Finish Line Vision - Jay Hewitt Blog

US Long Course National Championship, Oct. 18, 2008

2008-10-24T14:44:00.007-05:00

I was really excited about this race. It was the 2008 US Long Course Triathlon National Championship, and the qualifier for the 2009 Team USA World Championship team. I was my best shape ever, and just come off a Half Ironman PR 3 weeks ago in South Carolina. Today I had a great swim and was up with the leaders on the bike until . . . disaster in the desert. Ugh!!! Here’s how it went.

I have raced Ironman and Half Ironman triathlons all over the world - Sweden, Denmark, the Caribbean, Australia and all over the United States - but this race in the desert outside Las Vegas may be the most beautiful course I have ever raced. Also might be one of the hardest. The swim was in Lake Mead, the man-made lake formed when the famous Hoover Dam was built in 1935 to control the Colorado River after is passes through the Grand Canyon. Absolutely stunning scenery around this lake. Red rock mountains rising among miles and miles of endless desert and canyons.

I knew the bike course was going to be hilly. Previewing the course by car the day before already made my legs start to hurt. No lights, stop signs, or civilization. Just the road and desert. Over 6,000 feet of climbing in just 56 miles. Then run a 13.1 half marathon. All in the desert. Ouch. I told my wife Anna that if I did not come back from the bike, come look for my body before the buzzards and rattlesnakes got me.

Two transitions. The swim-to-bike (T1) was down by Lake Mead, and bike-to-run (T2) was about 1500 feet above the lake in the little town of Boulder City, NV. Boulder City started as a tent village high above the Colorado River housing the workers building the Hoover Dam just after the Great Depression. It is now the only town in Nevada that does not allow gambling, thus is quite charming and does not have the ugly excess commercialism of Las Vegas and casinos.

Race morning was the usual buzz of excitement and adrenaline. There were 3 races that morning, a sprint distance, Olympic distance and the Half Ironman. Thus, there were several thousand athletes milling around in transition. I even bumped into 2007 Hawaii Ironman Champion Chris McCormack the day before at registration. He was doing the Olympic distance. Nice to see him there just 6 days after his bad luck in Hawaii, breaking a shifter cable during the bike and forced to drop out. Tough way to end your season, building for the biggest race and have a mechanical problem ruin everything. (Hmmm, I wonder what that feels like. Read on.)

I usually get a little nervous (anxious? focused?) before races, I’m no different than everybody else, but I think I worry about different things - my blood sugar, how much and when to eat and drink. I also think a lot about protecting my Omnipod insulin pump from getting ripped off in the swim. Since I expect to do well, I keep an eye on the competition, especially in a race like the National Championship where I have to finish top 10 to qualify for the 2009 World Championship in Australia with Team USA. But for the first time in many years I knew absolutely no one else in the race. Athletes were from all over the US, many from the west coast. I usually key off top guys I know I need to watch. Since I recognized no one in the dark race morning, I just assumed they were all top guys. I was calm and content in my own anonymous world. Anna and I even got to visit a bit by the lake right before the start. My last check of my blood sugar on my One Touch UltraMini meter was great, 130 Mg/dl, so I’d drink a few more carbs just before I hit the water. Everything felt right. I was ready to go fast.

Lake Mead was stunning at sun rise. It was a mass start of about 1000 males in the Half Ironman. I got off to a good start. For some reason, today I did not push too hard the first 300 meters like I often do. Must have been thinking about the 6,000 feet of desert climbing ahead. Being a mass start, there were a lot of feet to follow, if I could just find the right fast ones! Lake Mead is a beautiful cool, clear lake. The water even tasted fresh and clean. (We triathletes swallow a lot of water, especially in mass swim starts of 1,000 people.) After about 500 meters I could tell I was in the top quarter, and feeling really comfortable. My feet kept getting tapped and grabbed from guys behind me and I surged several times to break. After another 500 meters, I was passing guys right and left, and my arms felt super strong, body rotation was great. I found some great feet to follow with about 1000 meters to go and enjoyed a great draft until he began to tire and I surged around him. With 500 meters to go I still felt super and now like I was in the top 10% to 15% of the field.

When I came out of the water, we had to run 100 meters what seemed like straight up hill to the bike transition. At my bike I struggled to rip off my wetsuit (I hate it when the race does not have wetsuit strippers). It felt like a black Boa Constrictor wrapped around my ankle. Augh! That took more effort than the swim. Must have been the long run uphill in it. I grabbed my bike and ran with it another 100 meters up hill to start the bike. That uphill transition run was like an extra event!

My blood sugar on my One Touch UltraMini in T1 was 190 mg/dl. Not too bad. I did not bolus any insulin on my Omnipod pump, which by the way, had stayed rock solid on my arm during the swim. I knew (hoped) my basal rate and pounding my quads up and down climbs for 56 miles in the desert would bring it down. I saw Anna just as I mounted my bike outside transition. Later she told me she estimated I was in the top 50 at that point, but I think it was more like the top 75 or 100, but either way, that was a fantastic swim for me (my weakest event) in a national championship race of 1,000 top males from the US.

The bike course was one steep rolling hill after another. That meant you could not hammer out of transition like happens in most races. It was climb, climb, climb for about 5 minutes, then rip a screaming descent for about 2 minutes. On one descent in the first 5 miles I hit 47 mph. I was feeling good and passing guys like I usually do. It was an out and back course. I knew there was one right turn at mile 10, then 14 miles to the turn around point at mile 24, then 32 miles back the same way past T1 by the lake and up the mountain to T2 in Boulder City for the run. By the turn at mile 10 I was feeling great, passing the good swimmers who always get ahead of me. Occasionally getting passed by some of those little water bug guys on the climbs who weigh about 145 lbs, but I expected that. I’d catch those little dudes on the flats and descents. The air was cool and, of course, very dry. Felt like, uh . . . a desert. I concentrated on drinking and pushing the pace hard on all down hills and flatter sections, and pacing smart up the climbs so not to blow my legs for the final climb and run.

As much as I was concerned about this intimidating bike course, I was amazed at how time flew by. I usually never look off the course but today I could not resist. The scenery was stunning in the early morning hours, no traffic and no signs or sounds of humanity for miles. The miles just seemed to blaze past. About 2-3 miles from the turn around at mile 24, on a long climb I encountered the first guys heading back down the other way. I started counting and got to about 40 before I hit the turn around myself. I knew I was in a great position at that point and would probably catch a bunch of them the next 32 miles before we got to the run. I hit the turn around in 1 hour, 10 minutes, so I guess I was averaging about 21 mph for the first 24 miles. I’d take that on about 3,000 feet of climbing. I was hoping to average about 21 mph for the whole bike, down from my usual 23-24 mph race average, but this one had way too much climbing.

On the return I still felt good, passing guys about every 5 minutes. With all the climbs drafting was not a problem. It’s a good thing, since the officials never would have caught anyone anyway. Unlike the stealth Honda Gold Wings they usually ride, these officials were riding the back of Harley’s. Unbelievable. I could hear them coming from miles away. Like helicopters across the desert.

Reaching the top of a short climb at about mile 30, I was startled by a cyclist passing me on the left, followed closely by another, and another, with another by his side and another behind him. What the ??? I did a double take. I don’t know how long these 5 or 6 guys had been riding like this, but they were drafting like a mini peloton.

“Good lord,” I manage to grunt at them, short of breath on this climb. “Can I get a seat on this train?” They got the message and broke up around me.
One guy hovering on my left side obviously saw my Omnipod on my triceps. “What’s that on your arm?”
“Insulin pump,” I said. “I’m diabetic.”
“Oh. Wow. Good job man. My sister is diabetic. She’s on the list for a kidney transplant.”
Oh, that’s a nice thought during my race. Diabetes and kidney failure. “Good luck to her,” I said. Cresting the hill I surged ahead on the descent, caught the first guy and never saw any of them again.

I was really feeling good now. I made the climb back to the left turn at the 10 mile point going out, now mile 38 for me going back. This turn is at the small Lake Las Vegas, a small man-made pond and oasis in the desert for a Ritz-Carlton hotel and a few homes. Seems like a crime against nature, robbing the earth of precious water in the desert to build a hotel. There’s reason nothing grows out here.

I had slight tightness in my quads now, but I expected that. I had plenty left in the tank for the last 20 miles, including the brutal final 6 mile climb at 8% grade coming up at mile 50. I was just pacing now, concentrating on drinking. The dry air is so different from training at home in the sweaty, humid southeast US. In the desert your sweat evaporates immediately and you’re dehydrated before you know it.

At mile 44 I’m charging down a descent, pushing the biggest gear I’ve got at about 35 mph . . . when something doesn’t feel right. My pedals seem to skip. I push down but the crank arm jumps, but the bike doesn’t surge with it. Sort of like trying to ride with my back tire spinning in mud. At first I thought my crank arm was loose. I looked down and moved my foot side to side. No, not the crank arm. I pushed again. Slip. Slip. Same thing. Uh, oh. Something weird is going on here.

I hit the bottom of the climb and started pedaling, but the bike would not respond. My crank arms and pedals would rotate, but the bike would not go. I pulled over, jumped off and started looking. Crap. I’m thinking, looking. Crap. Not now. Things were going so well. Crap! What’s wrong here? Cranks are good. Not a flat tire. Racers zip by me about every 15 or 30 seconds. Crap!

I pull off the rear wheel and the cassette is completely loose. What in the world? That’s never happened before. I pulled out the skewer and tried to line up the cogs, replacing them back in line. The lock ring was loose and tightening a cassette is not your normal roadside repair. I did not have the right tools, so I jammed my skewer on it to see if I could get it tightened enough to get me going.

About 5 minutes had passed now. Racers kept going by me. Crap!

Since these mechanical problems happen suddenly without warning in a race, the adrenaline often clouds the mind. I remember now I actually spent about 30 seconds looking around my bike on the side of the road for the tool to tighten the cassette, like it was supposed to be attached. You never carry that tool with you, even on a training ride and certainly not a race. It was back in my bike tool box 1,500 miles away in South Carolina. It took me about 30 seconds to come to my senses.

I put the wheel back on and spun the pedals. Uh oh. Still no good. The cassette spun but the wheel did not.

Cyclist still whizzed by me.

Everything stopped for me at that point. A sinking feeling set in. The hub on my wheel was broken. I was finished. My race was over.

I crossed to the opposite side of the road to get out of the way of athletes from behind, and started walking with my bike. A slow, mentally tormenting walk . . . alone in the desert. I did not know when a support vehicle would come by. Until then, I had no choice but to just walk toward the next aid station.

I walked about a half mile until a support vehicle came by and gave me a ride up the mountain to Boulder City and the run transition. Anna saw me walking with my bike about 100 meters away and knew it was bad news.

I’ve had lots of disappointing races, but usually it’s my body and performance. This time it was my bike. I keep meticulous care of my bike and race equipment, and had no way of knowing this would happen. I raced this wheel many times this year with no problems, even the SC Half Ironman just 3 weeks ago. Talking to a rep from Zipp wheels (the manufacturer) after the race, he suggested that a little spring inside the hub broke, but I’d never know it was about to happen. After 4 years and dozens of Ironman and Half Ironman races on this race wheel with no problems, I guess I can’t complain. I get my body and everything else in perfect shape, travel across the country and all is lost due to a little spring I’ve never seen. A spring, a spring, my kingdom for a spring!

I’m very disappointed. Anna did her best to cheer me up, even made a little cartoon photo with my bike saying “Help I have a broken hub!” Now I have all winter to chew on this. But frustration makes for determined offseason training.

Thanks for all of your comments and emails. This offseason I’ll be speaking at a lot of events for my sponsors LifeScan (One Touch blood sugar meters) and Insulet (Ominpod insulin pump), Nutrisoda and others so I’ll give reports.

Stay healthy, exercise and eat healthy! Keep going!

Joslin Under the Stars Benefit Event

2008-10-15T10:32:00.004-05:00

If you follow my blog and website, you know I am honored to have a special relationship with the world renowned Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, MA. Joslin is the best medical facility in the world for treating people with diabetes, and even better, the leading research facility to find a cure.

My wife, Anna, and I, and even our 1 1/2 year old baby daughter Janna, attended the Joslin Under the Stars event in Boston, September 24 -26. Anna could not attend the first day, so baby Janna and I flew to Boston alone and spent the whole day and evening together- 3 airports, 2 airplanes, a cocktail party, and then the Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. That was a quite a day with a 1 1/2 year old!

At the pregrame reception, the Boston Globe wanted a photo of me with Sex and the City star Willie Garson, but Janna was not letting go of Daddy so she got her first photo in the newspaper.

The third day Joslin and Walgreen's Pharmacy hosted a fantastic round table discussion for medical staff, researchers and representatives from companies supplying the diabetes community to share ideas, best practices, research and ways to combat diabetes and support those with diabetes. It was a great event!

SC Half Ironman, September 28, 2008 – New Course PR

2008-10-07T18:06:00.004-05:00

Hard to believe that this was my 5th year at this race. The only other race I have done 5 times is Ironman Florida in Panama City Beach. I like the SC Half because it is only a 1 hour drive from my home, a challenging course with little vehicle traffic and a super race organizer in Set Up Events. Jeremy Davis at Set Up Events produces over 70 events a year and always puts on a professional race, well-organized, safe, and challenging. Thanks Jeremy.

I feel like I’ve been training and racing well lately, with faster times in recent races than last year, so I was hoping for a good result, maybe even a new PR on my 5th try on this course. But you never know with long distance races. Often it does not matter how fit you are, anything can go wrong, especially with Type 1 diabetes - see my disappointing disaster at the Rhode Island Half Ironman in July.

I’ve also changed my training somewhat this year with no Ironman and 4 Half Ironman races, reducing the volume and mileage and focusing on “quality” workouts. It also allowed me to spend more time with my baby daughter, Janna, time that I used to spend mornings, nights and weekends training. I also spent a lot of time working – as a lawyer, traveling for sponsor appearances, and motivational speaking, designing a new Finish Line Vision website and working on my Finish Line Vision motivational book! Yep, I’m a bit busy! (Guess that’s why it takes me some time to post race reports and update my blog!)

Walking into the transition area at 6:00 a.m. race morning, I immediately noticed that it was much more crowded this year, a lot more bikes and people milling around in the dark. I found out after the race there were 415 males racing this year, up from 315 males in 2008. That’s a big increase (25%) for one year. I could tell from all of the new faces this is no longer just a SC race. Athletes traveled from all over the southeast – Georgia, NC, SC, Virginia and Florida. I love the increased competition, it just means you have to go faster every year to place! More on that below.

If you read my blog and know anything about Type 1 diabetes, keeping my blood sugar stable is always a challenge in these long races. The several hours before the race are full of nervous energy and adrenaline, causing unpredictable affects on my blood sugar, and I also have to eat to fuel the race. I need to get insulin in me for the food, but don’t want to inject too much, but also not too little. With the starting gun counting down . . . it’s a high wire blood-sugar-nutrition-insulin-get-ready-for-the-race balancing act from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.

Race day the weather was perfect. Cool temps in the 60s and calm. The water on Lake Greenwood was glass smooth in the sunrise. I was in wave 3, so all 80 guys in my division were in this wave. I started fast to get in the front group in the first 300 meters. Mentally I like to get out front early since swimming is my weakest event, knowing that I will eventually drift back a bit as the faster swimmers pull away.

After about 500 meters I started to feel a bit sluggish. Some days you feel swift and strong, and others sluggish. Today was one of the sluggish, so I concentrated on keeping good form, keeping the arm turnover strong and smooth. I was catching a lot of swimmers from the 2nd wave that started 4 minutes in front of me, but that always happens. No problems with sighting, waves or pummeling from other competitors today. Rounding the final turn buoy for the final 500 meters, I felt okay, so I pushed as hard as I could for the finish. I exited the water a disappointing 29th out of 80 in my division, but I did not know that at the time. But most of the times 5th to 40th were tightly bunched in the 30 to 37 minute range, so I was right in the thick of where I needed to be. I actually swam one minute faster than last year. Hard to compare swim times year to year because conditions change, buoys are often not placed accurately, etc. Swimming has always been my worst event, and this year was the same. Swim grade: C+

My Omnipod insulin pump stayed secure on my triceps during the swim. I can’t say enough about how great that is. As always in long course races, I paused in T1 to check my blood sugar on my super-fast always dependable One Touch Ultra meter, which cost me about 30 seconds to dry my hand, insert the strip and drop of blood, etc. It was a little high, 220 mg/dl. I did not want a repeat of the high blood sugar disaster at Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island, so I quickly gave myself a small 1 unit bolus on my Omnipod insulin pump. I also did not reduce my basal rate for this race. This is the first time I have ever raced a half Ironman without reducing my basal rate usually by 40% or 50%. Today I took the risk that a full basal injection would keep me from going too high, but not drop me too low.

