Ironman Florida 2003 Doug Rice
One of my main reasons for wanting to compete in Ironman Florida 2003 was to try to correct what I did wrong in the 2002 season. I did Lake Placid end of July then with not much more than a few days off, went right into sprint training until September when I started training for Ironman Florida. What a mistake. In early October I found my heart rate would not come down in workouts and I actually got sick a week and a half before the race.
Ok, now 2003, after doing the horrendous conditions in the 2003 Lake Placid Ironman, I took 3-4 weeks with very light training. On the 3rd week I actually biked often, but never any hard training. With 9 weeks to go, I started my training program. Training went well and coming into the race, I felt I was ready. Long ride felt like nothing, hold that thought!! At that point, satisfied that I corrected the mistake I made the previous year.
Thursday, Nov 6, wake up drive to Newark to get there 2 hours early for 6 o’clock flight. Chris Rooney and Dan Chasey were traveling with me. Good flight, one stop over in Memphis to visit Elvis and on to Ft Walton Airport, 1:20 West of Panama City Beach, race site. Arrived at registration 12:30pm, registered and found out how hot it actually was. Temperature was around 82 degrees with high humidity, felt like 91. Uh Oh, gonna be a hot one. Checked into hotel, ½ mile east of the transition area. Good place to stay walking distance form race. Went into the Gulf for a swim but did not make it very far. Dan immediately got stung by a jellyfish; we swam around a bit keeping our eyes peeled for jellies, saw one about the size of my helmet, all red and puffy and decided not to swim any more. Hung out for a while, then on to the pasta dinner. Actually a pretty good food spread as far as they go, skipped the talks and the movie and back to the hotel.
Friday, an early morning swim at the Gatorade swim, then a nice little pancake breakfast put on by the local Baptist church. Later a few short trips back and forth to the massage tents, ART tent, expo area to browse and then a short bike, put my bike in the trans area, a short run, then transitions bags in the newly designed change tents inside the building, that was unique. I had already prepared all my nutrition items back in NJ, and had them all sorted out in separate bags. Really helped lighten the stress, all I had to do was add clothes.
Back to the hotel for a home cooked pasta, peas, and salad prepared by a few amateurs, whew, you should have seen Dan and I at the grocery store in the pasta isle trying to figure out how mush to get. We had to be there 10 minutes, some lady came by laughing and we finally asked her, we got it wrong anyway. One of the biggest pots of pasta I have ever seen, and not enough sauce!! Anyway, good food… good company.
Race Morning. Up at about 4am, drank down a few Ensure drinks, an English muffin, yogurt and some Gatorade. Ready to rock. 5:15, leave and walk down to transition area, get numbered add a few frozen bottles to my needs bags and walk around and see friends. Stood with Moira at the porto john line. She was ready and listening to Bruce. Now time to get down to the start. Down to the beach, nice soft fine sand and over to the outside of the start area. Found Dan again and talked about how enjoyable it was to be spread out so far. Lake Placid start is a very narrow start. Dan sat on the beach while I warmed up a bit. Next thing it was ready to go and stood almost dead outside, some guy said, “Hey I wanted to be furthest out”, I said “OK”.
