Ryan Tarrant Ironman Training: Ironman Revenge at Lake Placid to finish is to win

Race Day Quotes

"Ryan Tarrant, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania... Way to go Ry, you are an Ironman!" - The Voice of Ironman
"Ironman is like having kids, you spend many months preparing to put yourself through excruciating pain, and then after it's over, you forget about all the pain and do it again" - a woman I met on the second loop of the run course
"Ruuuun Faster!" - a poster on River Road and the voice of K-Fo in my head during the run
"I can't believe that all of these people are ahead of us, it's just unbelievable" - Nace when he catches me on the run
"Forget Kona! I don't know how anyone can do that in extreme heat" - Me as I crossed the finish line
"Race 4 Oreos" - One of the minions signs
"Don't worry Ryan, we saved oreos and brownies for you" - Mom and Steven halfway through the run course after I told them I couldn't hold down food for the last 13 miles.
"I think you're going to swim faster than 1:10:00" - Barbie before the race
"If you don't win, don't come back to work" - Anonymous
"Go Ryan" - Everyone in the support crew
"We thought you were in an ambulance" - concerned fan when I came around with 2 miles to go
"Holy Headwind!" - fellow competitor on the climb of loop 2 on the bike course
"Show me your abs" - sign of a teenage girl
"You smell pretty bad" - entire support crew back at the house post race

Swim Session

6:30AM the pre-race poops are out (all 4 of them!) I meet up with the support crew one last time before the race as I struggle getting my wetsuit on. Nothing but smiles because the swim is the part of the race I feel most prepared for. This is a lot different from last year when I didn't know if I'd make it out of the water.

7:00AM I line up in the water near the front close to the buoy line. 2962 fish, I mean people on their way to a single point in the water. School of humans results in: being kicked in the goggles 3 times, breast stroke kicked in the collar bone, ankle pulled on 3 times, swam on top of, and elbowed twice.

I meet the first turn buoy at 14:57, holy crap I'm flying and feeling good. I reach 1.2 miles at 32:40, faster than any 1/2 Ironman race I've been in. Barbie would be dead on. I had no problem breaking 1:10:00 in the swim. I finished in 1:09:25 (1:38/100yds) and I'm setup perfectly for the rest of the day. I have a shot at challenging people and going beyond all of my goals!

Vengeance Ride

8:09AM Head through the 1/4 mile transition all smiles after having strangers strip me! No worries they only got my wetsuit off :). For those that don't know, the changing tents are pretty adventurous, filled with pee troughs, volunteers to help get gear in and out of bags, and volunteers to glob tons of sunblock on each competitor.

8:15AM Time to mount the felt and dodge some guard rails! First few miles are fun with short rolling uphills then finally to the descent into Keene, time to let it rip! Lap 1 I hit 50.3 MPH on the descent into Keene, risky but tons of fun!

10:10AM I've been riding for almost 2 hours and I haven't peed my pants yet... CRAP! As I was keeping a strong cadence for the ride about 40 miles into the 112 mile bike, everything started catching up to me. My right leg completely locks up straight cramping in my calf, hammy and quad. What the hell? I was diligent through practice and so far in this race with eating particular foods on a given schedule. It turns out as we'll find out later. I should have adjusted my nutrition for the heat and should have been eating a lot more salt than I was. It's too late as this downward spiral of dehydrations pulls me down the drain of what we call "Ironman". I start doubling up on water & perform (essentially gatorade) at the rest of the bike aid stations and devoured approximately 7 or 8 bananas. Mentally with each banana I ate it was like magic masking the cramping in my legs.

10:50AM I finally pee myself as I passed the site of my crash in 2011.

11:13AM Loop 1 of the bike course complete! I almost cried because I knew my Minions... I mean support crew, would be thrilled to see me, especially my mom, dad, and Barbie who had to meet me at the hospital at this point last year... Huge WIN, but now to do it again while recovering from dehydration. The second lap was a lot more work mixed with spur of the moment charlie horses, head wind up climbs, and steering clear of guard rails.

