I like to say that it's Becky's fault. Becky twisted my arm, caught me in a weak moment, I'd had to much to drink that night. Usually after I try to make one of these excuses, Becky chimes in and says, "As I recall the conversation went something like this".
"Jake, do you want to do an ironman with me?"
"Okay".
The truth is, that's about how it happened. I'd say I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but honestly, it didn't really matter, it sounded like fun, it sounded like a challenge and a big accomplishment. I was in. There were a few hiccups. When we started this crazy thing 3 years ago I didn't know how to swim. I wasn't totally crazy, I knew it would take a little while to work up to it. So for the first two seasons I did some half ironman distance races. The swim was what I was really worried about, and that distance worked pretty well for me to get comfortable with all 3 disciplines and figure the triathlon thing out.
After the first season of trainig on my own I started working with Becky's coach Jenny the second year. Jenny wasn't coaching this year so I signed on with D3 Multisport. My coach, Dave, has been great for me. I started out this year with the Arizona Rock n Roll Marathon so I came into the spring very fit. I had some great training in the spring and early summer. I remember a day when Erin was still in school and I had to finish a 4:30 workout by 8:30 AM, so sure enough I got up at 3 AM and started riding. It was an amazing workout, riding early in the morning, dark and quite with the whole world still sleeping and the roads all to myself. As the eastern sky was just starting to light up a hawk swooped down and flew right beside me as I rode down the road. Beautiful.
For a tune up race I did the Buffalo Springs half ironman in Lubbock, TX in June. It was a tough race, very windy and extremly hot, it was nearly 100 by the end, ouch. My time wasn't particuarly good, in fact by time it was my worst ever, but I felt good about it. I had a great swim and a screaming fast run. The bike was bad, but I was okay with that, the head wind was brutal.
After a bit of recovery, and catching a cold, it was time to really buckle down for 8 hard weeks of full distance ironman training. These were big weeks. I had one week where I did a 20 mile run on a wednesday morning, because I had to save the weekend days for my "long" workouts. That's just insane. My biggest workout was a 5000 meter swim, 110 mile bike and 9 mile run. It took over 9 hours. The good news was that my workout the next day was only 2 1/2 hours... It was a crazy time. It is incredible just how hard you can push your body, and what you can endure.
Tapering felt great, I was confident that I'd done the hard workouts and I was ready. Erin, the kids, and Becky all few out to Wisconsin together and met my mom at the airport. When we arrived I was pretty excited. There was an amazing amount of energy and although I was a little nervous, I felt great. We got in on Thursday and the race wasn't till Sunday, so we had plent of time to get bikes picked up, get my (rented) race wheels installed and get in tune up workouts on Friday and Saturday. We dropped off all of our gear bags for transitions and got our bikes coralled on saturday morning after a short workout and then spent the afternoon napping and relaxing. As the afternoon wore on we put in Good Morning Vietnam to pass the time. Dinner was a huge affair with my family and Becky's family at PF Chang's, a little chaotic, but fun to get everyone together.
Becky (and Russ, who joined her on Friday) graciously allowed me to stay with them the night before the race. Not only did that ensure that I didn't have kids waking me up in the middle of the night, but they were also in a hotel that was walking distance to the starting line. A nice thing when you need to be at the start around 5:30 AM. We went through body marking and got our numbers written on us and got a chance to double check bikes. I had a few moments of panic when I tried to make sure that there was enough air in my rear tire, and the valve extension on my fancy race wheels was leaking. I was able to get the pressure up well enough and called it good. After that it was time to head out of transition and down to the start. As the sky started to brighten in the east, it was time to get in the water. Wisconsin is a floating mass start, so all 2800 competitors have to get in the water for the start. It is a bit crazy. As I was floating there I realized that I wasn't nervous. I knew that I was going to finish this thing, that I was well trained and that it was going to be a great day.
The gun went off.