Gun went off, first leg was great, smooth water, no one around me. Got to first turn, the crowds started, but not too bad. On the way back on first loop, seemed kind of choppy. Possibly all the swimmers causing this? End of the first loop after crossed the sand bar, then out through the shoot, looked at my watch, 29 minutes, fairly comfortable, but uh oh, heartrate 170, better slow down. Same thing last year, must be the hype. Second loop I relaxed a bit and came in with a 59:58 swim, over a minute better than last year I was happy. Into change tent, pretty quick transition then out on the bike. Not a cloud in the sky, wind was expected to be out of the Northeast 10-15, it was. Headed west for 5 miles, tried to get into a smooth rhythm, only going 18-19mph, hit my computer a few times, no not that… Anyway took the turn into the wind, after people passing me for 5 miles, decided to try to pick it up a bit, actually felt better, heart rate still pretty close to target about 150. Then a rather large group of riders went by which actually sucked me up like a Mack Truck. Almost a pack, oh yes after about 5 minutes it was a real pack, I was trying to sit off the back as much as possible and eventually they went ahead of me going much faster than I was able to go on my own. Did get an advantage though, but some people were sitting right in the middle and actually not pedaling at times, heard the freewheels spinning and all! Now at about mile 15-20 another big group came by and same thing, this one was even bigger. Finally, the turn at about 20 miles and into a 40 mile straight stretch. Ok, settle in for a while I figured I’d be there for 2 hours. Nutrition was going well. Packed almost 500 calories in each of 2 water bottles a few goo packs and didn’t need any from support, but at about 40 miles took a Gatorde just to get some electrolytes. 49 miles, special needs stop, stopped, got my 2 water bottles which I had in a small cooler bag and they were still frozen, that was nice, they melted fast enough. I was pleased at that point with my progress, average was about 20.4. At about mile 85 took a left turn by the direction of a traffic cop, ran through a bit of gravel and oh no, flat tire. Always look at my watch when this happens to see how long it takes. Total race clock time at that point 5:21. Ok, not to worry I had a spare. I decided not to put an extra spare in my special needs bike bag since we were told they would not be returned to us. The tire I had on the bike was one I switched the day before because it had glue on it. I soon found out why. After changing the tire in record time, like 3 minutes, I filled it up with one of two CO2 cartridges I had and NO WAY!!, the tire had a slice in it. No wonder it had glue on it. Lesson, check all your equipment carefully. Now the cop asked if I need the support vehicle, which I had seen pass my going in the same direction as me maybe an hour before. I said, yes please radio them. I waited. Dan passed me, stopped and asked if he could help, he had 700 wheels and I said I was ok, get going. Next I saw Al McCran, he had the wrongs stuff too, watch time 5:37. Mike came by, he had the wrong stuff too. Felt like holding up my tires and asking people as they went by, but with 27 miles to go, that wasn’t fair, what if they flatted, and that would be tacky. A girl went by pretty fast and asked, what I needed, I said 650 tubulars, she tossed one into the bushes, I said “You’re an angel, thank you” and she peddled away, I found what she tossed, but it was just a tube. Thanks anyway, I thought. Then I decided to start to walk, no support crew was coming and I wasn’t going anywhere, at least I could make up some ground. Now about 45 minutes gone. Then I saw some guy pedaling back towards me. He stopped and said he wasn’t qualifying and had tubular 650 tires. He also had a type of slime stuff, you spray into the tire and it seals from the inside, that would work too, but he said take the tire, I don’t mind. I appreciated all that he did and all that the others whohad offered; many had asked if I needed help. He rode off, I took the wheel off again started to mount it and found out it was a 700cc, not 650. Oh well, things were not going well. Back goes the rear wheel and back to the walking. I walked about 1.5-2 miles, talking to motorists along the way who were stuck in the traffic jam created by the intersection I flatted at. I made it to the next corner, where several spectators where at cheering people on, I told them what happened. I tried to keep a good attitude. Finally a support truck came up behind me. A pickup, not Inside Out Sports like the other one, but it did say support crew. The man explained that he had no supplies but he could give me a ride. At that point I was determined to do the Ironman event, I knew I wouldn‘t do my best time, had been stuck over an hour, but I figured I had until almost 7pm to be back on my bike fixed, then I could still ride in and possibly run close to a 4 hour marathon, always a goal for me. So I said “No way, I’m staying legal and I’m gonna finish”. No way was I going to go back and watch people finish. I wanted to run. Finally some girl from Virginia, Wallace was her