I pushed hard on the bike the first 5 – 10 miles. I was not riding my disk wheel, since I seemed to go faster without it lately in hilly courses (see Tugaloo 2 weeks ago). At about mile 10 I realized that I had not grabbed my 2 gels (each with 100 calories and 25 grams of carbs) in T1. I had my high carb sport drink (56 grams carbs) in one bottle, and Gatorade (35 grams carbs) in another. I’d pick up another Gatorade at mile 30. I would do the whole 56 miles on those 126 grams carbs and water. In the past for a Half Ironman bike, I usually ate an additional 50-75 grams carbs from a couple of gels, or a Clif Bar, but I’ve also had problems with high blood sugar, so I was a little nervous if cutting back would be the right balance today.

I was picking guys off one by one, about every 2 minutes. No one was passing me so I knew I was staying on pace and moving up the field like I needed to be. About mile 25 I caught a group of guys, about 8 or 9, who looked like they were riding a road race pace line. As I passed them I could see they were clearly drafting. Really pisses me off when I see this. Maybe they weren’t trying to draft, but they certainly were not trying to avoid it. I gave one guy a hard glare as I passed him on his left, looking at him, then at the cyclist only about 8 feet in front of him, then back at him. The legal distance is 3 bike lengths, about 21 feet.

Of course, this draft pack tried to stay with me as I got in front. As often happens in races, this group would pass me, slow down, and I’d be forced to re-pass the whole group, only to have the dance repeated again. I tried several times to blow by them and establish a break, but each time after about 3 minutes, I’d hear a bike behind me and here they’d come, passing me again. Finally I decided just to let them go and ride a safe distance behind them, hoping a draft marshal/referee would show up to start handing out penalties and break them up. After about 10 more miles of watching them about 100 meters in front of me, I was pleased to see a draft marshal sneak by me on a super quiet Honda Gold Wing motorcycle and creep slowly up behind the group. I admit I got devilish pleasure watching the marshal sit just behind the group for about 5 minutes with his pad and pen out, taking down race numbers. Thank you! I just wish he had been there at mile 25 rather than mile 40.

With the group broken up by the marshal hanging around, I began to push hard for the last 15 miles, gradually picking each one of them off before the finish. My quads starting cramping really tight, just like in Rhode Island, making it difficult to stand on climbs, so I stayed seated a long as possible. I finished the bike in 2:28, averaging 23 mph, 3rd fastest bike split out of 80 in my division, and 20th out of 600 overall. (FYI, the fastest time in my division was only 3 minutes faster at 2:25 and that athlete clearly spent the whole ride drafting since he received 2 drafting penalties!) It was the fastest I have ridden this bike course, even 9 minutes faster than last year. Bike grade: A-

My blood sugar in T2 was 230 mg/dl (checking cost me another 30 seconds). Still a little high, but not the 300 it was in T2 in Rhode Island. My stomach felt fine, so I gave myself another quick bolus of 1.5 units of insulin, and took off on the run. I knew the run would bring down my blood sugar more than the bike, so I planned to eat a gel about every 20 minutes.

I felt pretty good starting the run (okay, “good” as you can after swimming 1.2 miles and biking 56). Legs really tight and sore, but thankfully no stomach upset. I concentrated on holding about a 7:15 – 7:30 pace the first 6 miles, and assessed my position. I felt like I was currently in the top 3 in my division, and somewhere near top 30 overall. But I also knew there were some speedy runners behind me, and some fast guys in other age groups who started in waves 4 and 8 minutes behind me who were closing the gap. I ate a gel at mile 1, starting the long 1 mile stretch on the open road. I made the turn around at mile 3 and felt good heading back to transition. I was passed a couple of times in the first 4 miles, but I also passed about 5 guys as well. Making the turnaround at the half way point back at transition, I was hurting but still holding pace. Then at about mile 9 I got a horrible cramp in my side. I tried not to think about it, focus on good breathing, and hope it would pass. Fortunately it did after about 10 minutes.

Heading back on the open road at around mile 11, a guy in my age groups passes me, but I could not stay with him. This was as fast as I could go. At mile 12, I grabbed a cup of water at the last aid station and another guy in my age groups slips by me. I guess he had been gaining on me for some time. I did not know my placing, but assumed I had no chance at the podium if I let him go. For the next 200 meters, I ran about 10 meters behind him, trying to stay hidden behind another athlete between us, hoping I could find the energy to re-pass and then open a gap.

I was going to be at my limit for the final three quarters of a mile so I could not go too early or I’d never hold it. I also wanted to pass him with enough speed that he’d not be tempted (or able) to stay with me. This is the bluffing game in endurance sports – running and cycling. You have to make these passes look effortless, like “ho-hum, I could cruise this fast for another 10 miles so don’t even think about trying to stay with me,” even though my body feels like it’s about to explode.

I made the pass with about ¾ of a mile to go, then just started visualizing the finish line(shameless plug for “Finish Line Vision” – yes I really do that in races!). I was running at my absolute limit, but I was trying to hide it well. I visualized the finish line, the relief to sit at the finish with my daughter Janna. With about 800 meters to go I glanced over my shoulder and saw I had opened about a 50 meter gap and he was charging hard to stay with me. I kept pushing. With 400 meters to go the gap was now 100 meters so I felt like I had him, and concentrated on holding the pace to the line. I crossed the line in race time of 4:51:06. My 13.1 mile run split was a disappointing 1:43, three minutes slower than last year. Those 3 minutes (plus 1 minute for checking blood sugars in both transitions) were the difference between 2nd and 7th place. Run Grade: B-

My blood sugar at the finish was a stellar 140 mg/dl, so I was loving that. I could tell it was in the normal range most of the run – no nausea or weakness. Blood sugar grade: B.

Even though my 4:51 was the fastest time I’ve done on this course, my placing was the worst ever, 7th out of 80 in my division, 41st out of 600 overall. That time would have placed me 14th overall in 2004 and 2005, 28th in 2006, and 26th last year. Definitely shows that good competition from the southeast US has found this race. Overall all race grade: B

Next for me is the biggest race of my season, the Half Max US Long Course National Championship near Las Vegas, NV, October 18. See you then!

Tugaloo Olympic Triathlon, September 13, 2008

2008-09-23T18:42:00.003-05:00

Tugaloo is one of the hardest Olympic distance triathlons in the circuit. Guess that’s why they make it the Georgia State Championship. Since I’m a SC resident, I was an interloper from across the northern border. I was not eligible for the GA state championship awards, but sometimes I feel like all those speedy whippersnappers from Atlanta and Georgia don’t like me crashing their party when I’m fighting for a top spot with them. I love this race since it’s close to my home in Greenville, SC.

This was not an A priority race for me, just a good speed workout race prep for the 2 half Ironmans I have coming up in the next month. I had a pretty good race. My time this year was actually over 2 minutes faster (2:24:10) than my 2007 time (2:26:43), so I guess I’m getting faster. Sometimes it’s misleading to compare times year to year since conditions change, wind, heat, current, etc. The real comparison is how you finish in the field each year since everyone faces the same conditions. This year I finished 24th out of 487, better than my 37th overall last year, so I guess I was faster. However, even though I went 2 minutes faster, and moved up 10 places overall, I finished off the podium 4th in my age group this year, when I was on the podium 3rd last year. Guess a couple of fast guys jumped in my age group this year.

Lake Hartwell looks like it is going dry like most of upstate SC and Georgia. It really was sad to see almost 200 yards of sand and dirt that used to be covered by water. The swim is in a narrow channel that was even more narrow with the drought. Next year there may be no water to swim in at all. Time trial start. I started 120th out of 487. I kind of like starting behind my competition in open water swims so I can sneak up on them and they never see me coming. I had a good swim, 11th out of 56 in my age group, almost 90 seconds faster than last year, so that was good. The air was extremely foggy over the water, so foggy I could not see past 20 feet in front of me. Good thing the guys in front were going the right way because I could not see any buoys until I was right on them.

The bike was the same course as last year. Hilly and hard for an Olympic distance. I started pretty aggressive, but not redlining it. As usual for the first 2 -3 miles a few guys starting the bike near me were going hard, passing me, then I’d pass them, but that happens in most races where guys go charging out of transition like someone set their ego on fire . . . and then suddenly hit the wall after about 5 minutes of lactic acid boiling in their legs. I left them at about mile 3 and started picking people off one by one. No one passed me for 26 miles so I knew I was keeping a good pace. I tried to stay on the fine line of pushing hard as I could, but not going over the edge and blowing up. Because of the hills, this year I decided to ride a rear spoked race wheel rather than my disk and I think it was faster. I finished this hilly beast in 1:09:16, averaging 22.6 mph, 2nd fastest out of 56 in my age group and 18th fastest overall.

I came into T2 knowing I’d passed around 100 people on the swim and bike and was probably somewhere near the top 20 now. My plan was to hit the run as hard as possible right from the start and hope I could hold it. I know this run course and it’s hilly and tight, with lots of turns and blind corners, so athletes in front would never see me coming, but I’d also not see those gaining on me. I kept a steady pace between 6:30 and 7:00 minute miles, feeling like my eyes were about to pop out of my skull, but that’s a good feeling when you keep passing people and no one passes you. The trick is to look like you’re not hurting at all when your whole body feels like its about to burst into flames. You don’t want anyone thinking they can surge and catch you.

At mile 2 a guy passes me and I see the age marked on his calf is in my age group. Not good. I was about at my max pace, so I tried to stay steady and hope he would fade a bit. I set out chasing him for 4 miles with him hovering about 50 meters in front of me the whole time. I tried surging several times to see if I could narrow the gap, but could not close it. I had a feeling he and I were fighting for a spot on the podium and I was right. He got the final spot on the podium (3rd) in our age group, 58 seconds in front of me. I had the 4th fastest run in the age group, he had the 2nd.

I finished feeling pretty happy about the speed workout, and pleased that I was over 2 minutes faster than last year. That hopefully is a good sign for the South Carolina Half Ironman in 2 weeks on September 28 and the USAT Long Course National Championship in Nevada, October 18. See you then!

Note: Since it was a short Olympic distance, I never tested my blood sugar during the race. At the end it was a little higher than I wanted, but that’s always due to the adrenaline of such a hard, short race. My Omnipod Insulin pump and One Touch Ultra blood sugar meter both worked perfect!

Column in Diabetes Health Magazine

2008-09-11T14:07:00.002-05:00

Diabetes Health is a great magazine about exercise, health and fitness for diabetics. It also offers straight talk and opinion about things important to all with diabetes - what products work and don't work, research developments, and practical advice. The magazine recently asked me to write a regular column for their print magazine and website. My first column is on motivation. They posted my first column on the Diabetes Health website. Watch for me on the cover of the Oct/Nov 2008 issue and my column in future editions.

South Carolina’s Largest Triathlon, Greenville Sprint – 10th overall, 1st age group

2008-09-10T16:40:00.002-05:00

The Greenville Sprint Triathlon, August 17, 2008, was the largest triathlon in South Carolina according to the race organizer. 700 entrants. Hard to believe you can squeeze that many people onto a sprint triathlon course, but Set Up Events did a great job as always. I had a pretty good race, finishing 10th overall and 1st in my age group.

South Carolina has been in a severe drought for several years. I can’t remember the last time I trained or raced in the rain in South Carolina. But wouldn’t you know that at 5:00 a.m. race morning the rain was pouring down, with lightening and thunder. At 6:30 the race organizer announced that the race would switch to a duathlon if it did not stop lightening by 7:00 a.m. Fortunately, the sky cleared as the sun rose and the swim was on. 700 athletes, some experienced, but it looked like a lot of the usual nervous first-timers trying a sprint triathlon. The Westside Aquatic Center in Greenville, SC has a huge 50 meter pool with 8 lanes. We would start 2 athletes every 10 seconds for 4 laps, 400 meters. I had an okay swim, about usual for me. I much prefer open water swims. Unfortunately some athletes exaggerate (lie?) their projected swim times to start ahead of the field, so I encountered the usual groups of tired swimmers clogging the lanes as I made 8 swifts laps up and down the pool. The swim was over before I knew it, about 6 minutes, and I was out the door and onto my bike.

The bike course is a hilly 15 miles, about 3 miles longer than most sprint triathlons. I was a little nervous about the dangerously wet roads so I made sure to play it safe and cautious on the turns and descents, and push hard on the climbs and straight sections. I was pleased with my bike split, 37 minutes, 8th overall and 1st in my age group. Again, it felt like it was over in a flash and suddenly I’m back at the transition for the run.

Since I race mostly Ironman and Half Ironman races, I really like Sprint and Olympic distances races because I can go all out all the time, no worries about pacing, hydration, nutrition, or even my blood sugar. My legs felt great on the run and I worked hard to keep my pace at maximum. 5k, 2 laps on some road, and gravel and dirt trail. I was truly doing a “sprint” on this run. My run split was just over 19 minutes, about a 6:20 per mile pace, 2nd fastest in my age group. I finished 10th overall out of about 700, and 1st in my age group by over 1 minute, so I was happy with that. Even better was the award – a bottle of wine. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Definitely worth the 1 hour of effort. My good friend and Hincapie Finish Line Vision teammate Dan Moss won the overall and set a new course record.

Next is the Tugaloo Olympic triathlon September 13. It’s the Georgia State Championship so should be a lot of fast guys from Atlanta. Last year I got something like 17th overall, and 3rd in my age group so I’m hoping to better that this year. Should be a couple hours of good painful fun!

Children With Diabetes, National Conference, Orlando, July 23-27, 2008

2008-09-08T13:40:00.010-05:00

A few days after I returned from Half Ironman Rhode Island, I gave the banquet keynote at the Children With Diabetes (CWD) national conference in Orlando. CWD is a fantastic organization for families who have children with diabetes (guess you figured that out by the name). Jeff Hitchcock and Laura Billetdeaux started this online community 13 years ago. Jeff and Laura and their spouses have kids with diabetes. CWD has grown tremendously since then. You MUST have a look at their website and attend one of their conferences. It is organization run by families for families with diabetes, where “kids can be kids.” The Orlando national meeting is full of education and activities, theme park visits, and social events. They even have a banquet where they sometimes get a decent speaker! :)

I had a fantastic time speaking at the teens breakout day on motivatation and determination, and that night at the Friends For Life banquet, sponsored by LifeScan, One Touch blood sugar meters. I loved spending time talking to families and signing autographs at the One Touch booth. I look forward to the next CWD event! Maybe I’ll see you there!

Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island, July 13, 2008

2008-09-08T13:01:00.010-05:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this report up. Like everyone, I get a bit backed up sometimes - training, racing, traveling, working, speaking, creating a new design for my website (stay tuned!), writing a book on Finish Line Vision (it’s going to be great!) and most important . . . spending time with my wife and beautiful 16 month old daughter.

Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island was a race of firsts. (I still can’t get used to saying “Ironman 70.3” instead of Half Ironman, but it’s the race organization’s new thing so I guess I’m stuck with it. An Ironman is 140.6 miles so a half is 70.3 miles. Get it? But have you ever heard someone run a “marathon 13.1?” I haven’t either.) It was the first year for this race, my first flat tire in a race, the first time I had to wake up at 2:30 a.m. (ugh!) for a race, my first triathlon (after 8 years and almost 100 triathlons worldwide) with separate transitions for T1 and T2, 56 miles apart. Besides that, it was a normal race. Here’s how it went.

I’d spent the week before the race in Massachusetts at Camp Joslin, a summer camp for boys with Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes, just like me (see other post). I thought why not bring my bike and do the new half Ironman race in nearby Providence, R.I? By the way, this Southern boy is used to training on wide open spaces and lonely mountain roads, so it is amazing how “nearby” everything is in the Massachusetts, Rhode Island New England area. One bike ride and I cross 3 states!