2:40PM "Mission Complete" or so I thought... at least at this point I have finished the bike course free of crashes and injuries!

Broth the Ironman's Secret Sauce

3:13PM 3 miles into the run, the legs feel great, and I'm as happy as a kid in a candy store! After seeing me off, my Minions... I mean support crew, venture to the finish line to watch the speedy Andy Potts pump up the crowd to another win (8:25:07). The only problem I'm running into is my inability to eat any food or salt because of my grumbling tummy. There was a ball of liquid sloshing up and down with every step.

4:07PM I'm surprised with encouragement from a fellow Philly runner, Nace Mullen. At this point I was 8.2 miles into the run and I was walking/running. Nace moved me along forcing me to continuously run (except through aid stations) and he even slowed down to ensure I would continue running.

4:55PM 12 miles in, I see all of the minions spread along this section of the course. High fiving through pain, excitement in their voices forced me into a jog when I wanted to do nothing but walk. I still haven't eaten anything and I hear from a couple of people "We saved brownies and oreos for you" as I'm trying not to dry heave in front of Barbie. I venture off to my second loop of the course leaving my minions to take a much needed break of cards and Stewart's ice cream, they're going to need this break because it's going to be a looooooong time until I'm back around the finish line.

5:52PM I'm around mile 16 and the pain has already been setting in for the past mile or so. At this point I was forced into walking these blurry few miles. What time am I going to finish.. 9:30/10PM? Wait a minute am I going downhill or uphill and why is the road banking in both directions? Holy crap this is bad this is why you eat while doing a marathon. Okay, aid station dead ahead and at this time of day the broth is out! I stop and guzzle down 2 cups of broth and 1 cup of water, dry heave for a couple of steps then continue walking. By the time I hit the next aid station my swagger is coming back. UGH again I failed with nutrition today, I definitely needed a lot more sodium than I was actually taking in. From here on out I take 1 broth and 1 water from every aid station.

7:14PM Where's Ryan? I went from stumbling on the course to being able to run between an 8:30/mile and a 10:15/mile. It's such a turnaround physically in my body that you would think chicken broth is a banned substance from triathlons. Luckily it's just the everyday Ironman's secret sauce.

7:53PM Ryan, you're not in an ambulance, oh thank God! We were so worried we would have to get you from the hospital. These were the concerned/relieved words of my mom while she was half in tears. Mom was waiting for me at the bottom of the hill at an aid station with just over a mile left and motivated me to run, not walk up the hill one final time! Time? Wait just over a mile, about 7 or 8 minutes until 8:00PM. Ryan, you have a shot... you can break 13hrs and get in under 8:00PM. Wait that's crazy you didn't think you could get close to the finish line until 10:00PM... push it now you can do it! This was me pushing myself through to the end.

8:02PM Ryan Tarrant, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania... Way to go Ry, You Are an IRONMAN! I kicked into high gear for the last 1/2 mile high fiving and flexing my scrawny muscles with a great big yell across the finish line. This feeling was awesome so what was my immediate reaction to the race? Forget Kona! I don't know how anybody can handle doing that in the extreme heat of the lava fields. I don't know how people go fast enough to qualify for that thing. This whole idea is crazy!

Approximately 48 hours from the start of the race Yeah I want to go to Kona... let's find another Ironman to do before Lake Placid next year so I can workout some of my race day nutrition issues and excel in Lake Placid 2013! I think if my nutrition was better I could have gone anywhere from 1.5 - 2 hrs faster than I did but then there are so many other unknown variables that I would have run into. Ironman, to finish is to win especially when I crashed last year and was forced to DNF. 13:02:44 first ever Ironman time, sounds like a great time to setup for a PR next year. This season is over for me, time to relax for a couple of months and then oil up the gears of my body in October to start working for next season.