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Matt Roberts
Ironman Florida
November 2002

What I learned from going long.

Ok so I am new to the Ironman distance. Heck I am new to triathlon over all. I’ve only been doing it for two years. But damn my friends, they talked me into doing an Ironman. And so far the training has been pretty cool. Here is a list that I put together for other newbies or people thinking of getting themselves into Ironman shape. Maybe it will help you avoid some mistakes, or learn something or just laugh at me. Here it is:

1. The world population can be sustained on GU, Energy bars and Gatorade.
2. If you are doing a long bike and run brick and wear your bike shorts on the run portion too, you may get a crescent moon chaff mark on each butt cheek.
3. When you get in the shower after a long training day in which you did wear your bike shorts to run in and ARE chaffed somewhere, usually somewhere very unpleasant, you may black out from the pain. Don’t worry this is normal.
4. You can never use to much Bodyglide or Chamois Buttr’ (See point #2 and #3)
5. You can eat too much GU (ever had 3 double espressos and a bran muffin? Same effect)
6. You may start drinking A LOT more coffee at work (do not drink 3 double espresso’s and eat a bran muffin at the same time)
7. As soon as you sign up for the race you will find out a month later that a lot of social happenings and life events pop up on the same date (Ie. Weddings, Family Reunions new born babies, Graduations, Retirement Parties etc. Only the big life events mind you)
8. When you get to the training period with the largest volume, about 2 months out, your wife/husband/ significant other will make social plans every Friday or Saturday night for the entire month. (When the race is over your social calendar mysteriously dries up)
9. Your in-laws will ask your spouse if you’re joking behind your back. (They’ll be at the race though, just to make sure you’re still sane. In the end they’ll understand)
10. Everyone will ask you if it’s the one in Hawaii. You’ll say, “Not yet!”

OK so that list was not as good as David Letterman’s but who cares, I finished an Ironman! A good friend of mine asked me today if I still felt tired. I had to come up with a way to describe it. I didn’t really feel that tired at all until about 5 days after. And then it was the kind of tired that we all feel during training. But there is some part of it that feels deeper. I created an analogy for him saying that it seems as if your body is a rechargeable battery. After an Ironman you have completely drained all the energy but it (your body) still needs to be used. So the recharge is very slow and if you go out and try any type of exertion you just bringing the charge down a notch.

So how was the race you ask? IT WAS AWESOME! Sign up for one now for the best experience of your life! As soon as I crossed the finish line I wanted to go and do another one (I attribute that weirdness to my short attention span and lack of sufficient short term memory). I wanted to go out and relive the whole race again.

Everyone knows before getting into an Ironman, that to finish is an unbelievable feat for any person. If you’re a triathlete you’ve probably thought about the distance and said, “Never”, or “Maybe one day.” But either way there is something about an Ironman that made you think, and you knew there was something different or special about it. You definitely knew it would be hard.

What makes it special is the people. We/triathletes are all alike. We are all dreamers of big dreams. We don’t sit still and we want to not let life slip away from us bored and stagnant watching TV all weekend. We get outside. We set our selves up for failure because we train hard then go and race. And some times we do fail. But with every small failure comes a learning experience that is unique and special. So we have set in motion for ourselves a continuing cycle of success and failure and learning and living. Before long it all becomes clear that a balanced life is one where the struggle, the cycle of successes and failures, defines who we are. How we struggle through the challenges that we set before ourselves gives us strength of character, heart, soul and spirit. There is no feeling born from self imposed challenge that can be taken away. So you never really fail. Leadership guru John C. Maxwell calls it failing forward. I call it working hard, dreaming big and always setting forth new ways to challenge your self and to put your self out there and learn. So I dreamed big and singed up for Ironman Florida on December 12, 2001.

The Ironman was so long and so hard, just as I had hoped. If it wasn’t hard I would have felt a little disappointed and cheated. Good this was what I signed up for, a long hard day of catered training. Speaking of catered, even the swim had an aid station set up half way through it . You had to get out of the water, run up on the beach to the sound of about 5,000 spectators, grab the beverage of your choice and start swimming again. Awesome. But let me get back to the real beginning.