The race started about 40 miles south of Providence on the beautiful Rhode Island beaches of Narragansett, and finished in downtown Providence. T1 was at the beach in Narragansett and T2 was 56 miles away at the finish. Unlike most races where everything starts and ends around one transition area, this one was strung out across the whole state of Rhode Island. That meant a long drive the day before the race in summer beach traffic to check my bike into T1, but it gave me a chance to drive the bike course on the way back to my hotel in downtown Providence. I’m glad I did because the bike course was a challenging maze of hills, turns, and once near Providence, busy intersections and pot-holed (landmined) city streets. At least I knew what to expect race day.

It was an eeaarly wake up call at 2:30 a.m. to catch the shuttle at 3:30 a.m. in downtown Providence for the ride down the coast for the 6:00 a.m. start. I’ve always said that the early wake up call is the 1st event in a triathlon, and this one was so early I might as well not have slept at all. I think they wanted to start the race so early to beat all the city traffic on the bike course, but that didn’t really work (more on that later). It was an amusing collision of time zones as some of the Saturday night Providence bar crowd heading home encountered hundreds of nervous triathletes gathered on the sidewalk at 3:15 a.m. Their day was ending when ours was beginning. Two worlds collided.

How does a type 1 diabetic eat and keep a stable blood sugar for a half Ironman getting up at 2:30 for a bus ride? Requires some planning. I carried my bagel with peanut butter on the shuttle and ate it right when I arrived at transition around 4:30 a.m. As always, I had to carefully plan when I ate and took my insulin to try to keep my blood sugar stable prior to the start. I was not particularly happy that I had to be in transition this early, and then wait over 2 hours until my wave started at 6:50 a.m. I was in the 12th of 13 waves, so I had to watch almost the entire field start and finish the swim before I even started. I had the longest warm up swim of my career, then paced the beach like a spectator in a wetsuit.

They like to start the slowest athletes first and the fastest athletes last (usually males age 30-44) so that everyone is off the bike course sooner. Makes sense, but it means I would spend the whole day passing the field in front of me. My blood sugar was pretty stable between 100 – 150 mg/dl in transition and prior to the start. I reduced my basal to 50% of my normal basal rate right before I left the transition. My first mistake. In the past I usually reduce my basal by 50% on long workouts and races over 3 hours, but lately I've been encountering high blood sugar in races. I was a little afraid it would drop during the swim after this long delay so I drank a little extra of my high carbohydrate drink in the last 30 minutes before my start. My 2nd mistake. I guess I drank too much because my blood sugar was way too high after the swim. That set me up for the blood sugar roller coaster that can destroy my day.

The ocean was pretty choppy and with rolling swells but nothing I had not seen before. The wind was very gusty and strong (and would be especially strong later in the day on the run). I had an okay swim, not pushing too hard, but trying to stay in visual contact with the best swimmers in my wave. That was hard after the first 500 meters with the windswept chop and swells, so I just settled into a somewhat solitary 1.2 mile journey, occasionally passing slower swimmers from waves ahead and others in my wave. I came out of the water in 32 minutes, top 20 in my wave of 150, feeling really good, a decent time considering the wind, current and chop, but it was hard to tell where I was in the main field given that most everyone had started and left long before me.

My Omnipod insulin pump stayed rock solid on my left triceps (see photo). T1 was deserted and eerily quiet since 90% of the field was already gone. I checked my blood sugar quickly on my One Touch UltraMini meter – 250 mg/dl! Ugh! Way too high! I clearly had drank too much carb drink right before the swim, trying to prevent a low. Now I had to make that awful split-second decision, “do I give myself insulin to bring it down, but risk a disastrous low blood sugar on the bike?” or “do I hit the bike and hope it comes down from the activity, but risk 2 hours of high blood sugar?” I knew I had to consume about 60-70 grams of carbs per hour on the bike, mostly from sport drink and a Clif Bar, so I would have to keep eating/drinking carbohydrates for fuel. But if I consumed carbs with my blood sugar already so high, it might never come down and I’d be nauseous, lethargic and probably dehydrated in 2 ½ hours when I would start the half marathon run. Ugh. Diabetes sucks sometimes.

In that split second in transition, I chose not to bolus insulin and hope my blood sugar would come down on its own from the exercise.

The first 20 miles of the bike were flat and fast, with mostly a tail wind coming off the ocean. I was riding my disk wheel on the back and felt great, averaging 25 to 30 mph for much of these stretches, passing hundreds of athletes from waves in front of me. After about 1 hour at around mile 25 the hills started, a gradual stair step of rolling hills and a few steep inclines. Because my blood sugar was too high, in the first 1 hour I drank mostly water and very little of my carbohydrate sport drink. The temperature started to reach the mid 80s and I knew hydration would be important for the run, so I kept drinking. My blood sugar was a big mystery at this point. I could bring my One Touch Ultra Mini meter with me, pull off the course, stop, and prick my finger to check, but I’m not sure I would do anything differently even if I knew what the blood sugar was. I had to get carbs in me to race. I started drinking more of my sport drink and even ate a Clif Bar around mile 35. I continued passing hundreds of athletes who started in front of me, and was passed only 5 or 10 times in the first 50 miles. My right quad started cramping a bit around mile 45 but I knew most of the hills were over and I only had about 10 miles to go. I now entered the congested section of the course outside of Providence, full of cars and turns and pot holes.

At mile 50 I started a long fast descent , doing about 30 mph, mentally preparing myself for the run in about 15 minutes when . . . psssssssss, thump, thump, thump. Oh no. My disk flatted. Ugh! I pulled over quickly, onto a sidewalk and parking lot next to what looked like an abandoned building of some sort. Nice area for a bike race. Athletes I’d passed miles before began to whiz by me as I started the tedious task of removing my disk wheel, ripping the tire off the rim, removing the spare taped under my seat and stretching it around the rim, lined up perfectly on the rim with glue, then filling it with air from my CO2 cartridge. Sounds a lot easier and quicker here than on the side of the road 50 miles into a bike race, when you’re hot, tired, and frustrated. The whole process probably took me at least 10 minutes or more in the hot sun, while at least 150 athletes zoomed by me. I finally remounted and had to take it slow and easy on all these turns because my spare tire would not be as secure on my disk rim since it had less glue. This was also the ugly section of the course with lots of traffic and turns and pot holes. It was a “bad” section of town and the car traffic was not happy about cyclists in the road and police blocking intersections for us. Some intersections had only about 4 feet for us to ride while cars zoomed passed us, scaring me at any moment one would abruptly turn, weave in front of me, or open a door.

I finished the bike in a disappointing 2 hours, 44 minutes. Very bad. I know I lost about 15 minutes changing my flat and taking it so slow the last 6 miles. I got even more bad news when I checked my blood sugar in T2 – 290 mg/dl. Ugh! Still way, way too high. My stomach was definitely feeling it now, and the temperature was in the humid low 90s, making it even worse. I gave myself a quick bolus of insulin from my Omnipod pump of only 1.5 units. Normally on a non-race day, I would take about 4 or 5 units of insulin for a blood sugar that high, but I knew the 13.1 miles of running should bring it down and I could not risk taking any more. I started the run feeling pretty nauseous.

T2 and the finish were right at the steps to the capitol building, with thousands of people packed around it and the streets. My legs felt good running. But my stomach did not. It was all due to the high blood sugar. At mile 1.5 we hit the massive hill, an 8% grade for about ½ mile straight up. I pushed hard to keep running even if slowly up this grade. Many athletes were walking. After about 3 miles the course flattened out until the descent of this same hill at mile 6 and I returned to the finish line area to do it all over again on the 2nd lap. The heat was stifling now, around 90 degrees, and the wind was fierce, gusting up to 30 mph around the finish area. My stomach was in shambles from 4 hours of racing with a high blood sugar. I really struggled on the 2nd lap, barely able to jog even an 8 or 9 minute pace, walking through each aid station to douse myself with water and any sport drink I could keep down. I lost even more time here, but I knew I was well out of contention long ago. Now I just wanted to finish as best I could.

I finally made it to the finish in a miserably slow time of 5 hours, 23 minutes, about 45 minutes slower than my usual time for a half Ironman. Very bad race for me but I know it was all from my flat tire and high blood sugar nausea. I think I will try the next long race at my normal 100% basal rate. Next for me is some shorter triathlons in August and September, leading up to my late season push with the South Carolina Half Ironman September 30 and US Long Course National Championship October 18 near Las Vegas. I’ll have better days to come! Stay tuned!

Camp Joslin for Boys, Biathlon - July 8-11, 2008

2008-09-08T12:13:00.006-05:00

For the 2nd year in a row I spent several days at Camp Joslin for Boys in Charlton, MA with campers age 6 to 14 who have type 1 diabetes, counselors and staff. I also spent some time speaking to the girls at the neighboring Camp Clara Barton for girls with diabetes. At Camp Joslin I hung out in the cabins, participated in activities with the campers, swam in the lake, and ate in the dining hall. It was just like being at camp! This is a fantastic place for boys with diabetes to just be boys – get dirty, play sports, eat well and develop good habits to control their diabetes, but most of all have fun. The Joslin staff is fantastic with counselors, nurses and doctors who all know diabetes and help the boys learn to manage it themselves. On the final day I helped the camp stage the 2nd annual Camp Joslin “Finish Line Vision” Biathlon, sponsored by Insulet – Omnipod. It was even better than last year and so much fun! The kids really pushed themselves, some further and harder than they thought they could go. All to show that diabetes would not stop them! Check out the pictures!

Boston Marathon, April 21, 2008

2008-04-29T12:19:00.020-05:00

I ran the 2008 Boston Marathon on April 21. A great race, in a great town, for a great cause – the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Joslin is the world leading diabetes research and treatment facility. While Joslin researchers work on the cure, Joslin medical staff provide the best treatment in the world, and I want to help them do that. Like last year, I ran the marathon as Captain of Team Joslin, 12 runners raising money to help Joslin cure and treat diabetes. Some had never run a marathon before and I am proud that they all finished!

Unlike last year, the weather this year was fantastic- high 50s and sun by the midpoint of the race. (Compare this to the picture at left from 2007 with temperatures in the 30s/40s and rain, sleet, and wind – ugh!) 2008 was great for running and spectators, and boy are there a lot of spectators along the route! The marathon is run on a Monday when Boston celebrates Patriots Day, a state holiday. Schools close, the marathon, Red Sox day game - it’s a big party!

Because of the crowd, we had to be at the start 26 miles out in Hopkinton, MA about 2½ hours before the start. That’s a lot of time waiting with 23,000 runners lying around the athlete’s village (a middle and high school) like a runner's refugee camp. That's 2 hours of checking my blood sugar 3 or 4 times prior to the start. It was good, hovering around 150 mg/dl. I know from experience I’ll need about 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrate per hour during the marathon and I can’t get that from half cups of Gatorade along the route. So I ran with a Fuel Belt with two 10 ounce vials of high carb drink strapped to my waist, and a Clif Bar, 3 sport gels and 1 pack of Clif Shot Bloks in my hands. Not how most run a marathon, carrying a personal carb buffet 26 miles, but they don’t provide nutrition for diabetics to keep our blood sugar up along the course. I also carried my Omnipod personal diabetes manager (PDM) in a pocket on my Fuel Belt so I could set a 3.5 hour temporary (50% lower) basal rate on my insulin pump just prior to the start, and have it at the finish.

Boston is a crowded marathon, over 23,000 in the race. Since I was running for Joslin, I started in the very back of the 10:30 a.m. second wave with the other Team Joslin and charity runners. It’s great to see so many people running a marathon for charities, many of them first time marathoners. But that makes the start in Hopkinton very crowded on narrow roads, and hard to run with 23,000 runners crammed on the road in front of you. Thus, the first 5 miles are very sloooow. I got tripped several times by all the heels and feet, and even ran on the sidewalks a few times. But I was patient and didn’t try to force anything. I wasn’t here to win or knock anyone down. I knew I could start running around mile 6 after swimming through the crowd.

I was runing for charity and not for placing, so I planned to run about a 3:30 marathon- an easy 8:00 minute/mile pace - and enjoy the race atmosphere. The first 4 or 5 miles would be much slower, then I’d pick it up and run 7:30 until about mile 18 when I’d slow on the Newton hills, Heartbreak hill and the final miles of the race. As expected my 10k split was 50:30 minutes, a slow 8:20 min/mile trot. Finally the road opened up and I settled into a quicker 7:30 min/mile comfortable pace.

At mile 12.5 the course passes all female Wellesley College. The entire student body lines this half mile, partying and screaming in a deafening squeal like you’re a rock star, creating the famous “scream tunnel.” That will make you go fast! I felt great at the midpoint, not pushing real hard and just enjoying the tremendous crowds, staying right on my pace for 3:30. I had to run faster in the middle miles 6 to 13 to make up time. I hit the half way point (13.1 miles) at 1:45:05, dead on pace for a 3:30 finish.

I ate my Clif Bar in the first hour, then a gel or Clif Shot Blok about every 20 minutes, and took a few sips of Gatorade and water every couple of miles. By the midpoint I had caught the faster runners and enjoyed the steady pace. At mile 18 the fun starts – the Newton Hills. Up and down and up and down. My quads started really hurting so I pushed hard up the climbs because the descents hurt worse, pounding my quads with each step. The final climb is the famous Heartbreak Hill at mile 20 – a ½ mile steep climb when you are really spent! Lance Armstrong was running the race and said it was harder than he’d been told. I ran Boston last year so I knew what to expect. The best thing about Heartbreak Hill is Boston College at the top, another throng of thousands of college students partying since sunrise screaming at you like you’re winning the Olympic marathon. Awesome! I pumped my arms and slapped their hands for about ½ mile. That about wore me out! Oh yeah, I still need to run 6 more miles.

Miles 20 through 26 were quite painful on my quads, now tight and about to pop. I even stopped a few times for about a minute each to stretch them. I knew I’d be losing a few minutes, but no need to risk an injury. My pace was slower here, but I expected that. The crowd the last 5 miles in Boston is fantastic all the way to the finish!

I finished in 3:35. About 5 minutes slower than I’d planned but overall a fun race. I felt great at the finish with plenty of gas left in my tank, so its good to know I could go a lot faster if I had open road to race at the start. Also a good running base for triathlons coming up this year. It was great to hug Janna and Anna at the finish! Last year at this race Janna was 2 weeks from being born. The year she just liked the finisher’s medal, so I’ll run 26.2 miles for that any day.

Next for me are a few shorter triathlons and then the Rock and Roll Half Ironman, in Macon, Georgia on May 30. Thanks for your comments and emails!

Speaking at Joslin Black Tie Gala, November 3, 2007

2007-12-03T16:17:00.000-05:00

I was so honored to be invited to speak at the black tie gala dinner in Boston for the Joslin Diabetes Center, Nov. 3. It was the week before my last race in Miami on Nov. 11. Anna and I brought Janna on her first airplane ride (she did great) and even brought her down to the dinner for a few minutes.

I was thrilled to hopefully motivate the crowd a little with my Finish Line Vision message, and also thank them for supporting Joslin and research and treatment of diabetes. One of the photos is a banner that the boys at Camp Joslin made, quoting a line from my remarks to them at camp this summer: "Diabetes is Messing with the Wrong Guys!" I wanted this audience to know that while those kids are counting on them for research and treatment at Joslin, they are also not letting diabetes defeat them.

Joslin President Ranch Kimball is a great leader and I'm honored to call him a friend. I look forward to more events with Joslin next year!

MiamiMan Half Ironman, November 11, 2007 - 3rd place M40-44

2007-11-29T16:02:00.000-05:00

It’s starting to seem like my race reports are sounding the same. “I swam, . . . then I biked, . . . then I ran, got tired, felt like throwing up . . . then I finished. Pizza?” I bet it would be different if I wrestled an alligator at the 2nd turn buoy, then fought off a road rage motorist on the bike course . . . but that didn’t happen. But what did happen at the MiamiMan Half Ironman was pretty darn cool (hot?) in a great location, so here’s how it went.

