For Thanksgiving we ventured down to Arizona to enjoy the 75 degree weather in Scottsdale. Oh yeah. Ron was also going to run an iron man.  Nagisa joined us, and we explored the surrounding area. Man, it was nice.

Well, we might as well give a first-hand experience of Ron’s iron man experience. Take it over, Ron:

My Road to an Ironman

By Ron Weaver

 

For years, my friend George Maldonado tried to get me to go on a bike ride with him, yet I probably said no a hundred times. Finally in a moment of weakness, I said yes, really just to shut him up. I loved riding and bought a steel frame road bike a month later.

By May of 2007, I could still only barely stay afloat in water and my longest run ever had been the 5 mile Reno Journal Jog. My daughter Bridget, however, convinced me to enter a half marathon in Vancouver, but I wasn’t convinced I could finish. Amazingly, I performed pretty well there, so I began running and riding a little more.

Somewhat intrigued by triathlons after watching friends perform and seeing the World Championship in Hawaii. I wanted to give it a try, especially since I had the bike/run thing going on. The fact that I really couldn’t swim was a major roadblock . I even still swam with my head up out of the water when practicing at Moana Pool. Nonetheless, I signed up for the Pyramid Lake Triathlon. When I saw the pylons way out in the water and realized how far 800 yards was, I chickened out and ended up only doing the bike/run. Not swimming was very embarrassing.

My first goal was finding someone to teach me to swim. That wasn’t easy, but I finally found Katie. (Her last name shouldn’t escape me, but it does.) Though not convinced I could be taught to swim properly, after only one hour, I was swimming with my face in the water and breathing, left and right. I was very excited at the end of that lesson.

Now my goal was to find a super easy triathlon which I did. It was in Moraga, CA. A pool swim of 400 yards, a 13 mile bike ride followed by a 3 mile run. My son Jason competed with me, even though this triathlon was beneath his skill level. I remember Chuck Hosselkus phoning to ask how I did. This competition was nothing as I look back on that tri, but it gave me the confidence to move on. Chuck was a great influence in my earlier triathlons. I even came within 60 seconds of beating him at Pyramid, though could never do so. I added more sprints, a couple at Olympic distance, and finally signed up for what I thought would be the ultimate: A half Ironman. Jason entered with me, and we had fun training together. Training alone can get to be a real grind.
I remember standing in the cold water of Lake Berryessa for the half and saying to myself, “What the hell were you thinking?”

I finally got to the run and I remember talking with someone about my age who said he was training also for Iron Man Arizona. I remember thinking he must be crazy. I told him, “There is no way I’d ever consider a full IM.” I truly felt completely at peace with being a half IM.

I then started running with NSET (Northern Sierra Endurance Training) running group because that’s where Bridget and her husband Andy were running. She again convinced me to enter a marathon. I guess my confidence was building a little now. What’s 4 hours running when I spent 6 ½ hours competing in a triathlon? It’s all about perspective.

I ran a second marathon because I wanted to qualify for Boston but missed it a 2nd time. That was now my goal. Along the way, 3 or 4 people including Nicole Vaillant at NSET said, “You should enter an IM.” I responded every time saying, “No way!” Nicole was looking for a training partner for IM Arizona and she was very persistent. I kept saying, “I’m too old and I can’t do it.” She would disagree. I started losing sleep wondering if I really could do it. I didn’t want to not try and then regret it for the rest of my life. I seriously lost a lot of sleep over it. After over 6 months of worrying a lot about it, I decided to give it a shot. Very reluctantly I might add.
You might think it would be easy to enter an event that allows 3,000 entrants, especially if you have to swim, bike and run 140.6 miles. Well, that’s just not the case. Chris and I were on our way to Egypt on November 20, 2010 which was also the first day to sign up for IM Arizona. Nicole signed up for both of us right at 11:00. The event sold out in 10 minutes. Chris and I were in New York City at the free cocktail hour for that trip to Egypt when I got a text from Nicole that we were entered. I was both happy and scared. I think the alcohol helped to ease the reality of what I had just read.

In January, Nicole and I sat down to start planning. As it turned out, she planned and I listened. She had a book with 3 training plans: just finish, intermediate or competitive. I was going to stretch a little and enter the intermediate. That level didn’t work for her, so we ended up entering the competitive. It’s very easy to say now that it was the right decision.

I was very concerned that training with someone 30 years younger and already an IM wouldn’t work and expressed that before being signed up. The swimming was never an issue because it would be in a pool. My bike times improved greatly as I racked up the mileage. A lot of the running was done with NSET and on our bike/run brick, where Nicole just ran at a lower heart rate to allow me to keep up. That worked out pretty well.

We officially started our 30 week “competitive” program on April 25th. I think the first week was 6 hours total, no problem. I also took yoga classes 2 days a week for the first 14 weeks, and I think that was very beneficial.

At the end of week 12, I did the Vineman half IM. I wasn’t nervous at all like I had been on the first half. It was a lot of fun, and I think I improved my personal record by 30 minutes. The energy that triathletes give off is just infectious.

There were a few rest days on week 13 to recover from the half IM and then back to 13 hours on week 14.