2800 people swimming together is nothing short of total chaos. I'm not a super fast swimmer, and so I started off to the side a bit and just tried to relax and set my own pace. 2.4 miles is a long way to swim and I knew that the key for me was to stay calm. The course was basically 4 sided and the first side went by pretty quickly. When we made the turn for the second leg it was largely into the sun and I'm not sure I ever saw one of the buoys that marked the course, I just stayed with the pack and swam along. Eventually we turned and started into the third side. I was feeling good and swimming well. And swimming, and swimming, and swimming. It seemed to go on forever. Little did I know tha the third side was much much longer than the other sides. I finally made the turn for the fourth side and really was still feeling strong. Lots of other swimmers around me were fading and I was suddenly passing a lot of people. As I neared the swim finish, I was talking myself down. My goal had been 1:30 or so, but 1:45 was completely acceptable. I really didn't know what my time was going to be, but I wasn't going to let it upset me. I kept telling myself, it's okay if it is 2:00, it doesn't matter. I came out of the water and looked at the clock, 1:27. I was elated!
Transition in Ironman Wisconsin is a big thing. After you get out of the water, you go to the wet suit peelers, whose job it is to help you pull your wetsuit off, which at that point you are in no shape to do yourself. Then you run down a sidewalk for a little while, then three stories up a helix garage ramp into the Monona Terrace convention center. There you find your trantsition bag and get changed. Now you run through the building, out to your bike, run your bike to the transition exit, ride down the 3 story helix on the other side, and finally you are out on the bike course. Phew.
Once I got on the bike I just had a big old grin on my face. I was still totally psyched about my swim time. I had Jackson Brown's "I Feel Good" going through my head, in fact, I think I was even singing it a little bit. It was time to settle in on the bike and get going. The bike course was a lollipop style, ride out the stick, do two loops around the pop, and then back on the stick. About half way around the loop for the first time I saw Erin and my Mom and the kids all dressed up like superman. It was awesome! There were lots of good crowds and I was really enjoing myself. The wind was starting to pick up a little bit and that was a bit hairy at times, especially with the deep dish race wheels. I found that I just wasn't comfortable going 40 mph downhill in the aero bars with wind gusts trying to blow me over. I was actually really glad to be on a road bike wtih drops, they came in handy at times. As I got into the hilly sections I tried to keep it reined in and conserve my energy, despite the amazing crowds cheering us on over the steepest hills. The weather was fantastic and I dropped off my arm warmers at the special needs area since it had warmed up to near 70. I hit the second lap still feeling strong. The wind picked up more on the second lap, but I was keeping a steady pace, not pushing too hard, and I was still feeling comfortable. I got to see the family again on the second lap, and even saw Karyn and Tucker, two other friends who had come out to cheer on Becky, me, and all Karyn's teammates on Team Wild. I finished the second lap and turned back on the stick heading toward transition. I planned to get one last Gu at the final aid station on the bike and drink the last bottle of perform on my bike. As I hit the aid station I threw away my empty bottle and didn't grab another one, figuring that one bottle was all I needed. I went to grab for a Gu and missed. I tried again and missed again, and again. As I rode away from the aid station, still empty handed, I was frustrated, but consoled myself that I still had a full bottle of perform. I reached down for it and found nothing but an empty bottle. I had been wrong and didn't still have a full bottle on my bike. I still had over half an hour to go and would have nothing to eat or drink. I was frustrated, but felt confident that I'd been doing a good job with nutrition and hydration and that it would be okay.
I rode into transition and was glad to be off my bike, although I was pleased to find that I wasn't so exhausted that I never wanted to see it again. I still felt good. I ran into the convention center, found my transition bag, and got changed for the marathon. I grabbed a gu and some water in transition, to try to make up for my miss at the last bike aid station, and then headed for the run course. As I started the run the clock said 7:50. I started running the numbers and if I ran the 3:30 marathon I was hoping for I'd finish in 11:20, which would be an amazing time.