last name, stopped, told me she had 650 tubluar tires and gave me hers. I was so happy and really thanked her. Finally back on the bike, total race clock time, 6:43, 1 hour 22 minutes later I was rocking again, and boy was I ever felling good and passing people like they were standing still, I got back to the bike finish with a total bike time of 6:47, a net of 5:25, best time for me, can you count that?? Not sure, went pretty hard at the end, did have a rest in the middle. What was in store for me now?? I raced off my bike, a guy said, “Wow, look at this guy”. Guess I looked rushed compared to the people coming in the last hour or so, I guess I was trying to make up time. Change tent out the door and on the run 8hours on the clock. Ok I thought, 4:20 marathon I could net (would that still satisfy me?) an 11 hour finish, sure it would. First 2 miles in the 8’s, better slow down, might burn up, I thought. Then mile 3 settled into a 9 minute pace and felt pretty good. Saw Chris coming the other way, he looked good, but looked at me like what the hell happened to you? A bit later saw Dan, stopped briefly to shake his hand and tell him I was out there a long time and onward. Saw Al, Oh well, Al was beating me now!!. Hey, maybe I can catch him? Made it to the first turn around pretty fresh but working hard about 1:01, ok if I keep it up I could still hang in there, Hey what’s with this, I CAN do math!!!??? Next leg started to feel a bit tougher. Coming into the 13 mile point I felt as if I needed my Hansens drink and more gels. Was taking Coke already. Stopped and wiped my face, took my time, maybe too much time, then ran off, whoops, forgot, I wanted to leave my heartrate monitor, ran back and got my bag out of the box. I think I wasted too much time. Half way turn around 2:08, ok so I lost 7 minutes, 3 minutes was at the stop. I was still ok, next mile I felt insides of my legs cramping. Right foot was bothering me burning, which it actually was since the first mile, but I’ve had that before and was prepared to deal with that. All I wanted was the calf to hold up and to keep stride. Cramps went away, maybe because the salt tablets I took at special needs started to kick in. I had 6 or 7 left and knew I had to space them out. Saw Chris going the other way looked like he was in for a low 10 hour time. He was going to make his goal, under 10:30, yippee!!. Around mile 14-15 I saw Dan again, not sure how, it was dark as can be and hard to see. We shook each others hands and gave each other some praise and onward. Last 11-12 miles were very difficult. Had I biked too hard trying to make up time, did I run too hard in the beginning, didn’t I train enough. All the thoughts of why?? And no answers, just pavement to cover to make the distance shorter and shorter. Along the route, many bikes were out there, they were not supposed to be, I heard some race officials trying to get them off, but they just rode on, riding in the middle of the road, sometime I thought a little too close for comfort, did not make me feel comfortable. I was dark. Finally the lights at the last turn and onward home. Last 6.5 was tough, several stops, and pouring water on my right shoe to cool it off, quads didn’t want to work. Finally realized my 4:20 hopes were not there. At mile 23, 12 hours, and I could only run10 minute miles for the last 3… but even that was difficult. Finally made the last turn, a few stops in the final half mile but I was able to pick it up for the grand stand, do some high fives, cheer up the crowd and enjoy the finish. Actually was able to get my finest finish shot and after picture. Total time 12:41. Net.... Can't do that! Ok now right to the pizza tent as usual, huh, didn’t feel like pizza, what’s up with that? Ok, drink the pseudo Dr Pepper and walk around a bit, ok now pizza, one slice, that didn’t really taste that good. Massage, oh no, too long a wait. I got my stuff and headed back to hotel. Walked back up to the room, Dan was there relaxing; we exchanged stories for a while, Dan had a good race, 11:28.Then into the shower after popping a nice cold beer. That tasted good. Chris came in, we talked for a while then out for a burger.
Not much sleep that night, next day we packed up and left. Chris came back with us to the airport, to try to get on standby on our flight. He had a flight back the next morning, but it would not have been very easy for him to get from the airport and other logistic. At the airport, they were overbooked and offering $300 travel vouchers for volunteers. Dan and I took them up on the offer and actually had a hard time convincing them to guarantee us all on the next flight. They finally did. We got a taxi by a person named Chery…. And she took us to a local fish restaurant on the water where we were able to kill some time for 3-4 hours until the next flight. We sat there stuffing our bellies, telling stories and having a great time. I think the endorphins actually kicked in at the end of that because the 3 of us were laughing like a couple of school kids. We had a great time the rest of the trip, I got home at 2:30am with more laughs than I have had in a long time.
Good friends… Good company….. Good trip, that’s Ironman