
Every October. Sacrifice. Dedication. Struggle. I received these words of encouragement earlier in the week from my good friend Matty Mo as I was prepping for the biggest race of my life, Ironman Hawaii. These words truly hit home and confirmed to this day that this was the only race that has mattered to me the past 4+ years. Anything less than a perfect race on Saturday in my eyes would mean disappointment not only for the race, but for my entire season. This was either my time to shine, or my time to let the pressure get to me. I know we all can have a bad race from time to time, but from the very second when I qualified for the race at Ironman Arizona last November, every ounce of sweat was devoted to the stretch of asphalt through the Lava Fields, otherwise known as the Queen K Highway. Every other race this year was simply a bonus and a stepping stone towards Kona perfection. Speaking of pressure, to be honest, I have never had this kind of pressure going in to a race. I had so many people back home and across the country that believed in me and it put me into a situation I have never had to deal with. No longer would making it to the finish line would be good enough. I made it visible to the world that my plan was to go low 9's. Truth be told, I was nervous about this but I also kept telling myself over the course of the year that this was quite possible. On paper it was easy. Swim an hour, bike five hours and run around a three hour marathon. All when separated out, is not a hard feat to accomplish. Unfortunately though in Ironman, you get no rest period in between sports (well it was reported that a athlete during the race took 40+ minutes in transition #2). This was by far the most nervous I've ever been going into a race but once the cannon sounded, it was just another day at the office.
The week leading up to the race was a whirlwind of excitement and energy. It's hard to describe the atmosphere in Kona during Ironman week. It's a town of true perfection. Every athlete is tuned and has less than 10% body fat. It's safe to say that there is no other place in the world (outside of the Olympics every 4 years) where so many fit athletes flock to a small town in the middle of the Pacific. This being my third trip to Kona, Jennifer and I didn't have any big plans outside of the race. I had seen the Volcano's, Waterfall's and have even swum with the dolphins in years past. There was only one purpose behind our travels this year and that was to race.
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| Pre Race at the Ironman Welcome Dinner |
Believe or not race week seemed to move in slow motion. I found myself camped out in our one room condo for the majority of the week. Far different from what most people do when they go to Hawaii. This was the hardest part of the trip I must say, but again, I was only here for one thing. Now don't get me wrong, we did get in a morning hike, some snorkeling and awesome dinners with our Pittsburgh friends. Race morning finally arrived and I was up and ready to get the show on the road at roughly 3:45 a.m. Jen and I stayed at a Condo right in town this year which made race day easy. We walked to transition, I got body marked and finished the last minute details of setting up my bike which included clipping in my shoes and loading my water bottles on to my frame. Now the waiting game began. As I gave my final farewell to Jen, I was lucky enough to see Ryan and Ty Ballou. Everyone on the Ballou Skies team was thankful to have these two guys cheering out on Ali'i Drive and I couldn't be more proud of the great strides the charity has made in 2011.