I love racing long distance triathlon because of the lifestyle and the great race locations. I decided to race this one for several reasons. First, uh, it’s in Miami in November. Hard decision there . . .mid 80’s, sun, South Beach , etc. My wife, Anna, seemed to really be in support of this one too. Second, my agent, David Arluck, lives in Miami Beach so Anna and I had a nice place to stay with David and his wife, Jessica, and some quality time with them. Finally, (okay, this was the real reason) it was a qualifier for the 2008 U.S. National Team for the Long Course Triathlon Worlds in Holland, August, 2008. There was 1 slot (yes, just one!) in my age group offered at this race. The slot would roll down only 5 places, so I had to win my age group to be guaranteed the spot, or at a minimum finish in the top 5 to be eligible and hope anyone above me passed up the slot. With 85 guys competing in my age group, I was prepared to visit the “black cave of death” during the race to win. It’s hard to go to there unless you have something like that to race for.

I’ve never raced in south Florida and don’t know the best triathletes in the area, so I had no idea who was there or their ability. Times for the top 5 from 2006 seemed reasonable, although a bit faster (5 – 10 minutes) than some other Half Ironmans. I knew the bike and run courses would be dead flat and should be fast, but the wild cards to slow you down would be the wind (likely) and the heat (also likely).

Anna and I brought Janna on her second airline trip in her life, which happened to be her second that week. We had just flown in from Boston on Sunday and flew down to Miami on Friday. She did great. Funny how taking off and landing they won’t let you hold more than a pimento cheese sandwich in your lap, but want to hold your 19 pound, wiggling, gurgling, squirming 6 month old baby? . . . no problem, go ahead! At least she travels for free.

Miami Beach is a happnin’ place in November when the rest of the country is starting to feel like cold, dark winter. Lots of tan skin, surgical enhancement, jewelry and hair color. Anna and I had a great time people watching each night we had dinner in Miami Beach with David and Jessica. We had a fantastic place to stay at David and Jessica’s home in Miami Beach, beautiful place right on the intra-coastal waterway. They’d never had a 6 month old in the house, but Janna was a princess and I think we made them want one.

I’m sure that the US Airways baggage gorillas were frustrated that they were not able to smash my bike box, so it came sliding out of baggage claim upside down but unharmed. A safe bike is always the first challenge flying to a race. The race site was about 15 miles south of Miami, next to the Miami Metro Zoo. Registration Saturday was a breeze and I drove the bike course (by car) just before sundown. Yes, dead flat 56 miles, in the open citrus farmland almost to Homestead, FL, a 13 mile out section, then two 15 miles loops, then 13 miles back in. I figured the wind would be 5 to 10 mph from all different directions, in my face, side, then at my back at different points of the loop.

Race morning went well. No problems getting there around 6:00 a.m. for the 7:00 a.m. start. The swim was barely wetsuit legal in a crystal clear man-made lake in a county park. (Sorry, no alligators to wrestle.) My blood sugar was fine prior to the start. I’d been nursing a strained muscle or tendon on the front of my right thigh, almost where my hip flexor connects to my waist. My massage therapist had done a great job on me the week prior to the race and I felt good . . . right up until the horn blew and I ran and dove into the water. Ouch! Felt it right there. But no time to worry about that right now. I wanted to get to the first turn buoy about 150 meters out in front of the churning pack of 85 in my wave. I sprinted like I was in the 100 meter Olympic finals, and made it there in the first 3 swimmers, and then tried to settle into a rhythm (really just catch my breath before I passed out).

2 loop swim. I felt really comfortable and by the end of my first loop I caught a lot of swimmers in the wave starting 4 minutes ahead of me, and did not see many other purple swim caps from my wave. That’s one thing I like do in wave swim starts, glance at the color of the swim caps in front and that I’m passing. Gives me an idea of how I’m doing. After the 2nd loop I exited the water feeling like I’d swam pretty well so I was a little shocked that my time was a slooow 37 minutes, 12th fastest out of 85 in my age group. But no time to worry about that now. (I found out after the race that most swim times were about 3-4 minutes slow so the course must have been a bit long.)

The run to transition was ouch, ouch, ouch! About 500 meters on asphalt with little rocks and all sorts of debris. There were 3 races going on that morning (Half Ironman, Olympic distance, and a duathlon) so the bike transition area was huge with about 1600 bikes. I always seem to lose about 60 to 90 seconds in transition checking my blood sugar. Today was the same. The test strip must be completely dry when inserted into my super fast One Touch UltraMini Meter, so I have to quickly dry my fingers before pulling a strip out and inserting it. But this time it took me 3 strips until my hand was dry and I finally got one to work. UGH! I lost about 90 seconds with all that fiddling, inserting, drying my hand and re-inserting test strips! (BTW, when I finally got it, my blood sugar was 150 mg/dl. Exactly where I wanted it to start the bike.)

Onto the bike course. I settled in quickly and felt great. I carried 2 Clif Bars and 2 gel packs, and planned to drink 4 to 5 bottles of fluid on the bike. The first 13 miles heading out were pretty fast and easy, averaging 23.1 mph. I figured it must be a slight tailwind. After 13 miles I hit the aid station at the start of the 15 mile loop, slowed to toss my bottle and take on two more, and lost the 2 guys who I’d been pacing off up ahead. They did not get bottles at the aid station and I suspected they would pay for that later.

I was surprised (and pleased) that there was not much drafting going on. I spent a lot of time passing about 100 guys who had started in the 2 swim waves 4 and 8 minutes ahead of me. I like to pass swiftly and decisively, prevents anyone from grabbing my wheel and delivers a bit of blow to the morale. The morale bone is connected directly to the legs and the chest. (BTW, about mile 30 I blew by those 2 who had not taken water bottles at the first aid station. Looked like they were suffering now.) Dead flat was the course. Lots of open fields and farmland for the wind to blow. At times the wind was glorious at my back, then painful in my face. After 43 miles, I was back on the 13 mile leg to transition, dead into the wind now, but still feeling strong.

I was real happy with my nutrition on the bike. I drank 5 bottles - 3 sport drink and 2 water. I also ate 2 Clif Bars and 1 gel. As long as my blood sugar had not ballooned (I knew it was not low), I would be in good shape starting the run. My stomach was fine, which is a good sign of no dehydration or high blood sugar.

Finished the bike in 2:25, averaging 23.2 mph. I had the 7th fastest bike time out of 85 in my age group and the 33rd fastest out of 710 overall. It’s always nice to see very few bikes in transition when I finish the bike, especially when there were about 100 people who started 4 and 8 minutes ahead of me. My age group wave was all racked together and I was pleased to see only a few bikes on those racks. I was also glad to see one super fast guy I know (Sean Hendryx) in transition about to head out on the run. Sean is a great triathlete from Clermont, FL and has won our age group, finished top 5 overall in a lot of races and qualified for and raced IM Hawaii several times. I checked my blood sugar fast (it was good, around 120 I think), threw on my shoes and took off.

The run course was . . . weird. Narrow asphalt paths in the county park (see photo), then rough dirt trails to the back entrance to the Miami Metro Zoo, then running through the zoo amongst elephants and families pushing strollers and eating snow cones, then out of the zoo for more dirt and grass paths (see more photos) back to the finish line. We did this course twice. It was just late morning but starting to get really hot, 85 to 90 degrees. At each aid station I tried to gulp down fluids and dowse myself with water.

I was hoping to run the same run split I had last month at the South Carolina Half Ironman, 1:40, about a 7:40 pace. My first couple of miles were about 7:30 but it was hard to tell since there were few mile markers and I’m not sure how accurate they were with all of the twisting and turning on this route. The run course was also full of people finishing up the (shorter) Olympic distance triathlon that had started 1 hour after the Half Ironman race. I was passing a lot of people on the run, but it was difficult to tell who was in the Half Iron and who was in the Olympic race.

I felt good on the 1st loop, and knew it would get harder on the second lap. It sure was strange (and a bit difficult) to run though the zoo suffering and hammering, while families casually sipped refreshments and kids stared at me with as much fascination as they did the elephants and zebras. I felt like I was close to the top 5 in my age group, but I really had no idea. No choice there but just to keep running as hard as I could.

I was running so hard that when I completed the second lap I almost missed the turn for the finish chute. Ha! I was definitely in the “black cave” at that point! Ran a 1:43, 7:54 pace, 5th fastest in my age group. I ran 3 minutes slower than the SC Half Ironman last month. Must have been the heat.

I finished in 4:53:20, 29th overall out of 710 and 3rd out of 85 in my age group. I wanted 1st, but that was as fast as I could go that day. USA Triathlon will contact me soon and let me know if I got the slot on the 2008 Team USA of the World Championship. I’ll let you know!

That does it for me racing this year. A season of racing with mixed results, and speaking engagements around 2 wonderful big events in my life – getting married and the birth of my daughter Janna. It all started with the Boston Marathon back in April. Thanks to all of my wonderful sponsors. LifeScan One Touch blood sugar meters, Omnipod insulin pumps, Nutrisoda beverages, Hincapie Sportswear, Clif Bar, and Rudy Project sunglasses and helmets. I also want to thank the Joslin Diabetes Center for a wonderful 1st year of working together.

There are lots of exciting things to come in 2008. Lots of races, speaking engagements, events and much more! Stay tuned!

South Carolina Half Ironman, September 30, 2007

2007-10-22T14:43:00.000-05:00

After my disastrous DNF at Ironman Louisville last month (race report). I really wanted a decent result in the South Carolina Half Ironman, Sept 30, 2007. A special race for me since this was where Anna and I had our second “date” in 2003 (she got up before dawn, drove 1 hour by herself to watch a guy she’d known 1 week punish himself for 5 hours in this painful looking sport she’d never seen before called triathlon . . . I knew she was the one that day!). That was the reason I proposed to her at this race last year after crashing on the bike and running 7 miles with her diamond ring in my bloody hand. (2006 SC Half Ironman race report).

In light of last year, a funny thing did happen this year before we even left the house at 4:45 am race morning. Our arms full with Janna, diaper bag, stroller, car seat, breakfast bagels, etc., and . . . oh, yeah, my race stuff already in the car. (Our pre-race packing is a little more involved now.) Suddenly Anna can’t find her diamond engagement ring - the very one I smuggled to this race under her nose last year and gave to her at mile 64! We spend 20 minutes (that we didn’t have btw) frantically searching Janna’s diaper and clothes, tossing sofa cushions, bed linens, and moving furniture . . . the house looked like it had been hit by an earthquake or vandals when . . . “got it!” . . . on the dark carpet underneath a piece of furniture. No way could we go to this race without it since I spilled a lot of blood to give it to her last year! Now 25 minutes late, it made for a little more “spirited” 70 mile drive to the race for the 7:30 a.m. start, but we made it. No worries mate. (Maybe she should have kept it in her shoe like I did last year. :-))

The swim was barely wetsuit legal (water temp 76 degrees). I had a good swim, about the same as last year. 1.2 miles. The water was calm and I felt very comfortable, having no trouble spotting the buoys heading due east on the way out into the blinding sunrise. Fortunately I wore dark goggles and had cleaned them with anti-fog solution. Swimming with fogged goggles into a blinding sun makes a long and difficult swim – been there! Swimming is my weakest event, and the hardest for me to train. I can do bike and run workouts at odd times and places, but the pool doesn’t travel with me or stay open on my schedule. I came out of the water about where I needed to be, top 10 or so in my division, always hoping for a few minutes faster, but many of the swim times appeared a few minutes long after the race. But no time to fret in T1. Time to attack the bike.

My race strategy is always the same: limit losses on the swim, attack the bike and make big time gains, then keep pushing and see if I can hold it or move up on the run.

A quick check of my blood sugar on my One Touch Ultra Meter in transition showed I was way too high, over 300! Ugh!! Not again! That’s very rare after the swim, but I knew it was my fault for hastily drinking some high carb drink and eating half of a Clif Bar right before the swim, concerned that it was dropping. I was a little afraid to bolus too much insulin right now, so I’d try to bring it down naturally on the bike.

I know the bike course well, my 4th time in this race. 56 miles, lots of rolling hills, and gradual climbs and descents. The air temperature was unusually cool, mid 50s Fahrenheit, so dehydration and sweat loss was not a concern like in hot weather and full Ironman distance races (i.e., IM Louisville). But because I was fighting a 300 high blood sugar, I could not consume as many carbs as I needed. (Hmmm. . . race a half Ironman on a starvation diet, yeh, . . . this will work out well.) I drank only two 25 ounce bottles of straight water and only one 18 ounce Gatorade (35 grams carbs), and ate just 1 Clif Bar (42 grams carbs). That’s enough hydration but less than half the calories and carbs I need for cycling 2 ½ hours at race pace. My testing at Gatorade Sports Science Institute earlier this month showed that I need about 70 – 80 grams of carbohydrate per hour, so about 180 grams for a half Ironman bike. I consumed only 77 grams.

Maybe that was a reason, because this year I had my worst bike time ever, 2:35, only 30th fastest out of about 450. I was even passed twice in 56 miles, which rarely happens to me, but I never know all of the fast cyclist in the field and where they may have come out of the water. This year was also more windy, so I expected to be slower, but I rode 9th fastest overall in 2005, and 16th overall last year (even peeling some of my back tumbling down the asphalt). Maybe this year I’ve been changing too many diapers! Ha!

A quick check of the blood sugar in T2 on my One Touch UltraMini meter showed it was still above 300. Ugh!! But too high is better than too low as long as the stomach is okay, and I still felt strong. But I knew I was going to hit the wall soon running 13.1 miles if I could not get some calories and carbs in me. You can’t do a half Ironman triathlon on 1 Clif Bar and 1 bottle of Gatorade. I also spent what seemed like forever emptying the bladder in T2. (okay, sorry for the details but that’s part of being a diabetic triathlete!) I knew the high blood sugar was causing that usual kidney flush of all my fluids trying to purge me of all that sugar. Dehydration and nausea would be a major problem if this were a hot day and longer than a half Ironman. I punched in a quick bolus of 3 units of insulin on my Omnipod PDM in transition, and let it inject as I took off running, 13.1 miles (half marathon) to go.

A funny thing happened as I started running . . . I felt great. Comfortable, in control. I can always tell in the first 500 meters when I do a quick “system check.” Stomach? Feels good. Quads? A little sore, but plenty left there. Hamstrings, calves, Achilles? Check, check, check. I had every reason to feel horrible, high blood sugar, no carbs in me, building dehydration, and a poor bike time . . . but it was cool weather and I felt great. I saw Anna holding Janna in the crowd about 500 meters out of transition and stopped for 2 quick kisses for both as I ran by. I’ll always have time for that.

I decided to hold a 7:30 pace pretty comfortably, waiting for my blood sugar to come down. Finally I sucked down a gel at about mile 3, and took in some Gatorade about every other mile. At about mile 4 I saw my friend Peter Kotland coming the other way from the turn-around, a few minutes ahead of me running strong in 3rd place overall. Since I still felt good I wanted to run fast the 1st lap to build a cushion in case I did hit the wall in lap 2.

I sucked down another gel at mile 7 and still felt strong. Maybe I can hold this pace to the end. It got harder (imagine that) but I kept the same 7:30 – 7:40 pace as the miles 8, 9, and 10 ticked off. I was passed a few times over the 13.1 miles, and passed a few others. Even on my best days, I expect to get passed by some of the elite runners in the field, so I felt good that was not happening much today. On the 2nd lap it got harder to tell who was on their 1st or 2nd lap as slower athletes were starting on their 1st lap.

I ran a 1:40:30 half marathon for a 7:40 pace so I was pleased that I stayed consistent the whole run. I made it to the line in 4:58, not my best by any means, and about 10 to 15 minutes off my target time, but good enough for 2nd out of 64 in my age group, 37th overall out of about 450. I was hoping to be top 20 but my slow bike (12 minutes slower than last year) and transitions killed that. But I was glad to be able to run well. My blood sugar at the finish was a stellar 128. Perfecto! That small bolus and 13.1 miles of running had really brought it down from over 300 at the start of the run. I felt good at the finish but was happy to have a seat and take the rest of the day off!

Next for me is the Half Ironman in Miami, FL November 11. See you then, and keep going for that Finish Line. You will get there.