My friend Bill and I and our coach Eric Orton of Erodynamic Triathlon Coaching (www.tri-ero.com) woke up at 4am. I didn’t even feel tired. I ate and drank my usual pre race stuff, we grabbed our special needs bags and headed out to the transition at about 5am. Our hotel was about a half mile from the transition area and start. The walk to it was surreal.

We walked the stretch of road between our hotel and the transition with hundreds of other Ironman athletes. It was dark out. You could see some bright orange on the horizon, but it was pretty much just dark. It was quiet too. Some people were talking amongst themselves but to see that many people and for it to be that quiet was cool. I looked around at everyone’s faces and they were all concerned about what lay ahead. I know I was. But it felt like we were all going through it together. I felt like we were going to battle. Not one with bullets and hopefully no dying, but battle with ourselves. All of us wanted to see what we could do, what we could achieve.

I was so happy to be there walking in a crowd of strangers in the pre dawn light. All with one common goal. Finally, finally, finally the day was here. I had to hold back the tears a few times. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I knew I was going to finish. I wanted so bad to put one long time dream to rest today. So that is what I thought about. Why I was there… finally?

I remember watching Ironman Hawaii with my Dad one weekend day in the fall. I must have been about 10 or 11. We watched the whole thing together just me and him. When it was over with I told him I wanted to do that. He told me,”I don’t think you do.” From then on I knew I was going to do it. Its funny how many people have that same story. We saw the images on television. We picked up on how hard the event is, how special it is. How it brings people together who may not be inclined to even say hello while passing on the street in anytown USA. But today, today we are friends, competitors, all out to make our own story. Create something amazing to fill up one day in our life.

So here I was in the middle of the crowd of athletes. Getting emotional and generally wondering how the day would finally unfold. It seemed like it would be long at that moment in time. But before I knew it I was on the beach with my friends Bill and Audra. Man it was good to have them there. The cannon went off and 1,890 athlete’s hit the water. It was so cool running out into the waves of the Gulf until we actually started to swim. I got elbowed in the right eye about 10 yards into the swim and my goggles just filled with water. Man that burns. I couldn’t stop to empty it out for fear of getting drowned by the mass of swimmers. After about 20 minutes I finally was able to empty my goggles and swim comfortably.

I have never experienced a swim like that. It was the most brutal swim, yet the most fun swim I’ve ever had. I was totally relaxed. I was surrounded by a thousand people and I was having a blast. When we got out to the far end of the swim course we were greeted by eight foot seas. Man it was fun! My friend Bill actually got seasick twice. I finished in 1:18 which was 2 minutes faster than I had hoped so I was right on track.

I ran up the beach. The strippers yanked my wetsuit off and I ran up to the fresh water showers. That’s right showers! This is Ironman baby. Ran to the transition area being cheered the entire way by crazy fans. When I got there a volunteer handed me my cycling transition bag and I ran into the changing tent. I changed and was on my bike ready for the ride. Coming out of transition I saw my coach Eric and Audra’s husband Dave and her friend Laura. They were going nuts. I gave them the thumbs up and rode away feeling proud.

The ride was crowded at first. My friend Bill caught up to me after about an hour and we rode together for about four and a half hours! That was very cool. The only problem was that we both over hydrated and had to stop every 10 miles to go to the bathroom. What a bummer. I didn’t realize how much time we were wasting until the race was over and found out that Audra smoked us on the Bike!

I looked at my watch after about two and a half hours on the bike and was beginning to feel tired. I thought to my self, “Man this is going to be long.” I was taking it real easy on the bike because I was so unsure of the Marathon. Then it starts to rain on us. And man it was poring. The rain actually made me feel better for some reason. It was kinda fun! It continued to rain for about 2 hours and I was starting to concentrate more and more on eating, drinking and getting in calories for the run. My friend Bill decided to take off. I thought it was a bad idea to push it the last hour of the ride so I stayed slow and steady. I didn’t see him again until the run and he was pretty far ahead. Damn!

