42 Weeks of training - Drop 20lbs. Swim 200 miles. Run 1,000 miles. Bike 5,000 miles. - Finish Ironman Kona - Follow the journey.

Great news! He finished. Matt is an Ironman.Starting pre-race, he was quite a bit more confident with noticeably less pre-race jitters than I usually have or frankly, expected that he’d have. We made sure everything was dropped in the correct trucks, bags were filled with the right amount of gu packets, his special needs bag for the bike had his bottles in it, tires were inflated, clothes were set. He put on his swim cap, walked into transition, and with a final good luck kiss from Jenny and a handshake from me, walked into the swim corral.On the swim: He absolutely crushed the swim out. He started quite a bit off to the side so as to avoid as much of the chaos of the swim as he could, but caught up to it and got stuck in a group about 10 swimmers wide making the turnaround. While making the turn, he said he started to panic due to repetitive kicks to the face. He couldn’t get in a groove and at the same time couldn’t move out to the side to catch a break. He started treading water, yelled out “BOARD, BOARD!” for a paddleboarder to come over so he could grab on and regain some composure. He felt ok, calmed himself down, then right as he was about to take off again, puked all over the nose of the paddleboard - to which, the lifeguard simply chuckled a bit and responded “fish food.” He regained himself and swam back in between groups of swimmers, and just into the swim back a school of spinner dolphins who he credits for bringing him back in.Into the first transition he looked great, took his time changing, and was out onto the bike. His heart rate must have been a bit higher than he expected, because when he was walking out, he stumbled a bit and crashed his bike pretty hard into one of the barriers, which bent his chain. He started off on the bike but had to flag down a bike tech to make a quick repair (seriously quick - F1 fast. The guy broke the chain, pulled it, took the back end apart, fixed everything, put on a new chain, and matt was off smiling, yelling, cheering in about 3mins). Beside that, the bike went perfect. We had ridden the course for the week prior so Matt knew what to expect, and he said conditions were exactly as we’d trained in. Winds were just as strong as we’d expected, and his only run-in with the devastating crosswinds was coming out of Hawi, when he stopped to make sure someone flagged down medical after he watched a girl get blown across two lanes of traffic, off the road, and flipped over the guard rail.In his second transition, he took more than his sweet amount of time getting changed, getting composed, and headed out onto the marathon course. He didn’t have any issues with cramps, joint pains, or any of the major impediments to finishing the run. He said after about 6 miles, he started to get really light headed and dizzy, so he slowed down in an aid station, ate, had some water, gatorade, and kept going. Held a steady pace out of town, into the energy lab, and said that he was never more excited in his entire life to see a pile of rocks than he was to see the one we built at the run turn-around. (Backstory: It’s tradition for first-time Ironman Kona athletes to build a pyramid of lava rocks on the side of the course, as your “power pyramid” or temple of sorts. We built his right at the run turn-around late at night as I was driving him back to the hotel the night before the race.) Up out of the Energy Lab he said he could start hearing the cheers and see the glow of the finish line lights from about 5 miles out, and he just put his head down and kept going.At approximately 11pm HST, after 16hours, 13minutes, and 140.6 miles, over the gigantic PA system that was set up at the finish line, in front of several thousand people standing in bleachers, on the road, on risers, in restaurants, you heard “Matthew Michelsen, You are an IRONMAN!”As he wobbled down the finishing line runway, he was greeted by a very happy to see him Jenny, and was given his finisher medal by Chrissie Wellington, who earlier in the day won the Women’s race. We then walked him into the medical tent, got him food, fluids, and he got his legs massaged, then he hobbled up to the room, showered, and we headed home.It’s been my pleasure to report on Matt’s progress throughout, and I felt like an absolutely worried parent all day long, frantically checking his telemetry, gps, and cross-checking those numbers with reports we were getting from on-course to see how he was doing, gauge his pace, guess how he felt. It was incredible watching him cross the finish line, and while I know he’s already thanked everyone, thank you all again for being a part of the journey. Signing off,-SD

