Race 3: 2008 Sandman Triathlon

Date: August 3rd 2008
Distance: .75 Mile Swim, 13 Mile Bike, 4 Mile Run

Until this point, my two current races were off road triathlons, making use of my mountain bike both times. This race however would be my first of many races to take place entirely on paved roads. I could have used my mountain bike for this race, but I wanted to really be able to sink my teeth into triathlons, so I decided to spring for a new, entry level road bike. After much research and window shopping, I ended up with a Fuji Newest 3.0. Purchased shortly after my race in June, I had a little under 2 months of time to be able to get used to the handling and shifting required by road bikes. But to assume that was the only new challenge I was going to face in this next race, you would be sorely mistaken, quite like how I would be that morning.

The swim in the Sandman takes place at Seacliff state beach in Aptos, California. This would be my first ocean / salt water swim, and at .75 miles, would also be my longest swim. This is a bad combination of 'new'. I have been working on my distance swimming in the pool, but if you have ever swam in the Pacific Ocean in northern California, you know that this is no pool. That morning, the water was cold, waves were choppy, and there was a small amount of morning fog that made the orange boys you needed to swim around seem much farther than they actually were. Against every feeling I had in my body, I entered the water at 8 am that morning with the rest of the male athletes competing that year.

Not so happy about the swim

It seemed like 10,000 needles were stabbing my body and face within seconds of entering the water. The temperature alone causing my heart rate to jump up, and gasping for air was made difficult by the waves pushing you back towards the shore. If this sounds like a nightmare, it's because it was. This was still the most frightening swim I have ever done in my athletic career, and I hope it remains that way. It wasn't until about the last 3rd of the swim when I was able to relax, and that is probably because I was finally headed back to shore. I can still remember finally being able to touch the bottom of the ocean floor, stand up, and walk the rest of the way to mount my bike, and continue on with the race on dry land.

Swim over, Bike Begins

I'm not sure what happened to my brain, but all I can remember about this bike ride was up hill. It seemed like every time I made a turn, I had to climb another hill. There were very few flat parts on this ride, with what seemed like less downhills, which of course impossible seeing as how I ended up back at seacliff state beach after 17 miles of biking.

4 miles of running I was ready for, 4 miles of running on a beach I was not. This was an entirely new experience for me. If you have ever tried to run on sand, you know exactly what I am talking about. The way the sand works your calves and takes away about 20 - 30 percent of your energy from each stride takes its toll. I made every effort to run the whole thing, made harder while running though the camp grounds past the smells of fresh bbq being cooked near by, but my efforts would be thwarted about 2.5 miles in where I was forced to walk for about 5 or 6 minutes to catch my breath and give my calves a much needed break. Nevertheless, I ran the rest of the race and finished with a respectable time of 2 hours, 1 minute and 47 seconds.

Reflecting back on my race, I decided that I really did enjoy the challenge, even with the terrifying swim. I vowed that day to return the next year to better my time.

Running slowly, but hard to the finish

Links:

Website: http://www.sandman-triathlon.com/
Official Results: http://www.scsla.org/sandman/results_2008.html

Race 2: 2008 San Jose Mountain Bike Triathlon

Date: June 7 2008
Distance: 500 Yard Swim, 10 Mile Mountain Bike, 3.1 Mile Run

After a brief brush with drowning during my first ever triathlon in the previous month, I headed into the San Jose Mountain Bike Triathlon with a little more planning. For one, I actually went swimming in a pool a few times. Although my times don't reflect it to much, my body thanked me afterwards for coming into this race with more training and planning then the last.

The venue was a smaller race held closer to home, in lake Almaden. A small 15 minute car ride from my house in Los Gatos. An early morning alarm clock and I was there early enough to grab a good parking spot, and get ready for the race. Armed with more confidence, I quickly dawned my second rental wet suit for the year, and headed down to the lake to warm up in the water. At 8 am that morning, a air horn blew, and I had started on my second triathlon of the season.

I noticed early on that although I wasn't in great swimming condition, it was a huge improvement over just a few short weeks ago. I only stopped a few times to catch my breath, but most if not all of my swim was done doing free style (instead of the lazy backstroke that I liked to adopt when severely out of breath!)

With a slightly longer swim course, I exited the water in just over 11 minutes, and headed out on the 10 mile off road bike ride though Almaden park. Having the ability to stand with out feeling dizzy at the start, made for a more enjoyable and confidant ride, which was made challenging by some single trail and minor technical off roading that I had not seen before. Everything was going great until the creek crossing. About 6-7 miles into the bike course, you were expected to take a 90 degree turn, and cross a small creek. The guy before me struggled a little to get across, but did so with out getting anything but the wheels on his bike wet. I however, was not so lucky.

Can't tell in this picture, but I'm in a creek!