I came upon a bridge at about 103 miles and I knew I was close. I saw the 105 mile sign and man I was ready to get off my bike. My feet were cold and swollen with water, my back was really sore and my butt was sore for obvious reasons. On the home stretch of the bike the wind was howling straight at us. “Man I can deal without a stong headwind right now,” I thought. I also passed about 15 people with flats within two miles of the bike finish. What a bummer! I decided to ride in the middle of the road and stay off the shoulder because I just wanted to get off my bike and not prolong this any longer with a silly flat tire. My butt hurt, my back hurt, I was tired and I just wanted to start the run. I was thinking to my self that I didn’t want the run to take as long as the bike. That’s a long time to be out running.

So I hit the transition. The awesome volunteers valet my bike, nice!, and I was off to the change tent. Took of my shoes, rung out my socks, put on my nice warm shoes, grabbed my hat and I was off. I was feeling pretty good too. Running out of the transition I finally saw my wife. I was wondering where she was all day and I finally saw her and her mother. They were cheering like crazy. Man I was happy, I now had most of the race behind me and the hardest part ahead of me. I kept saying to myself, “here comes the pain!” But I was looking forward to it. I knew I wasn’t going to feel good. I just welcomed it and was glad that it was this hard, it was an Ironman. It was Awesome.

During an Ironman I think you wait the whole race just to get to the marathon. That is where you will know for sure how your day is going to be. Now it is just up to you and your legs. It’s so simple. One foot in front of the other. So that is what I did. One foot in front of the other for the rest of the race. All the eating I did at the tail end of the bike was not a good thing. My stomach was so full that it was sloshing around like a keg at a frat party. I felt bad for the first 12 miles.

Coming back to the finish line and 2nd lap turnaround I felt better. I was half way through with the hard part. My stomach was better but now my legs were getting tired. Too much of this plodding pace. I could go faster but I couldn’t today. I passed my wife and coach and friends again and felt emotional inside. I don’t know why? I guess because you spend so much time for yourself to do this thing that you’ve waited so long to do. Now, your there doing it and people who care about you are there to share it with you. It’s the best feeling in the world.

Now came another thought, “Holy crap this is a long ways. I have 13.1 more miles to go and I’m running12 minute miles. I have about 3 hours left. Am I going to make it?” Next thought, “Hell yeah I’m gonna make it. I don’t care what I have to do I spent too much time to get here, too much hard work and too many lame weekends tired after 5 hour training days. Just one foot in front of the other.”

Heading out on the second lap I had an overwhelming sense of loneliness. I was going out all by myself and I didn’t know if I was going to make it back. I knew I still had a long way to go and I just wanted to be finished. I was tired, it was getting dark and I was still running. By the time I got to the turnaround in the park I was in pitch black darkness. I had a glow stick stuffed in the pocket of my shorts that kept me company and you could hear people far off talking. I ran across the championchip mat. It beeped and I thought to myself, “Well now my time will be updated so my family will know I am alright and still going.”

I said to myself at mile twenty to just go two more miles. I went those two. At mile twenty two I told myself to just go one more mile. I went one more mile. At mile twenty three I told myself to go just another mile. I finished that mile. At mile twenty four, I KNEW I WAS GOING TO FINISH! I picked up my pace. Only two more miles and I will be done, “thank god!” I don’t know what happened but all I rememeber is feeling great for the last two miles. I was running fast. My heart rate was up to 155 and I was surprised. I thought to myself that I should have tried this a long time ago. But a long time ago I wasn’t at mile twenty four.

Finally mile twenty five and I am absolutely cruising. I am passing people left and right. They were probably thinking the same thing I was, “Jackass should’ve gone a little harder a long time ago!” I didn’t care I felt awesome and I knew I was getting close. I passed the last aid station and didn’t get anything. People were starting to gather by the side of the road. About a half mile out on a dark alley of a road a lone guy said to me, “Man your looking good your going to be an Ironman, go, go, go!” I burst into tears right there like a little baby. Alone, haulin’ ass and crying. What is wrong with me. I was a psychologist wet dream at that moment.

