Dave Mayer does an Ironman (bike race with extra stuff)

Dave Mayer's Ironman Cabo Report (March 17, 2013)

time: 11:30


place: 199 out of ~1500



Hey guys - this was my 4th Ironman and my last for a long time (or at least that is what I told my wife). I did an Ironman in Utah last May and that was supposed to be my last one, but I went out too hard on the bike and totally blew up almost from the start of the run. It left a bad taste in my mouth, so I wanted to give it one more shot before I hung up the speedos.



I didn't have any time goals, because everything depends on the course. The Cabo course was tough, with 7500 feet of climbing on the bike and some windy sections on the coast. The goal was mostly to just be happy with my race and enjoy it (kind of like saying enjoying getting your armpits waxed).



The swim went well. I have two friends, former Stanford swimmers, who started this company Roka Wetsuits. They gave me one of their prototypes to use and it was FAST. I think that mentally helped me. I felt smooth and controlled the entire swim, which was weird because I have only been swimming twice a week, whereas for past races I had been swimming 3 times a week.



I exited the water 113th place, in 1:03. My Ironman swim PR is 1:02, but that was in college when I was training a ton for it, and I later heard that the swim was a bit long.



I hopped on the bike and dug in for a long day. A coach that I had been working with told me to really dial it back the first 60 miles of the bike and stay controlled. The ideas is that I should feel very fresh after 60 miles and then ramp it up from there. In my Ironman in Utah I had gone out way too fast and then by mile 70 I was toast.



I had a bunch of people pass me the first 30 miles of the bike, which was tough mentally because usually I am passing people. My swim is usually my weakest leg, then my bike, then my run is my strong suit. So I start off slow but then get to pick people off.



I ignored the voices telling me to try and catch people and kept telling myself how long of a day it was. I needed to bike 112 miles and then run a marathon.



I stayed smooth and controlled and by the time mile 60 hit I was still totally fresh. Maybe too fresh, I don't quite know, its hard to estimate these things. I ramped it up and felt good for the rest of the ride. It was nice to hop off the bike and still feel like I had something in the tank.



My bike time was 6:05, which was the 204th best time on the course. So maybe I had taken it a bit too slow on the bike, I was just very afraid of blowing up.



I started the run again not knowing what to expect. My Ironman PR run was 3:27, but that was a long time ago, when I had a lot more time to train. And on a much flatter bike course. I wanted to just go really slow to start and see what happened.



I started running 8 minute miles and then tried to dial it back to 8:30 or so, which felt pretty comfortable. I felt really full, but I kept trying to take coke and water or gatorade at every aide station to keep up the calories. It was probably 90 degrees outside so the heat was really getting to me.



Ironman is such a mentally tough sport. It is so tough to mentally tell yourself, after you have been going hard for 7 hours "okay, now I just have to run a marathon". How do you convince yourself to do that? For me, this was really challenging. I didn't have a goal, really, so why not just slow down as much as possible? I found that it was really tough for me to talk myself into keep going hard. The whole time I was thinking "why the %^?! am I doing this? This is insane!"



At about mile 12 I started to hit a wall and my 8:30s started to turn into 9:30s. I don't know what it was. I didn't feel that I went out too hard on the bike. I didn't feel that I went out too fast on the run. I didn't feel like I was bonking. Maybe lack of training or the fact that everyone is going to slow down a bit after exercising for so long.



I tried to maintain as best I could. I ground through the remaining miles. It was a 3 lap course and on the second lap my wife and my two kids were there. They made up signs for me and it was really cool to see them cheering.



I finished off the race and was totally dead. I could barely walk after.



My marathon time was 4:14, which was 196 out of 1500. Overall I was 199 out of 1500.



I gave the finishing medal to my 4 year old and he really enjoyed it. Hopefully this will be one of his first memories.



Overall I'm satisfied with the performance. I felt good that I didn't go out too hard on the bike and that I set myself up as good as I could have for the run. And I felt great for the first half the run and when I did feel bad on the second half I was able to bear down and get through it. I don't quite know why I slowed down on the second half of the run, but that is racing. That is the tough thing about Ironman compared to bike racing. In bike racing you basically go all out, but with something as long as an Ironman you have to be very careful not to red line it or else you will blow up.



My wife and friends don't believe it, but I am officially done with Ironman until I sell Clean Bottle for $1B and retire and have more time to train (in other words, a long time). I feel good about my performance and am ready for some new challenges. I think I'll still hop into some sprint distance races with Andrew for fun, but that is probably it. I'm excited to take training more casually and flexibly and race some bikes with you guys.



Thanks for reading and I promise my other race reports won't be this long! I'm in Mexico now on vacation w/ the family and I'm going to try and shut off email for a few days but I'll get back to you guys when I get home.



Dave