[Note: A few hours after the race I developed a nasty sore throat and congestion, and spent the next 3 days fighting a miserable cold. I didn’t feel it race morning, but maybe that had something to do with my poor bike split…or all that time changing diapers.]

US Pro Cycling National Championship - Sept. 2, Greenville, S.C.

2007-10-22T12:01:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about living in Greenville, S.C. is the fantastic cycling routes. Not too much traffic and the mountains are just few miles away. I guess USA Cycling figured that out when they placed the US Pro National Championship here for 2006-2008 over Labor Day Weekend.

My friend Rich Hincapie lives here and operates Hincapie Sportswear in Greenville. Hincapie Sportwear makes the best cycling and triathlon apparel and has been a great supporter of mine, and I enjoy supporting them. (You might recognize me "holding up" some of the cycling apparel on their website. Ha!) I've loved racing on the Hincapie Sports Triathlon Team in 2006 and 2007.

Rich's brother George lives here in Greenville and is also good friend. If you follow cycling at all you probably know George as a teammate of Lance Armstrong for all 7 of his Tour de France wins, and himself a 9 time finisher of the Tour. George also won the US National Championship in 2006 the first year we had it in our "hometown" of Greenville.

In 2007, George came in second to Levi Liephiemer. Anna and I had a super time at the post race party at Hincapie Sportswear headquarters. Thanks to my sponsor Nutrisoda for providing all the fantistic Nutrisoda flavors for the event!

Joslin Diabetes Center – Newport Under the Stars event

2007-10-21T21:12:00.000-05:00

On September 17-19, 2007, for the second year in a row Anna and I had the honor to attend the great fundraising event for the Joslin Diabetes Center in Newport, R.I. called Newport Under the Stars. It’s several days of events with celebrity guests and Joslin supporters in beautiful Newport. Golf, a regatta on America’s Cup racing yachts and a spectacular gala dinner. I was honored to be the host of the gala dinner.
Some of the other guests included Willie Garson who played Stanford Blatch on HBO's Sex in the City. Willie is as much fun in person as he is on the show. Anna loves the show and we had a lot of fun with Willie. He’s a great supporter of Joslin, attended this event last year, and hosted the regatta this year.

Also attending was Jeffrey Donovan from the show Burn Notice on the USA Network . Jeffrey plays a spy who’s been “burned” and taken out of circulation. A cool show so check it out. Anna had a lot of fun one afternoon shopping with Jeffrey’s girlfriend, Kathryn Kovarik

Another great friend we met last year was comedian Jonathan Pessin from L.A. So much fun to be around and another real supporter of Joslin. Another celeb guest was Jason Sehorn, formerly of the NY Giants and now with Fox Sports, who hosted the golf tournament.

I was so honored to speak at the dinner gala, held in the beautiful Marble House Mansion in Newport. Joslin is the worlds best diabetes research and treatment facility! I will support them until we cure this disease, so please join me!

Tugaloo Olympic Triathlon, September 15, 2007 – 25th overall, 3rd place AG

2007-10-17T16:47:00.000-05:00

Tugaloo is a hard race for Olympic distance, but I really like it. 1.5k swim, 42k bike, 10k run in north Georgia, about 1 hour out of Atlanta. It was the George State Championship and always attracts a good field from the southeast. A really hilly bike and run that lights a fire in the quads. I was anxious to race after my disaster at Ironman Louisville 3 weeks ago. I was really glad to do well at Tugaloo, 3rd out of 56 in my age group, top 25 out of 550 overall. Olympic distance is a lot of fun – none of the nutrition and pacing issues of Ironman, just go all out all the time! (I'd just gotten back from sweat testing at Gatorade Sports Science Institute 5 days earlier. See below)

My swim was . . . decent. Good but not great. That story is getting kind of old, don’t you think? My swim split was 12th out of 56 in my age group, about where it usually is, top 20% or so. Tugaloo is a time trial swim start, which I like because I can immediately get “free water” and don’t have to battle the bodies so much. As usual, my Omnipod insulin pump did perfect on my left triceps (see cycling photo). Thanks Omnipod!

Did my usual quick finger prick check of the BS (that would be blood sugar) in T1 on my One Touch UltraMini meter. I hate to stop to finger prick blood in such a short race when every second really counts, but the One Touch gives me results in just 5 seconds and its always dependable! I need that peace of mind before I head out on the bike. There’s too much danger hammering 25 mph on the bike, 40 mph down hills, without knowing my blood sugar. It was good, 125 mg/dl.

I crushed the bike as hard as I could. I love this bike course. It is only 42k, a little over 26 miles, but real hilly. I bet my heart rate never got below my AT (anaerobic threshold) the whole time. That means I had lactic acid simmering in my quads for 26 miles. I think I was taking out some frustration from my pitiful performance and disastrous bike in Louisville. Last year I actually rode 50 seconds faster, but I think it was more windy this year. Averaged just over 23 mph, posting the 2nd fastest bike split in my age group - about where I usually am . . .good in the swim, really good on the bike. Now let’s see if I can be good on the run.

Starting the run I knew I was up among the leaders. There were about 550 in the race and I felt like I was in the top 20 – 30 overall. Hard to tell since it was a time trial swim start, so I did not know where some of the athletes started. This just makes you go all out the whole time (at least it does me) since you don’t really know exactly where you stand at any point. I felt really good on the run – “good” in a “this hurts like hell because I’m going as hard as I can” kinda way. I was holding about a 6:45 pace the first 4 miles, even though it was a murderously hilly and twisty course through a state park. Lots of turns and short ups and downs that really pummel your quads! One short descent was so steep a guy running just ahead of me almost wiped out. I’ve never scene that on the run.

I held my position almost the entire run. I was pleased to run just over a 43 minute 10k, a 7:00 minute pace, so I slowed a bit the last 2 miles but good enough for the 6th fastest run in my age group. So what does the 12th fastest swim, 2nd fastest bike, and 6th fastest run mean? 25th overall, 3rd in my age group, a little plaque and a little redemption from Louisville. Only 10 minutes separated the top 10 through 25, so it was really tight.

Next race for me is the South Carolina Half Ironman in 2 weeks. I’m hoping to get in the top 20 overall and win my age group. We’ll see. I’m going to go hard. See you then!

Testing at Gatorade Sports Science Institute

2007-10-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

Some people say the Ironman is 10% fitness and 90% nutrition. Perhaps a bit exaggerated, but you get the point. But for me racing Ironman with type 1 diabetes, it’s true. It’s the difference between a dreaded DNF (Did not Finish) vomiting or suffering in the medical tent, and hammering to the Finish Line.

I’ve had several unpleasant Ironman races that probably were caused by nothing other than nutrition and hydration mistakes. The ITU Long Course World Championship in Canberra, Australia in November, 2006 (race report) was one of those dehydration bad days. After that race, the medical staff with Team USA contacted the best place in the world to figure out my nutrition and hydration needs: The Gatorade Sports Science Institute. It took several months, and I quickly learned that they don’t let just anybody in there. GSSI is where some of the world’s best (i.e. highest paid) athletes have gone for testing – Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and other NBA and NFL greats. Amazing that they even let me in the door, so I made sure we worked fast before they wised up. Ha!

They weighed me when I arrived, recorded body fat and took a pre-test urine sample for electrolyte analysis. Then it was one hour on the bike at my “Ironman race pace.” The equipment is in a little chamber that reminds me of high school chemistry lab with a treadmill and stationary bike. They can adjust the temperature and humidity to any conditions. Some winter athletes (skiers) etc need testing in cold temperatures, other athletes need arid, dry heat, and some need humidity. The scientists and I selected a “hot and humid” testing condition for me to simulate most of my races and training.

They put sweat patches on my quads, chest, forehead, forearm and back, even a plastic bag over my left forearm and hand to collect several ounces of sweat. Then it was 1 hour of cycling. After the cycling, they weighed me again, took another urine sample, and within 10 minutes I was on the treadmill for another hour of running at an Ironman marathon race pace. After 2 hours of working out, one more trip to the scale and I was done.

The GSSI scientists analyzed the results and now I have a true picture of my nutrition and hydration needs. If you’re interested, they determined that I am a heavy sweater (I figured that was coming), sweating an average of 2.2 liters per hour. I have an extremely high sodium concentration in my sweat, 2.2 grams per liter. The test also showed that I need 75 – 85 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Factor in my often unpredictable high or low blood sugar from diabetes and the result is . . . . “high risk for dehydration and heat illness.” Uh, . . . ya' think? See Ironman Louiville.

Fortunately they gave me several nutrition and hydration recommendations to meet my needs. I look forward to experimenting with them in training and my next Ironman race!

Ironman Louisville, August 26, 2007

2007-09-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

[Note: I find that I get a diverse mix of visitors to my site and blog, those that know a lot about triathlon and nothing about diabetes, and those that know a lot about diabetes and nothing about triathlon. I try to make my reports understandable for both!]

Disappointing and frustrating. That was my Ironman Louisville. I came to this race fit, having placed top 5 to 15 overall in recent shorter races this year, and feeling the fastest I’ve been since I broke my clavicle and had surgery in March 2006 that put me out most of last year. But I’ve learned from 13 Ironmans that anything can happen, . . .no, something will happen, on race day. You can’t take it for granted just because you’ve done it before. No Ironman goes exactly right, it’s too long and grueling. I guess that’s one of the reasons I love this sport - it teaches you to overcome and adapt, persevere, keep going, make it to the Finish Line.

But IM Louisville ended for me at mile 8 of the marathon, riding with medics back to the race medical tent. Severely dehydrated, hypoglycemic, and nauseous. For 8 hours I swam 2.4 miles, cycled 112 miles, and then suffered (staggered) through 8 miles of the marathon, until I physically could not go any more.

That’s okay. I’ll be back. Here’s how it went . . .

Louisville was my 14th Ironman. Racing Ironman with diabetes, especially in the 90+ degree August heat in Louisville, requires a precarious nutritional balance of monitoring blood sugar, insulin dosing, carbohydrate consumption and hydration. Monitoring carbs and hydration are important for every Ironman triathlete, diabetes just makes them really important. I also have to keep a few extra “diabetes” supplies to get me through the race:

Diabetes race day supplies:
4 One Touch Ultra blood sugar meters for 2 transition bags and 2 Special Needs bags
Omnipod insulin pump attached to my arm
Omnipod PDM (carried in a pouch on my Fuel Belt) to administer a bolus of insulin or change basal rate
extra Omnipod (in my swim-to-bike transition bag) if my pod gets ripped off my arm during the swim
insulin (in the swim-bike transition) if I have to replace my pod after the swim
medi-cool pouch to keep insulin cool

Ironman triathletes are already obsessive compulsive type-A organizers (how else could we do this sport?). My diabetes stuff is just a few more things on the long list of “normal” things we all obsess about and keep up with before and during the race:

race apparel (skin suit or tri shorts and top)
swim goggles and cap
wetsuit (not today)
ankle strap with timing chip
bike (including carbon aero bars, race wheels, race tires, race cranks, race pedals, etc.)
helmet
cycling shoes
socks
sunglasses
water bottles
spare tire
CO2 cartridge
heart rate chest strap
bike pacing
cadence
power output
avoiding drafting
nutrition bars and gels
run shoes and hat

Sometimes it feels more like I’m packing for an Everest mission.

I’d been training for months in the hot, humid South Carolina summer so I was prepared for the conditions. For me racing any Ironman is a high wire nutrition juggling act I’ve done all over the world in all kinds of conditions – Florida (humid heat), Lake Placid (cool rain), Idaho (dry heat), Virgin Islands (humid heat), Australia (extremely dry heat), Sweden (cold rain) and Denmark (cool dampness). Get it right and I’m loving it (e.g., 9:47 at IM FL 2004). Get it wrong and . . . ugh, IM Louisville 2007. Just try to keep it together until about the last 10 miles of the marathon, when everyone feels miserable. Fun! Ha! At that point I just gut it out to the Finish Line and collapse with satisfaction. Nothing hurts at the Finish Line.

But in Louisville it all started to fall apart much earlier, several hours earlier, at about mile 85 of the bike, 5 hours into the race. Ironically, that’s when an Ironman race really “starts” – mile 85 of the bike. Everything before that is just 5 hours of warm up.

SWIM

The swim was in the Ohio River, a very large river usually filled with barge traffic, not swimmers. Even had signs along the bank that “Swimming is Prohibited.” Ha! Nice. (Not exactly the pristine mountain waters of Ironman Lake Placid, NY.) On top of that, heavy rains and flooding upriver in Ohio had increased the current so much that the swim course was changed 2 days earlier. We now started ¾ mile up river from the transition area in a narrow strip of protected water for a small marina, shielded from the main current by a long island. So narrow that it would not accommodate the usual 2000 athlete “ultimate fighting” mass swim start, so it was a “time trial” start, the first in Ironman history. We’d dive one-by-one into the river like parachutists jumping out of the back of a plane. For this reason I got to transition early at 5:15 am so I could walk ¾ mile to the start and be close to the front of the single file start line. At transition I quickly dropped off my run and bike Special Needs bags with blood sugar meters and nutrition, my bottles at my bike and a vial of insulin in a special medi-cool pouch just in case my awesome waterproof Omnipod insulin pump got ripped off my arm during the swim. Warm waters (80+ degrees) so no wetsuit to protect my Omnipod from flailing arms and hands. That would end my day real early (can’t race 9 - 10 hours without insulin), so I had placed a spare pod in my swim-to-bike transition bag for just that emergency. But Louisville’s hot temperatures meant I had to keep the insulin cool overnight and while I swam.

At 7:00 a.m., the cannon blew and the line moved quickly, athletes diving in every second. We swam up river but the current was not too bad for the first ½ mile in this protected channel. I chose to swim a little to the right of the main line of swimmers, sacrificing the drafting benefit, but I preferred and needed the safety of clear water to prevent anyone from accidentally ripping my Omnipod off my upper arm. The island ended and we veered left into the main channel, now fighting the real current for what seemed like forever. After 1.2 miles I rounded the turn buoy and headed back down river, loving the current now. I felt pretty good during the swim but expected the swim times to be a bit slow given the hard current we fought going up river. I exited the water in 1:09, a little slow for me, but I was okay with that. It’s a long day and I’d make it up on the bike.

TRANSITION 1

As usual my waterproof Omnipod insulin pump performed flawlessly during the swim and was still rock solid secure on my left triceps. (See picture of the swim exit.) A quick check of my blood sugar on my One Touch UltraMini meter said my blood sugar was 150. Perfect. I swigged a few swallows of carbohydrate drink to give me about 30-40 carbs as I ran to my bike and then the mount line among the roaring crowd. I’d stored my Omnipod PDM in a small pouch on my bike and just before mounting I paused to reprogram my Omnipod to reduce the basal delivery rate by 40%. I did not do that before I left transition at 5:30 a.m. because I wanted more insulin injected during the swim so it would be peaking in the first hour the bike (insulin starts working in 15 minutes and peaks in about 2 hours). I have had problems with high blood sugar in the first half of the bike (see below).

Just as I left transition, I saw my wife, Anna, and our baby girl Janna (4 months) in the crowd. I had left them in the dark at 5:30 a.m., 3/4 mile up river prior to the swim start, and often do not see Anna all day in the chaos of the race. I yelled to them as I raced out. Feeling great. All was good. I love the start of the Ironman bike. The intensity is indescribable, then we’re off for 112 miles on our own.

BIKE

The first 12 miles were flat along the shore of the river. I felt really comfortable averaging about 22 mph. There were few athletes on the bike course at this point, so no worries about drafting or congestion. I immediately started my hydration and nutrition plan. Each hour I needed to drink at least 50 ounces of sport drink or water (i.e., 2 bottles), and at least 50 but no more than 80 grams of carbohydrate. Too few carbs = low blood sugar. Too many carbs = high blood sugar. I took a bottle of water and/or Gatorade Endurance (approx. 40 grams carbs) from each aid station every 10 miles. The first 3 hours of the bike before the Special Needs bags at mile 68, I planned to eat 2 Clif Bars (each 240 calories, 42 grams carbs) and 2 sport gels (each 100 calories, approximately 20 grams carb). With the calories and carbs from the sport drink, that would give me about 900 calories and 250 grams of carbohydrate in the first 3 hours.