 

That week was going well until Saturday, July 30th when I broke my fibula, while trail running with Bridget and Andy. We were in about 2 miles, so the walk out was a very painful. Luckily, Chris came along with her hiking poles, and that gave me a boost. I was very concerned but didn’t think I had broken anything.

So I’m sitting in the ER when the doctor comes in and gives me the bad news. I told him I have the IM event on November 20th and he said, “No you’re not.” I can honestly say I never believed him for a second. For the next 3 weeks, I was in quite a bit of pain and pretty depressed, but training becomes addictive.

Dr. Dolan, my orthopedic doctor, gave me the okay to take off my boot and start swimming at 4 weeks. That didn’t go very well. The left leg had atrophied and was just not working as it should. At week 5, he let me take of my boot, get on my trainer and take a spinning class. At the end of week 5, Jason, Nicole and I did a 56 mile ride. It was like finding Jesus. One of the more memorable days of my life. I was back.

Quite a few people said, “I guess your IM is over,” including my personal trainer that I had for 8 sessions. I’m pretty sure that comment motivated me.

The last week of training was only 5 hours. Three days before the race, I tripped and separated a rib. Major panic set in. I was supposed to run 40 minutes that day and could only do 20 due to the pain. I thought my race might be over. Now this, along with the fact that my longest run of the year had been only 13 miles due to the broken leg. Although concerned, I went to a local pool to get my 30 minute swim in and the rib pain didn’t seem too bad.

Finally, the day of the race is here. Up at 4:30 to get parked and to the event by 5:30. The nerves weren’t too bad and my breakfast consisted of a Zone bar, waffle cookie and my miracle fruit of choice, the banana. It was very hard to eat anything. I got my bike set up with water, Gu, Zone bars and Hammer drink mix. When I met up with Nicole, she helped me with my wetsuit; because of my injured ribs, I needed a little help. We then headed over to the swim with 2,900 other somewhat crazy people. I was a little nervous about the swim, but felt this sort of calmness being with others doing the same thing. Misery loves company.
At about 6:45, some guys started yelling through a loud speaker like drill sergeants, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” We jumped off a 4 foot high platform into the 61 degree water and it just took my breath away for a few moments. I was surprised at how fast I adjusted to the cold temperature and even with a sleeveless wetsuit somehow only my feet were cold. With every stroke, my ribs hurt but it wasn’t too bad. The swim seemed to last forever and was chaotic. I found it very hard to find swim lanes without getting kicked. Even with all that, I was enjoying the fact that I was finally doing it. The bridge we had to swim under (that was over a mile away) never seemed to get much closer. Eventually, I came out of the water and my legs buckled. Volunteers grabbed me and got me over to where 2 others yanked off my wetsuit. Every bit of me was shaking and freezing as we ran into the heated transition tent. I took my time in transition (not like most) changing into biking clothes. I did put clean socks on over my muddy feet.

I came out of the changing tent for the bike leg and women wiped sunblock all over my body. Pretty cool. My bike was waiting at the far end near the exit with those of the pros. When I heard my number yelled, someone had my bike ready for me when I got to the positiion. Pretty cool again. My legs felt a little weak, but after 100 yards on the bike I was fine. Finally I was on my favorite part of any tri, the bike. It consisted of three 37 mile loops with a hill at every turnaround. I was really happy to be on the bike. Each lap took me a little over 2 hours. As I came down the last mile or so, there would be thousands of people cheering. Friggin’ awesome. Chris, Jason, Bridget, Andy and Nagisa were there at the turnaround cheering me on. That was a tremendous help. I really looked forward to seeing them. I saw Nicole coming back as I was going out on all 3 bike legs.
As you come down the chute for the bike/run transition, people cheer from both sides. Someone is there to grab my bike and say “Go!” Then I’m off to the changing tent for the run. The run start was a little rocky with my legs not working very well. Not unusual for any bike/run transition. I still felt knives stabbing at my ribs, but somehow adjusted by barely picking up my feet and shuffling. I now started realizing how tired I was and my previous longest run had been 13 miles. My mind started playing games with me. Doing the math, I knew I had over 8 hours to finish the marathon but I was still doubting myself. The run was 3 laps and the gang was there at different points to cheer me on. Tremendous help. It was not unusual to see people with cramps and/or puking. I kept thinking, “Please not me.” It was now dark and a long time had passé since that 7a.m. start. I was finally beginnning to think that I might finish this. The last 8 mile loop was painful, but I kept thinking about going through the chute at the finish line with hundreds of people cheering while they announced “Ron Weaver, you are an Ironman!”

I heard someone calling my name late into my 2nd lap and I was thinking, “Who knows me?” Duh! It was Nicole. As she ran past me, asked how I was doing and said, “I’m not going to break 12 hours!” and then she was gone. Turns out she finished 12 hours, 30 seconds. Very impressive and an hour faster than her first IM.

Jason and Andy ran the last 5 or 6 miles with me. It was more of a walk run and against the rules, but no one seemed to care. It helped a lot because I was more than just hurting at that point.

My time was 14:05. Right in the middle of my age group with 40 or so “old” guys. Perfectly happy being average in this group of overachievers.

To become an Iron Man, I logged in 91 miles swimming, about 2,400 miles biking and over 500 miles running. Time well spent.