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| Ryan continues to inspire us day in and day out. |
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| Saying goodbye |
I entered the water at around 6:35 with Beth, Chris and Jeremy which meant I had about 25 minutes of treading water. The swim plan was to start next to Beth Shutt about 100-200 yards from the far left near the floating Ford Vehicle. This set me up well last year and outside of the first 5-10 minutes last year, I had little to no contact. As 7:00 am approached, I got ready and embraced for the mass start madness. Even though I had done a mass start a dozen times, you're never quite prepared. As I've told others, the Ironman swim is a contact sport but to be honest, I love this part. Maybe it's the physical battles that takes me back to my hockey roots...or even the real early days when I took Karate for a couple of years? I often think back to those days and would hear my dad telling me that I have to be more aggressive. Go after the puck. Be the first man into the corners. Funny the little things that stick with you through life. BANG! The cannon sounded and echoed through the bay. 1800 bodies flailed and arm movements were made of which vaguely resembled swimming. I fully expected things to be crazy the first five or so minutes, but for some reason this year I never really found free water for what must have been the full hour. My plan of keeping an eye on Beth went quickly out the window. As I was swimming, I'd see a pink cap and ask myself, is that Beth? Nope not her. I eventually set into somewhat of a rhythm and glanced at my watch as I swam around the turn buoy which also marked a point close to the half way point. My watch read around 29 minutes and I knew that the swim back to shore is always a little tougher so I turned it up a gear and put a little more power into each stroke. My goal was to swim under an hour and swim as if the race was only a mile long instead of 2.4 miles. I needed to come out of the water and position myself well on the bike. I've broken the 60 minute barrier before at many other Ironman races, but never here in Kona. I exited the water and the clock read 1:00:46. Any other day I would have been upset, but I swam a 1:02:21 here last year and thought that this year was a much harder year in the water. The swim times across the board would prove this to be true. I flew through transition and also bested my T1 time last year by 39 seconds. Hey at this point I thought every second counts! My T1 time was 2:20 which was around what the pros did.
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| Exiting the water |
On the bike I settled in to a good pace. Up Kuakini right at the turn-a-round is where I saw my Ballou Skies teammate, and good friend (and age-group competitor) Jeremy Cornman. This was the first indication in my mind that in fact I did have a good swim. Last year, I didn't catch Jeremy on the bike until we were almost at mile 100. Less than five minutes in, I wanted to make a statement (which according to Jeremy's Race Report, "he was clearly on a mission"), I put a couple extra watts into each pedal stroke and passed him rather aggressively not knowing if he would try and ride with me or not.

Although my run fitness continues to improve year to year, I knew that if I wanted to come out on top in the Pittsburgh dual for fastest triathlete, I needed to build somewhat of a buffer on the bike. Out on the Queen K highway I would settle in to what felt like a comfortable pace but would sometimes question if I was riding too easy. The plan would be to stay on top of my nutrition until we made the turn off of the Queen K up to Hawi.
Earlier in the week, my coach and I put together a pacing plan which gave me a wattage range to average and we setup one time check. The plan was to come through the first 56 miles in 2:25 which since my plan was to bike a 4:55, this would give me 5 minutes in the bank on the return trip. I also did a couple "firsts" with technology on race day which was to use the virtual pacer on my Garmin 310xt watch and the Multisport feature. I knew that in order to bike a 4:55, I needed to average 22.8 mph.

So I entered in that pace into my Garmin and along the way would do a spot check to make sure I was staying on course. It actually worked out rather well and will probably be something I use again in the future as another tool in my toolbox. I came through mile 56 in about 2:23 and up to this point, riding felt easy which made me very excited. This is also when I got to watch the professionals bomb down the stretch from Hawi after the turn-a-round. I saw the Crowie was in the lead pack and thought to myself, well the Men's race is over. But watching the women's race was exciting because the bikers were all over the place thanks to Julie Diben's incredible biking ability.
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| I'm sitting in third rider in this picture |
Special needs went off without a hitch as I grabbed another bottle of my Infinit concentrate on the fly and began the wild descent. At the turn, I also did a time check against Jeremy and he was only around two minutes back which meant I really didn't put much time in to him. We had actually joked back and forth race week and I remember saying something like "watch out because I learned how to run off the bike", and he kept telling me how much stronger he had gotten on the bike! Well up to this point, his statement was proving to be true. Once back on the Queen K around mile 70, the winds really began to pick up but I still felt strong and continued to move up through the field. I was riding a lot by myself at this point and would use the riders further up the road to help me push to close the gap. Once past the airport with less than 10 miles to go, I knew that I was going to be under five hours on the bike but I thought that the cross/head winds would make me miss my 4:55 mark by one or two minutes. As I made the final turn into Transition #2, I knew that my predictions were incorrect and in fact I had biked a 4:55:01 (22.78 mph avg). This was exactly what we had set out to do all year! This was a 13 minute improvement over last year on similar conditions and I began frantically doing the math in my head. I knew that if I could run a ~3:05 marathon, I had a chance of going around 9 hours. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be flirting with the 9 hour barrier in Kona, I would have called you crazy among other things.