I turned the last corner and saw the crowd and the lights. I felt the weight of a years worth of waiting, training and worrying being lifted from my shoulders. I was running on air. I passed my wife an now they were really going nuts. I entered into the area with the most fans and was shaking my fists in the air, the crowd liked it and went crazy. I heard over the loud speakers, “Matt Roberts from High Point, North Carolina, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” I broke the finish tape with my hands in the air.

A volunteer caught me and had a concerned look in his eye. I loved this person. A girl handed me my medal, put a finishers hat on my head and handed me a finishers T-shirt. The volunteer asked me if I was ok and I said, “I couldn’t be better.” He let me go and I collapsed to the ground and cried. I was so happy. I was done. The dream that began 18 years ago was laid to rest. Now I had more room for more dreams.

I learned a lot that day. But the thing I love the most about that day is not only what I learned from it. It is what I took away from it. I still have these memories of the race that I think about. Some are pictures that come to mind during the work day and some are remembrances of the struggle that took place in my head. The thoughts I had when I felt good, when I felt bad and when I felt really bad. And the best remembrances are the feelings that I remember. There are so many feelings during the race that it seems to be an all day long overload of emotions. I rode the high for an entire week after the race.

However, I don’t want to discount what I learned from my experience with Ironman. Like I said before we have so much to learn about our selves through self imposed struggle. One thing I learned is that the harder the challenge you make for yourself the better you feel when the challenge is laid to rest and the more you stand to learn from it. Another thing I learned from Ironman is the power of, “I can” and “I am”. I know now that “I can” do anything that I dream and “I am” what I choose to make myself.

So if I had one thing that I wish I could teach to everyone it would be this: First, sign up for an Ironman then show up for the Ironman. Second, dream big dreams, create big challenges, and teach yourself that “you can” do anything you dream, and “you are” the person that you choose to be.

-Matt Roberts Ironman Florida 2002 Finisher 13hrs 44mins

I guess here is where I put the credits. I want to thank my Colorado friends Bill and Audra. Audra your the one that talked me into it., thanks for the inspiration to take a chance. Bill thanks for being my most steady training partner, camping partner, mountain bike friend and just plain good ole buddy. Joe thanks for all the Emails of encouragement and talking me back into it after I was going to hang it all up and not go. You should’ve been there too. Spalding, I just miss hanging out I know you are psyched for me. When you get that MD thing nailed down why don’t you come out and play again. I’ll go to any Ironman you want to do. I miss you all very much. My new friends in NC, It’s really hard moving to a new place and meeting new people and trying to force your way into a group. Thanks for letting me in with no resistance at all! (Dan B., Scott, Cheri, Mark, and Dan J. Thanks!) You all made the long training bearable.

Now for my family. Mom and Dad you think I’m nuts, well your right, but you also like me that way. Thanks for your support and genuine concern for my safety. I love you both. Jason, you changed my life by mistake and I thank you every day. Ben, I didn’t know I could make someone that proud. No one made me feel better than you. You were with me the entire way and there when I needed you most. Thank you! Coach Eric, only two years and look what you have done for me. I will never, never forget. You have been a true friend and someone I can look up to like my own big brother. Your passion for triathlon shows in your dedication to your athletes and the accomplishments you help them realize. Coaching Dreams has never been a better truer tag line for any company. Thank you for getting me to where I wanted to go. And lastly I want to thank my wife. She put up with me through it all, an entire year of putting up with my tired cranky self. You always came to the rescue and were truly my biggest fan. You knew how much this meant to me and helped me follow through. With out you I would not be who I am today. I attribute all my successes to the fact that you believed in me when noone else did. You are the sweetest, smartest and toughest person I know and I missed you the entire time I was training. You were my most consistent thought just as you are my most consistent friend. I love you. (and thanks for not laughing when I walk around the house wearing my finishers hat t-shirt and medal!!!)

Now I want to pass the torch to anyone who read this whole damn thing. Thank you for your endurance. If you got this far, and were truly interested in the story and have never done an Ironman. I think now it is your time to shine. I want to hear your story. See next page then click here

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