The hills started around mile 12 and I still felt good, but did not have the fire power in my legs I usually do. Because cycling is my strength, I usually pass many athletes (the faster swimmers) in the first 20 – 30 miles of bike, but today the road was very open because many speedy swimmers started after me in the time trial swim start. A few athletes passed me early in the bike, but I know from experience that many (most) triathletes go way too hard in the first 50 miles of the Ironman and pay for it later. I was patient and would not let these guys tempt me, so I let them go. It’s a long race.

I have had trouble with really high blood sugar (250+ mg/dl, normal/ideal is 100) in the first half of the bike, and have worked really hard with my insulin and nutrition strategy to prevent that. But some of that is caused by adrenaline ending the swim and transitioning to the bike. Adrenaline causes a blood sugar spike (the body’s natural “fight or flight” reaction), but it’s too risky to bolus (inject) insulin anticipating it. If I’m wrong and don’t get the adrenaline spike, the insulin will cause my blood sugar to crash (hypoglycemia). In previous Ironmans I have not been able to detect the high blood sugar until I check my blood sugar at the 56 mile midpoint about 2.5 hours into the bike. By that point it is too late because my kidneys have been flushing my system of vital hydration attempting to flush the glucose out of my blood for the last 2 hours. But at Louisville I was happy to catch it going up early, 45 minutes into the bike my BG hit 200. I figured it was still rising so while riding I immediately gave myself a quick small bolus of insulin (2 units) from my Omnipod insulin pump, and kept motoring. But I still needed to eat a Clif Bar (still have to fuel the body to race) and could not afford to dump those carbs on top of a 200+ rising blood sugar, so I gave myself a little more insulin (3 units, only about 3/4 what I normally would for a Clif Bar when not racing). But 45 minutes later (about 30 miles and 1½ hours into the bike) my BG had still skyrocketed to 340!! 3½ times what is normal!

Yikes! “Patience!” I told myself. I knew I had bolused insulin 45 minutes ago and it would soon be coming down. Chasing high and low blood sugar is a dangerous and difficult experiment. You must be patient and give the insulin, or carbs, time to be absorbed and work. Overreact/overcompensate and you’re doomed. You can’t get the insulin or carbs out of your body once they’re in. Doing this chemistry calculation while cycling 112 miles at 21-22 mph in the Ironman triathlon is, uh . . . challenging.

The bike course was a mix of rolling Kentucky hills, a bit hillier than I had expected, but similar to the roads I train on in the foothills of South Carolina and North Carolina. The short little hills did make it difficult to settle into a rhythm, constantly shifting gears. At mile 38 we rolled through the little town of LaGrange, Ky and thousands of people lined the course screaming wildly as we raced by. Cheering crowds are always nice when the rest of the 112 miles is just you, your bike and talking to yourself . . .“this kind of hurts. . . should I drink now?. . . I hope I don’t get a flat . . . wonder if can I catch that guy?”

By the Special Needs bags at mile 66, about 3½ hours into the ride, my blood sugar was a perfect 125. That’s a good number, but in 2 hours it had dropped from 340 to 125, even though I’d consumed about 100 grams of carbohydrate in that time. I could only hope it would not keep dropping, so I immediately stuffed a Clif Bar and about 40 grams of carbohydrate sport drink in my mouth to stop the slide. I also felt like I was properly hydrated, having drank consistently (and stopped twice to urinate) in the first 70 miles. I was in the top 10% of the field and felt pretty good about my position.

But around mile 80, I began to notice a loss in my power and speed. My legs did not have the same zip and I was struggling a bit more on the rolling hills. It’s normal to feel a bit tired after 80 miles, but when I began to get passed by a few athletes, I knew that something was going wrong. Around mile 85, approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes into the bike, nausea began to creep in. I checked my blood sugar and . . . 65 mg/dl. OH NO! I tried to stuff more carbs into my mouth, but my queasy stomach could not take much more sweet Gatorade, sport gel or another Clif Bar. I tried to drink several swallows of Gatorade while riding, only to choke and vomit it right back up, all while pedaling at 21 mph.

At this point, I stopped again and suspended all delivery of insulin (i.e., stopped the constant “basal” flow of insulin) from my pump. I could not tolerate more insulin going into my body when I could not eat to correct the already low blood sugar. (In fact, the rest of the race I never turned the pump back on and got no more insulin after this point.)

Miles 85 to 112 became a 1½ hour death roll, my blood sugar never getting above 65, out of breath, no strength, and nauseous. My average speed for those 27 miles dropped to 19.3 mph, at least 2 -3 mph below the average for the first 85 miles, and I was passed by what felt like 100 athletes. I stopped one more time (my 5th time!) to check blood sugar, feeling like I was going to vomit. It took me about 1 hour 30 minutes to cover those mostly descending and flat 27 miles. My nausea was so intense I wondered if I would even be able to start, much less finish, the marathon. I coasted into transition with a bike time of just over 5 hour 58 minutes, well beyond my target of 5:15. (Stopping 5 times also did not help.)

TRANSITION 2

As always, there are thousands of people cheering at us as the athletes enter the bike to run transition, but I could not run. I slowly walked into transition, grabbed my transition bag and sat (collapsed) in a chair in the change tent. It must have been 115 degrees in there, sweaty athletes rushing in from the bike and out for the run. Normally that is a frenetic 2 minute drill for me to check my blood sugar, throw on my running shoes and head out for the marathon. But not today. My One Touch Ultra Mini meter told me my blood sugar was 62 mg/dl. I was weak, hypoglycemic for the last 1½ hours, dehydrated and felt like I could throw up at any moment. I set a new record for slow transitions, sitting in that tent for 25 minutes, sipping my carbohydrate drink, trying to keep it down, trying to get my blood sugar up. No way would I be able to raise it after starting the marathon. 100 athletes must have entered and started the marathon while I could do nothing but watch them come and go.

I remember seeing the cool comfort of the medical tent outside through the opening, with several athletes being attended to, their race over. I did not want to stop.

After 25 agonizing minutes, my blood sugar had risen to about 120, and I began to feel slightly better. I was a bit surprised, but figured I would see how far I could run. You never know what happens. I started the marathon.

MARATHON

The run course was hot. HOT! 95 degrees and steaming humid at 2:30 pm. My first mile was a slow trot at about an 8 minute pace. For about 5 miles I kept dumping cups of ice under my hat, and cold wet sponges on my shoulders. But my strength and blood sugar kept dropping, until I slowed to a walk. I walked from about 3 miles, nauseous, dehydrated and somewhat delirious. Finally at mile 8 at the furthest point out on the 2 loop run course, I asked the medics for a blood sugar meter. My blood sugar was 70. I was sick and could not run. They recommended that I not continue. I wanted to try, but I could barely walk and definitely could not run. At about 4:30 pm, 8½ hours into the race, I had to withdraw. I climbed aboard the ambulance for the ride back to medical tent at the finish area, receiving 1 IV bag of fluid, until I was strong enough to stand.

POST RACE

As usual, after the IV I was remarkably recovered. I walked back to the transition with Anna and Janna in the stroller to get my bike and headed for our hotel. Yes, this race was a disappointment, a failure, but that happens sometimes. But I’ve had victories and defeats. Failures and successes. That’s why you must go for challenges that have “Failure Potential” (see my speaking video: http://www.jayhewitt.com/speakers_video.php). You have to keep getting back in the race, back in “the arena.” As Teddy Roosevelt said speaking at The Sorbonne University in Paris in 1910:

"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 them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming . . . who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never rest with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Today was a defeat, but I’ll be back racing at the Half Ironman South Carolina September 30 and the Miami Half Ironman Nov. 11 hoping to qualify again (as I did in 2004-2006) for the 2008 US National Team for Long Course Triathlon.

In September I’ll be doing some testing at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute hoping for information about my hydration and electrolyte needs.

See you next time!

Greenville Sprint Triathlon – Aug. 19, 2007

2007-08-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

On Aug. 19, 2007 I raced the Greenville Sprint Triathlon (400 meter swim/15 mile bike/5k run) in my hometown of Greenville, S.C. Hard to believe that I’ve been racing triathlons almost 7 years and have never done this race. It’s always nice to sleep in my own house the night before a race, and I’ve done that for plenty of races in upstate SC and north GA over the years, but this one was only 10 minutes from my front door! Nice! Also makes it easier for the world’s best 2 fans and supporters to go with me, my wife, Anna, and my biggest fan, our 3 month old baby girl Janna!

Since I started racing triathlons in 2000, each year I’ve noticed them becoming more popular, now almost the “trendy” thing to do it seems. I now see the same people who used to look at me like I was an alien showing up at these local sprint races. Just 3 years ago this Greenville sprint had barely 150 people. In 2007 it had over 500! That’s a lot of bodies for a short sprint race, packed into the pool and bike and run course.

I can usually do these short sprint races in just over an hour so they are a lot of speedy fun, especially since I race primarily Ironman distance, finishing anywhere between 9 ½ hours (yippee!) but sometimes as long as 11 or more hours (ugh, oh boy).

I made my first mistake in this race months ago when I registered. I was honest and gave an accurate estimated 100 meter swim pace/time. I know my pace from training hours in the pool and racing. The race organizers use this time to establish the start times for this pool swim. Through about 50 triathlons, 13 Ironmans and 3 World Championships with Team USA, I’ve become a pretty fast swimmer (as far as triathletes go) so I figured I’d be starting pretty close to front of a local sprint race. On race morning I was surprised to find I started 115th! Unless some speedy out-of-towners had snuck into the field, more than a few people had . . . uh, overestimated . . .(lied about?) their swim ability to get started up front. Individual times would be recorded by computer chips on our ankles, but its better to start near the front and avoid having to pass people the whole race. More on that below.

Two athletes started every 10 seconds. That meant when I started, the 8 lanes of this 50 meter pool were filled with arms and legs of about 75 to 100 bodies. As I expected, before I reached the end of the first 50 meter lane, I caught the 2 swimmers starting 10 seconds in front of me and eventually had to navigate around, through, and under several floating pods of people in the lanes. Kind of reminded me of rushing through the airport when everyone else seems not to be in such a hurry. “Excuse me, pardon me, coming through.”

On to the bike I felt pretty good, immediately catching more of those 115 who started ahead. With about 3 miles to go around mile 12, I was climbing a fairly long hill, passing cyclists on my right strung out on the hill, when a race referee passed me on a motorcycle. I saw him making notes on his pad. An official writing on his pad is a good sign that someone in the area is getting a penalty (usually for drafting). But I knew it was not me since I was doing all the passing, and assumed (hoped) it was the guy who had been hanging behind me in and out of my draft zone for several miles.

I finished this hilly 15 mile course in just over 37 minutes, averaging just under 24 mph. I hit the run feeling pretty good, but definitely pushing the red line. It’s fun for me to race this hard in a short race since I have to concentrate on being patient and pacing in the long Ironman distance races. I felt okay on the run, but not great, holding around a 6:45 pace. I finished the 3.1 mile run in just over 20 minutes.

I finished in just over 1 hour, 5 minutes (1:05) and was happy to see preliminary (unofficial) results at the finish that put me 15th overall and 1st in my 40-44 age group. But I was soon shocked to find that I had received a 2:00 minute “position” penalty on the bike. Honestly, I’ve never known anyone to get a position penalty. Seems that official passing me on the hill thought I was spending too much time in the middle of the lane rather than on the right edge of the road. My protest that I had to be there to pass all the cyclists clogging up the right side of the road did not matter to him. I learned my lesson the next time they ask for a swim estimate at registration!

With my penalty, I dropped to 2nd in my age group and out of the top 15 overall. I still had fun though! It was great to see 500 people out there pushing themselves to be fit. Next week is Ironman Louisville for me. See you then!

Joslin Diabetes Camp Biathlon - July 7, 2007

2007-07-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

I just got back from camp! Camp Joslin http://www.joslin.org/773_945.asp, in Charlton, MA, a boys camp run by the Joslin Diabetes Center. So much fun! I felt like I was 11 years old again. Camp Joslin is a fantastic place exclusively for boys age 7 to 15 with type 1 diabetes, with multiple two week sessions from May to August. The camp has been operating on this property since Dr. Elliot Joslin purchased the land in 1948. Campers can just be a kid for 2 weeks, having fun with other boys with diabetes, and learning how to control and live well with it from knowledgeable counselors, staff, nurses, dieticians and doctors from the world renowned Joslin Diabetes Center. It doesn't get any better than that!

I was there to inspire and educate the kids, but I think they inspired me more. I spent Thursday and Friday getting to know all 61 kids in the camp, challenging and encouraging them to "send the message to diabetes that it's messing with the wrong guy" by completing the first ever Camp Joslin Swim-Run Biathlon on Saturday, July 7. After 2 days of stories about my Ironman racing with diabetes I think they were ready! I was thrilled that a record number of campers attempted the 1/4 mile practice swim in Putnam Pond the day before the race, some as young as 7 years old who had never tried it before!

The big race was Saturday morning before lots of camp alumni, special invited guests and even some parents. We ran it just like a "real" biathlon. (We would have had a triathlon but not enough bikes :( No worries, this was a blast!) Race bib numbers, timing chips on their ankles, arms and legs body marked with their race numbers, and 2 age-appropriate courses laid out and run by a professional race management team. Short course was a 25 yard swim in shallow water and a 1/3 mile run around the camp. Long course was a 1/4 mile swim in Putnam Pond and a 3 lap run totaling approximately 1 mile.

Race morning the campers were a mix of excited, fired up and maybe a little nervous (but no one admitted that, right?). I had challenged them all to "reach the Finish Line and prove diabetes would not stop them." It did not matter how fast, just push themselves and race their best!

I have to say I've never had so much fun! 60 out of 61 camps signed up and they all finished! Some said they never thought they would ever be able to do something like that. Their expressions and pride at the finish was all I needed to see.

Festival of Flowers Olympic Tri, June 10 - 9th place

2007-06-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

In my second race as a new "Dad" I had a good result at the Festival Of Flowers Olympic Triathlon (1500 meter swim/24 mile bike/6.2 mile run) http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_detail&eventID=605#results-text on June 10, 2007, in Greenwood, S.C. I finished 9th place out of 270 overall in 2:10:41. http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=646 I love this course. It's the same course for the South Carolina Half Ironman and where I proposed to Anna last year. The swim in Lake Greenwood was very choppy and warm with no wetsuits allowed. I got pelted a few times by surface waves and force fed a few mouthfuls of lake water. I was in the 2nd wave start, 4 minutes after the first, and managed to catch a lot of the first wave swimmers before the 1500 meters was finished. That's always my goal in wave swim starts.

I got on the bike feeling great! My strategy in these short triathlons is to hammer the bike as hard as I can, like a Tour de France time trial, and inflict a little pain on anyone out there with me. Fun! It's best to sneak up and blow by anyone so fast and sudden that it almost freaks them out and they can't even react. I've been on the receiving end of that a few times and it has a way of sucking the power right out of your body. "Geez, where'd that guy come from?!" Then I'm just a dot in the distance. I passed a handful of those speedy swimmers and wave 1 starters in the first 10 miles, each was like a rabbit for me to chase down. I rode the final 14 miles relatively alone. I didn't want to become anyone's rabbit to chase. I rode my new Specialized Transition time trial bike with a rear Zipp disc wheel. Man, that felt light and fast! I had no computer so I had no info about my speed, cadence, power or heartrate, but it was kind of nice just to ride hard based on "feel." I managed to ride the 5th fastest bike split of the day at 58 minutes, 32 seconds.

I need to build a cushion on the bike (my strength) because I know there are some better runners in the field. That's why I love triathlon - with 3 sports you're never out of it and have to use your strengths and see how it plays out. Of course, I had to pause to check my blood sugar in T2 transition on my OneTouch Ultra meter (results in 5 seconds, Thanks LifeScan and OneTouch!) It was way too high! Ugh! But that happens a lot when you push a hard, intense effort. It's an adrenaline rush that floods glucose into the system. Now worries, in such a short race I know I'd bring it down real soon at the finish. (Once again, my Omnipod insulin pump stayed perfect and secure on my arm the whole race! Thanks Omnipod!)