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| Around mile 3 or 4 |
I had been working on my Kona marathon pace all year and had a new found confidence level for my run off the bike. I had run multiple 20+ runs this year at sub 7 pace with ease and even a 26.2 mile training run in 3:04 just a couple weeks back. My marathon plan was simple. On Ali'i drive (first 10-11 miles) keep the pace at 7:10 - 7:15 pace. I've done this again and again in training so this should have felt easy. Then once on the Queen K, start to pick it up to 7 minute miles to the Energy Lab and then at this point dig deep and either hold it or run faster.

Out of transition I began clicking off 7:10 miles like clock work but this year I really started to notice the heat on Ali'i Drive. I also had something going on with my lower back. I began doing all sorts of weird things such as putting ice down my shorts to try and soothe the pain that came with every step. Eventually my back would loosen up but unfortunately on my way out to the Energy Lab my pace began going the other way. I was now running 7:30-7:40 miles but there was nothing I could do about it. My legs wouldn't turnover any faster. I was still on pace for around a 3:10 marathon though all the way in and out of the Energy Lab.
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| Hawaii Natural Energy Lab |
Around mile 17 I also got my final time check on Jeremy and knew that I had a nine minute lead which was the same lead that I had on him at mile six. This was a huge boost to my confidence coming out of the Energy Lab but not long after I saw him, things turned south. By this time, I had completely switched to coke and water as the only nutrition I was taking in. The final 10K was complete survival but I knew we were close and a Personal Best was in sight. I quit looking at my pace and all I wanted was to see that next mile marker! As I ran up the final hill before making the long run down Palani I began to reflect on the year. I knew Jen would also be waiting for me at the turn and I couldn't wait to see her! I reflected on how hard both of us worked to get here and thought about how fortunate I am to have the genetic make up to do Ironman fast. My plan was to pick up the pace downhill but it was impossible at this point. This was the point of the race where I knew I had given it all I had and there was nothing more in the tank to give.

Making the final turn down Ali'i drive towards the finishing shoot had made everything I had worked so hard for this season all worth while. I crossed the finish line in 9 hours 17 minutes and 17 seconds, a 23 minute improvement over last year and an 11 minute PR at the Ironman distance. My marathon time was a 3:16:35 which was also a personal best marathon for me off the bike. My time would also put me in the top 100 overall, 25th in the M30-34 Age Group, 6th American in the M30-34 Age Group and 23rd American Overall. Plus my new time would set the fastest Kona time in the history of the race by a born and raised Pittsburgher which I believe was held for 25 years by Mac Martin who went 9:20:00 in 1986!** (If I'm wrong here, please let me know)
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| Pointing at the camera for at my fans and family back home watching Ironman Live |
As I've said numerous times, I couldn't have done it without the support back home. From my amazing wife, my parents, brother and sister, Aunts and Uncles and all of the other area triathletes and friends that believed in me and my hard work and dedication to the sport. Again, I thank you! I can't think of any other city that has embraced the sport of triathlon like the way Pittsburgh has! I'm truly honored and humbled to be part of such a great multisport community.
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| Seriously what other city has a cheering squad this big back home? - Kona Party back in Pittsburgh |
I also wanted to give a huge shout out to my coach Derick Williamson for helping guide me along the way and believing in me. 2012 is sure to prove as another milestone year for us.
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| Chad and Derick |
As indicated by my race schedule for 2012, the wheels are already in motion and I'm looking for even bigger and better things in 2012. Jeremy and I have already set the bar high with talks of going sub 9 hours in Kona next year. This is going to be fun. Looking forward to the new and exciting adventures along the way. Mahalo and thanks for reading.