I proceeded to head into the obstacle with caution, riding fairly controlled, but slow. This I would learn would be the cause of my demise. About half way across the creek, I noticed I did not have enough momentum or leg strength to carry myself to the other side. Even with the near by camera man shouting encouraging phrases at me (ie: "Push it!!!" or "You're a monster, you got this!!!") my bike stopped mid pedal stroke, and started to tip to the left. Luckily, I had not discovered clip in pedals yet, and was barely able to catch myself before taking my second swim of the day. (I know, you wanted me to fall into the creek and be carried down stream... sorry to disappoint). Unluckily, I had not discovered clip in pedals yet (deja vu?) and realized that my now soaking wet shoes were also the ones that I planned to run 3.1 miles in.

I'm not sure what it was, but the run was actually pretty good, even with soggy shoes. I did the 3.1 miles in just under 25 minutes for a total finishing time  1 Hour 28 minutes and 28 seconds, which surprisingly gave me 3rd in my age group! Gotta love small races that only give you 7 competitors! I actually got to stand on a podium after a race, and I wish I savored that moment a little longer, because it won't be a few years before I get to do that again.

At this point, crossing the finish line was not only gratifying, it was really fun! Next I head to local surf county Santa Cruz for my first ever road style race, with a swimming distance I had yet to attempt, in an ocean I had never swam in.

Moments away from the finish line

Links:

Official Results: http://www.usaproductions.org/media/SJMBT2008.pdf

Race 1: Wildflower 2008

Date: May 3, 2008
Distance: Mountain Bike Sprint (0.25 mile Swim, 9.7 mile Bike, 2 mile Run)

The Wildflower Swag

On this day in history, Michael McCarry discovers triathlons.

In the museum of McCarry that I have in my head, this is what a plaque on the wall reads for May 3rd. For this was the day that I decided that I did my first, and would continue to do triathlons, with my ultimate goal of completing an Ironman.

A few months earlier, after having my new iPod + Nike running kit for a few months, I needed a goal. I found that running with out a real purpose didn't make any sense, and that I needed something to motivate me. After searching many local running races (with a goal of doing a Marathon one day in mind) I came across the Ironman triathlon. I remembered the name from watches I owned as a kid (Timex Ironman) and wondered what it was about, and how it ended up on a watch. After becoming short of breath after just reading the description of Ironman, I decided that this was not a goal for myself in the short term, but was interested in the format of the race. Swim, Bike, the Run. Moments later, the internet lead me to the Wildflower.

The (One and Only) Wildflower Triathlon Festival is the largest event of its kind in North America, and one of the largest in the world. Thousands of athletes come to race, some representing their countries from all around the globe, and a select few competing for the coveted "Champion of Wildflower" title. In its 26th year, Wildflower was huge, and was about to be my first race. Luckily, there were 3 race distances available for athletes; The long, Olympic, and Mountain bike sprint course. I obviously opted for the shortest of the 3, being the sprint. I felt I was easily prepared after doing no actual swimming, a little bit of biking in the local bike path, and continuing the 5 - 6k runs 2 - 3 times a week. Boy was I wrong.

After my 50 yard warm up... and exhausted

That morning, after racking my bike in the transition area, I squeezed into my rented wetsuit, took out my brand new goggles from there packaging, and headed down to the start line. I looked out an in the distance over the lake and about 250 yards away I could see two large orange bouys. This was the swim course for me. Didn't look to challenging at the time, but this would change quickly. The announcer calmly advised all athletes that wanted to get wet and warm up to head into the water, as we were about 10 minutes away from the start of the race. I calmly entered the water and swam to the end of the boat dock and back, probably about 50 yards total, and got out of the water... completely exhausted! What the hell have I gotten myself into? How the hell am I ever going to complete this swim? What about the bike and the run after?!? This had shortly become a nightmare, but one I planned to see though.

At 8 a.m. that morning, I entered the water with the rest of the athletes.

10 minutes later, I exited the water. At least that is what the race clock said. To me it felt like over an hour. I was sure I just drank 4 gallons of water, was struggling to keep my balance, and wondering how the hell I was ever going to complete this race. I was moments away from finding the nearest course marshal, and telling them that I can't continue, and that I just wanted to go home when I spotted him. The guy who saved my triathlon career. The guy puking in the trash can. At that moment I realized that I'm not in a worse condition as that guy, and that I can continue this race.

I took the bike at an extremely conservative (possibly not by choice) half walked, half ran the 2 mile run course to cross the finish line with a time of 1 hour, 27 minutes and 44 seconds. A volunteer came up to me, placed my first ever finishing medal over my head and congratulated me. I had finished my first triathlon... and it felt great!!! I still can't express the amount of joy and accomplishment I had felt at the time, and I knew at that point I was hooked! I couldn't wait to go home, and sign up for my next race, and I was in luck! Only a month and a half away was another local Mountain bike sprint race! A few clicks and a credit card later, and I was signed up for the Silicon Valley Mountain Bike Triathlon!

links:

Wildflower Website: http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/WildFlower2013-main.htm
Official Results: http://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/index.cfm/20080503_Wildflower_Triathlons.htm?Fuseaction=Results&Bib=&Firstname=&Lastname=mccarry

27 T-Shirts to Ironman

So... its be a while. In fact, its been a whole year since I last wrote a blog about my journey about becoming an Ironman. For those of you who don't know, it didn't happen as planned. Last year, about 3 weeks before I was scheduled to compete in the 2011 Ironman Canada, an unfortunate injury resulted in me having to postpone my race for a year. As it would turn out, I got a stress fracture in my right tibia, near the ball of my Ankle. The injury was painful enough that I could not run even a mile, which made the marathon portion of the race an unrealizable task.