Great news! He finished. Matt is an Ironman.
Starting pre-race, he was quite a bit more confident with noticeably less pre-race jitters than I usually have or frankly, expected that he’d have. We made sure everything was dropped in the correct trucks, bags were filled with the right amount of gu packets, his special needs bag for the bike had his bottles in it, tires were inflated, clothes were set. He put on his swim cap, walked into transition, and with a final good luck kiss from Jenny and a handshake from me, walked into the swim corral.
On the swim: He absolutely crushed the swim out. He started quite a bit off to the side so as to avoid as much of the chaos of the swim as he could, but caught up to it and got stuck in a group about 10 swimmers wide making the turnaround. While making the turn, he said he started to panic due to repetitive kicks to the face. He couldn’t get in a groove and at the same time couldn’t move out to the side to catch a break. He started treading water, yelled out “BOARD, BOARD!” for a paddleboarder to come over so he could grab on and regain some composure. He felt ok, calmed himself down, then right as he was about to take off again, puked all over the nose of the paddleboard - to which, the lifeguard simply chuckled a bit and responded “fish food.” He regained himself and swam back in between groups of swimmers, and just into the swim back a school of spinner dolphins who he credits for bringing him back in.
Into the first transition he looked great, took his time changing, and was out onto the bike. His heart rate must have been a bit higher than he expected, because when he was walking out, he stumbled a bit and crashed his bike pretty hard into one of the barriers, which bent his chain. He started off on the bike but had to flag down a bike tech to make a quick repair (seriously quick - F1 fast. The guy broke the chain, pulled it, took the back end apart, fixed everything, put on a new chain, and matt was off smiling, yelling, cheering in about 3mins). Beside that, the bike went perfect. We had ridden the course for the week prior so Matt knew what to expect, and he said conditions were exactly as we’d trained in. Winds were just as strong as we’d expected, and his only run-in with the devastating crosswinds was coming out of Hawi, when he stopped to make sure someone flagged down medical after he watched a girl get blown across two lanes of traffic, off the road, and flipped over the guard rail.
In his second transition, he took more than his sweet amount of time getting changed, getting composed, and headed out onto the marathon course. He didn’t have any issues with cramps, joint pains, or any of the major impediments to finishing the run. He said after about 6 miles, he started to get really light headed and dizzy, so he slowed down in an aid station, ate, had some water, gatorade, and kept going. Held a steady pace out of town, into the energy lab, and said that he was never more excited in his entire life to see a pile of rocks than he was to see the one we built at the run turn-around. (Backstory: It’s tradition for first-time Ironman Kona athletes to build a pyramid of lava rocks on the side of the course, as your “power pyramid” or temple of sorts. We built his right at the run turn-around late at night as I was driving him back to the hotel the night before the race.) Up out of the Energy Lab he said he could start hearing the cheers and see the glow of the finish line lights from about 5 miles out, and he just put his head down and kept going.
At approximately 11pm HST, after 16hours, 13minutes, and 140.6 miles, over the gigantic PA system that was set up at the finish line, in front of several thousand people standing in bleachers, on the road, on risers, in restaurants, you heard “Matthew Michelsen, You are an IRONMAN!”
As he wobbled down the finishing line runway, he was greeted by a very happy to see him Jenny, and was given his finisher medal by Chrissie Wellington, who earlier in the day won the Women’s race. We then walked him into the medical tent, got him food, fluids, and he got his legs massaged, then he hobbled up to the room, showered, and we headed home.
It’s been my pleasure to report on Matt’s progress throughout, and I felt like an absolutely worried parent all day long, frantically checking his telemetry, gps, and cross-checking those numbers with reports we were getting from on-course to see how he was doing, gauge his pace, guess how he felt. It was incredible watching him cross the finish line, and while I know he’s already thanked everyone, thank you all again for being a part of the journey. 
Signing off,
-SD

7 months ago  
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  1. mcmironman posted this