I started the run on a 6:45 pace. One guy passed me about mile 1 looking way too "fresh," but he kindly told me that he was in a relay (somebody else had swam and biked). Thanks. I used him as pace setter for a few miles. At the 3.1 mile turn around cone I saw a few runners gaining on me so I kept pushing the pace all the way to the line.

I finished in 2:10:41, 9th place overall. I'm pretty happy with that since Olympic distance is still a little short for me. It was great speed work! I even managed to sneak onto the podium, earning 2nd place in the Masters (40+) category. Masters?! Ouch! Hard to believe that in less than a month I grew up and turned 40 (April 11) and became a Dad (May 7). Now that's going to make me go even harder! It was great to have Janna at her 2nd race. (She loved it, I could tell.) After the race, Anna and I even recreated my engagement proposal from last year at exactly the same spot! ha! (except this time I thankfully had not crashed on the bike). Anna's mother and father drove over for the race as well, but I've learned that Janna is the real attraction! :-) Thanks for coming Grandfather Hanks and Nanny Nette!

Middle Tyger Sprint Triathlon June 2, 2007 - 5th Place

2007-06-12T14:30:00.000-05:00

I raced the Middle Tyger Sprint triathlon (400 meter swim/14 mile bike/4 mile run) June 2 in Duncan, part of the Upstate South Carolina Triathlon Series. If you can believe it, this was my first triathlon in 2007! Hard to believe I have not raced a triathlon since the ITU Long Course Worlds in Australia last November. I'm a long course guy and short course speed is not my specialty, but I love sprint races because they are just that - sprints! I go all out all the time and don't have to worry about holding anything back. No need to worry about all the stuff that's so important in Ironman - pacing, hydration, nutrition or my diabetic nemesis, blood sugar. There's no time! The race is over in barely one hour! Just go, go, GO!

It was a 400 meter pool swim at the Middle Tyger YMCA, a fantastic aquatic center with wide 50 meter lanes. I love the 50 meter lane because I'm not the best at flip turns and its lots of space for settling into a rhythm. The bike was 14 miles of hills that I know well. My coach and friend Peter Kotland lives nearby and I ride these roads with him all the time. I hammered the bike as hard as I could and came off the bike in about 8th place. The run was a hilly 4 miles. I tried to set a 6:30 pace to practice for some longer races coming up. I caught a few in front of me and managed to finish 5th overall out of about 120. (I should get a time bonus for changing diapers in the middle of the night! Ha!) I was pleased that my friend and fellow Hincapie Triathlon teammate Jamie Church got the win. Great job Jamie!

(Also, baby Janna "saw" her first race. Okay, she might have slept through most of it, but I think I heard her say "Go Daddy" one time!)

Baby Janna Hewitt - May 7, 2007

2007-06-12T13:11:00.000-05:00

On Monday, May 7 my beautiful wife, Anna, gave birth to our daughter - Janna Rebecca Hewitt, 8 lbs, 4 oz., 20.5 inches. Unbelievable! Of course, I'm a bit proud and biased, but Janna is the most precious, beautiful thing in the world! I tell everyone that Janna is all "Anna" and just a little bit of "J." She was two weeks early. Hard to believe that Anna and I were at the Boston marathon just 3 weeks earlier on April 16! In fact, Anna started feeling contractions the next week (April 25) while I was in Virginia racing the Tour of Virginia. Turned out to be false labor, but it got my attention! If "false" became "real" we had a plan for her to call my director in the team car during the race. I would have raced for the finish line and probably kept on going!

But on May 7 Anna and I wouldn't even have gone to the hospital if the doctor hadn't told Anna that she was in labor during a visit to his office that morning! She was having no pain that afternoon so we went home and casually packed our bags, a cooler of snacks, pillows and the exercise ball for Anna to use in the delivery room, still not convinced that this was it. We even stopped by the grocery store for a little birthday cake with Janna's name on it just in case. Not the normal rush to the hospital! Anna had decided to do the Bradley Method of natural child birth with no pain medication. I'm so proud of her! She exercised during pregnancy and stayed fit and healthy did fantastic! Little Janna was born at 11:59 pm that night, May 7! Just barely made the midnight cut off . . . or curfew! Ha!

Anna and Janna are both doing great! The past month has been lots of fun and lots of diapers, and just a little sleep. But I've managed to train and even race a few local triathlons with good results (see above) so I can't wait to carry her across the finish line one day!

Interview for South African blogs - Ironcrazy.com and Tricape.com

2007-05-16T10:54:00.000-05:00

Here's a recent interview I did for a couple of pretty cool blogs from South Africa called www.ironcrazy.com and www.tricape.com. The Ironman community is worldwide and it's great that we can find each other and share stories and inspiration. Check it out on tricape.com http://www.tricape.com/2007/05/16/jay-hewitt-interview/#more-314 and also on Ironcrazy.com http://www.ironcrazy.com/2007/05/15/jay-hewitt-interview/. I hope to do Ironman South Africa one day!

Tour of Virginia stage race, April 24, 2007

2007-05-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

I’ve found that I get a mix of visitors to my website and blog, from those interested in diabetes and know little about triathlon, cycling etc. to those who know the details and strategies of the sports. I try to make it readable for both!

Raced my first pro multi-stage race, the Tour of Virginia, www.tourofvirginia.com starting April 24, through the Shenandoah mountains of western Virginia. I was honored to be invited considering that I don’t race pro cycling, just a triathlete who poses as a cyclist between swimming and running. Ha! (My coach joked one time that we triathletes are really not that great at any of the 3 sports, just pretty good at doing them all together.) But if you train and race with the best in each sport, you get better. They go fast!

180 riders from some top pro teams racing in Europe and North and South America - Priority Health/Bissell, Rite Aid Pro Cycling, Colavita-Sutter Home, Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada, Caico - 31 teams total. I was there with my friend Phil Southerland and the all-diabetic Team Type 1, but ultimately raced for the composite team “Skinny J’s” sponsored by Shenandoah Cycle Company

Stage one was the opening Time Trial, a short prologue of pain. Time Trialing is just you against the clock, no drafting and what I do cycling in the Ironman, so I felt right at home here. Just wish it had been 40 miles rather than 4 - these little cyclists can accelerate like rockets while I’m just getting warmed up! (To give you an idea of the different physique of a triathlete v. a cyclist, I’m 6’3” 175 – 180 lbs and most pro cyclists are under 5’10” and 140. I felt like a giant!) In a short TT you basically try to warm up as best you can, then line up right before your start time to explode off the line and see how long you can redline your engine . . . here it was up the hill out of the gate… down the other side, around the turn around point and then back up that hill . . . wondering if the guy who started a few seconds behind me is gaining on me . . . until lactic acid was coming out of my eyes and my chest felt like someone poured battery acid down my throat . . . . Fun! At least I didn’t have to save anything for a run! I finished okay, but not great. On this short course a few seconds meant a difference of 50 places so the times were really bunched tight.

Stage Two was also that first day, a criterium race that evening about 20 miles away in the town of Lynchburg, Va. Criteriums are definitely NOT my specialty. In criteriums you do multiple laps around a circuit course usually under 1 mile in a city. Lots of spectators and lots of tight corners and turns for up close racing action. I’ve attached a map of this criterium here. Just think of 180 cyclists packed around you bumping into you like commuters pushing into a subway car, blasting to speeds over 30-35 mph and suddenly braking to under 10 mph in seconds, up and down two short steep hills and around 90 degree corners, dodging curbs and bumps that can send you flying, with your legs on fire and your chest pounding. Bike handling skills are critical at these speeds in these packs, where one mistake can cause a massive pile up. (That’s how I broke my collar bone in 2006 when a cyclist went down in front of me in a race.) My goal was just to get through this stage riding in and out of the group, without getting in a pileup so I could race the next day’s Stage 3 road race. Glad to say I made it! CyclingNews Stage 2 report: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2007/apr07/virginia07/virginia072

The next day was Stage 3, a tough 107 mile mountain stage. The profile I've attached looks like a shark's mouth. It was here that I paid for running the Boston Marathon 7 days ago! (Not how I would have scheduled it, but I really wanted to do both after getting these two special invites!) The field took off in the first hour, averaging 27 – 29 mph over rolling hills. Hold on, where's the fire guys?!! My speed on one descent hit 52 mph, and that was still with the peleton of 180 cyclists packed all together! Clearly some of the teams were looking to inflict some pain on the field early to get their climbers off the front when the big climbs started. I was one who took some of that pain! I was doing a decent job until we hit one of those mountain thingamajigs and I suddenly felt like I was going backwards. I hung in with some others who also got shelled by the group, but we could not make the time cut off at the finish (finishing within 12% of the stage winner’s time). Over 60 racers suffered the same fate that day, so I was in good company and did not feel so bad about that! CyclingNews report Stage 3: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2007/apr07/virginia07/virginia073

Still had a fantastic experience! Guess I need to find a swim race to complete the circle before my next triathlon! See you soon! (Special thanks to Jeff Haden at Blackbird Images, www.blackbirdimages.com for these race shots.)

Nutrisoda - I love it!

2007-04-29T20:39:00.000-05:00

I want to give a shout out to one of my sponsors - Nutrisoda, www.nutrisoda.com. They are great tasting, carbonated and nutrient enhanced with no sugar, caffeine, sodium or aspartame. Natural fruit flavors with vitamins and minerals. Also some very cool flavor names that fit their very cool cans! My favorite is Focus (mango and peach!), but I usually just go for whichever fits my mood. And they are committed to social and environmental causes! This is the best drink I've ever tasted! (and I said that before they sponsored me!)

A company that makes great tasting soda, is committed to health and wellness, social and environmental causes and those with diabetes? How can you not LOVE that?! Check out my page under Health and Wellness - Diabetes on their website for lots of fitness and motivation tips!

http://www.nutrisoda.com/cms/Default.asp?DocID=524&RevID=946&Tpl=1Template6.asp

Boston Marathon and Joslin Diabetes Center - April 16, 2007

2007-04-27T15:37:00.000-05:00

I ran the Boston Marathon on April 16 along with 5 other members of “Team Joslin” raising money for the Joslin Diabetes Center, http://www.joslin.org/. Joslin is the world’s leader in diabetes treatment and research. On Team Joslin you can run, walk, pedal, swim, kick or do any sporting event you like to raise money for the Joslin High Hopes Fund. Joslin asked me to be “Captain” of Team Joslin, and I am so unworthy but honored! Joslin is affiliated with the Harvard Medical School and home to the best researchers in the world who are going to cure this disease. By joining Team Joslin you are helping the researchers directly so set a fitness goal, sign up for an event, get on Joslin’s website and join today! You’ll be part of a team and tell them I sent you!

Race day hit us with a nasty nor’easter storm, 20-25 mph winds, heavy rain and temps in the high 30s and low 40s all day. After several weeks of warm spring weather in South Carolina, I had to dig out my winter training gear! I’ve never run a marathon in so many layers of wet clothing, but it was fun to do with others for Team Joslin.

The Boston Marathon is an impressive system of people moving, 21,000 runners bussed in hundreds of yellow school busses from downtown Boston at 6:30 a.m. to the start line 26 miles out in Hopkington. That’s a lot of wet, cold, skinny people standing in the pouring rain for several hours for the race to start at 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. with trash bags over their bodies and around their shoes. Boston is the elite U.S. marathon that requires entrants to qualify the previous year at marathons around the country. I had no plans to run Boston until early 2007 when Joslin invited me to join Team Joslin and run with one of their special invite bib numbers. Unfortunately these bib numbers are assigned the last starting corral behind 21,000 people. It took 20 minutes to reach the start line after the race “started”and almost 5 miles before we could really “run” in this mass of bodies. But I wasn’t there to race, I was there to have fun and support Joslin and it was great even despite the nasty weather! For 3 of them this was their first marathon and they all finished. They did a tough course in some pretty rough conditions and I was proud to do it with them.

Even with the horrible weather the crowds were fantastic. Just before the half way point, I heard a shrill noise in the distance getting louder and louder like a jet engine warming for take off. Then the route enters the campus of Wellesley women’s college (http://www.wellesley.edu/) and the entire student body lines the route and screams at you for ½ mile like you’re a rock star! Known famously as the “screech tunnel” - now that’s the way to run a marathon! Of course, I about passed out at mile 14 like everyone else who blasts through there at warp speed. Then it was 12.2 more miles of hills and cold wind and rain. The crowds were still fantastic even with the nasty weather, especially the screaming Boston College students at mile 20-21 just after Heartbreak Hill. They seemed to be well “hydrated” and not too worried about the weather. Ha! The run into Boston is epic and so memorable, even though my legs were a bit cramped from the cold and my lack of run training. (I spent most of my time this winter cycling for the Tour of Virginia 6 day stage cycling race starting the week after Boston.)

After the race I spoke a bit at Joslin on my message of Finish Line Vision™, thanking the incredible Joslin nurses, doctors, researchers and staff for all they do in the fight against diabetes. They are the best! Join Team Joslin today!

Interview on Diabetes Mine blog

2007-04-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

I just did a interview for a great diabetes blog called "Diabetes Mine - A gold mine for straight talk and encouragement for people living with diabetes." Amy Tenderich designs and runs the blog and is a wonderful writer with a new book out. I highly recommend it! Check it out. http://www.diabetesmine.com/2007/04/ironman_jay_hew.html .

My Wedding - The Homestead, Va. January 27, 2007

2007-04-26T16:18:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I updated my blog, but the posts above might explain that a bit! I promise to do better! The winter was busy and exciting - Anna and I had our wedding at the The Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va on January 27, 2007 (also my Dad's birthday, will be a special coincidence for me forever). The Homestead is a gorgeous mountain resort with a ski resort, amazing hotel, hundreds of beautiful acres, bowling alley, indoor heated pool, just to name a few of the luxuries. A great family gathering for Anna's family and mine - when else can you get your parents and siblings and their kids all together for 4 days unless we make it a family wedding!

Here are a few photos of Anna and me and my nephews Rick and Jordan spreading flowers. Anna looked beautiful and I can't wait to have our own child!

ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championship, Australia, November 19, 2006

2007-01-09T16:50:00.000-05:00

After a little downtime in December, I finally had a chance to recap the Worlds in Australia in November. It was my first trip to Australia, even though I’ve been racing against these mates all over the world for years now. Now I know why the Aussies have so many great triathletes – a beautiful country and fantastic weather! After the race my fiance, Anna, (www.annahanks.com) and I did a little traveling north to the rainforest in Queensland, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef off the coast and spent time in Sydney. Fantastic!

I was just coming off Ironman Florida 2 weeks earlier back in the U.S. and a few injuries this year so I was not looking to set any records in this year’s Worlds, hoping to finish well but probably in the middle of this great field. Race was in the capital of Australia, Canberra, about 4 hours drive south (300 kilometers) from Sydney and 150 kilometers inland. November is the Australian spring so we had a real weather mix – cold and even snow flurries 3 days before the race, and then 95 degree dry blast furnace heat on race day! Wow! It was so dry I even developed nose bleeds.

The swim was in the crisp waters of Lake Burley Griffin, a beautiful lake surrounding the capital hill of Canberra. I had a better swim than I expected, thanks to a lot of work by the US team chiropractors and physiotherapist on my shoulder. Thanks guys!

The bike course was fantastic! Extremely challenging, hot and hilly, just the way I like it! Four (4) laps of about 20 miles each into the arid bush land outside of Canberra. Unfortunately the ITU had only one, ONE!, aid station on the bike course so that meant conserving drink until we looped back into town every 20 miles, not good in this 95 degree sauna! I remember huge Australian black flies buzzing around me climbing the killer steep grades out in the bush land. On one trip up this tortuous climb I caught my U.S. teammate, Julie Murphy, from South Carolina who also is my teammate on the Hincapie Sports Triathlon team. Julie started in the female wave ahead of me and had a fantastic swim, 2nd amateur overall!

I had an okay bike, but got dehydrated as many athletes did. I came into the run in about the middle of the lead field, about where I had expected to be. This is where the heat really hit us like a wall. The 19 mile run was on dirt and asphalt paths around the lake. Hot hot hot, almost 100 degrees! The International Triathlon Union (ITU) is the official international governing federation for triathlon, a different organization from the private for-profit company of Ironman. This was my 3rd ITU World Championship (Sweden ’04 and Denmark ’05) and I’ve learned the ITU officials are a bit different than Ironman races. One in Australia even threatened to penalize me for having my jersey unzipped on the run! The route took us around the Australian National History Museum at the far end to the lake. There were no spectators back there and it was a lonely hot pilgrimage to make it through that section each time.