I hit the run course feeling very very strong. I settled in and was running around 7:20 pace, on track for a 3:15 marathon. I kept wondering if I should slow down, but I felt fantastic. I realized that if I kept that pace I'd be close to an 11 hour finish. I was passing everyone in sight. The lead pro woman caught up to me (she was on her second of two run laps) and I started to fall in with her, but she was running around 6:50 pace and I quickly decided that was too fast. Around mile 7 I saw the family again. Xander was out slapping everyone's hands and it was great to hear their cheers for me. I felt so good. I fell in with a guy for a few minutes who was running close to my pace, just a bit slower. I was really looking for someone to run with and asked him if he wanted to join in with me. He told me his name was Matt and that I was going a bit too fast for him and we joked about hopefully not seeing each other again, because that meant that things had turned bad for me. I cruised through mile 10 and one of the spectators looked at me and said, "You're a runner aren't you? You're really enjoying this." I gave him a big smile. The run course is two loops, and at the end of the first loop you run all the way up to the finish line, then turn around. It is a bit cruel. As I started into the second loop I started to not feel so good. I slowed down and realized that this was about to get a lot harder. Eventually I saw Matt pass me. I tried to eat some grapes and potato chips, but my stomach was starting to rebel against the idea of food, not good. I saw the family again, and although I felt terrible, swung in for a high five from Xander. I kept pushing on, feeling rough, but determined to keep moving. I caught back up to Matt and he wasn't doing too well either. We decided that together we could tough this out. At mile 22 I decided to grab a Gu, knowing that I still needed some more calories to make it to the finish. As soon as I put it in my mouth I knew it had been a mistake. I started throwing up. I told Matt to go on ahead, but he said we were in this together now. Those last 4 miles were incredibly hard. It's funny, a 4 mile run is basically nothing for me, and I kept trying to convince myself of that, but there was nothing for it but to suffer for those 4 miles. Matt was an incredible friend, and knowing he was right there with me kept me pushing. I kept looking at the clock, knowing that my 11:20 was now gone, but thinking that I could still hit 11:30. As I slowed more and more it was looking tighter and tighter, but finally we hit the home stretch and I knew we were going to make it. In the last quarter mile I told Matt to go ahead and I made it to the finish in 11:29:12. As I ran down the finishing chute the annoucer said, "Jake Lewis, you ARE an IRONMAN".
Across the finish line the race support folks caught me and got me a blanket and my finisher medal. I told them that I needed to go to the med tent. I'm not sure they beleived me. A volunteer asked if I wanted to get a picture. I said no, I really need to go to the med tent now. We made it about 20 steps before I veered off toward a trash can and started throwing up again. I think then they started to believe me. Once in the med tent I started to cramp. Now this isn't like a muscle cramp, my entire body cramped. That time is a bit hazy for me, but I remember telling the doctor that I felt like I was riding a harley davidson, my whole body was shaking. Everything was so cramped I couldn't even open my hands or seperate my fingers. It was still "early" in the day, the last finishers wouldn't be coming in for five and a half more hours, and the med tent wasy pretty quiet still. So, I ended up with four physical therapists, one on each limb, trying to massage away the cramps. It was really nice of them, but it really wasn't working. They tried to get me to drink some warm chicken broth, but I couldn't keep anything down. Finally the doctor decided that I really needed some saline. They hooked up an IV and within a few minutes the cramping and shaking subsided, I had gotten low on sodium. About 30 minutes later I was able to stand up and make my way out of the med tent to see Erin. I had grand plans to stay until midnight and see the last finisher, but that idea was definitely shot. I tried to eat a little bit but really wasn't able to stomach anything and went to sleep.
By the next morning my appetite was back and I was starving. We had a fairly quiet day in Madison and even managed to go for a short walk (I was pretty proud of that) and flew home in the afternoon.
I learned so much in this race. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong on the run, but that missed aid station on the bike haunts me, if I had gotten the gu and drank an extra bottle of perform there, maybe I woudldn't have crashed on the run. I'll never know. What I do know is that I certaintly pushed the limits of what I'm capable of. I put out everthing I had in that race, and that when the wheels came off, I could still push through to the end. I trained harder than I thought possible. I'm proud of what I accomplished, and I'm grateful to my family for supporting me through this crazy endeavor. It wasn't just me putting in all those training hours, it was my family supporting me that made it all possible. Thanks, I love you all.
Ironman Wisconsin Final Results
Time 11:29:12
Overall 361/2343
Division 67/290
2.4 Mile Swim 1:27:41 - Division Rank 229
T1 9:16
112 Mile Bike 6:07:47 (18.27 mph) - Division Rank 146
T2 5:40
26.2 Mile Run 3:38:48 (8:21/mile) - Division Rank 67
