The Swim
As the faster swimmers threw themselves into the fray, I held myself back for a moment to enjoy the sight and say out loud, to nobody in particular, 'This is the most insane thing I've ever done.' Then there was nothing left but to jump in myself and start plugging away. The swim is, admittedly, my worst leg in any triathlon, so my main goal was to avoid being kicked, punched, pulled underwater, etc. The swim course was a rectangle heading far out from shore, parallel for just a bit, and then back in. I ended up going really wide on the turn back toward shore, and was all by myself for that whole stretch. I was out of the water for the first loop in about 42 minutes, got some water and turned right back toward the water to do it all again! I came out of the water in 1:24:48, 1702nd overall.
The Bike
After a 6:02 transition (yeah, I took it easy), I was out on the bike and warming up in the small ring. One guy got run off the road by a car about 30-40 feet ahead of me as we started off down Front Beach Road and he landed on a pile of rebar in front of a construction site. That was a bit scary, cause had I been going faster, that might have been me. As it was, I barely avoided the car. I hit the big chainring at mile 25, when we got a nice tailwind, and started picking off people left and right (well, right and right... rules are rules, after all). The bike course at Florida is mind-numbing, but going no more than 2 minutes without having to pass someone for the entire ride kept my brain mildly occupied. I will admit that miles 65-95 were filled with questions regarding my sanity in between refrains of random songs. At mile 100, we made the turn south to head back to the beach, and it was smooth sailing from there. Tons of people got flats out on the roads (including Simon, my condo-mate for the week), but I was fortunate enough to avoid that fate. I finished with the 675th fastest bike split in 5:33:56 (20.1 mph), moving up about 700 places overall.
The Run
I have never been in more pain during a run. The first 10 or 11 miles were ok, because I was running with someone else and were were ticking off 8:30 miles, but I dropped him and continued on solo, passing people here and there. Once I hit the turnaround after the first lap - which, by the way, is cruel beyond imagination, being about 200 meters from the finish line - the pain began. The stretch from 13.1 until a bit after 19 when I got to the final turn-around on the two-loop course were the toughest miles I have ever run. I made a bargain with myself, promising to walk the aid stations if I ran in between them. By that time, I was powering myself on chicken broth, water and coke, which were tasty beyond belief and were some of the only things keeping me running between stations, since that meant I could get more sooner! The last 10k was both painful and effortless... I was able to run faster through the pain, knowing that I was close to finishing, and the last mile was like floating on air. Marathon time: 4:04:49, 469th fastest. The finish line was (almost) as magical as everyone makes it out to be, but I made the mistake of not slowing down for my own spot, so I didn't get to hear 'You are an Ironman!' called out with my name. No worries, though... I was just relieved and overjoyed to be finished.