I held a steady pace but struggled through the run, dousing myself with water at each aid station. The ITU had little plastic “water tubes” rather than cups so I spent the run ripping them open with my teeth. My blood sugar held up okay, but like many I was fighting a losing battle with the heat and dehydration. Nausea was a big problem, which really kills when my mind wants to go faster but my body won't let me! I finished in middle of the field, disappointing but probably about what I should expect for this Worlds given my injury plagued season. I’ve learned from a lot of races and life that some days and seasons everything works, and sometimes there are mishaps, so just keep going.

Well, that’s it for 2006. I want to thank my sponsors: LifeScan blood sugar meters, Insulet Omnipod insulin pump, Nutrisoda beverages, Hincapie Sportswear, Clif Bar and Rudy Project glasses and helmets. I’m real excited about 2007 – a new partnership with Joslin Diabetes Center with Harvard University and some great new sponsors, races and speaking events! Check back soon and stay tuned! Thank you for your comments and emails – you inspire me!

Ironman Florida, November 4, 2006

2007-01-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

This was my 5th year in a row at this race. Maybe I should buy property. I’ve had some great results here and some not so great, but that’s Ironman! 2006 was one of the not-so-great. I’ve eaten asphalt a few times in 2006, crash and clavicle surgery in March and another crash last month at the SC Half IM (see post below) so my training this year has been disrupted a bit. Work also required lots of attention in October (imagine that!) preparing to spend November in Florida and Australia at the Worlds. But we all have to juggle life’s obligations and little surprises. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan, definitely not in an Ironman! I speak on this subject of balance and motivation a lot so check out some tips on Finish Line Vision on my website. http://www.jayhewitt.com/topics.php. You will get there!

IM FL 2006 had some testy conditions, not hard for most races but definitely the most challenging of the last 4 years here. It was cold race morning (37 degrees! Pppp…erfect for a swim). The Gulf felt like a warm bath. As expected my swim was slow, still recovering from my shoulder surgery. A bad swim makes you feel like you’re spending the day playing catch up, and patience is important in Ironman. It’s a long race and you have to trust your strengths, and cycling is mine. The bike was a bit chilly at first 40s and 50s, see my arm warmers in the photos. This was supposed to be warm Florida! But the real killer was the relentless wind! It seemed like a head and cross wind for 80 of the 112 miles! Not fun with a deep dish front wheel and rear disk!

I had a fantastically crappy bike. A glacial 5:23, 24 minutes off my best here of 4:59 in 2004. Mostly due to lack of training this year, but I’m also still struggling with dehydration problems. I hope to soon get my sweat rate and sodium loss tested at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. It is also possible that my dehydration problems are related to blood sugar fluctuations. That’s why I’m excited about my new Omnipod insulin pump by Insulet. I just got it before this race and haven’t had time to fine tune the basal rate, but the convenience is fantastic! No strings or tubes! Check it out! http://www.myomnipod.com/

My swim and bike left me down in the pack so I didn’t push the marathon with the World Championship coming up just 2 weeks later in Australia. But my dehydration wouldn’t let me run hard any way! It was a slow 26 mile jog to the finish.

No matter how bad some days, races are, you will recover and be stronger next time! Remember that! Thanks for all of your emails and comments. Talk to you from Australia at the Worlds November 19!

SC Half Ironman - Engagement Proposal - Oct. 1, 2006

2006-10-29T21:34:00.000-05:00

The 2006 SC Half Ironman was my year all squeezed into one race – big excitement and a little mishap that almost got in the way! I had BIG plans for this race! It is a special race for my girlfriend, Anna, and me. Three years ago, just a few days after our first date, I convinced her to get up before sunrise and come watch me do this race, a guy she barely knew and a sport she knew even less! Soooo…this year I had a big surprise! I was going to propose to her at this race where it all began! Not only “at” the race, but “during” the race! I had the diamond engagement ring tucked snuggly in my running shoe in transition, waiting on me to finish the swim and bike, with plans to give it to her sometime during the 13.1 half marathon.

The swim was uneventful and I exited the water feeling great. I hit the bike hard as always and quickly moved up the field until I was in the top 20 of 500 in the race with about 4 miles to go on the 56 mile bike. So now I’m thinking about the ring. “It better still be in my shoe…I wonder how far I’m going to have to run with it before I see her? What words should I use? I want to make this memorable..." (as if proposing in the middle of a Half Ironman isn’t already). Then it happened. I’m all alone riding about 25 mph, lost in my proposal plans, drifted a little too close to the edge of the road, hit a patch of sand – WHAM! Bike slid right from under me. Suddenly I’m sliding down the asphalt on my back! Ooooouuuuch!!!!!

I stopped sliding and lay in the road for a minute, stunned. But a quick inventory of body parts didn’t reveal any broken bones, but blood was everywhere! My back, legs and hands were pretty scarred by the asphalt. My bike was banged up but I was able to ride in the final 4 miles to transition.

I was a bloody mess in transition (see photo). I grabbed the ring box and started the run, stopping at aid stations to pour water over my screaming bloody wounds. (See photo with ring box in my left hand.) About mile 7 I finally spotted Anna in the crowd and with a big hug I gave her a bloody ring box and slid the diamond on her finger. The crowd seemed to like it and made a lot of noise, but they may have just been horrified by my bloody body rather than the proposal.

Anna started to hyperventilate and I think she managed a “yes” between gulps. I said “great! I’ve gotta run a little more but I’ll see you in a little bit” and then I ran the final six miles to the finish! We’ll definitely never forget our proposal!

P.S. I was fine. Despite all that crashing, stopping and proposing, I managed to finish 38th out of 500. Just a little post-race cleaning of my wounds and a brief trip to the ER that night to patch things up and I was good as new!

Joslin Diabetes Center Weekend - Sept. 28-29

2006-10-29T21:05:00.000-05:00

I was honored to be invited to participate in a fantastic event for the Joslin Diabetes Center. Joslin is the leading diabetes research and treatment facility in the world, located in Boston. Check it out at www.joslin.org. I was honored to be a part of Joslin's annual celebrity event to raise awareness and funds for the center, 2 days in Newport, RI of golf, a beautiful gala dinner auction in a Victorian mansion and regatta on America's cup racing yatchs! Check it out at www.newportunderthestars.com. I've included a few pictures of my beautiful fiance Anna and me at the events!

In 2007 I will be a part of this amazing diabetes center at Joslin in many ways, including the Joslin diabetes camp and speaking at Joslin events. Contact Joslin TODAY and let them know I told you! See you there!

Tugaloo Olympic Triathlon Race Report - September 16, 2006

2006-09-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

I raced the 10th annual Tugaloo Olympic distance triathlon September 16. Fantastic weather on a hilly course in Lavonia, Ga. just across the SC state line. This race is run extremely well and very popular with the gazillion triathletes from Atlanta and all over Georgia. The race operates out of the Tugaloo State Park just a few miles off I-85 on the Georgia side of Lake Hartwell so it's just a short drive from Greenville on race morning. But don't let that proximity to civilization fool you. This ain't a city race! North Georgia country roads are dark at 6:00 am, and I even had to travel a dirt road - I didn't know they still had those! - but finally found the long line of cars entering the park. After you park, you still have to hike a little trail through the woods, over a stream to the transition area. Hilarious.

This year the race was full at 500. I did this race in 2002 when I was just starting to race and it only had a few hundred back then. Triathlons are definitely getting popular. The swim was non-wetsuit with a time trial start, 3 athletes every 10 seconds based on estimated swim finish times you provide at registration. Since my shoulder surgery (broken clavicle) in March, my swimming has been slow to recover so I estimated a swim time about 5 minutes slower than what I would do. That put me starting in 215th place! Time trial and wave starts make it hard to gage your place as the race develops, so I just go all-out all-the-time since I never know where I stand. It's a fun way to race! Besides I'm an Ironman racer so these short course races (sprint and Olympic) seem so short that I go all out start to finish. I don't have the top end sprinter speed for these races but they are great for speed work.

I finished the swim about 2 minutes faster than my estimate so I was pleased with that. The run to transition was about 100 yards. Speedy transitions are more in important in short races than Ironman, but I always have to take a little longer to check my blood sugar (I'm type 1 diabetic). T1 was 2:37. Very slow. But the bike is my favorite and I was really looking forward to this one. Tugaloo is hilly. Really hilly for such a short bike - 26 miles. A few long 1/2 mile climbs and a dozen short quad burners. I loved it. My goal was to break 1:10 which I figured would put me a the top of my 35-39 age group but still save a little for the run. I biked 1:09:50 (made it by by 10 seconds!) which was good for 3rd out of 74 in my age group. On to the run.

Checked my blood sugar again in T2 (I prick my finger and put a drop of blood on my One Touch blood sugar meter.) I was troubled to find it very high, over 250 mg/dl, which is almost 3 times what it should be (normal is 80 to 120). This is less of a problem in short races because its over before I begin to really feel the effects. High blood sugar (hyperglycemia) causes sluggishness, fatigue, nausea and eventually dehydration - feels like you ate a giant meal with the flu and a tequila hangover (not that I would know what that feels like). Now go race. I could have injected myself with insulin but that was risky and could lead to a sudden blood sugar drop and dangerous low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), besides I would be finished this 10k run before the insulin really would take effect. Blood sugar extremes are more of a challenge in Ironman because I can't eat when it's too high (will make it go higher) but eating is necessary to avoid the dreaded "bonk." Low blood sugar makes you disoriented, weak, shaky and numerous other progressively worse symptoms. Pulling out a syringe and taking an injection in transition is not what you normally see in a triathlon, but I've done it in Ironman. But who cares, this is why we race, to prove that we can, right?

I took off on the run and tried to hold 7 minute miles. My run fitness has been slow to come around since I could not run for 4 months while my arm was in a sling and I raced RAAM in June. Tugaloo's run is up and down, up and down through the park on asphalt roads. I was pleased to able to hold that pace fairly comfortably, finishing in 44:13 for a 7:08 pace. I finished in 2:26 which was 9th out of 74 in my age group and 49th out of 500 overall. Not my best but I was happy with it. Best was that I could have gone another few hours at that pace so my training is coming around for Ironman Florida on November 4th and the Long Course Worlds in Australia November 19th. Next for me is the South Carolina Half Ironman October 1. See you then!

US Pro Cycling Championship - September 3, 2006

2006-09-11T15:33:00.000-05:00

The US Pro Cycling Road Race Championship was in my hometown of Greenville, S.C. Labor Day weekend. I was pleased to host my RAAM teammates from Team Type 1, Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge. The night before the race we had a great dinner with former Tour de France rider Jonathan Vaughters, now manager of the TIAA-CREF cycling team, comparing notes and stories about racing the Tour and RAAM, and diabetes. Sunday we watched my friend and fellow Greenvillian George Hincapie win the US National Championship in our hometown. Levi Leipheimer set a killer pace climbing Paris Mtn., shreding 3/4 of the field off the back in the first 10 miles of the race. Only 20 riders out of 100 finished the race and George held on for the win. See my picture above and more from the race and the weekend.

Ironman Lake Placid Race Report July 23, 2006

2006-08-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

Ironman Lake Placid, July 23, 2006, the 11th of my career, was different for a lot of reasons. For the first time in my career, I was not in proper form on race day. I broke my right clavicle in a cycling race in late February and had surgery March 1. I spent March and April in a sling, so no swimming or running for 2 months. When I got out of the sling in early May I could not even touch the top of my head with my right hand! I spent May in physical therapy 3 days a week, still no swimming or running, but cycling almost every day to get ready for the Race Across America (RAAM) in mid June. I spent 2 weeks in June traveling and racing RAAM, an amazing experience, cycling 3,043 miles from San Diego to Atlantic City in just over 5 days! But when I returned home June 22, I had only 1 month until IM Lake Placid! Still lots of physical therapy, then my health club closed my pool the month of July for renovations! Augh!

So I had less than adequate training for this Ironman. I still only had about 60% flexibility and strength in my shoulder and had swum only a few times, and run barely 10 times since February. My longest run was only 12 miles! So I headed into Lake Placid with an unusual race strategy – see if I my shoulder could complete the swim without too much pain, ride the bike as hard as I could, and see if I could run the marathon. No pressure, just a fun, long catered training day!

The first race day surprise occurred when I arrived at my bike in transition. My front tire was flat! Fortunately I had brought a spare (call it racer’s intuition that morning) so I did not have to rip the spare off my bike. I stripped off the old tire but quickly discovered that my spare did not have enough glue to adhere to the very wet wheel rim. After about 15 minutes of standing in line, I managed to get a few pieces of rim tape from mechanics in transition, but time was running out! I changed it just as transition closed and I was virtually alone, still with several blocks to walk to the swim start and get into my wetsuit! In transition when it closed? – another first for me! The changed job was less than perfect, the tire was not centered on the rim, but it would have to do. I’d just have to see what happened when I starter riding. No worries, this was supposed to be a training race anyway!

The swim at Lake Placid is always crowded, 2200 athletes in a narrow lake. It’s a water start so I drifted to the far side knowing I would not be contending. I couldn’t fight the battle with only one good arm anyway. After about 20 minutes on the first lap, my shoulder finally warmed up and I slogged through the rest of the swim. At one point I even stopped and rotated on my side to rest my shoulder. It’s amazing how quiet and peaceful it was in the middle of that pack of over 2000, only the sound of soft splashes all around me. I exited the water 12-15 minutes behind my normal swim time, firmly in the middle of the field. Man it was crowded! I’ve never been surrounded by so many people exiting the swim! The transition tent was packed, not a seat anywhere. It was chilly in the mid 50’s and light rain, so I spent more time putting on arm warmers and a vest in addition to my usual routine of checking blood sugar, cycling socks and shoes, etc. I even took the time to change the lens on my sunglasses! Clearly I was in no hurry!

I was very skeptical of my front tire so I watched it closely the first couple of miles in the slick rain. It seemed okay so I pushed the pace. I spent the first half of the bike passing every person I saw. I felt a little awkward blowing by them, almost as if I should apologize and explain my poor swim and shoulder. I finished the first loop in a fairly conservative 2 hours, 45 minutes, but my blood sugar at the mid-point was almost 300, a problem I frequently have in Ironman bike segments even though I rarely eat much. I need to eat during the bike, but doing that and keep my blood sugar down is a challenge. I took a quick injection of 3 units of Humalog insulin, knowing that I would both be working hard but eating and drinking regularly on the 2nd lap. I was hoping to finish in around 5 hours, 30 minutes, which now required an even split, and I felt very strong for lap two, still passing everyone I saw. But after about 90 miles, my legs suddenly gave out. I was not passing people like before, just holding the same pace.

I hit the final climb up Whiteface Mountain, the last 15 miles, feeling weak and sluggish, losing lots of time. I finished the bike feeling drained, suspecting low blood sugar. A quick check on my One Touch Ultra meter confirmed it – blood sugar 60. Way too low. I sat in the transition tent, sipping my carbohydrate drink in no particular hurry. I had passed over 750 athletes on the bike, but a few hundred were already out on the marathon.

I started the marathon still feeling weak and slightly nauseous, trying to get my blood sugar up, running with a bottle of high carb sport drink and a flask of Clif Shot gel. I know I had not eaten enough during the bike, worried about overloading my blood sugar. Now I was paying for the lack of calories and carbs in my system. I’d also been careful to drink heavily, but my stomach pains told me I was dehydrated as well. Add that to my lack of run training and my marathon was not going to be fun. I pushed it as hard as I could for the first 6 miles out passed the giant ski jumps, but with each mile my stomach felt worse until I was reduced a slow jog and walk. Returning to town after the first half of the marathon I felt it was best that I withdraw and save my body the abuse just to finish. I’d gotten everything I hoped for out of this training race, a post-injury swim test, a good bike workout, and a little running.

I’ll be spending the summer getting ready for Ironman Florida Nov. 5 and the ITU Long Course Triathlon World Championships in Australia Nov. 19. See you then!