12 months later, and I believe I have made a full recovery, both physical and physiological. Missing my goal last year was probably harder on me emotionally than it was on my bones. This was the first race I had missed in my 4 year triathlon journey, and it was the biggest race I had planed to be in. A visit from my dad during the 2 weeks I had scheduled to take off for the race for a much needed vacation put me back in perspective. Him showing up helped me more than I ever realized until just a few weeks ago, and is probably one of the only reasons I have been able to train as hard as I have this past year to get back to where I was. This is something that I will never be able to thank him enough for. If you are a Dad or planning to be one, take notes. If your my dad and reading this. Thank you for everything, you truly are the best.

Last year however isn't what this post is about. This post is about this year, and the next 27 days. Over the last 4 years, I have competed in 27 races that have all been in someway training for what is about to happen on August 26th, and I am about to relive each and every one of them on this blog. Some of the races have only been raced once, and one of them raced for 5 years straight. Each one has a separate story and learning experience that has helped me improve my performance and mental strength, to help me complete 140.6 miles of endurance racing. Oh, and each one comes with a t-shirt too.* So for the next 27 days, I will wear the accompanied swag to each race and write about it, reflecting on my experience while sharing it with you at the same time. If all goes to plan, on the 28th day, I will be sharing a new race story with you as well.

Links:

Ironman Canada website: www.ironman.ca
Stress Fractures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_fracture

Footnotes:

*All races but 1 had t-shirts, and the one that didn't had socks.

Day 119: Eaten up, spit out, pulled apart and torn down, but not defeated

The weekend of April 30 - May 1st was the 29th annual Wildflower triathlon. Known as the "Woodstock of triathlons", this festival has 3 different triathlon distances; Sunday's Olympic (and collegiate national championship) race, the sprint mountain bike which I have done for the past 3 years, and the long course triathlon, which consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run. This is my first year doing the long course, and my second time attempting a race of this length.

6:30 Saturday morning I woke up in my tent after an unusually cold night that made any actual sleep hard to come by. After deciding that next year I was going to rent a hotel room in near by Bradly, California, I got my bike and triathlon bag and headed down to the transition area to get ready for my 8:15 start time.

While setting up my transition area, I met with a few other athletes setting up around my area. For most of us, it was our first time taking on this specific triathlon. We talked about different things we heard about the race, the difficulty level, and what our goal times were. Looking back, I don't think any of us had any idea what we were in for.

The swim started just like any other race. Water temp was 63 degrees, which was a little cool for this specific venue, but not that cold considering I was wearing a wet suit. There wasn't very much chop in the water, which made navigating the buoys easier than usual. Knowing what was waiting for me on shore, I took the swim at a pretty easy pace, and exited the water just under 45 minutes.

The bike was any thing but normal. Early into the race is a 1 mile climb that gains over 200 feet of elevation. After a quick set of rolling hills, the course takes me outside the park where I end up spending 15 minutes changing a flat tire, which is never fun during a race. The punishment continued with a 10 mile ride on a slight but constant up hill ride into a strong head wind, which made it feel like I was riding my bike though mud. I pushed really hard to keep up my speed though this section and make up for the time lost with my flat. This would haunt me later in the race, and was the first of my mistakes.

Miles 40 - 44 were the ones I've heard stories about, none of which does this difficult hill climb any justice. After spending a ton of energy battling the wind, I'm now required to climb over 700 feet up a grueling hill that never seemed to end. After reaching the top and riding down (reaching some frighteningly fast top speeds I might add) I'm welcomed only with a few more rolling hills before riding back into camp and getting myself ready to tackle the half marathon run.

As some of you may already know, running is my strength. It's what always saves my times in triathlons, and what I pride myself on. While I'm no professional marathon runner, I do like to finish above average for my age group. This however was not going to be my best running performance.

This 13.1 miles was the most difficult run I have ever faced. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that I would not have been able to beat 2 hours on this if I was running it with fresh legs, let alone after a soul crushing 56 mile bike ride and 1.2 mile swim. Many of the up hill climbs I ended up walking (the main one taking me up 500 feet in elevation over 2 miles), the whole time counting down the miles and just hoping to finish this race.

In the last few miles of the race, I must have been starting to visibly project how I was feeling. I only know this because a vulture circled around my head during the last mile of the race. (I'm dead serious, it was a vulture. I looked up a picture of one after the race to make sure). I had to glare at it to let it know that today wasn't my day before it flew off look for a racer is worse condition.

Finally, after 7 hours 26 minutes and 54 seconds of racing, I crossed the finish line. I felt incredibly tired exhausted, excited and accomplished all at the same time. I received my finishers medal, and quickly went to find some where to sit down. I was eaten up, spit out, pulled apart and torn down, but not defeated. I am officially a 2011 wildflower long course finisher.

Links:

Wildflower: http://www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/WildFlower2011-main.htm
Vulture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Vulture