rest for another post. Its Tuesday today and I don’t feel too bad. The worst part of my body that hurts is my sunburn. Unfortunately I did not use enough lotion.

Thanks for reading.